Coroner rules Emma Stones, aged 12, died in Tameside Hospital after 'inadequate' care

[ariadneoliver]

menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1585423_coroner-rules-emma-stones-aged-12-died-in-tameside-hospital-after-inadequate-care

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2184556/Disabled-girl-12-left-NHS-hospital-rigor-mortis-set-died-catalogue-failings-medical-staff.html

The first link has the basic news story, the second has some distressing details.

Horrific.

And some will still insist that we have the best health service in the world.

Horrific, poor girl :(

WetAugust, I suspect we probably do have the best or one of the best health services in the world.

For the majority of people the majority of time the NHS is wonderful.

Sadly it is not perfect and tragedies like this happen. But not one of the millions of satisfied and well cared for patients who pass through the NHS every year would be made into the subject of a sensationalist newspaper article like this. We focus on the isolated horror of a bad case and forget about the good so easily.

I really do take issue with your description of that news article as 'sensationalist'. It was merely reporting the wholly unacceptable negligence that led to this young girl's unnecessary death.

This is not an isolated case. Day after day we read of neglect, poorly performing staff, misdiagnoses and uncaring attitudes, as the compensation bill for poor practice mounts steadily.

There is something very rotten at the heart of the NHS when people die in hospital beds through dehydration and neglect.

We need hospitals where dangerously incompetent staff can be dismissed - rather than be suspended for a month and then free to nurse again.

We need a system where the public can vote with its feet and boycott hospitals such as this.

This will happen more and more as hospitals are forced to reduce staff numbers to save costs.

I agree with WetAugust. There are too many of these stories where basic care has gone badly wrong to make them 'isolated incidents'. Horrific deaths may make the newspapers but there are plenty of near-misses that we don't hear about. Each time we are told 'lessons have been learned' but then there is another frightening case of malpractice. Public healthcare is a great principle but there's no point treatment being free if patients don't get treated. I suspect it isn't cost-saving killing these patients but systemic negligence.

manicinsomniac

WetAugust, I suspect we probably do have the best or one of the best health services in the world.

For the money we pay it ought to be. £120Bn last year.

For the majority of people the majority of time the NHS is wonderful.

Or, at the very least, adequate.

Sadly it is not perfect and tragedies like this happen. But not one of the millions of satisfied and well cared for patients who pass through the NHS every year would be made into the subject of a sensationalist newspaper article like this. We focus on the isolated horror of a bad case and forget about the good so easily.

I suspect that most families in the country have a 'bad' story to tell about NHS care. Be it an elderly relative half-starved on a ward in a hospital, a doctor misdiagnosing an illness for years, problems giving birth caused by inexperience or poor training, or even cases of negligence or incompetence. I can't believe I'm the only person whose family has such stories.

You're not

NHS provides universal healthcare for £120 billion/year for a population of around 62 million, so annual cost of £1935 a head.

The US federal and state governments spend $909.3 billion/year on healthcare (I took the 2008 figures so before they started looking at socialised healthcare and muddying the waters) = £581 billion/year for a population of around 305 million (taking 2008 figures again so they match), so annual cost of £1905 a head and they don't even get universal healthcare for that.

Yes, the NHS is good value.

It doesn't mean that there aren't huge, systemic problems that do need to be tackled. But overall value for money is good.