Panorama: the shocking abuse of patients with autism and learning difficulties

Panorama: most people in the UK will have learned of and been horrified by the scandalous and criminal abuse of young patients in a British 'hospital' that purported to be a suitable residence for the care of these patients, some autistic, some with learning difficulties. In fact, it was for them effectively a locked prison in which they were physically and mentally abused by some of the 'carers'/gaolers, led by a bully who took pleasure in taunting and assaulting them. Most people in this country are aware of widespread, inhuman treatment of elderly patients in some hospitals and care homes, but the special extra horror that Panorama has revealed to us this week is this secret abuse of young, vulnerable patients.

But for Panorama's investigative journalist embedded in the hospital/prison and his video record of the assaults, the chilling probability is that those young victims would have spent the rest of their lives being tortured by warped 'carers' such as were seen in the programme last Monday. Because the shameful accompanying facts of the matter are that the abuse was repeatedly reported to the Care Quality Commission by a whistle-blower who had formerly worked at the hospital, but his evidence was ignored. - Ignored! - The poor victims have no voice themselves because tragically their complaints are routinely and automatically discounted as it is assumed that what they say cannot be relied on to be true.

Panorama has saved them from the continuance of great and unnecessary suffering: Panorama - not the managers of the hospital, not the CEO of the parent company, not - Perish the thought! - the indolent, unconcerned and negligent apology for a regulatory body, the Care Quality Commission! - And herein, in my opinion, is the most scary fact of all: that the highly-paid regulators were as useless to these tortured young people as a chocolate teapot...

Panorama: Spoilt Rotten - horrifying child health problems of obesity, bad teeth, drunkenness...

I was truly shocked at what I saw in this programme. You can watch the main points here or watch the whole programme on the i-Player: Spoilt Rotten

Poor little children having to have a general anaesthetic to have a lot of rotted teeth out! Poor little souls. Surely their mothers should/must have known that giving them lots of sweets and sugary stuff repeatedly would rot their teeth? That giving a sugary drink in a bottle to go to bed with is especially damaging? That children need to brush their teeth and go to bed with a clean mouth? - Couldn't/Didn't the mothers notice that their children's teeth were rotting? - Some of the teeth were eroded almost to the level of the gums!

Don't Health Visitors stress this sort of information to mothers? Dental decay like this should not be happening. As the programme stressed, this is an avoidable health problem. It's a great shame.

With regard to the obese children featured in the programme, the one most featured was Leon, a five year old lad who weighs over 10 stone! - Yet I heard not one mention of salt! - Not one! - The doctor advising Leon's mother stressed the need for the lad to exercise more, but it has been proved time and time again that exercise does not reduce or prevent child obesity. Exercise is a good thing but it does not reduce weight. How is it that doctors dealing with problems of child obesity are giving such unhelpful advice? When children become fat it is essentially because they are eating salty food. Parents should be told this.

Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.

See Children and Obesity

And see Sodium in foods

The programme reported shocking instances of children taken to A and E because they were drunk! And we saw a 13 year old boy who regularly drinks excessive quantities of vodka! Maybe it is time, in the interests of child health, to set limits on the ease with which alcoholic drinks can be bought, and to raise the price of them.

Other children who had been treated for glue ear were suffering unnecessarily because of their parents smoking. Apparently the smoke interferes with the working of the grommets that had been inserted into their ears to assist their hearing. One father gave up smoking and that would have benefited both his own and his son's health. Another father claimed not to believe that his smoking was damaging his child and he continued to smoke. His cigarettes were more important to him than his child's health.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Lose weight

vulnerable groups

FAT RETENTION

BBC Panorama's programme tonight about very poor quality care in some NHS hospitals and the misleading claims they had made about the quality of care

I watched BBC Panorama's programme tonight about very poor quality care in some NHS hospitals and the misleading claims they had made about the quality of that care. For many years I have myself experienced deplorable NHS care both as an in-patient and as an out-patient and indeed had my health wantonly and callously destroyed by the 'caring professions'. And I've had a lot of personal experience of their lies.

If you hold the view that the NHS is admirable and that we are fortunate to have it I very profoundly disagree with you. - You must be one of the lucky ones who has not yet been harmed by the NHS. You can view tonight's programme on the iPlayer here: Panorama: Trust Us We're an NHS Hospital.

Or you can read about it on this BBC News webpage. If you think that making a complaint remedies anything you are mistaken. Complaints are routinely ignored, and certainly not acted upon. They routinely add to the problems and suffering of the complainants. See Fighting the System.

I firmly believe the NHS does far more harm than good and that it should be scrapped.

Annabel Karmel's ready meals for toddlers are salty and sugary and therefore unsuitable for toddlers

BBC Panorama's What's Really in Our Kids' Food? programme this week revealed that Annabel Karmel's ready meals for toddlers are salty and sugary and that makes them unsuitable for toddlers. See What's Really in Our Kids' Food? on the iPlayer Salty food makes toddlers fat and sugar harms their teeth.

Toddlers' meals should not contain added salt. They need to be protected from salt. When children become fat it is essentially because they are eating salty food. Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.

Annabel Karmel sounded foolish to me. Her ready meals accustom the toddlers to salty, over-sweetened food - tastes that will damage their lifetime's health. Even as she considered removing sugar, she was talking about replacing it with sweet fruit juice, seemingly determined that children's food, even the savoury food, must be sweet! And she thinks unsalted food should not be provided for them because it tastes bland. - Mrs Karmel, 'bland' is good for children. They should not be encouraged to develop a taste for salty food.

Children and Obesity

Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Infection rates in British hospitals are ten times higher than those in other countries

British hospitals 'worst for superbugs'

Extracts from the Sunday Telegraph:

"Infection rates in British hospitals are 10 times higher than those in other countries, according to a damning report.

The report, from a panel of government advisers, warns of "a fifty-fold increase since 1990", with one in five cases of the killer bug Clostridium difficile now affecting patients below the age of 65.

A leading infection expert, Prof Richard James, director of the Centre for Healthcare Associated Infections, said the figures meant Britain's death rate from the bug was likely to dwarf those of other countries. The unpublished report, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, urges hospitals to improve hygiene, testing and isolation procedures to slow the spread of the infection, which was caught by more than 50,000 people last year."

"A television programme tonight warns that C. difficile infection is becoming increasingly resistant to treatment.

• 'Panorama: How Safe is Your Hospital?', BBC1 10.20pm, Sunday April 27th."

You can improve your resistance to infection by eating less salt/sodium and salty food.

Survey by EU found people believe radiation from mobile phones and their masts has damaged their health.

Two in three believe radiation from phones damaged their health - Independent on Sunday

Extract:

"Two-thirds of Britons believe radiation from mobile phones and their masts has affected their health, a startling official survey shows. And huge majorities are dissatisfied with government assurances about the potential threat.

The survey is the result of a giant European Union exercise that polled more than 27,000 people across the continent, 1,375 of them in Britain. It shows that concern about the radiation is far greater than even the most ardent campaigners had dared to believe, and that official attempts to downplay the issue have backfired.

It also goes some way to explain the overwhelming public response received by The Independent on Sunday since we started raising questions about the effect of the radiation on people and wildlife in April.

This month, two councils - Haringey in London and Carmarthenshire in Wales - will be considering whether to allow Wi-Fi in their schools, after concern expressed by Sir William Stewart, the chairman of the Health Protection Agency. Sir William told the BBC's Panorama, "I believe that there is a need for a review of the Wi-Fi and other areas ... I think it's timely for it to be done now.""


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free...(o:

Is there a crisis in Britain's maternity care?

The Big Question: Why is there a crisis in maternity care, and should parents be worried? - Independent

Extract:

"The Royal College of Midwives says the shortage of staff and facilities on labour wards has reached "crisis" point. The Royal College of Obstetricians has warned of a lack of skilled obstetricians and a looming recruitment crisis as the number of UK medical graduates choosing obstetrics has halved in a decade. On Wednesday, MPs demanded urgent action to address the problem in a Commons debate. A BBC Panorama programme broadcast this week, filmed undercover in two hospitals in north London and Manchester, claimed wards were buckling under the midwife shortage."

Have a healthier pregnancy by eating less salt. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/pregnant_mothers.html


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Elder abuse. - Failing British care homes are exploiting loophole - to be featured in a BBC Panorama documentary tonight.

Failing care homes are exploiting loophole

Extract:

"Failing care homes which have been ordered to shut down are able to defy the sector's watchdog by remaining in business following serious allegations of neglect.

In the wake of allegations of abuse, homes can exploit a loophole in the law, allowing them to continue to operate by entering a lengthy appeals process.

The latest concerns about standards of care for thousands of elderly residents come in advance of a BBC Panorama documentary which will broadcast allegations tonight of abuse and neglect at two homes in Yorkshire."

This is reminiscent of the tactics employed by medical negligence lawyers, who routinely delay the slow-grinding wheels of the Law in the hope of exhausting the stamina/strength and/or the funds of the patients, or the families of the patients, who have been harmed by the medical negligence. - These delaying tactics should not, of course, be allowed.