Thursday, December 02, 2010

Nurses that don't nurse and carers who don't care

The Daily Mail is backing a campaign by the Patients Association to change the way the NHS handles complaints with particular concern over the care received by hundreds of thousands of elderly patients in NHS hospitals every year.

The fact is that nurses have given up on nursing. They have turned a vocation into a profession and no longer bother themselves with the basic fundamentals of patient care - like making sure they are fed, watered, clean and as comfortable as they can be.

It's typical of our entire way of dealing with the sick and elderly. If you're in hospital you'll be "looked after" by nurses who don't nurse and if you're at home you'll be dealt with by carers who don't care.

It's symptomatic of a system which has forgotten what its purpose is and no longer exists for the reason it was first created. The purpose for which the NHS was created was to provide high quality health care free at the point of use for all people. That is no longer why the NHS exists. It now exists to provide state employment for a huge number of people.

If that wasn't the case then why would it matter whether the health service was provided by private enterprise or by a state run institution as long as it was free at the point of use and available to all?

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