Misadventure Aggravated by Neglect
I quite often see people I know on television - - but that's because a lot of people I know are actors. So I don't usually see them as themselves, I see them playing a role.
Last night I saw someone I know on television, but it was on Panorama, and she was most certainly being herself.
She's Bren Neale, who is a close friend of my friend David. I don't know her well but have always liked her and I thought she came out of the programme really well.
A couple of years ago, her fiance John Hubley needed an operation to have his gall bladder removed. Cholecystectomy, in fact (I know this fancy term because of all the medical roleplay that I've done - I once spent a whole day playing a patient with gallstones!)
Although he was having the operation under the National Health Service, they sent him to have it in a private clinic in Bradford, which was policy in order to cut NHS waiting lists.
It's a routine operation, but, of course, sometimes routine operations can go wrong, and this clinic was not prepared for such an eventuality. Though it appears that they actually met the standards required at the time!
To cut a very long story short - he started to haemorrhage during the operation and needed a blood transfusion.
There was no blood kept at the clinic and they sent the hospital porter off in a car, through the heavy traffic, to fetch some from a nearby hospital. It took ages.
They were also lacking other equipment needed - even swabs were mentioned - along with equipment to warm the blood when it finally arrived.
Sadly, John Hubley died during the operation.
Bren Neale said that she doesn't blame any individual for this - but it was a definite failure of the system, which the coroner described as "Mickey Mouse".
The programme highlighted several other such cases, where patients who had been sent to private hospitals for NHS operations had died because the private hospitals just were not well enough equipped.
Bren has done a great job in helping to bring this to public attention and I hope that changes will be made as a result.
Private hospitals can be great for patients. It's a big boost to recovery if you're in pleasant surroundings. I'd be the first to say that some of the wards in the NHS are places where nobody would want to be - grubby, lacking in privacy, lacking in attention for the patients. It's so much better psychologically for patients to be in a pleasant environment where they feel like they are being treated as individuals, and private hospitals can most certainly provide that. Some of the dreadful geriatric wards that I saw when the Communist was ill should have been closed down.
All the pretty decor and private bathrooms in private hospitals are no use at all, however, unless the medical facilities are excellent too - and in some private hospitals, they are. But it's most certainly not a case of private hospitals necessarily having higher standards.
Given the choice between a private hospital without an intensive care unit and an NHS hospital with an intensive care unit and all the equipment, I know which I'd be choosing.
Last night I saw someone I know on television, but it was on Panorama, and she was most certainly being herself.
She's Bren Neale, who is a close friend of my friend David. I don't know her well but have always liked her and I thought she came out of the programme really well.
A couple of years ago, her fiance John Hubley needed an operation to have his gall bladder removed. Cholecystectomy, in fact (I know this fancy term because of all the medical roleplay that I've done - I once spent a whole day playing a patient with gallstones!)
Although he was having the operation under the National Health Service, they sent him to have it in a private clinic in Bradford, which was policy in order to cut NHS waiting lists.
It's a routine operation, but, of course, sometimes routine operations can go wrong, and this clinic was not prepared for such an eventuality. Though it appears that they actually met the standards required at the time!
To cut a very long story short - he started to haemorrhage during the operation and needed a blood transfusion.
There was no blood kept at the clinic and they sent the hospital porter off in a car, through the heavy traffic, to fetch some from a nearby hospital. It took ages.
They were also lacking other equipment needed - even swabs were mentioned - along with equipment to warm the blood when it finally arrived.
Sadly, John Hubley died during the operation.
Bren Neale said that she doesn't blame any individual for this - but it was a definite failure of the system, which the coroner described as "Mickey Mouse".
The programme highlighted several other such cases, where patients who had been sent to private hospitals for NHS operations had died because the private hospitals just were not well enough equipped.
Bren has done a great job in helping to bring this to public attention and I hope that changes will be made as a result.
Private hospitals can be great for patients. It's a big boost to recovery if you're in pleasant surroundings. I'd be the first to say that some of the wards in the NHS are places where nobody would want to be - grubby, lacking in privacy, lacking in attention for the patients. It's so much better psychologically for patients to be in a pleasant environment where they feel like they are being treated as individuals, and private hospitals can most certainly provide that. Some of the dreadful geriatric wards that I saw when the Communist was ill should have been closed down.
All the pretty decor and private bathrooms in private hospitals are no use at all, however, unless the medical facilities are excellent too - and in some private hospitals, they are. But it's most certainly not a case of private hospitals necessarily having higher standards.
Given the choice between a private hospital without an intensive care unit and an NHS hospital with an intensive care unit and all the equipment, I know which I'd be choosing.
posted by Daphne at 8:03 pm
3 Comments:
My late mother, who was a doctor, was a staunch advocate of the NHS. She particularly believed in using NHS hospitals for operations rather than the 'luxury' of private ones for precisely the reasons that your friend's fiance fell victim to. I've inherited her beliefs on this subject and it sounds like that Panorama programme reinforces that stance.
Hmm, yes. I was in a Bupa hospital 24 years ago to have a Shirodkar suture. The nurse doing my postop care was really surprised when I mentioned to her that I was pregnant. (sigh)
Ruth - true, but I wish that the NHS could incorporate the fact, everywhere, that pleasant surroundings make for a far better recovery.
Dfo - for those who don't know, a Shirodkar suture is a stitch round the cervix to prevent premature labour - - I know because I had one too of course! So the nurse really SHOULD have known!
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