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Letters to the Editor
 
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


Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.
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