NHS Sucks is running a forum which allows anyone who wants to to contribute (they also allow you to post good-news stories for balance)so it might be worth monitoring.

This is a list of NHS horror stories that I have come across, listed in the order they were logged:

2005

• The dead baby left in a cupboard (scroll down it’s near the bottom). Also check the comments for what a cancer patient has to put up with.
• The appalling state of pain relief as noted by a Dispatches documentary.  Here’s some of the blurb (in case it goes missing):

  Doctors fear giving morphine or lack training in its use and there is a shortage of specialist care for the dying both in hospitals and for those who die at home. For the film Dispatches carried out a major survey of people who recently lost a relative - the results show a catalogue of misery. In the past, the majority of people died at home - sometimes quickly of infection. Now many people die slowly from chronic illnesses and end up spending their last days in hospital. In the film relatives describe how their loved ones scream in agony begging for help - without the most basic relief. Some hospitals don’t have a palliative care team, let alone a consultant. Some relatives are driven to going out into the streets to buy morphine on the black market.

• 190,000 patients harmed by hospital safety lapses including by wrong prescriptions and missing or faulty equipment.
• Cuts keep patients waiting for drugs.  Cuts might be too strong a word but there are treatments that the NHS won’t allow because it regards them as too expensive.
• Leap in hospital infections
• Broken bones or a hip replacement?  An example of warped priorities
• NHS hospital runs out of mops
• A&E head suspended after he lifts lid on ‘nightmare’ hospital
• Two managers to every nurse

2006

• Waiting reclassified as “queuing” to make the numbers look better
• £2bn IT project ends up costing £50bn
• NHS spending nearly doubles in 6 years - OK, not a horror story exactly but worth bearing in mind
• NHS slow to introduce new cancer drugs
• NHS Fast Track Scheme]
• Busy nurses leave elderly to starve
• Superbug kills 49 in Leicester
• NHS kills diabetics
• Brit Meds 3 - not so much a horror story in itself, rather a snapshot of many
• The NHS super-computer fiasco

2007

• My friend Jackie tries to book an appointment to see the doctor.  This is one of a series.  There’s the odd good news story in amongst a whole bunch of dross.  This isn’t one of them.  Here she tries to find out when her appointment to see the doctor is.
• “New Labour is destroying the NHS”.  A round up from the ever-wonderful Doctor Crippen.  I should point out that it’s not just New Labour - all parties are crap.

OK, this is all very interesting but what does it prove?

The NHS isn’t very good.

Permalink • Health • Last Updated: 10 January 2007

1. Here’s an example of the sort of struggle it can be to get treatment from the NHS.

   Posted by Patrick Crozier on  13 April 2007
   
   

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