Latest Bill: Who Cares?

Patients: Who cares? Bill Smith presents an original idea for achieving more compassionate care in our hospitals.

My mother’s been in hospital – well, almost – she was on a trolley for the whole weekend as no beds were available. No-one is discharged over the weekend, apparently. I found out later that hardly anyone gets beds over the weekend – hospitals are old-fashioned Monday to Friday organisations and when patients do get a bed, care is a lottery. A survey by Pulse magazine found that a third of doctors say their patients are being put at risk in NHS hospitals because of poor standards – many admit they would not refer their own family.

M.D. in Private Eye said that “the best alarm in the NHS is patients speaking up when they encounter appalling care, yet the brutal suppression of whistle blowers shows how much NHS culture needs to change.” The recent Dignity In Care report at least doesn’t shirk from telling the truth.

I have witnessed this directly over the last few weeks: I saw patients not taken to the toilet; I saw food and drink left for them when they were unable to eat or drink and then taken away because “they didn’t want it”. I saw countless nurses by day and hardly any at night. None of this was in Brighton but of course we did have a whistle-blower in the last few years.

From the NHS to our banks
Something is desperately wrong with the Health Service.
My dad was one of the first people to work in the Health Service running hospitals in the West Country. I never saw anyone on a trolley. My mum and dad put their money for safe-keeping in the Trustee Savings Bank. Now, 60 years later it’s Lloyds TSB and our savings are not safe. If the bank goes bust you could lose everything. Something is desperately wrong with the banks.

We are a democratic society and we elect governments who set up institutions to reflect our views. After the war we decided we didn’t want people to die from preventable illnesses so we set up the NHS. We also needed somewhere that people’s savings could be kept safe and maybe also used to benefit society by creating new businesses with our money as investment. The very young people who had risked their lives to keep Britain free demanded both the NHS and the TSB. My dad went from the RAF via prisoner-of-war camps to work in the new NHS and save with the TSB. Both these institutions were set up to benefit society, both equally necessary.

Worth the bonus
Now we are hearing disparate views on the NHS and the banks. Here is my view: if Mr Hester is worth any bonus for bringing his bank back to being a safe haven for us then surely it’s right that those who bring the hospitals and the NHS back to being a safe haven for us deserve bonuses too.

If you pay people £50k rather than £15k you will get better, more devoted staff. We shouldn’t expect people in the caring profession to do it for love, as a vocation. We should pay wages at least comparable with banker averages and with the same bonuses, but for that money we should expect the best. I would give anyone any bonus to not have my dangerously ill mother on a trolley all weekend.

Let’s lower weekend death rates
I’ve spent many hours a few yards away from A&E and it’s easy to see a million improvements you could make. The death rate at weekends is 20 per cent higher so let’s not have weekends in hospital – let’s make Saturday the same as Tuesday. Supermarkets seem to manage rotas, so must hospitals. I saw one junior doctor all weekend. But on Monday morning I saw as many as in a whole series of Holby City. The NHS needs organisation like any 24/7 business. Many people dislike the words ‘business’ or ‘profit’ but I have no problem with offering Mr Lansley (or anybody capable) a £500k bonus if they can make hospitals the same on Saturday as Tuesday and bring the death rate down by 20 per cent. That’s when bonuses are earned.

Let’s make a list of things we want, let’s get some talent and let’s give the talent the incentive to achieve society’s desires. Stephen Hester was hired to make RBS safe for its customers and profitable. That’s the order I’d like it to be in, anyway. It’s time to have someone doing the same for the NHS – Gerry Robinson has made great programmes on TV about re-organising the NHS. He’s a great businessman, a proven organiser, and his heart’s in the right place. Get him in and let’s sort out the real issues.

Issues like: if you’re going to have people on trolleys for a whole weekend then why not just convert this area (it’s called the Medical Assessment Area in the hospital my mother was in) into a ward and have proper beds and in one word: dignity.

The real issues
I keep hearing David Cameron, Ed Milliband jokily point-scoring at PMQs. They’re ignoring the real issues. They both have conferences with nurses, doctors and unions. They both ignore patients! The word ‘patient’, if it’s used at all, is tacked on at the end of the sentence – it’s like Tesco deciding on what to sell by asking the cashiers. What about the customers? The patients must be the number one consideration as must be the customers of the banks.

The NHS and the TSB are great British institutions. They both need to revert back to why they were set up: the TSB for ordinary people like me and you to save our money and the NHS for the patients, that’s us, to get the best health care. I look forward to David Cameron and Ed Milliband discussing with patients and with bank customers the way ahead for both.

If any patients want their stories published write to comment@thelatest.co.uk and we will print them all online. We will also forward them to Messrs Cameron and Milliband. We also want your views on this article and your responses will immediately be printed online at www.thelatest.co.uk

Bill Smith is Managing Editor of Latest 7/Homes magazine and a director of Latest TV.



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