Perhaps the most dangerous three words in the English language are 'Protect the NHS'.So says Prof Karol Sikora. And he's spot on, isn't he, Reader?
A report from the National Audit Office (NAO) this week found that up to 740,000 potential cancer patients have been missed since the beginning of the first lockdown in March 2020. These are people who should have been referred urgently for investigation in hospital, for a disease where delays exponentially increase the risk of death. The NAO estimates that, since the pandemic began, between 35,000 and 60,000 fewer people than expected have started treatment for cancer. Untreated cancer kills. Timely diagnosis is absolutely crucial. In a few years, perhaps just four, the death toll from delays to cancer diagnoses could be higher than the total number of people who have died in Britain with Covid.
I can well believe it.
I don't believe the Whitehall sloganeers realised how powerful their catchphrase would be.
I don't believe any of them cared one whit.
The British revere their health service, and have such a deep-dyed reverence for doctors that many feared they would be seen as selfish, irresponsible or even unpatriotic if they rang their GP's surgery.
That applies particularly to the older generation — those 60 and over, who are the ones most at risk from cancer.
I'd say this was a plot to get rid of them, if I credited the people behind this with that sort of foresight.
The two diseases are simply not comparable. I am frustrated and exasperated beyond belief that we have allowed cancer diagnosis to be so badly undermined by fanning fears of a far less deadly illness.
Why the past tense, Prof? They are still doing it!
"plot to get rid of them"
ReplyDeleteSince every elderly admission was automatically (without debate or even notification) given a DNR. Then refused basic care, whilst putting them on high PEEP ventilators (to macerate their lungs), pushing massive amounts of i.v. fluids (so that they'd drown in their own fluids) and, when that failed, given massive doses of midazolam ("just die already!"). I think, possibly, you may be on to something.
After decades actually working in the NHS I have never been both so ashamed, and angry at the realisation that most of my ex-colleagues were in reality closer in mindset to Mengele than Florence all along.
The Liverpool Care Pathway was a test. It worked. And they realised that if no medical staff stood against it, the others would all fall into line.
DeleteAnd they did.
The DNR is a bit of a giveaway is it not?
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
ReplyDelete