Derby NHS Trust - "Do Not Resuscitate" forms for all

Mail :

Peter Clarke was not treated by doctors after going into cardiac arrest as a nurse had spotted the form in his files and, even though it was blank and had not been filled in, told other ward staff he should not be revived.

The blunder emerged at an inquest into the incident at Derby Hospitals NHS Trust, where bosses revealed staff had been ‘routinely’ placing the forms alongside medical records before they had been correctly signed and witnessed by senior doctors.

The errors go against the usual Trust policy on using the forms and mean the documents were inserted into files without the consent of patients.

It has affected an unknown number of patients and it is not known how long the practice was going on.

The good news is that 'lessons have been learned and procedures changed' :

Dr Robert Hunter, Derby and South Derbyshire Coroner, recorded a verdict of natural causes. He said that on the balance of probabilities the failure to carry out resuscitation did not cause or affect Mr Clarke’s death.

But he added: "The circumstances have highlighted faults within the system. If anything has come out of this, it's improved the policy for future patients."

Miss Fowlie said that several changes in procedure had been made to prevent a repeat occurrence.

Blank Do Not Resuscitate forms were no longer being routinely filed into patients’ medical records by clerical staff, and greater checks and balances had been implemented when it came to deciding whether to resuscitate a patient.

Just wait until they start adding the Terry Pratchett 'I really want you to top me if I can't do it myself (and save a lot of NHS budget)' forms.

Reality 1, Satire 0 (again)

Former head of the BBC Greg Dyke, ex John Lewis chairman Sir Stuart Hampson and former Second Sea Lord and Commander-in-Chief of Naval Home Command Vice-Admiral Sir Adrian Johns are among the patrons of the new National Leadership Council which will look into leadership and how to improve standards within the NHS. They will be joined by Daniel Goleman, author of the international best seller 'Emotional Intelligence', and Dr Gary Kaplan, chairman and CEO of the Virginia Mason Medical Centre in Seattle, Washington.

One medic out of five to provide leadership to the NHS. Words fail me.

Greg Dyke ? and some pointy-head ?

Shouldn't that read "wrong baby" ?

Nurse gave wrong woman abortion

NHS

Behold, a miracle ! An NHS dentist (a Croatian one, to be precise) has appeared and is taking on patients. The first near me for some fifteen years. A few years back I looked on NHS Direct for a dentist and the nearest was about 30 miles away - I think at Brize Norton over the other side of the Cotswolds - or was it at Heyford ?

There used to be loads, of course - but some time in the 1990s they all went private.

And whether this is just improvements in drugs and techniques, or the application of our tax revenues, or a bit of both, I know not - but a couple of weekends back I was at a gathering of elderly uncles and aunts. Two had been successfully treated (10 years back) for breast cancer, one for bladder cancer only last year, and four had had successful cataract ops. Forty year back they might not have been with us by now (if you get my drift), or they might have been half-blind.

So "give due where due's due" as my mother would say.

(Don't want to be too positive ... last weekend I was at another gathering - chocker with medics - I think 5 GPs and a consultant. Got strong negative feedback on Mr Darzi's Polyclinics.)

Oops !

Medics and nurses have been known to make the odd unflattering remark about their patients - but strictly between themselves. Few have gone so far as to leave them on the patient's answerphone.

A hospital has apologised after staff inadvertently left an insulting message on a teenage patient's telephone.

The message said Sharon Roberts, 19, was a "smelly drunk with black teeth".

It was left by staff at the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, who were reminding her about an appointment - but then carried on talking.

I Have A Vision Of The Future, Chum Part 283

One of my hobbyhorses is that as the native Brits age, and more and more of the young people are non-natives, so you'll get at best a cultural divide between the elderly inhabitants of a hospital or care home (the kind of cultural divide which so distresses our rulers in relation to the police) and those employed to care for or nurse them, at worst the kind of stuff I picked up here, here and here.

This from Tom Reynolds :

The staff don't say anything, but I get the distinct impression that they have been getting tired of this patient being awake while they are at work. If all your patients are sleeping then the night shift has little to do. If this patient has been awake, then they actually have to talk to him. In a lot of the nursing homes that I've been to the nursing staff don't like talking to the patients.

In a fair few nursing homes that I've been to the staff and the patients rarely share a language, and so everyone just 'gives up'.

A Couple of Cold Gusts From The North

We've already seen primary age kids on speed, heroin and methadone.

Now cocaine ?

A police investigation has been launched after a five-year-old boy was rushed to hospital having swallowed a cocktail of illegal Class-A drugs. The boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was taken to Dundee's Ninewells Hospital on Saturday night after he was feared to have eaten cocaine and amphetamines at a property in the city. The drugs had allegedly been lying around in the flat in Dundee where he lives with his parents. He was released from hospital the same night after treatment. A police spokeswoman confirmed a criminal investigation was under way.

In other news, "prescriptions issued in Scotland for anti-depressants have risen more than four-fold in less than 15 years". No word on the number of kids who end up taking them, although a friend who works in a Glasgow practice can tell terrible tales of temazepam.

South of the Border there are also a few health problems. What amazes me about this story is that it doesn't seem to be big news any more. 116 deaths in three years from C. difficile and MRSA. And what about this statement ?

Mr Astley said: "Through monitoring mortality, we have been able to report death rates which other hospitals may not have had available. Our rates are comparable with the national average where C. difficile is known to have a mortality rate of between 6% and 12%. Through keeping a watchful eye on this we can take quick and appropriate action should rates begin to rise, but also learn from what we are doing well to help bring the rates down further."

Is he saying that between 1 in 19 and 1 in 8 NHS inpatients will die of a hospital-contracted infection ? Or does that mortality figure apply to people who get C. difficile ? I hope so.

NHS Direct ...

I got a call today from Susan, who's with her mother and the children in Gower. My in-law had left her tablets behind, but her GP said he'd fax a prescription if she could find a chemist that's open late tonight or tomorrow. Could I take a look on the Web ?

A quick Google gave me a list of pharmacies, but which were open out of hours ?

The Swansea Council website had a helpful link.

www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk

NHS Direct operates a 24-hour nurse advice and health information service, providing confidential information on what to do if you or your family are feeling ill, particular health conditions, local healthcare services, such as doctors, dentists or late night opening pharmacies, self help and support organisations.

Looked useful - followed the link. And look - there's a place at the bottom of the page to look for pharmacies by postcode.

Enter a postcode, check the pharmacy box and you end up here.

I don't know if any of you can get any results from that page, but I couldn't. I hadn't noticed the bit underneath saying :

This service is provided for people in England only. For local services information in other parts of UK please visit the NHS in Northern Ireland, the NHS in Scotland or the NHS in Wales.

Not to worry - I found another link to here.

"Enter a valid postcode or place name" - OK, "Swansea".

Apparently that's not a valid placename - after all, it's only a city of some 250,000 people.

It appears that the "National" Health Service is in practice "The NHS in England" - only unlike the Scots and Welsh, the name of the English nation is verboten. If you enter "SA3 2BT" on this page you're told :

This postcode can be classed within Wales.
Please visit the http://www.wales.nhs.uk/ for more information outside England.

Follow the link and you do indeed get a list of pharmacies - but no information on late opening.

With a sigh I dialled NHS Direct Wales - which turns out to be the same number as NHS Direct England . Fifteen minutes later I sat listening to a staff member typing in the same details on the same web pages.

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't help you"

If you want information on out of hours pharmacies in Swansea, it seems the thing to do is to ring your 80-year-old aunt there. She walks up to the local shops, where a list of out-of-hours pharmacies is displayed in the chemist's window, copies them down and rings back.

I explained my problems with NHS Direct.

"I could have told you not to bother. Everybody knows they're a waste of time".

Those Who Cure You Will Kill You

Times

Canon White, who runs Baghdad’s only Anglican parish, said that he met the al-Qaeda leader on the fringes of a meeting about religious reconciliation held in Amman, the Jordanian capital.

“He talked to me about how they were going to destroy British and Americans. He told me that the plans were already made and they would soon be destroying the British. He said the people who cure you would kill you.”

(Graphic via the excellent Curly's Corner Shop)

The BBC has been wondering for years what the common factor was in a wave of attemped or thwarted British terror attacks. At last they've found a link.

Terror suspects all linked to NHS



Peter Briffa agrees - the NHS rather than Islamist ideology is the problem :

"The fact is, murder has long been a part of the NHS' remit.
For forty years now, ever since David Steel decided to get all sentimental about the pregnant poor, NHS doctors have been practising their homicidal skills on the nation's foetuses. It was only a matter of time before they decided to move on to the rest of us. We see this with the craving to embrace euthanasia, forcefeed ritalin on our children, and exterminate Mongolian Idiots. Death is what the NHS does."


UPDATE - Dumb Jon :

"They probably subcontracted the bomb-making to a nurse practitioner".

It's Not All Bad ...

I've blogged afore about the over-representation of ethnic minorities in the NHS, universally accepted by the great and the good as a Good Thing.

I wonder if this is a side-effect ? Ethnic minority doctors would IMHO be more religious than the natives - they could hardly be less.

Opposition to abortions is growing among family doctors with nearly a quarter refusing to refer women for terminations and a fifth wanting the procedure banned outright, according to a survey published today. The poll by doctors' newspaper Pulse found 24% of GPs would not sign referral forms for an abortion and 19% believe abortion should be illegal.

The survey of 309 GPs also found that more than half (55%) wanted the current 24-week limit for abortions to be reduced. The findings have heightened fears by women's and sexual health organisations that Britain is heading for an abortions crisis due to a shortage of doctors prepared to carry out terminations.

Brave New World ...

According to a Scottish wide survey, one fifth of LGBT people have children. Some children will have been born or adopted into heterosexual relationships before a parent had ‘come out’ and some are born into samesex relationships or adopted by an LGB individual. Individual circumstances lead to varied family structures and parenting arrangements. It is important to be aware of this. When talking to children, consider using "parents", "carers" or "guardians" rather than "mother" or "father".

Gusidance for NHS staff issued by the "NHS Inclusion Project - Working for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health - And Sod the Rest Of You !"

There was a silence; then, clearing his throat, "Once upon a time," the Director began, "while our Ford was still on earth, there was a little boy called Reuben Rabinovitch. Reuben was the child of Polish-speaking parents."

The Director interrupted himself. "You know what Polish is, I suppose?"

"A dead language."

"Like French and German," added another student, officiously showing off his learning.

"And 'parent'?" questioned the D.H.C.

There was an uneasy silence. Several of the boys blushed. They had not yet learned to draw the significant but often very fine distinction between smut and pure science. One, at last, had the courage to raise a hand.

"Human beings used to be …" he hesitated; the blood rushed to his cheeks. "Well, they used to be viviparous."

"Quite right." The Director nodded approvingly.

"And when the babies were decanted …"

"'Born,'" came the correction.

"Well, then they were the parents–I mean, not the babies, of course; the other ones." The poor boy was overwhelmed with confusion.

"In brief," the Director summed up, "the parents were the father and the mother." The smut that was really science fell with a crash into the boys' eye-avoiding silence. "Mother," he repeated loudly rubbing in the science; and, leaning back in his chair, "These," he said gravely, "are unpleasant facts; I know it. But then most historical facts are unpleasant."

Hat-tip - Ian Dale.

Is He Mad, Or Am I ?

A lot of Evidence-Based Research into Institutional Racism in Medicine is solidly based around the foundational premise that the General Medical Council (GMC) remains largely unaccountable for its Racist Practices in relation to the manner in which it fundamentally controls entry into the Medical Profession , the way that it effectively modulates Clinical Career Progression for Medical Undergraduates and Postgraduates, the Powerful Apparatus it wields and Clandestine Modus Operandi which it formidably calls into play during the handling of certain Statutory Professional Complaints against certain Medical Doctors from certain Ethnic Backgrounds - and the utterly despicable way in which it devilishly rewards most of those of its Senior White Doctors (including Medical Association Topdogs and Medical Journal Editors) who are gracious enough to turn an absolutely unseeing eye to any substantiated hard evidence of it's (Gobsmackingly Flabberghasting) , Wanton Regulatory Corruption.

And there's a whole lot more, some I would have thought potentially libellous, at Abolish The GMC.

A glance at the BBC news pages is enough to reveal the hideous sexism and racism of the medical profession - against white males, as it happens.

Researchers at Oxford University say white men, who make up 44% of the UK population, accounted for 26% of new medical students in 2001.

They said medicine is increasingly dominated by white women and people from ethnic minorities, particularly those from the Asian community.