Group claiming to speak for pain sufferers is funded by drug companies that make and profit from sale of painkillers

The American Pain Foundation, a group that claims to speak for pain sufferers, is funded by drug companies that make and profit from the sale of painkillers. They downplay the risks of these drugs and this is compounding the growing incidence of painkiller addiction. "Overdoses now kill nearly 15,000 people a year — more than heroin and cocaine combined. In some states, the painkiller death toll exceeds that of car crashes. The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared the overdoses from opioid drugs like OxyContin an “epidemic.” And a growing group of experts doubts that they work for long-term pain."
See this article in The Washington Post.

Thousands of deaths caused by clinical negligence in the NHS

The Telegraph reports on the latest statistics about thousands of deaths caused by clinical negligence in the NHS. "The figures cover some of Britain’s worst hospital scandals including up to 1,200 people dying because Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust put Whitehall targets and cost-cutting ahead of care."

Until death because of negligence by NHS staff is appropriately punished, after trial of the negligent individuals in a criminal court, clinical negligence will continue as a prominent feature of NHS 'care'. The present scandalous unaccountability of NHS healthcare professionals naturally does nothing to discourage negligence.

Prescription pain and anxiety drugs now cause more deaths in USA than traffic accidents

The Los Angeles Times reports: "Propelled by an increase in prescription narcotic overdoses, drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States, a Times analysis of government data has found. Drugs exceeded motor vehicle accidents as a cause of death in 2009, killing at least 37,485 people nationwide, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.""

A big part of the problem is that so many of these drugs are highly addictive. And of course when drugs are 'legal' drugs, and when it is legal to advertise them, people are more likely to think of them as 'safe'. But these powerful pharmaceutical drugs, which include OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma, are very clearly not safe. Pharmaceutical drugs have adverse effects/side-effects, one of which can be addiction, and another of which is premature death.

It is best to avoid prescription drugs as far as you can, and if you feel you must take them, then take them at the lowest effective dose and for the shortest necessary time. Always check out the possible side-effects and cautions and look out for these side-effects. Obesity and degenerative health conditions are often side-effects of prescription drugs: see HRT and other prescribed steroids and amitriptyline and other antidepressants.

A safe, drug-free way to reduce pain and anxiety is to optimise your nutrition and, as far as you reasonably can, cut down on salt and salty food. You will feel so much better. - Dieting is a frequent cause of ill-health, pain and depression, so avoid dieting. If you are overweight, lose excess weight the safe, easy way, without drugs or dieting.

Overprescribing of powerful painkillers soars in UK, leading to addiction and to death by overdose

The Independent has a report on massive overprescribing of powerful painkillers by UK GPs, leading to addiction and to death by overdose among their unfortunate patients. It is, or ought to be, well-known by doctors that chronic pain is often unresponsive to painkillers. When patients return for more and more pills in order to take a higher dose it should be obvious that the pills are not working and should be gradually discontinued. - A safe, non-drug way to reduce chronic pain is to lower sodium intake, i.e. eat less salt and salty food.

NICE issues draft guidance that broken hips should be operated on on the day of admission or the day after

NICE has issued draft guidance that broken hips should be operated on on the day of admission or the day after, as reported by the Telegraph, in order to reduce complications. The report states that "in some hospitals around half of patients wait longer than 48-hours for surgery even though evidence shows it doubles the risk of major complications and death."

Surely this is a no-brainer! If delay "doubles the risk of major complications and death," what on earth are surgeons thinking of? - How can they routinely be doubling the risk of their hip fracture patients (who are mainly elderly, and many of whom are frail and ill) suffering major complications and death? This is disgraceful. Is it an example of covert age discrimination?

The longer the delay, the more pain the patients will suffer, the more physiotherapy and other rehabilitation they will need, the longer stay in hospital, the more support/care at home. - All avoidable extra suffering, all avoidable extra expense.

I've never had a hip fracture, thankfully, but I've had a very complicated fracture of the humerus, which needed an operation. If I had had the operation within a few days, as I was promised on admission to the Northern General Hospital, I would have been back at home again within a week, I am sure, little the worse from the fracture. But because my agonising pain from the splint was discounted and it was almost a fortnight before the arm was operated on, there was massive damage to my right hand - mainly radial nerve palsy and ulna nerve injury - and my stay in hospital lasted a month instead of the few days it would have been with prompt treatment. My (dominant) right hand was completely unusable and intensely painful for months. No one in the system ever apologised or even expressed regret.

I needed many months of physiotherapy and occupational therapy before I could move the hand at all. - It takes you a few seconds to read that sentence. - Just think of having to cope with that yourself: months with a swollen hand, totally unusable and exquisitely tender to the slightest touch. And I have had to have carers to help me since then, though I previously had managed without. Are these inexcusable delays attributable to callousness, ignorance, incompetence or what? - They are certainly unnecessary and they benefit no-one.

Today is Global Handwashing Day. Clean Hands Save Lives.

Today is Global Handwashing Day. It's not rocket science. Dirty hands can spread infections and bring suffering, or even death, to others.

It's particularly important for health professionals to be scrupulous about hand hygiene. There is a long tradition of doctors harming their patients because of not washing their hands, e.g. many years ago many poor women died in childbirth because of doctors not washing their hands prior to examining patients and the women caught puerperal fever, which killed them. - See http://www.jameslindlibrary.org/trial_records/19th_Century/semmelweis/semmelweis_commentary.html

And as recently as 2006 the Telegraph reported that thousands of hospital staff fail to wash hands correctly. In my opinion, this is medical negligence. "Health staff carrying out wound care, such as changing bandages, failed to follow hand-washing guidelines on 86 per cent of occasions, while a quarter of staff did not wash their hands after contact with human waste.

The failure of staff to follow hand-washing guidelines is hampering the multi-million pound fight to combat MRSA, which is blamed for the deaths of as many as 5,000 patients each year."

UK Faculty of Public Health wants ban on trans-fats in UK food

UK Faculty of Public Health wants ban on trans-fats in UK food. So do I! Read BBC News article, where you will see that "an editorial in the British Medical Journal said 7,000 deaths a year could be prevented by a 1% reduction in consumption" of trans-fats.

Trans-fats - solid fats found in margarines, biscuits, pastries, cakes and fast food - have no nutritional value and are banned in some countries. You'd think that the Food Standards Agency would be in favour of banning trans-fats, wouldn't you? But you'd be wrong.

Trans-fats are used to extend shelf life of products and so are useful to the food industry, and the FSA pays far too much heed to the voice of the food industry, and so is unconcerned about those thousands of deaths that could be prevented and the even greater numbers of people suffering avoidable ill-health for want of a ban on trans-fats in food.

Do yourself and your family's health a big favour by avoiding fast food and using butter rather than margarine.

Morphine injections caused death of two patients: doctor found not guilty of murder

See Telegraph report. The coroner commented "that some recommendations to protect people after the case of Harold Shipman, the GP who killed more than 200 patients, had not been implemented."

Personally, I insist on no morphine - ever.

Don't damage your health with prescription medicines

The Independent reports on increasing problems of addiction to prescription medicines and illustrates the article with examples of celebrity deaths caused by these drugs.

Prominent among harmful prescribed drugs are tranquillisers, anti-depressants, pain-killers and steroids. If you value your health you should avoid taking these potentially harmful pharmaceuticals (some of which are obtainable without prescription) unless they are absolutely necessary, because the adverse side-effects of the drugs, including possible addiction, are frequently far worse than the health problem for which they are being taken. - ALWAYS check out the possible side-effects and bear in mind that drug companies have a track record of not disclosing unfavourable information about their products if they can get away with it.

You can read about some of the many dangerous prescription drugs on these pages:

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

UK Patient died of dehydration after being refused water

The Telegraph reports that 22 year old hospital patient, Kane Gorny's "requests for water were refused and nurses called in security guards to restrain him when he became angry."

I do hope that this horrifying neglect will not become just another instance of appalling hospital negligence in which no-one is found responsible and no-one is punished for what should surely be regarded as corporate manslaughter.

Obesity-related deaths on the increase

BBC News reports "a "dramatic rise" in deaths in England in which obesity was a contributory factor".

About a quarter of adults in the UK are now obese and the incidence is growing. Since advice about obesity is so prevalent and so spectacularly unsuccessful in achieving improvement in the situation, it should be blindingly obvious that the advice being given is WRONG. - Millions of people are not deliberately going against expert advice and are not deliberately making themselves fatter and more uncomfortable and ill in consequence. The experts must stop giving the wrong advice. Their misinformation is damaging the lives, health and happiness of millions of innocent people, most poignantly, children.

Obesity is NOT caused by eating too many calories/too much fat and/or taking too little exercise. – No matter how many doctors and other ‘experts’ claim that it is, and that it can be reduced by eating fewer calories and taking more exercise, they are wrong and it is still NOT true.

Obesity is caused by fluid retention in people who are sensitive to salt. – It is as simple, and as profoundly complex, as that.

Now – what really causes the fluid retention/salt sensitivity/obesity? – Here are the main causes:

1. Prescription drugs such as tricyclic antidepressants like amitriptyline.

Weight gain is also widely reported by people taking SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors). As with the tricyclic antidepressants, the weight gain is because of sodium retention and fluid/water retention, and can be avoided/reduced by avoiding eating salt and salty food.

2. Other prescription drugs such as steroids including prednisolone, prednisone, cortisone, hydrocortisone, HRT and other medications containing oestrogen – like some birth control medication (contraceptives) – some anti-psychotic drugs, including Zyprexa (aka olanzapine) and other psychotropic drugs, and some anti-epileptic/anticonvulsant drugs, notably valproate (trade name Epilim).

If you have been inappropriately prescribed or over-dosed with corticosteroids or HRT or the any of the many other drugs that cause weight gain, then you may well have developed drug-induced Cushing’s Syndrome, a very serious illness, frequently far more serious than the health problem for which the drugs were prescribed. It is, to the best of my knowledge, an entirely preventable illness if doctors conform to the protocols for prescribing these drugs and if they monitor patients’ progress on the drugs, and if they warn patients about salt. It is VITALLY important that it be realised that weight gain resulting from these drugs is from sodium and water retention, so patients taking these drugs should be warned not to eat salt, or foods containing salt, while taking the medication. They should also be informed that any weight gained in this way can easily and swiftly be reduced by eating less salt/sodium, and they should be warned not to try to lose weight by eating less food or restricting calories because this will not help them to lose weight and is harmful.

If you gain weight suddenly and unexpectedly when you start to take prescribed medication, it is highly likely that the weight gain is caused by the drug. You may like to consider whether you really need to take that drug, or whether the dose could be lowered. At any rate if you continue with the drug, try to reduce your salt intake in order to reduce the weight gain. Doctors seldom, if ever, warn about the drugs that cause salt sensitivity and the need very strictly to avoid salt and salty food while on the drugs, and many do not observe the drug protocols and very few properly monitor the patient’s progress on the drugs. Obviously if doctors did do all these things, there would be no steroid victims, no patients with drug-induced obesity, etc. whereas there are many millions of them worldwide, victims of medical negligence and ignorance.

3. If, as a baby or small child, you ate salt and salty food, you were highly likely to have developed sensitivity to salt and you therefore became fat or overweight.

4. Pregnancy can cause fluid retention/salt sensitivity because of hormonal changes during pregnancy. It is important to avoid salt and salty food during pregnancy.

These are the main causes of obesity. Dieting/calorie counting makes obesity worse and should be avoided.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, boost your lung function and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

Sodium in foods

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

I can be contacted from my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Shocking series of avoidable errors led to death of four months old baby, Abbie Jones

See Daily Mail report.

GP receptionist made out a prescription for the baby, but disregarded the warning given by the computer that the dose was too high, and then presented it to the doctor as though it was a repeat prescription, which it wasn't. The doctor signed the prescription without noticing the error. The pharmacist dispensed it without checking that his technician had spoken to the doctor about the dose. And the innocent mother therefore administered ten times the correct amount of the powerful diuretic Furosemide to her poorly baby. At every stage of this catalogue of avoidable, careless errors, there were procedures/protocols in place to prevent just such mistakes, but they were ignored/disregarded - even overridden(!) by the receptionist - and a baby died.

I believe these mistakes happen because any punishments that ensue to the professionals who make the mistakes are too light. If they knew that making a serious mistake would bring them a serious punishment they would take far more care to avoid making the mistakes and far more care to follow recommended procedures.

Reckless over-prescribing of anti-psychotic drugs (so-called chemical cosh) to care home residents continues.

The Telegraph again carries a report on the reckless overprescribing of anti-psychotic drugs (so-called chemical cosh) to care home residents.

That many of the residents suffer from dementia is no excuse for dosing them with these harmful drugs, because anti-psychotics are rarely appropriate for dementia. The article says that, "Only around 36,000 of the 180,000 people on the drugs in the UK derive any benefit from them," and that "Over-prescribing of the drugs is linked to an extra 1,800 deaths a year among elderly people."

The matter was being reported and discussed on the radio today and I heard a medic blaming the care homes for this scandalous practice, and a care home spokesperson blaming the GPs. - Well there's a great deal of blame to share out! - While it's clearly the prescribers who are mainly to blame, there is equally clearly no proper regulation of this dangerous prescribing. - and here surely blame lies with the government for giving doctors a pretty free hand (misnamed 'clinical judgment!) in their reckless prescribing habits. Blame also lies with the Department of Health and the NHS. And a whole heap of blame lies with the drug companies, who are the main beneficiaries of this wicked, cruel perversion of health care.

It isn't as if they don't know about the harm done. - To quote further from the article:

"Paul Burstow, a Liberal Democrat MP who has led a 10-year campaign highlighting the risks of over and inappropriate prescribing, said: "This review comes much too late for thousands of elderly people whose lives have been cut short by the reckless prescribing of anti-psychotic drugs.

"The evidence that anti-psychotic drugs do more harm than good has been mounting for years. There is next to no benefit for the older person and prolonged prescribing can lead to premature death.

"The Government has sat on this review for long enough. What is needed now is leadership and a relentless drive to end abusive prescribing.""

It is my considered opinion that many of these avoidable deaths should be regarded as manslaughter, and that the harm done to health not resulting in death should be regarded as actual or as grievous bodily harm, i.e. crimes have been committed.

Sort out the blame. Get the offenders tried in court. Some of them surely would warrant custodial sentences. Most should never be allowed near a prescription pad or a patient again.

A few doctors and drug company executives in prison would ensure a rapid reduction in this terrible cruelty inflicted on vulnerable people by the medical profession who often claim that they 'first do no harm'.

FSA wants salt levels to be further reduced

The Telegraph reports that the Food Standard Agency is urging the Food Industry to cut salt levels further in order to save avoidable deaths.

In my opinion, both the Food Standards Agency and the Food Industry need to pull their little socks up and get real about this vitally important public health measure. - Salt reduction in bread and other processed foods is going at the speed of a slug on tranquillisers...)o:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Airline-style checklist is to be introduced in NHS operating theatres after a worldwide study shows it cuts deaths and complications after surgery.

Airline-style checklist to be introduced in NHS operating theatres
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The checklist, drawn up by experts at the World Health Organisation, involves stopping all work at three points in an operation, where the staff present confirm they have the right patient, equipment is working, they are about to do the correct surgery, and all needles and swabs are counted before and after to ensure none have been left in the wound.

Eight hospitals around the world recorded surgical complications and deaths before implementing the checklist and afterwards with a total of 7,688 patients involved.

The results, published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, showed that major complications reduced from 11 per cent to seven per cent – a reduction of one third – and deaths dropped from 1.5 per cent to 0.8 per cent – a 40 per cent reduction.

St Mary's Hospital in London, where Health Minister Professor Lord Darzi still works as a surgeon, took part in the study between October 2007 and September 2008.

During the time the hospital was piloting the checklist surgeons removed the gall bladder of the wrong patient, which is exactly the kind of mistake the checklist is designed to stop. The error was made in an operating theatre that was not involved in the study.

A spokesman for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust which runs the hospital, said: "The international pilot was undertaken in a limited number of operating theatres, which did not include the one in which the incident took place. Ensuring effective trust-wide implementation of the checklist is a key part of our response to the incident."

Lord Darzi said: "The beauty of the surgical safety checklist is its simplicity and – as a practising surgeon – I would urge surgical teams across the country to use it. "Operating theatres are high-risk environments. By using the checklist for every operation we are improving team communication, saving lives and helping ensure the highest standard of care for our patients. The amazing results from the global pilot puts this beyond any doubt."

The National Patient Safety Agency alerted all NHS trusts to the checklist and will require all relevant organisations to implement a modified version of it by February 2010."

Reducing avoidable deaths and complications would certainly be welcome. - Bearing in mind my own recent experience, I'd recommend also ensuring that bandages are not put on too tightly on patients with thin, delicate skin and weak veins, and are changed for dressings as soon as possible, to avoid unnecessary bruising, swelling, pain and further skin-thinning.

The number of hospital patients killed by mistakes has risen by 60 per cent in two years, official figures show.

Deaths caused by hospital mistakes 'up 60 per cent in two years'
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"NHS records show that 3,645 people died as a result of "patient safety incidents" - including botched operations and the outbreak of infections - between April 2007 and March 2008. The figure was 1,370 higher than two years earlier.

Patient groups have warned that the true toll is likely to be higher because some hospitals do not record all incidents."

Let's have a guess what, if anything, was done about these avoidable deaths...

Anyone sacked? - Anyone sent to prison for manslaughter? - Anyone at all?

Over 500 Deaths Per Year Associated with Children's Cough and Cold Medicine

Research published in the American Academy of Pediatrics official journal, "Pediatrics," reveals that there is an estimated 500 pediatric deaths a year associated with children's cold and cough medicine. "Up until this new research, officials assumed that there were only 3 or 4 deaths a year from these medications" says Dr. Jeffery L. Chamberlain, the family doctor and co-founder of Honey Don't Cough, who performed the mathematical extrapolation. "Deaths have been drastically underreported because when a child gets sick and dies, doctors assume that the death was solely related to the illness itself. Typically, no one thinks to check for toxic medications that could have contributed to the death."
Read press release at mmdnewswire.com

Three patients have died after being given large doses of a commonly used sedative, a health watchdog has warned.

Three patients died 'after being given too high a dose of sedative'
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) said that almost 500 patients in total have received the wrong dose of the drug, called midazolam, over the past four years.

Midazolam is used to sedate patients before minor procedures, including setting broken wrists and dentistry.

The medication hit the headlines in 2000 when a male nurse was convicted of killing a colleague after drugging her with midazolam.

As well as the three deaths another 48 patients had been "moderately" harmed by receiving large doses of the drug in the past four years, the NPSA said.

The watchdog, part of the NHS, also warned that health professionals were frequently relying on a reversing agent to bring people around after they had been over-sedated.

The drug works by slowing down both the heart and lung rate, and can cause a heart attack or lung problems if given in very high doses.

The NPSA said that it had received 498 reports of patients being given the wrong dose of midazolam between November 2004 and November 2008.

It warned that patients were being given whole containers, or ampoules, of the drug instead of just a small amount.

"The presentation of high strength midazolam as a 5mg/ml (2ml and 10ml ampoules) or 2mg/ml (5ml ampoule) exceeds the dose required for most patients," the watchdog warned in a statement.

"There is a risk that the entire contents of high strength ampoules are administered to the patient when only a fraction of this dose is required.

"There is frequent reliance on injectable flumazenil (antagonist/reversing agent) for reversal of sedation in patients that have been over-sedated."

The NPSA called for high-strength midazolam to be removed from many parts of hospitals."

An article today in the Telegraph says that nine out of ten preventable deaths in the NHS are not reported

Nine out of ten preventable deaths in the NHS are not reported
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Of the estimated 72,000 annual deaths in the NHS, just 3,200 are recorded by the National Patient Safety Agency, MPs were told.

The Commons Health Select Committee heard evidence from experts in its first evidence session on its investigation into patient safety.

The NPSA runs a system where all NHS staff can report incidents or near misses so patterns can be spotted and the wider health community warned.

Incidents can include drugs administered in the wrong way or the wrong dose, medicines mixed up, the wrong operation carried out, a patient wrongly identified and broken or malfunctioning equipment.

Howard Stoate, a practising GP and Labour MP for Dartford, said the National Patient Safety Agency's own estimates suggest there are 72,000 preventable deaths in the NHS each year.

However, the incident recording database had collected just 3,200 reports of patient deaths, in 2007/8.

He said: "That is not just under-reporting, that is an extra-ordinary figure.

"If the public realised that only between five and ten per cent of preventable deaths are being reported they would have something to say about that.

"For example if only ten per cent of airline crashes were reported we'd have some concerns about that."

NPSA chief executive Martin Fletcher replied that while there were 'issues' around under-reporting, reporting rates were continually improving.

Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the NHS, said no-one was 'comfortable' with under-reporting but he said people could not be 'forced' to report incidents.

He said it was the staff member's personal, moral and professional duty to report incidents.

In 2004 the NPSA produced a report that said one in ten patients admitted to hospitals will suffer a patient safety incident - almost one million people in 2002/3 - and up to half of these could have been prevented. It added that 72,000 of these incidents may have contributed to the death of the patient."

It's clear that there's not a lot of "personal, moral and professional duty" among the staff then, isn't it, despite the much vaunted medical ethics that health professionals are always prating about? - I note that the categories of 'incidents' listed above do not include completely disregarding the pain and other serious symptoms some patients report and therefore failing to investigate and do anything about them beyond trying to bully them into taking pain-killers. - This was my situation last year in hospital with a very complicated and painful fracture of my right humerus, immeasurably worsened by the splint I was forced to wear for nearly a fortnight, because the agony I reported and the pins and needles (indication 0f nerve damage) and the massive blue swelling (lymphoedema) of my hand unrelieved by elevation of the hand were ignored, apart from the bullying I have already mentioned.

I had explained to every doctor and every nurse that I was a steroid victim and that my hands were already delicate and painful and that the splint was causing terrible pain because of pressure on the arm and on my right breast. - Steroid victims need to be dealt with quickly because their skin and veins are so vulnerable to further damage... - There was a shocking lack of knowledge about the health problems of steroid victims and although some of the staff were very kind there was a deplorable ignorance and lack of understanding/compassion in others, and a total and lamentable failure to take seriously my need for unsalted food, since salt is extremely harmful to steroid victims, compounding their pain/symptoms.

Even after the operation and my return home, having to have carers to help me because of the damage done to my hand (it was completely unusable for months) by the hospital's negligence re the long delay in removing the splint and doing the operation, my pain and the pins and needles continued to be uninvestigated for nearly a year. When someone did look to see what was the cause of the pain he instantly realised that it was caused by ulna nerve damage and that the hand is wasting away and is on the way to becoming a hook, and the movement that I got back by such long, arduous effort, is being reduced again by this ulna nerve damage.

Well all this not bothering to take seriously the symptoms I reported has cost the NHS a lot as I was much longer in hospital - a month, rather than the few days it should have been - and the many hours of appointments with physiotherapists and occupational therapists, the transport costs et al. It has all taken a terrible toll on me in great and avoidable suffering. - And no-one ever says sorry or expresses regret or remorse and no-one really makes any effort to help with all the problems and difficulties caused to me. Making any complaint is futile because of routine defensiveness of health professionals and their cover-up culture and is highly likely to result in victimisation.

The NHS should be scrapped. It is extremely expensive and is wholly unfit for purpose.

More than 350 errors in surgery are reported every day in England

Report finds 350 surgery errors every day
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"More than 350 errors in surgery are reported every day in England, often because doctors operate on the wrong part of the body, and with sometimes fatal results, a report by Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, has found."