Death

I commented recently on the media reporting of death rates being at an all time low. Well someone agrees with me.

Weather

An impromptu day off today due to the snow. I have never known it like this in November. Inconvenient though it is this sort of weather brings extraordinary beauty. This picture was taken on Sunday just a few miles from my home.

Privatisation?

For the first time in it’s history the NHS is to allow a private company to run one of it’s Hospitals. I do not think I am a closed minded individual and I will not say that this is in principal a bad thing, though I do not think that, even among tory voters, this will sit well.

What does strike me however is the dishonesty and deceit which is already being employed in presenting this extraordinary precedent to the public. 

Dr Stephen Dunn, director of strategy at the strategic health authority, said, among other statements “This is not privatisation” 

Dr Dunn, you fucking blatant liar. Yes it fucking is! Whether, as a tactic, it succeeds or not, it most definitely is privatisation. Denying this fundamental fact reminds me of the saying; “Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining”

Denial of this is simply an insult to the intelligence. If Dr Dunn came clean on this we might be more inclined to give this experiment a chance. Treating us like fools Dr Dunn can only generate hostility and resistance, and the view that you are trying to hide something.

Freedom of expression

A teenage girl in Birmingham has been arrested for posting a video on YouTube in which she allegedly burned a copy of the Koran. The police may be charging her with incitement to religious hatred. 

I don't see at all how expressing disapproval, or even contempt, of a religion or belief constitutes incitement to religious hatred. To quote West Midlands police "West Midlands Police will investigate and monitor any crime reported by individuals who may have been targeted because of their disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or transgender."

Which individual has been targeted here? It seems to me that the only person who has been targeted is the girl herself, presumably because of her religious disbelief. 

To quote again from a previous post about freedom of expression “Article 10 applies not only to information or ideas that are favourable and inoffensive but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or a sector of the population.”

I think that W Mids police are acting like bully boys here and should be resisted and defied with all vigour. By their logic I too am committing an offence by expressing my view that Islam is a nasty, intolerant, oppressive, tyrannical, misogynist delusion, though it is not the only religion I would describe in this way.

So come on coppers, come and get me.

Extra bank holiday

So April 29 is to be an extra bank holiday so we can all sit round a TV watching a fairy prince and princess get hitched. It is not my idea of fun and I will be volunteering to work that day in the hope of steering clear of a TV set. If my offer is not taken up I will probably take off into the hills where anyone else I meet is likely to be of like mind

Unfortunately the next 5 months is going to be nothing but build up as the whole affair is going to be treated as some vast ghastly soap opera by the media.

The daily mash as usual has a refreshingly different slant , reproduced below



Royal engagement newspaper bullshit round-up:

Each and every one us will be deeply affected by the looming royal marriage... (Peter Oborne, Daily Telegraph)

In an important sense, this betrothal has far more to teach a new generation about relationships - and fidelity, too. (Bel Mooney, Daily Mail)

For Kate and William, their engagement has profound national significance. They will help form our collective imagination. They are now part of what we are as a nation, how we define ourselves as individuals. (Peter Oborne, Daily Telegraph)

As somebody whose business it is to study the human heart.. (Bel Mooney,Daily Mail - she actually wrote those words)

Today we are wiser and perhaps more humane. The unrealistic expectations that destroyed Charles and Diana have gone. (Peter Oborne, Daily Telegraph - he's playing a blinder)

It is rare these days that we glimpse broad sunlit uplands, but this is one such moment. (Daily Telegraph editorial - sweet fucking Jesus)

And the winner is (obviously)...

Diana, the bride at every royal funeral and the mourner at every royal wedding, was present in more than just the engagement ring which sat so heavily on the hand of this young woman who must now walk a mile in her bloodied shoes, on a road leading who knows where. (Julie Burchill, The Independent)



Pass the sick bowl someone.

Whistleblowing

The Public Disclosure Act became law in 1999.  It is the so called “whistleblowers law”, and applies to all employees. In the NHS specifically it is supposed to allow employees to draw attention to failings on the part of their employer, without having to fear any retribution from that employer.

Unfortunately it does not work.  It would be illegal for any NHS employer to pursue an employee specifically for such  an act of disclosure. What happens in practice however is that employees who have made an act of disclosure can find themselves the subject of disciplinary proceedings for all sorts of other reasons and can find themselves suspended or even dismissed on the vaguest, and most insubstantial of reasons. This is a loophole in the act big enough to drive a tank through.

A few examples of this can be found here, where the cases of two doctors and one nurse who endured exactly this sort of underhand treatment can be found. 

I have written about the case of Sharmila Chowdury before, and it now looks certain that she will win her case. Ramon Niekrash has already won his, and Henry Fernandez has had a large out of court settlement, or as it is otherwise known, a total admission of wrongdoing.

With medical staff, for these things to happen requires the collusion in bullying and harassment of two principal individuals, the Chief  Executive and Medical Director. Although others may be involved these two are key. Such targeting of victims can not occur without their malign and dishonest intent. But in all the media reporting on these cases these people are not named, responsibility being attributed to the Trust. 

These people should be named and shamed, and in the case of the two doctors involved this not too difficult.

So here is the bullies roll call.

In Ealing Hospital those responsible for the underhand and disgraceful treatment of Sharmilla Chowdury were the CE Julie Lowe and the Medical Director (and Deputy CE) William Lynn. 

In Woolwich Ramon Niekrash was apparently targeted by one man. David Robson was Medical Director until February 2008 and then became Chief Executive, raising the possibility that Dr Niekrash was the victim of a grudge by one unscrupulous, ambitious  malicious and shameless individual.

These are people manifestly unfit to hold the positions they do. Sadly they are not the only such self serving millstones we have to carry in the NHS. 

Colleagues - Research