THIRD WORLD BRITISH HOSPITALS

Should you invest in the UK?

Or is the UK becoming 'Third World'?

One weekend we visited a friend in a large UK hospital.

There was only one doctor on duty covering all the wards in the main part of the hospital.

Various patients, and nurses, described to us the filth and chaos.

There were reports of alcohol being consumed and nurses partying.

When a patient suddenly needed oxygen, that patient had to wait many, many hours before oxygen was supplied.

My impression was that many of the staff were very 'down-market'.

One retired member of staff, from a different hospital, told us of the occasion when a large number of doctors got sick at the same time.

It was discovered that the lady who cleaned the doctors' canteen was using the same cloth to clean both the toilet and the doctors' cups and plates.

The problem is NOT lack of money.

Vast sums have been poured into the National Health Service.

The problem is that key decisions about hospitals, and schools, are being made by grubby politicians and incompetent administrators.

Hospitals are no longer run by wise old doctors and wise old 'ward sisters'.

On 4 February 2011, in the Financial Times, we learn about the deterioration in the quality of care in Britain's hospitals.

According to Eva Figes:

1. "In the 1950s ... the ward sister ruled like a stern queen over her kingdom.

"She knew every patient and every nurse. She accompanied the doctors when they made their rounds...

2. "I have recently had the misfortune to spend a good deal of time in an National Health Service hospital ... and I was genuinely shocked by some of the nursing care I received...

3. "I found myself in an enormous ... ward, staffed almost exclusively by men and women of African origin. Some were better than others, but the overall atmosphere, for the most part, was one of careless and often uncaring chaos.

4. "Nurses now come into hospital after spending three years getting a diploma and they no longer work as a team.

"Any request is likely to be met with the reply, 'It’s not my job'...

5. "The more menial jobs are left to auxiliaries, who take your blood pressure, make the beds and help you to wash, but there are few of them, and when they are off duty you are left to your own devices...

6. "I found I had to rely on myself to make sure that my carer ... gave me the pills I had been prescribed...

7. "There have been cases of patients dying of starvation because food was left by their bedside and simply removed uneaten after a certain time...

8. "Ward sisters ... clearly exert little or no authority... "ward sisters do not require their nurses to report back. The result can be mayhem.

9. "The nights were the worst... Lights were left blazing, nurses on the night shift talked at the top of their voices... visitors were often allowed to stay long after 8pm...

"If someone needed help during the night the night staff were often unavailable...

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It's not just Britain's hospitals.

It's also Britain's schools, police forces, social work departments, etc.

It's also Britain's parliament and media.

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