"All the bazaar men by the Nile, they got the money on a bet..."

Dr Medhat Keshta, 66, had been struck off after he was accused of putting his own greed before patients when he forged a letter pretending to be from his former employers falsely claiming he had been paid better money when he worked there - before faking a back problem to take six weeks off and then moonlight for another NHS trust. When asked to explain his dishonesty, the father-of-two said he had 'misjudged the situation' cited his large ego and claimed he had 'followed the same procedures covered in Egypt'.

Well, better he goes home and tries it there, then. Once we deport him. We are deporting him? 

He said he had 'no choice' but to demand better money as his daughter Fatima was due to start university and added: 'Culturally, a husband and a father are the 'god' of the house. I did not want my family to find out that I lied and forged a letter. 'This is not how I want to set an example to my family and the wider public.'

Well, now you're in a national newspaper, so that didn't go well, did it?  

He added: 'Apologies are not something that are easily granted where I come from. My ego prevented me from reaching full insight into the case early enough and I regret this deeply. I have now reached a stage where I am openly admitting everything I did. I have not felt more at peace with myself as I feel now. I will never put myself in this place again. These mistakes will not be repeated.'

Because we're deporting you?  

Today, it emerged Keshta's name had been restored to the medical register after Fatima, now a pharmacist and nutritionist, agreed to represent him at a tribunal in Manchester to plead on his behalf. It was the third time he had pleaded for his job back.

*sighs* 

MPTS chairman Mrs Becky Miller said: 'Dr Keshta's journey of insight has been long, and he has had to overcome a lot of self-serving justification for his actions.

'The tribunal bore in mind the 2020 Tribunal's concern that he emphasised Egyptian practices which allow a doctor to take a leave of absence from one place in order to work in another and that he sought to minimise his behaviour.

All things that should show his current claims aren't true. 

'But it noted Dr Keshta has since addressed this issue and he admitted that 'self-justification was wrong.' He has since acknowledged the full extent of his dishonesty and has learnt to express his shame in a genuine manner.'

How do you get to be so gullible and hold such a high position? 

We Didn't See You As 'Trusted Messengers' Before Your Virtue Signalling Nonsense...

...so we aren't likely to do it after this:

Dr Sarah Benn has long been concerned about the climate crisis, diligently recycling until she was “blue in the face”. But the rise of the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion in 2019 inspired her and her husband to go further. “We thought: well, if we don’t do it then who else is going to?” While working as a GP near Birmingham, Benn became increasingly involved in direct action over the next few years, and once glued her hand to the door of the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy in protest at the government’s inaction on the climate.

*sighs* If only they spent as much time seeing patients as they do virtue signalling, we'd respect them more... 

Benn now faces a professional tribunal by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), the disciplinary arm of the General Medical Council (GMC), to determine whether she can keep her licence to practise. She is one of three GPs who face being struck off for climate activism this year, and her case in April is the first that will be heard.

After her first four criminal convictions – two for obstructing a highway, one for stopping people engaged in a lawful activity and one for flying a drone in a restricted place – the GMC opened an investigation.

Yes, Reader, you read that right - it takes FOUR convictions to get them to come in off the golf course and take a good hard look... 

It was not until Benn was found guilty of contempt of court for breaching a civil injunction at Kingsbury oil terminal in Warwickshire as part of a Just Stop Oil campaign that she was referred for a full tribunal. Benn spent a total of 31 days in prison for this action.

And she's far from the only one: 

Dr Patrick Hart, a GP from Bristol, also has a string of convictions for climate activism, one of which resulted in a suspended prison sentence. After he rejected a formal warning from the GMC, he was told he would face a tribunal in November.

“The lawyer I spoke to said it was unusually lenient but I didn’t take it. Partly because it would have been dishonest and partly because I’m angry with them for … failing to make any meaningful statement about any of this and enthusiastically investigating people for matters of conscience and patient care,” Hart said.

Where's the 'patient care' in all this grandstanding? 

Benn has now retired and is no longer practising as a GP. But she wants the GMC to recognise the importance of her actions, and said doctors should be seen as “trusted messengers”.

Not happening.  

Still Clapping, Are We?

This time of year is always difficult for those who have lost a loved one, but for Melissa Mead and her husband Paul it is agonisingly so. For it was in December 2014, with Christmas just days away, that their one-year-old son William – their firstborn and longed-for baby – died from sepsis after a catalogue of errors, misdiagnoses and missed opportunities to save him.

Yes, it's that sainted NHS again... 

With an instinct any mother would recognise, Melissa had known something was wrong for weeks, only for her concerns to be dismissed time and again by both doctors and 111 operators.

Well, of course! I mean, 'mum knows best' is just a slogan, isn't it? 

In 2016, an NHS England report into the circumstances of William's death concluded that there had been sixteen failings in his care and four missed opportunities to save his life. In the wake of this devastating verdict, Melissa and Paul, along with the UK Sepsis Trust, have campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of the life-threatening condition and the need to act quickly, particularly in children. Yet as the Mail reveals today, a report by the National Child Mortality Database reveals that of the 1,507 infection-related child deaths recorded over a three-year period to the end of March 2022, the clinical signs of sepsis were present in 701.

With the money that gets poured into the NHS, it should be a world leader. Yet so often, we learn it's not much better than a Third World health service.  

Headlines For Our Times...

Melissa Mathieson was strangled by Jason Conroy at Alexandra House, which provides residential care for adults with autism and Asperger's syndrome, in Bristol in 2014.

Yes, Reader, that's right. Nine years ago... 

Conroy, now aged 27, was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum term of 19 years for the killing. Bristol Crown Court heard that Alexandra Homes (Bristol) Ltd was charged with an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 last year following a lengthy investigation.

They aren't kidding with that 'lengthy'... 

Hours before her death, Miss Mathieson had complained to staff that Conroy was stalking her. Mr Sapiecha told the court that the company had failed in its duty to keep residents safe after being given information about the danger Conroy posed, including a report from psychiatrist Dr Hilary Grant. 'It cannot be said there was no warning at all,' he said.

In almost all of these cases, that's the case. There's plenty of warning, it hardly ever comes out of the blue. And yet, these supposed 'professionals' fail time after time.  

Andrew Langdon KC, defending, said the company had been trading for nearly 20 years and had an enviable reputation in the industry.

Yes, the key there is 'had'. 

I'm Fine With This...

...so long as it only applies to pregnant eco-lunatics.

Women in childbirth are being offered an injection of water instead of the traditional 'gas and air' – in a bid to make the NHS more environmentally friendly.

It's a brave nurse or midwife who's going to suggest that nonsense to a woman in labour! 

...the NHS has warned that using Entonox in Scotland is 'equivalent to 18,000 transatlantic flights'.

Scotland? Yes. You expect such insanity there. But you shouldn't expect it to stray this side of the border. surely? 

The Scottish Government previously wrote to all health boards with a plan suggesting women should be discouraged from using Entonox for the good of the planet.

And yet... 

Last week, watchdog the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) backed the use of sterile water in England.

*sighs* 

However, during a consultation on the treatment, the Obstetric Anaesthetists' Association wrote: 'What possible biological plausible explanation is there for benefit with intracutaneous or subcutaneous injections of water in volumes of 0.1 to 0.4mls?

'Because it is cheap and unlikely to cause harm is an inadequate justification for a recommendation, especially as NICE does not recommend other similar non-pharmacological therapies such as acupuncture and hypnosis.'

I fear you're fighting a losing battle. I don't think biology is uppermost in the NHS anymore... 

Don't Be So Quick To Blame GPs...

I know, I know, but hear me out....

Emergency departments, which are designed for serious injuries and life-threatening emergencies only, are seeing an increase in people attending with sore throats, insomnia, coughs and earache.

Well, why not? You have, after all, spent months, nay, years, convincing people these are signs of a deadly disease, haven't you? 

Cases where sore throat was the chief complaint rose by 77% between 2021-22 and 2022-23, from 191,900 cases to 340,441. Patients going to A&E with coughs rose by 47%, from 219,388 to 322,500, while attendances for nosebleeds rose by a fifth, from 47,285 cases to 56,546.

Of course, the blame must be shifted, so GPs are in the firing line: 

Miriam Deakin, the director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, said: “The rise in A&E admissions is piling even more pressure on to an already stretched NHS. Persistent strain on primary care services, including GPs and dentists, means patients often resort to A&E when they cannot access timely care elsewhere.

“Minor ailments such as coughs, earache, fever, nausea and hiccups can and should be managed through more appropriate services such as pharmacies and NHS 111 online. This could ease pressure on emergency departments, whose priority is to deliver urgent care for those most in need. Boosting capacity of staff, beds and equipment in these settings would also significantly help. However, this requires proper funding and support from the government.”

The NHS has funding enough - it's how it chooses to spend it that's the issue.  

A Locked Room, This Time..?

Ahsan Zia, 33, was suffering from delusions and hallucinations involving the late Queen and that there was a plot to rape and kill him, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

He launched a 28-second attack on Michael Matthews, 55, in his victim's room on the acute Fellside Wing of Newcastle's Hadrian Clinic in April last year.

If the races were reversed we'd be seeing this a bit further up the webpage, I suspect... 

Mr Dry said Zia had used cannabis the day before the attack, but there was no evidence that this had any influence on his behaviour when he lashed out.

No, just a stunning coincidence. Like all the other cases.  

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Pablo Vandenabeele, via videolink, told the court Zia suffered from a treatment-resistant form of paranoid schizophrenia.

We put down rabid dogs. We don't send them to an animal shelter.  

Zia will be treated at the maximum security Rampton Hospital, the judge said.

Another triumph for the mental health advocates, no doubt.  

You Know What, I'm Actually OK With This...

...just so long as it works the other way as well. And GPs and hospitals pay YOU every time an appointment is cancelled. It's only fair, right?

She told ITV's Good Morning Britain that the Government had 'no immediate plans' to impose fines but 'it is not ruled out for the future'.

Ms Caulfield, a former nurse, said there was a 'good argument for it and we are not ruling it out for the future but it is not something that we have got on the table right now'.

Asked if the policy could be in the next Tory manifesto, she replied: 'Potentially, yes.'

That's the strong, decisive Tory government we've come to know and love! 

...the idea triggered a backlash from the health sector.

Wait, what? Aren't they always complaining about no-shows? 

The British Medical Association said that fines for missed appointments would 'not only undermine the essential trust between doctor and patient (Ed: stop laughing at the back!), but ultimately threaten the fundamental principle that the NHS delivers free care at the point of need, for all'.

But no-shows don't generate any care, do they? And if they don't turn up, maybe they didn't need it...

The NHS Confederation said the bureaucratic costs of the plan 'could well far outweigh the money brought in by the fines'.

The NHS complaining about 'bureaucratic costs' would be laughable, if only I was capable of laughing anymore... 

'Something Must Be Done...' Pt78017895

A coroner has called for 'life-saving' health warnings to be added to supermarket bought protein shakes after a 16-year-old schoolboy suffered 'irreversible brain damage' triggered by a rare genetic disease after drinking one.

'...and this is something, so let's do it! Hang the cost!'

The disease is a type of urea cycle disorder - a group of genetic disorders caused by a deficiency of one of the six enzymes in the urea cycle, which is responsible for the removal of ammonia from the blood stream.The deficiency is extremely rare and is estimated to affect one in 50,000 to 80,000 people.

Speaking on Tuesday, Coroner Tom Osborne said: 'Concerning these protein drinks, my preliminary view about them is that I ought to write to one of the regulatory authorities that some sort of warning ought to be put on the packaging of these drinks because, although OTC is a rare condition, it can have harmful effects if someone drinks (one) and it causes a protein spike.'

Might as well demand the government buy metal head shields for us all in case of asteroid strike... 

Finbar O'Callaghan, professor of paediatric neurology at the Institute of Child Health, University College London, agreed intervention was needed, describing it as 'potentially life-saving'.

Of course he does. It's not his money, either, is it? But you know what else is 'life saving', prof? The NHS doing its job...

Professor O'Callaghan told the inquest on Tuesday that if an ammonia test had been carried out on the day Rohan was admitted to hospital, it was 'probable' he would have survived, agreeing with a suggestion by the family's lawyers that it was a 'missed opportunity'.

He was also critical of the decision by a specialist hospital - known as a tertiary centre - not to accept a referral for the 16-year-old to their paediatric neurological team because the West Middlesex Hospital had classified him as an adult patient.

Sadly, NHS red tape fuck ups aren't as rare as this deficiency. We'd all be better off if they were.  

Sums Up The NHS To A 'T', Doesn't It?

A woman who suffered a miscarriage has been fined by the NHS for claiming a free prescription during her pregnancy.

Wait, what? 

Sadie Hawkes lost her baby before she had received the maternity exemption certificate that entitled her to free prescriptions throughout her pregnancy and the first year after birth. She has now been sent a demand for £56.10 for medication issued the week before her miscarriage. She’s been told that she can’t apply for a certificate retrospectively as she is no longer pregnant.

/facepalm 

Hawkes is one of thousands of women in England to have fallen foul of NHS red tape which penalises patients who qualify for free prescriptions because of a medical condition or pregnancy, but who have not yet been registered for, or have failed to show, an exemption certificate.

And they will pursue them to the ends of the earth, unlike other debts... 

“The PCN [penalty charge notice] arrived on a day when I was feeling particularly ill and low [after] the miscarriage,” the 33-year-old veterinary nurse said. “It made me feel like a fraudster. I immediately called the NHSBSA and explained the circumstances to a robotic woman with zero compassion who said I was no longer eligible for a certificate because I was no longer pregnant. I was told the fine, but not the prescription charge, could only be waived if I got proof of pregnancy from my GP. That was really distressing to have to do, and made me feel I wasn’t being believed. It was the worst phone call of my life.”

Maybe move these robots onto the foreigner's debt department where they can perhaps do some good?

Baby Steps, Baby Steps...

Hundreds of doctors and midwives have signed a letter urging the NHS to scrap a £100,000 training programme to encourage use of terms including ‘chestfeeding’ and ‘human milk’.

It should be 'hundreds of thousands', but hey! 'More joy in heaven..', and all that...

The Maternity Gender Inclusion Programme is to be rolled out nationwide with a focus on improving maternity care for pregnant transgender patients.

Or as we would say, 'women with mental health issues that make them believe they are really men'.

Following a pilot last year at the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust, the NHS is looking to roll out the training to at least 40 NHS maternity services. Rebranding its maternity department as ‘perinatal services’, it claimed ‘gender identity can be a source of oppression and health inequality’.

If by 'health inequality' they mean that men they allow themselves to call women will never bear children', then they'd better take that up with human evolution.

One midwife, who asked to remain anonymous for fear over her job, said colleagues were very concerned by the proposal – which was based on research that lacked independent evaluation or assessment on how it could impact non-trans patients and other disadvantaged groups.

She said: ‘To give £100,000 on the basis of this really rather kind of shoddy piece of work appears to us to be not based on improving outcomes for mothers and babies, but based on driving an ideological agenda.’

Yes, of course it is. The very fact that this midwife feels she can't use her real name shows that pretty clearly, doesn't it? 

An NHS spokesman said: ‘The NHS has paused this programme while we look into its scope and so that it is based on the latest evidence.’

Translation: "We would have got away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids!" 

What Happened To 'First, Do No Harm'..?

Older people who spend time in hospital are being discharged suffering from long-lasting incontinence because NHS staff are too busy to take them to the toilet while they're on the ward, experts warn.

One reason, say specialists, is inappropriate use of urinary catheters – a tube inserted into the urinary tract which empties the contents of the bladder into a drainage bag. There are strict criteria for who should have one fitted, including those with existing urinary incontinence and patients unable to move due to having undergone a major operation or suffering spinal or pelvic injuries.

But research has revealed that on some wards the procedure has become almost standard practice.

And why? Because it makes the staff's job easier...

Is there an institution in the UK that isn't letting down the people it's there to help?

Sore Losers...

The MPTS panel suspended Professor Stebbing for nine months, so he was unable to care for his 150 patients. The GMC had wanted more — it had pressed for him to be struck off completely.

And since they didn't get him, they went after....his witnesses. 

And now the GMC has put Professor Sikora under threat of being struck off, too. He and another expert oncology witness who testified in Professor Stebbing’s defence have been served with notice from the GMC that they are now under investigation. The GMC will not tell them why.

‘Three months after the hearing had ended, I and the other defence expert received letters from the GMC saying our fitness to practise is under investigation,’ Professor Sikora told Good Health. ‘There’s been no hint of what we’d done wrong. They only sent 5,000 pages of transcript from Professor Stebbing’s disciplinary hearing.’

The GMC has a long and rather less than illustrious history but this seems Kafka-esque even for them! 

‘The GMC then wrote to all my employers telling them that I am under investigation,’ says Professor Sikora. ‘Of course they are all worried that I’ve done something wrong. How can giving tribunal evidence possibly affect my fitness to practise medicine?

‘This is witness intimidation and in a criminal court it would be illegal.’

Indeed it would. But medical professionals often seem to think the laws of the land don't matter to them, has anyone noticed? 

‘I think a person’s physical and mental welfare should be taken into account, as well as their lifestyle.’

It is, for some. But not for others:

Four years ago, Nick had eight weeks of counselling after telling his GP he had suicidal thoughts. ‘This really helped me mentally, but it hasn’t stopped me wanting the operation,’ he says. So far he has raised £856 to have the surgery privately. He believes that giving him the surgery would be more cost-effective for the NHS than the numerous appointments and procedures he has undergone.

You'd think they'd agree. But this isn't someone who wants to be another gender. It isn't even someone whose mental illness takes the form of believing his leg 'doesn't belong' to him. 

And doctors won't tolerate being wrong: 

In 2016, Hope Gordon raised £10,000 to have her leg amputated after ten years of suffering from complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a poorly understood condition that causes severe, long-lasting pain. She ended up in a wheelchair, taking strong painkillers and sleeping only two hours a night. She decided an amputation was the only option, but her doctors disagreed, saying they couldn’t guarantee the pain would go.

Hope had the surgery privately, and has since become a national-level swimmer, a Paralympian canoeist and a Nordic skier.

Can't have that happen again, clearly! 

"That Advice We Gave You About Obesity? Well..."

Britain is engulfed in a child obesity crisis, with one in four 10- and 11-year-olds officially obese.

Yeah, yeah, we know... 

However, research led by the University of Oxford suggests that slimming attempts among all children are now outpacing rising weight gain levels in their respective age groups.

Oh! 

Writing in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, the experts said there was a marked increase in weight-loss attempts among children from 2011-12 onwards. This coincided with parents being given feedback on their child’s weight as part of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP), which weighs and measures pupils when they are in reception and year 6.

Hurrah! Something works! Are you happy now, 'experts'..? 

They said they were concerned that the increase in weight-loss attempts “has not been matched by an increase in the provision of weight management services in England, creating a risk of unsupervised and potentially inappropriate weight-control behaviours.

*sighs* 

“Meanwhile, the rise in weight-loss attempts among children with a healthy weight raises concerns and suggests greater attention is needed to target weight control messages appropriately.”

Whatever the question of the day is, it seems the answer is always some version of 'gimmie more money/staff', have you noticed? 

Too Little, Too Late Again...

Health chiefs will cull up to 8,000 non-frontline NHS jobs as part of a clampdown on 'waste and wokery' in the health service.

NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard revealed plans to cut between 30 to 40 per cent of jobs at a trio of health bodies by 2024.

How long have the 'conservatives' been in power? Why are they only just getting around to this now..?  

The move will see between 6,000 and 8,000 of the 20,000 jobs at NHS Digital and Health Education England (HEE), which is in charge of training the workforce.

The two central bodies are being merged with NHS England in an effort to reduce duplicating roles and save up to £1billion over five years.

How is it possible that they were ever set up under the noses of successive Health Ministers in the first place? Did no-one have their eye on the ball? 

Previous efforts to slash bureaucracy and doubling up of roles in the NHS have cost the taxpayer billions in pay-offs only for the health service to rehire them.

This time, put the stake through the heart AND cut off the head and stuff the mouth with garlic, just to be sure... 

And If Anyone's Qualified To Speak On 'Dishonesty'...

Sir Chris Whitty claimed attempts by tobacco lobbyists to make any debate around smoking legislation about health vs freedom are 'dishonest'.

...it's surely him. As Longrider points out.

Under the final must-do plan, doctors should promote vaping to patients as an 'effective tool to help people to quit smoking tobacco'.

'We know vapes are not a "silver bullet" nor are they totally risk-free, but the alternative is far worse,' the review states.

That's if you can actually get to see a GP, of course! 

Cartoons and images on vaping products that appeal to children should be banned and flavours should be reviewed to ensure they don't appeal to young people, the report states.

What sort of flavours don't appeal to young people, then? Semolina? Broccoli? 

Mr Javid told Parliament that the Government 'will now consider its response' to Dr Khan's 'clear and challenging' recommendations. He said the Government is already investing in smoking prevention through a public health grant but 'will examine where we can go further'.

I know where you and your wretched nannying government can go, Sajid... 

I'd Recommend 'A Deep Dive' Too...

Speaking at the latest board meeting last month, Stephen Mayo, interim director of nursing for patient experience at Thurrock CCG, called for a “deep dive” into what caused the incidents.

He said: “There were 85 serious incidents across the acute during this period and one never event which related to an angiogram commenced on an incorrect leg.

“This brings the total of never events during this time period to five. Four of them are related to wrong site surgery and one to a medication incident within maternity.

“We have requested that there is a deep dive regarding these never events and reporting to our system quality group. They need to take as part of that reporting process the impact on patients and staff within their investigation and going forward.”

...but possibly, I'd mean something rather different. Something very different!

The Blame Game...

It's lack of resources!

We don’t have enough bodies on the ground. It’s not just midwives, though. We’re also short of obstetricians, maternity support workers and admin staff, too. That means that midwives end up getting stretched doing lots of things that could easily be done by someone else, like filling in paperwork so that a mother can go home with her baby. As a result their skills, especially to monitor women and babies, aren’t used.

It's the way those resources treat you!

After interminable hours, a doctor was called and then another. They attempted a ventouse delivery and I can remember the cup popping off the baby’s head and the doctor reeling backwards. Next the forceps were used and finally after hours of pain my son was delivered. He was big for a first baby and bore the scars of the forceps blades down both sides of his face.

At a checkup at 37 weeks, I was dismissed by my consultant when I enquired whether I might need a C-section this time. Due to the “natural birth” dogma I had ingested, it was something that I did not ask for loudly enough, too intimidated by this senior doctor who dismissed my fears and worries; telling me that a 4kg baby was not considered to be large.

I had a third baby. That baby was born in a different county after an initial meeting with the consultant at Shrewsbury where I was yet again belittled and my fears dismissed. I was once more refused a C-section. This time everything was different. My views and thoughts were listened to and I gave birth in a controlled and managed environment.

Who to believe..? 

One Down, How Many More Left?

“Your offending left a wholly-unqualified person in charge of an important role in the local NHS infrastructure. This offence is so serious that only an immediate custody is justified.”

What went wrong with the NHS hiring process this time? Well, it seems...everything! 

Chanelle Poku, 29, pretended she had a Master’s degree in molecular biology and experience leading a charity to land a senior job with NHS Croydon’s Clinical Commissioning Group.

She was put in charge of delivering programmes for urgent care patients in the borough, and when challenged over her failing performance she made a string of false accusations of bullying, assault and racism.

Poku, who even sent a bogus letter from a lawyer to the NHS to try to derail the investigation into her conduct, was found guilty by a jury of fraud by false representation.

I'm not entirely sure the rest of the NHS isn't guilty of that, frankly. Even those who genuinely do have the qualifications... 

The judge said it is “somewhat surprising” that she was still able to negotiate the interview process.

The judge clearly hasn't had a lot of experience of the 'service' the NHS supposedly provides, has he?