There are some things that I have problem with in healthcare at the moment following some research that I have carried out recently, most noticeably reading and reading around 'The Patient Paradox' book by Margaret Mccartney.
So there are a few things that are obviously wrong:
1. The power that pharmaceutical companies have in influencing drugs in the National Health Service. This is a national outrage, not least the funding of the depression questionnaire that General Medical Practitioners use which then encourages them to provide anti depression medication sponsored by the company that provides the medication.
2. The constant and unalterable changing of the goal posts by the political masters in non evidence based healthcare – a great example of this is the two week wait concept for referring patients for cancer screening. This has resulted in less cancer being diagnosed early than in the old system and has happened because the new system was not piloted or checked properly.
3. The removal of empathy from the system, again by political masters, which means that everybody works to targets, check boxes and algorithms that patients don’t always fit into, removing any concept of personal consultation and professional judgment being undertaken.
4. The loss of protection of healthcare professionals from society.
There have been some terrible and horrible incidents within healthcare including the Shipman scandal and the Alder-Hey scandal which have led to a mallet of healthcare regulation to avoid the very small incidents where a psychopath comes involved with dealing with patients.
This is perhaps best seen in the contract of mobile phone uses, texting at the wheel.
Example, a 19 year old (could be any age) texting at the wheel runs over a 10 year old girl and kills her. The penalties for the individual are severe but the penalties for the population of drivers are minimal - increased fines and increased points on their license. When did an increased fine and an increase of points on your license actually deter anyone from doing something that’s ingrained within them?
The contrast of this is a healthcare provider who kills patients. The penalty to the health care provider is severe and the penalty to the patient is equally as severe in terms of overbearing regulation. Not an increase in fines or penalty points, but loss of the ability to practice for people who otherwise would have been remediated throughout the profession. There was a time in Scotland before 2015 where the legal system saw it as duty and responsibility to protect the healthcare professions for the benefit of society. This was a sensible, laudable and clever approach for the benefit of everyone which was probably lost in the new consent judgments which occurred in 2015 (Montgomery)
The situation in healthcare is dire and needs someone to take it by the scruff of the neck. The professions themselves need to improve from within but the system needs to be without a political master to protect the profession for the benefit of society.
Blog Post Number - 1305
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