Another Labour scandal is the persistence of NHS superbugs

Tory MP Nigel Evans has written an article - at the same time moving and disturbing -  for The Daily Mail about the death of his mother in an NHS hospital:

"The last, harrowing moments of my mother's life will live for ever in the collective memory of my family. An 86-year-old lady of infinite grace and dignity, she had the most agonising of deaths.  Lying bewildered and distressed in an NHS hospital bed, her body racked with pain, she kept desperately grabbing at the air with her hands as if she was drowning, while all the time being violently ill...

The reasons for her ordeal can, I believe, be found in a mixture of neglect, incompetence and indifference shown by the NHS. For my mother died of the notorious superbug Clostridium difficile, known as C.diff, which she must have contracted while undergoing hospital treatment in Swansea. If she had been cared for properly, if the ward had been cleaner or greater urgency had been shown in handling her case, then this tragedy might never have happened.  The NHS is often a saviour, but it can also be a killer. What happened to my mother is all too common in the health service. There were 8,324 deaths from C.diff in 2007, with most of the victims elderly people.

That statistic is too high for a 21stcentury healthcare system in an advanced industrialised country. Moreover, an estimated 59,000 people in this country are disabled or die because of poor hygiene or care in our hospitals.  Even the essentials, such as providing patients with sufficient fluids or cleaning bathrooms properly, are neglected. That is why I am campaigning for drastic improvements in the basics of healthcare in the NHS, so deaths from C.diff and other superbugs can be eliminated."

Read the full piece here.

Tim Montgomerie

Comments

[pp]

The NHS have repeated failed most of my family and I sympathise with the millions who must share this experience.

It is time to recognise that the NHS monopoly is the problem.

Artificial 'choice' between different branches of the same monopoly supplier is no choice at all - but it is a massively expensive waste of taxpayers money.

It is also time to stop people thinking of public services being 'free' - there are no 'free' public services, they are all 'pre-paid' by the taxpayer under duress.

[Sally Roberts]

What happened to Nigel's mother is beyond words! The best way he could honour his mother's memory is to keep on fighting for decent standards in all NHS hospitals so that our elderly are not forced to spend their final weeks, days and hours in squalor.

[jonjo]

If the State let us get on with our own lives, we could all die in our own way of the disease of our choice. For instance, I want to break my neck falling off my horse during a fox hunt because I was to drunk to maintain my balance while lighting a cigarette.

[Patsy Sergeant]

Late last night/early this morning I watched a repeat of a programme on C4 called Hospital, apparently there is another episode today. It is factual. But it gave a very graphic idea of the pressure that is being put on the NHS and its staff - in A&E at least, to cope with the increased stupidity and fecklessness of mainly young people, that leads them to put themselves in danger.

It showed how the A&E's in some areas are struggling to cope with the sheer numbers of accidents of greater or lesser severity, caused as a result of drinking. And added to this it showed - actual examples of the utter selfishness of these same people, demanding instant attention etc:

One of the doctors - who was acting as a sort of narrator and who has obviously had a lot of experience, and therefore knows what she is talking about, actually despaired as to the solution. She was reiterating the same sort of causes that the IDS report had found, i.e. lack of proper education, the lack of parental guidance, handed down from generation to generation etc:, etc:. But seemed to get her most riled up (and I don't blame her), was the members of this 'ill-prepared group', NEVER ever said thank you to the staff, NEVER said 'please'. They only demanded, as their 'right'. And she said that one of the drunken accident cases (and not the most severe actually cost the NHS on that evening £5000 - and that is a bl...y waste!

[Malcolm Dunn]

Very,very sorry for Nigel. My mother has been battling cancer for more than 2 years. Some of the treatment she's had has been exemplary but some has been utterly lamentable and will have shortened her life. It really depends on the hospital she's been treated in.The NHS is truly a postcode lottery.

[Dorothy Wilson]

Fortunately, I haven't had a great deal of call for NHS treatment except at my GP's surgery, which is run in an excellent manner.

However, within the circle of my family and friends there have been some horrendous situations. In one case, my cousin's husband was inconsiderate enough to die on a bank holiday. Because it was a sudden death the police had to be involved. They tried to contact the relevant GP's surgery to have the death certified. The only person available was a locum who refused to attend. His reason? He was there to deal with illness, not death. After 6 hours of trying, during which time my cousin's husband was lying on the bathroom floor, the police took pity on her and her family, arranged for the police surgeon to come to certify the death.

Earlier this year when we had a snowfall my young neighbour was due his daily injection needed to control the MRSA he had contacted after major heart surgery. The nurse who was due to give the injection rang to say she couldn't make the journey because "we aren't allowed to". Presumably that was something to do with H & S. However, the journey she would have made was along a major A road and the lane at the back of my village, both of which were clear of snow and ice.

In the end, my young friend's Mum had to put him in her own car and take him to the hospital for his injection.

I could go on with other stories but haven't got all day!

[John Forster]

The people in charge of these hospitals are paid enormous salaries - and no doubt are part of the bonus culture!
My view is that allowing someone to die in such distress through failure to do your job properly amounts to criminal negligence.
If the law cannot be enlisted to bring charges against highly-paid culpably incompetent officials, then they should be sued! That would get them off their backsides!

[John Prendergast]

T^he NHS now does more harm than good and it is callous about achieve=ing that costly result.

[Simon Denis]

Mr Evan's experience is so tragic and dreadful that to comment at all seems insensitive. And yet, if we are to prevent such appalling situations from arising in the future, we have to campaign against them and the enemy is the top down state monopoly. It feather beds producers, second guesses need, wastes resources and grows bureaucracy like a sort of cancer. Where health is concerned it is literally deadly.

The paradox of the present age is that whilst right wing solutions grow ever more urgent - to combat crime, to reeducate our young, to look after the elderly or infirm - in all these areas, the parties cluster around an explode left wing consensus.

Surely it is not beyond the wit of man to mobilise the electorate against the terrible failures of socialism?

[Jack Stone]

The reason wards are not cleaned properly is because they are cleaned by private contrators who pay there staff barely enough to live on.
Millions of pounds meant for patients is going out of the service at present because of PFI schemes and private contractors. Spend all the money meant for patients on patients and stop letting millions of it go out of the service as profits for shareholders than you will get a better service.

[David Belchamber]

Welcome back, Jack. As we have pointed out on several occasions (i) a Labour government has been in office (no longer in power) for 12 years and should have sorted this scandal out, (ii) a Labour government has reduced the number of hospital beds to about half the number provided per 100,000 people in other European countries and (iii) a Labour government has set up a system of management in hospitals that allows such things to happen.

Basically, if you employ contract cleaners and they don't do the job properly, then you sack them and employ someone who does.
There is plenty of money in the system but this Labour government prefers to spend a huge amount of it on management (or rather bureaucracy).

Let us change the government and bring in Gerry Robinson (albeit - former? - Labour supporter and donor) to sort it out, as he did with Rotherham hospital a couple of years ago.

"More for less" must be the motto once efficiency is allowed in. More front-line staff, more operations and patients seen for less management and less cost.

[pp]

Jack

Open up the health care market - and your workers co-operative healthcare organisation can compete with all the others - I sincerely hope it does well and gives the best value for money service on earth.

Minimise the regulatory burden so there is genuine competition and not a cartel of established massive operators (which is where the banks are so wrong -- roll on size limited banks).

Monopoly (state monopoly in the UK and AMA monopoly/cartel in the USA) equals failure.

Competition equals value for money.

I am not too bothered about 'more for less' - 'less for less' is fine by me, as long as we are getting value for money on what we can afford.

[Joe James B]

My heart goes out to anyone who has seen their parents or anyone close to them in that state.

To be honest both governments are guilty.
We started it with these cheap contracts in 1983 which seemed to destroy the pride that the in house teams took with keeping hospitals clean.

But Labour has had 12 years and failed to get on top of the problem.

I don't understand why we don't screen people before they enter the buildings, like they do in China.

It's so easy to just walk in to a hospital completely uninvited.

[Ross Warren]

Privatise the Prisons and make the prisons work. Its all about the right changes done in the best interests of the Nation. We can approach the deep downturn with Fear or with a determination to succeed. If we embrace all of the people and join in the austerities as Great Britain plc together as one nation, we may start to like the way it turns out. There was plenty of good living done prior to 1960, and there was a greater certainty of purpose. Drawing back from the brink isn't all bad.

[Daily Pundit]

How about having elected chief executives of NHS Trusts?

[Chris B]

How about actual doctors running trusts instead of unqualified quangocrats?

[Chris B]

If the State let us get on with our own lives, we could all die in our own way of the disease of our choice. For instance, I want to break my neck falling off my horse during a fox hunt because I was to drunk to maintain my balance while lighting a cigarette.

Right, but then people like you would all be dead and everyone left (pun intended) would be a conforming statist.

[pp]

How about hospitals being run by anyone who thinks they are capable, and the public choosing the one(s) they prefer?

Monopoly is a rut - for a time a rut may take you in the direction you want (thats why you first chose it!), but when things change and it is no longer fit for purpose you are stuffed. You can't change course, and even if you could, have no idea which alternatives would be better.

Why argue about which is better? Doctors in charge, administrators in charge, politicians in charge, patients coops, banks/investors in charge, alternative therapists in charge - let them all have a go if they are willing to risk their own money, and then patients can express their preference(s) at no cost to the taxpayer.

[Joe De Mocritus]

A market solution for the NHS is not the solution. It is a natural monopoly.

What we need is strong control over managerial waste and the best way to achieve this is to make sure that the senior management has a medical background.

[Jack Stone]

pp. We don`t want to see an health care system in this country where health care is treated as nothing more than a money making business used for profits by healthcare providers and insurance companies.
If you want that sort of thing go to America. See what it does to poor people out there. People having to sell there homes to pay for care and people like the Prseidents mother having to argue on her death bed with insurance people to get them to pay her healthcare bills.
Lets improve the NHS not do what idiots like you want to do destroy it!

[pp]

Jack - I respect your choice to spend whatever you like on health care.

How about you extend the same respect to me?

America have a socialist health system which is its problem - it is controlled by a union (the AMA).

You can't improve the NHS - any improvement that is possible has already been tried, and the rubbish we have is the result.

I don't mind you banging your head against that particular wall, but resent being forced to bang my head against it too.

[David Sergeant]

This is a consequence of NuLab. On accasions I have made point that the "clean hospitals" at the last GE campaign missed an important point. Labour were so transfixed by waiting lists and targets they let cleaning fall way down the priorities. Even now the NHS record on hospital bugs is way down the Europe league tables and, of course, money is not the issue, it's overall management.