Question answered

In my last post I questioned whether the health secretary was either, devious and dishonest, or just plain stupid. Having seen this latest from him today I think that question is answered.

Bad or thick?

Jeremy Hunt is very fond of highlighting the apparently poor prognosis of patients admitted to NHS hospitals at the weekend, and (mis)using this data to push his agenda. Those who work in the NHS however know full well that, because weekend admissions are disproportionately emergencies, that mortality is inevitably bound to be higher. A recently published study has confirmed that patients admitted at the weekend tend to be older and sicker than those in the week. This may seem like the bleedin' obvious but it's important to have factual data to refute Hunt.

So what do you suppose are the chances that Hunt will mention this study? I wouldn't hold your breath.

To my mind there can only be two possible reasons why he persists so tenaciously with his factually flawed pronouncements. The first is that he is deliberately mendacious and deceitful, and that he is pursuing his own agenda with a complete disregard for factual reality, and a staggering contempt for the intelligence of the medical profession, and the public. That is, he know's full well that he's wrong, and that we all know that he's wrong, but he just doesn't give a fuck.

The other possibility is that he really is pathologically stupid.

Whiplash

Britain is apparently the "Whiplash capital of Europe".

No not like that unfortunately, like this.  DZ was once involved in such a claim. While reversing into a parking space he very gently knocked the front of a car behind. The lady driving took details and then flounced off to her aerobics class, and subsequently submitted an insurance claim for whiplash injury. The Insurance company simply paid up rather than fight the obviously spurious and opportunistic claim. So DZ is more than happy to see that Aviva fought this time and won, sending the claimants packing.

But there is a medical issue here. Apparently the claimants were "able to supply medical evidence to lawyers in support of their claim." So some of our colleagues were perfectly prepared to collude with this blatant attempt at fraud, in order to line their pockets. What greedy dishonest fuckers they must be.

DZ makes no apology for repeating something he's said before.

The only difference between some doctors and prostitutes, is that there are some things prostitutes won't do for money.

Reflection

DZ once had a close friend, a German. She used to have a saying "Mann denkt man ist was selbst er ist". A rough translation would be that people assume others are as they are themselves.

If this is true take the following situation. Our glorious leader dear Jeremy wants to introduce weekend elective working in the NHS. Nothing wrong with that in itself. After all much of  NHS hospital facilities stand idle at the weekends. But this would represent an increase in workload of 40%. Logically then it would require a corresponding increase in all staffing, resulting in a 40% increase in costs.

But Jeremy isn't keen on that cost thing. He wants to increase the throughput without any financial input. The only alternative to increasing staffing levels is to get the existing staff to increase their hours by 40%, but this would cost even more, and has the added disadvantage that, under the terribly inconvenient working hours laws, and current contracts, this is not allowed. Totally verboten!

The solution is easy. Unilaterally change the doctors' contracts so as to remove those safeguards so hard won over the years, and take us back to the days DZ remembers well, when we worked over 100 hours a week.

That this is how his mind is working is obvious. As plain as the nose on Pinochio's face.

So how does he think he can get away with this. He must think we're incredibly stupid, imperceptive and unthinking.

And by my friend's philosophy perhaps that tells us something about him.