Every so often as you're bumbling through life, news comes of events which are so shocking in their horror that they pull you up short. Such events were described sometime before 7am on Today this morning, in an item which dealt with the treatment some people with learning difficulties had received in the Health Service. Mencap released a report in March last year, detailing the deaths of six such patients, including Mark Cannon, a 30-year old, who died eight weeks after being admitted to hospital with a broken leg. Other patients died after not being fed for a month, or because their cancer diagnosis was not followed up with treatment, because health service staff didn't think they'd be able to comply with therapy.
Marginally depressing also was the response of Today's presenter, Nick Robinson, interviewing the lady from Mencap (I'm sorry I didn't catch her name, so early in the day). He asked her something like "Are you saying that every single nurse in the NHS should ... " -- show some humanity, we shouted -- "... be trained to be able to deal with people with these difficulties?". That's right. In BBC-world, treating people with respect is not something that can be assumed in the absence of a government-sponsored initiative.
The lady from Mencap - a hero in our world - made the very telling point that in all the cases investigated, the families and carers of the patients were ignored by the health service 'professionals'. Look, I'm no fiscal-health-service-mechanism expert. But we cannot go on with a system where the people who pay for and use the health system are so systematically maltreated by the producer interest.
