Mop & Pail Medicine
Ah, the National Health Service. Putting patient care first, every time.
Except this one:
A nurse gave a bed-ridden patient a mop and bucket and told him to clean up his own urine, a hearing was told today.
The 73-year-old man told the Nursing and Midwifery Council he was ‘taken aback and shocked’ at Isabel Michaels’ request.
He said he at first he thought she was ‘having a laugh’ but when he saw the look on her face he realised she was serious.
The old dude, after surgery, asks for a bedpan. He buzzes and buzzes for a nurse. No one comes, and he pisses himself. That’s humiliating enough. But to be handed a mop and bucket to clean his own shame; that’s just public health care.
Much like me being at the Lakeshore General in Montreal on a frosty first of November by the open ambulance bay. I begged for a blanket, but was routinely ignored. Eventually, realizing the poor shmuck on the cot next to mine was dead, I got up and stole his blanket. Let’s face it - he wasn’t going to get any warmer.
ObamaCare isn’t socialized - yet. It’s instead a sop to the insurance companies. Regardless, levels of patient care will decrease, costs will be cut in care and cleaning, and people will be left to clean their own piss (or have their families do it, as I indicated here).
When I was walking the hall in labour, another patient’s water broke. The staff quickly brought a mop to her husband so he could clean it up. This was 13 years ago. Things have only gotten worse since then.
Comment by Barbara — April 9, 2010 @ 1:33 pm