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Treating the sick is not like selling cars
• I AM appalled that the Chief Executive of the Royal
Free NHS Trust, Andrew Way, considers the provision of health
care as no different from buying and selling mobile phones or
kitchen renovations (Is it efficiency or just cuts? March 30).
Fortunately, the doctors and nurses in his hospital do no
share his view, and, against all the odds, continue to care
for their patients (who Mr Way probably calls ‘customers’!)
with humanity and compassion. How fortunate is Mr Way that the
superbug MRSA provides him with an excuse for discharging patients
quickly (often too quickly) and cutting staff numbers.
Perhaps this explains the inadequate efforts being made to reduce
MRSA levels!
To suggest that patients are better off being discharged early
because they are less likely to catch MRSA is like saying someone
is better off losing a leg because they only have to tie one
shoelace.
Only someone whose main concerns are meeting ‘targets’
and balancing profit and loss accounts could claim that there
is a difference between sacking someone and not filling a vacancy
– presumably because in the former case it may be necessary
to make a redundancy payment.
From the patients’ point of view there is no difference:
there are simply fewer doctors and nurses.
Some readers may know the story of the US car maker who, when
it was discovered that one of its cars was dangerous, decided
it was cheaper to pay compensation claims after fatal accidents
than to alter the design of the cars.
If hospital policy of early discharge and cuts in staffing levels
leads to more errors and more post-operative complications,
which choice will the RFH make? Will it change its policy or
simply pay out more compensation claims?
Let us hope that its decision will not be based on which choice
looks best on the bottom line of the balance sheet. Or, to put
it another way, on the belief that caring for the sick is just
the same as selling mobile phones, double glazing or second
hand cars.
Maurice Jay
Heath Close
NW1
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