The Hospital - on channel 4 at the moment!

Sugar_Coated_Owl

Loopy_Girl wrote:

Have to say that I thought the some of the nurse's comments were inappropriate (the one who done most of the talking bits and also saw her at work).

Who is she to judge why a 19 year old hasn't eaten and is on anti-depressants?

I work for the NHS and the one thing we are always told is not to judge - you can try to educate but the way people live their lives shouldn't be up for discussion.

Why should a smoker, for example, be tut tutted for having a chest infection anymore than a person who does extreme sports and comes in fairly regularly with broken/sprained bits? Still a lifestyle choice.

:T Well said. Exactly what I thought as well.

teaspoon1 wrote:

And what is a 19-year-old doing on anti depressants! Seriously

I've been on anti-depressants since I was about 19/20. You don't know what goes on in peoples lives to start questioning it.

I felt it was totally inappropriate for that nurse/Doctor to judge that girl because she was on anti-depressants and had not eaten. There were obviously reasons for this but a professional person should not act so judgementally. A Doctor/nurse is there to treat and help people.

vixarooni

i felt the same about that doctor too. It made me wonder why she was doing the job in the first place.

Loopy_Girl

teaspoon1 wrote: »

Loopy Girl - I actually thought she was voicing the thoughts of a lot of NHS staff... I know a few docs and nurses and they are so fed up and demoralised by the lunatic behaviour of some patients, esp those who have been drinking and/or fighting. It's about time someone spoke up about it. It's not right, it's not fair and it's depriving others of vital resources. Just think what could be done if hospitals didn't have to treat violent drunks every weekend. And what is a 19-year-old doing on anti depressants! Seriously.

But we can't stop drinking and fighting and drugs can we? So what is the answer? I don't know. But I do know that a nurse rolling her eyes and speaking the way she was speaking about a patient in front of a TV camera was wholly unacceptable and breaches the Patient Charter.


Btw...I'm not a nurse but I do work in educating children and adults in 'challenging' areas so know how easy it is to judge. The hard part is trying to make a difference and change generations of 'normality' or certainly what they perceive as normal. I speak to parents who are drunk, smacked out their head, speeding out their head - do I stand there and tut tut under me breath and think I am better (like that nurse did about the majority of the patients) than them? No, I am paid to do a job and if I don't like it then I know where the door is. These people know if I can't be bothered with them - much like I would know if I was a patient of that nurse.

And I don't know what a 19 year old was doing on them...maybe she had been abused her whole life, maybe she just lost a parent/baby, maybe she is coming off drugs....do you know what? It doesn't matter. That girl's GP has prescribed them and a nurse is challenging that decision?

Loopy_Girl

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Sub-classes? Is that not a judgement??

Not from me. From the nurse on the programme actually as that is what she called them.

VfM4meplse

Completely inappropriate and not something the NMC would approve of methinks.

funguy

I agree it is inappropriate to comment on the medication and eating habits of the patient....

However, the majority of comments made on the programme are likely to be representative of the way the majority of NHS staff feel about the repeated abuse of the system by the lifestyle excesses and stupidity of people! I fail to see why the general taxpayer has to consistently pick up the bill (from police, NHS and other social services) for people who go out and get completely drunk and then walk out in front of cars, fight in streets and damage their own bodies!?!....If they are on benefits and cant pay the bill then im afraid it might have to be taken from their benefits at source!....maybe that will teach them not to do the same next weekend and the one after that and the one after that!........

Sugar_Coated_Owl

funguy wrote: »

I agree it is inappropriate to comment on the medication and eating habits of the patient....

However, the majority of comments made on the programme are likely to be representative of the way the majority of NHS staff feel about the repeated abuse of the system by the lifestyle excesses and stupidity of people! I fail to see why the general taxpayer has to consistently pick up the bill (from police, NHS and other social services) for people who go out and get completely drunk and then walk out in front of cars, fight in streets and damage their own bodies!?!....If they are on benefits and cant pay the bill then im afraid it might have to be taken from their benefits at source!....maybe that will teach them not to do the same next weekend and the one after that and the one after that!........

What about the people that end up in hospital because of smoking, those that have developed diabetes because of obesity e.t.c should we bill them too? I know some people will say it's different, but is it really, it's still a lifestyle choice.

arunadasi

Drunkenness is not an illness and so so should not be treated at all; it's a deliberately induced state of mind, unlike cancer, diabetes etc; ie. drunkenness is in itself the desired goal, unlike the above illnesses. They should be sent to a recovery cell somewhere nasty, lie in their own vomit for a few hours, or cared for by ther own relatives.
Broken bones etc that come as a consequence of drinking, I suppose, would have to be treated.

VfM4meplse

I really believe Liam Donaldson has got it right here, if the population refuses to use alcohol responsibly then it should be priced out of the reach of the majority and seen as a luxury item. The alcohol industry could be transforming the country by shifting it's focus to address unmet health needs, there is still a good profit to be made here. Maybe then the NHS could truly turn it's attention and resources to the prevention of illness.

vixarooni

arunadasi wrote: »

Drunkenness is not an illness and so so should not be treated at all; it's a deliberately induced state of mind, unlike cancer, diabetes etc; ie. drunkenness is in itself the desired goal, unlike the above illnesses. They should be sent to a recovery cell somewhere nasty, lie in their own vomit for a few hours, or cared for by ther own relatives.
Broken bones etc that come as a consequence of drinking, I suppose, would have to be treated.

ok so what if i was a person who didnt turn to alcohol when times got bad and i turned to food instead? Over time i would become obese and probably bring on diabetes...maybe have a heart attack because of my clogged aterys... or maybe a stroke. The list is endless, most people who come in drunk are probably sent home or in extreme cases get their stomach pumped. Otherwise i suppose its treating the injuries caused by being drunk which you said was ok to treat. I don't think you can say drunkeness should not be treated because its not a disease. Unfortunatly it does cost us all money, but im sure the NHS does a fine job in chucking money down the drain without drunk people involved.