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Friday, October 27, 2006

Not exactly Florence Nightingale


It seems that former Naas hospital nurse Noreen Mulholland has been found guilty on at least one charge relating to poisoning patients while working in Kildare in 2003.

As if it wasn't bad enough that people are dying while trying to gain admission to hospitals, then being infected with drug-resistant bugs and dying once they get a bed, do patients now need to worry about the staff killing them too?

This week alone, we've seen a surgeon taking out a patient's stomach by mistake, ten thousand people marching to complain about the continued downgrading of their local hospital, and a record number of complaints against doctors.

Years into the so-called reform of the Irish health service, when are we actually going to see a reversal in the slipping standards, never mind the long-promised improvements?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not in any sense being complacent about the faults of the health service, but it strikes me the first example you cite which has wended it's way through the courts is actually entirely atypical, and it's difficult to see how any system however good could prevent a malign individual from wreaking their personal havoc on patients if they saw fit. Indeed isn't it a good thing that this was actually noticed and brought to court?

mellobiafra said...

Jesus! Stomach removed accidentally and offered less than half a million euro. I know what I'd be doing to the consultant that b*llsed that one up and you can guarantee it'd involve hairy faces and spinal procedures with a baseball bat!

JC Skinner said...

It's great that the nurse ended up in court. My point is that there once was a time when you didn't have to queue for days on trollies, didn't get infected in hospital and weren't likely to be killed by the health staff.

mellobiafra said...

Yeah, but that was before tream-lining and efficiency enhancement by boards of bean-counters!

JC Skinner said...

It's been said before, although not by me or indeed Father Ted, but I think it's time to bring back the nuns.