Bureaucracy is a sort of slow-growing cancer. Things look OK at first but the slow decline ends up with the function concerned in a very bad way eventually. The Queensland "free" health service in Australia is a very old one (dating from 1944) -- and it is now in such big trouble that patients are dying rather than being helped. The "Dr. Patel" scandal led to apparent reform attempts but the downhill slide continues nonetheless. That there are now three bureaucrats for every health worker is a large part of the cancer. Several articles below. The first is a letter to the editor of the Brisbane "Courier Mail" and refers to the story about elderly public hospital patients being slowly starved that was mentioned by me on Feb. 27th. The letter appeared on Saturday, March 3rd.
Hospital shocks
I refer to reports of patients in hospital becoming malnourished. I was a patient in a major public hospital recently. On either side of me were two elderly patients.
Their meal trays would be put on their bed trolleys and half hour or so later the tray person would collect and remove the untouched tray.
I told nursing staff that these people could not reach the trays or feed themselves or get the items open. I was told in a roundabout way to mind my own business. I would struggle out of bed, place the trays close enough to them, open the little fiddly butter/ juice lids and encourage them to eat. [...]
Hypocritical health boss in damage control
Health bosses have sent an urgent memo to staff telling them Health Minister Stephen Robertson has "complete confidence in the public health system". The "Special Broadcast" came after an opinion column in The Sunday Mail criticising Mr Robertson's decision to have heart surgery at a private hospital.
In an email sent on Monday, Queensland Health director-general Uschi Schreiber said: "I am particularly concerned that these media articles include disparaging statements about Queensland hospitals and, by implication, of the people who work in them. "I want to stress that I know from working closely with the minister over the last 20 months that he has complete confidence in Queensland's public health system and the highest admiration for the people working, in it. "He is a strong advocate for the public health system."
But staff are not convinced, describing the email as "hilarious". One doctor, who declined to be named because of a Queensland Health ban on staff speaking to the media, said if Mr Robertson had faith in the public system he would have used it. "He did exactly what we expected him to do, even though it was a bad political move," he said. "It was a life-or-death situation for him and he's not going to be a patient in a public hospital in a system that he knows is in trouble."
Mr Robertson, 45, chose St Andrew's Hospital at Spring Hill in Brisbane for an angioplasty operation to open his arteries. In the email to staff, Ms Schreiber said: "It is probably worth pointing out that the minister would have been equally criticised had he chosen to occupy a public hospital bed despite having private health insurance."
But one member of staff said Mr Robertson should have gone into a public hospital as a privately subsidised patient. "It would have been a big pat on the shoulders for staff if he had done that," he said. "Morale is low enough without having the Health Minister snubbing us. "They put the email out to stop people making comment, and everyone found it hilarious because we all know the real state of play."
Grandmother Lee Brown, 66, of Redland Bay, has no choice but to wait for her angioplasty at Redland Hospital because she cannot afford to be treated privately. "I read about Mr Robertson in The Sunday Mail while I was in hospital and I thought, `holy mackerel, that's just double standards'," she said. "I don't think these ministers have the faintest idea how to run the health system. They don't live in the real world, where people have to wait for nine hours in casualty."
The above article by HANNAH DAVIES appeared in the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" on March 4th., 2007
THERE ARE MORE EXAMPLES. FOLLOW THIS LINK and this link
Hospital shocks
I refer to reports of patients in hospital becoming malnourished. I was a patient in a major public hospital recently. On either side of me were two elderly patients.
Their meal trays would be put on their bed trolleys and half hour or so later the tray person would collect and remove the untouched tray.
I told nursing staff that these people could not reach the trays or feed themselves or get the items open. I was told in a roundabout way to mind my own business. I would struggle out of bed, place the trays close enough to them, open the little fiddly butter/ juice lids and encourage them to eat. [...]
Hypocritical health boss in damage control
Health bosses have sent an urgent memo to staff telling them Health Minister Stephen Robertson has "complete confidence in the public health system". The "Special Broadcast" came after an opinion column in The Sunday Mail criticising Mr Robertson's decision to have heart surgery at a private hospital.
In an email sent on Monday, Queensland Health director-general Uschi Schreiber said: "I am particularly concerned that these media articles include disparaging statements about Queensland hospitals and, by implication, of the people who work in them. "I want to stress that I know from working closely with the minister over the last 20 months that he has complete confidence in Queensland's public health system and the highest admiration for the people working, in it. "He is a strong advocate for the public health system."
But staff are not convinced, describing the email as "hilarious". One doctor, who declined to be named because of a Queensland Health ban on staff speaking to the media, said if Mr Robertson had faith in the public system he would have used it. "He did exactly what we expected him to do, even though it was a bad political move," he said. "It was a life-or-death situation for him and he's not going to be a patient in a public hospital in a system that he knows is in trouble."
Mr Robertson, 45, chose St Andrew's Hospital at Spring Hill in Brisbane for an angioplasty operation to open his arteries. In the email to staff, Ms Schreiber said: "It is probably worth pointing out that the minister would have been equally criticised had he chosen to occupy a public hospital bed despite having private health insurance."
But one member of staff said Mr Robertson should have gone into a public hospital as a privately subsidised patient. "It would have been a big pat on the shoulders for staff if he had done that," he said. "Morale is low enough without having the Health Minister snubbing us. "They put the email out to stop people making comment, and everyone found it hilarious because we all know the real state of play."
Grandmother Lee Brown, 66, of Redland Bay, has no choice but to wait for her angioplasty at Redland Hospital because she cannot afford to be treated privately. "I read about Mr Robertson in The Sunday Mail while I was in hospital and I thought, `holy mackerel, that's just double standards'," she said. "I don't think these ministers have the faintest idea how to run the health system. They don't live in the real world, where people have to wait for nine hours in casualty."
The above article by HANNAH DAVIES appeared in the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" on March 4th., 2007
THERE ARE MORE EXAMPLES. FOLLOW THIS LINK and this link
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