legb4rsk

Sorry Les,but I disagree in this case.

Some things worry me about his story,mostly due to omissions & the careful use of language.

1.How did he get to the hospital on New Years Eve without his wallet or any money?

2.He never actually states that he was removed or refused permission to stay in the hospital.

3.He worked in Film & advertising.When & for how long.In what capacity?

We will disagree but I think he is a chancer trying for a free lift home.My moneys on that so we will await the outcome,if any.

r32

It's difficult to know all the details. We only have one side of the story.
However dont necessarily consider the story wouldnt be true. My wife works in the NHS as a midwife, and my best friends wife is a nurse practitioner in a large City A&E and I've heard worse stories than this.

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

He called a paramedic from his house, who turned up and phoned for an ambulance to take him to hospital.

But more interestingly to me, why was his first port-of-call the press?

Leslie

One can only go by the report in the media.

If you are taken into hospital because you are an emergency case, in this case breathing difficulties can signify the onset of a heart attack, then at the time you are unlikely to be thinking about anything else apart from the question of your own survival. All you want is medical attention to hopefully save your life. Other factors are pretty low down on the scale of requirements at the time. I have no idea how he got to hospital-maybe by ambulance which seems the most likely manner.

It was stated that he was told that he was not allowed to remain at the hospital but also that there was no other transport available. What would you do under the circumstances I wonder?

I am very interested in why you consider his job in the film industry to be of any significance with relation to his predicament.

I am surprised that assumptions have been made about his activities before having to go to hospital. Nothing was reported about such matters.

Interesting that the Times report states that it seem to be common that NHS patients are discharged in the middle of the night!

It seems most unfair that he is condemned for trying to fiddle the system with no evidence of such behaviour.

I see that the hospital is trying to wriggle out of responsibility for the situation by saying that an enquiry is in progress and that patient transport in such cases is being planned for the future, but not presently available of course!

Les

Maz

iTrader: (34)

Les, you and I both know that the NHS is virtually creaking under the strain at the moment. Whilst I agree discretion should be used when discharging vulnerable patients at unsociable hours do you think the NHS can afford patient transportation?

r32

The NHS has a duty of patient care. They do provide patient transportation, either by non-emergency ambulance or ambulance cars. Neither are generally available at night.
It has been widely reported before that hospitals were 'evicting' patients in the early hours. Just do a Google search and you will find dozens if not hundreds of cases.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-18733266

There are so many stories, just look, thay are not all manufactured. The hospitals have been told not to continue the practice if for nothing other than bad publicity.
I mentioned before that my wife is a midwife, they regularly (they being hospital admin) bumped women out at all hours of the night. They dont now, but the system is creaking. We all know of the lack of care and consideration in the NHS. My wife says that nursing is no longer the caring profession.

Leslie

You make a perfectly valid point, but that does not absolve them from some kind of patient care in such circumstances, rather than chucking the bloke out on his ear. He could have been allowed to sit in a waiting room until some kind of transportation could be arranged the next morning.

The real answer is what our local hospital does and that is to organise a voluntary hospital car service where you can get a ride home at any time for a very fair price. Its a matter of going just a bit further for the patients.

Les

john banks

Some of the things r32 mentions may or may not be anything to do with targets and an obsession for measuring and micromanaging anything that is measurable, to the detriment of common sense. There seems little sense of trust in the system for professionals to get on with their job, nurses can be seen writing their reports to cover all the aspects of care their records may be audited on, whilst they would actually be better trusted to get on with their job and write something down when it was actually useful rather than being overwhelmed by tick box forms. There will always be bad apples but the present systems aren't good at finding them either.

TelBoy

This alternative possiblilty from another website. I quite like it.

hodgy0_2

yes the old mantra of the Management consultants

"you can't manage what you don't measure"

I prefer the saying, written on a sign, hanging on Alber Einsteins office wall

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

Leslie

Being cynical is all very well, but you need to know all the facts to be able to conjure up a story about what might have happened.

Making up a possible sequence of events is just not good enough, and is unfair on the man concerned.

Les