Tuesday 8 December 2009

Baby P: the systemic malaise


If a doctor or nurse acts negligently then there are well trodden paths for their punishment, there is the GMC for doctors and the NMC for nurses. 'Self regulation' is a bit of a misnomer to say the least, as both the GMC and NMC are effectively government run organisations and this needs to be considered when one considers just why some doctors and nurses are so harshly punished.

It is undeniable and obvious that any organisation with an open and honest approach to dealing with its problems will deal with them quicker, better and more effectively. The NHS invariably deals with its problem in a dishonest and hidden manner, this is because it is not run for patients, it is run for the needs of politicians and as a result they do not want their corrupt motives to be seen out in the open. As a result of the government's malignant intentions there is currently a massive conflict of interests between the frontline clinical staff (the doctors and nurses et cetera) and the managers. The managers are the agents of the state while the frontline staff want to give their patients as good a service as possible, hence the obvious conflict.

The Baby P case is a great example of this glaring conflict and it has shown us that the managers did nothing until a child died, despite multiple warnings of the obvious problems from the frontline clinicians. Obviously the Trust in question tried to scapegoat a doctor, but it is rather clear that the clinicians were stretched well beyond any reasonable limits in this case. There have been quite a few sackings following the baby P case but does anyone out there really believe that the real villains have been identified? The baby P report is a whitewash that seeks to pin blame on paediatricians and whistleblowers rather than pin blame where it is deserve, ie at the door of the politicians and unelected cronies who have made the decisions to cut costs and consequently the standard of service.

To me it seems that the problem here runs right to the top of the health service management, those politicians who have been behind the privatisation the NHS at all costs are most to blame. The problem is that patient care is no longer the most important thing in the NHS, the government has made numerous things more important than patients such as financial deficits (because of the loony internal market), foundation status, performance targets such as the 4hr wait and on and on. The HCC/Ofsted and CQC are only interested in gathering their political propaganda for the government, the message is that you will be rated 'good' or 'excellent' if you fiddle the stats to keep the politicians happy.

We have a network of organisations and bureaucrats working to keep the supreme leader Gordon Brown happy, if a few patients such as Baby P get killed in the process then our leaders don't mind. In their eyes the ends justify the means, a privatised health system justifies the shabby standards of care that patients have had to put up with a result of this gross waste of funds on these lunatic ideological reforms.
Doctors and nurses can be struck off in the process, and sometimes this is a way of pushing blame away from those that make the really negligent decisions. I just find it strange that those that really have the power to make the big decisions in the NHS, that can kill lots of people when they go wrong, are never held to account for their actions. Politicians and managers are just moved sideways, doctors and nurses are sacked or struck off, where is the justice? Until whisteblowers are listened to and not burnt at the stake the NHS will continue to rot and the baby Ps of the future will continue to die in such very avoidable circumstances.

1 comment:

Carmen said...

While I have to agree that things are out of control in certain sectors of your country, there are things that remain in the ordeal of this little boy. Not one person has taken responsibility or admitted their failings in protecting Peter Connelly from his abusers and killers - not the social workers who should have noticed he was being abused, not the doctor who saw him two days before he died and not the LAWYERS who cancelled and skipped meetings in the weeks and days leading up to his death, and who said this little boy did not cross the threshold for care proceedings. After all I have read and learned about this little boy's ordeal I will staunchly maintain that he could have and should have been saved from the likes of Tracey Connelly, Steven Barker and Jason Owen... If just ONE person had stood up for him instead of passing the buck!