A normal day at the NHS

Those of us in the US who have been overwhelmed lately by overly excited health care stories in the media look fondly across the Pond. We are confident that we can find a much calmer discourse about these issues in the UK.  After all, a single payer system, well established, and held in fond regard by the populace can’t be very controversial.  Well maybe. Here’s a synopsis of one day’s news coverage about the NHS from The Times and The Daily Telegraph.  Make sure you read all the way to the last one.  My head is spinning.•A hospital trust whose staff were allegedly forced to alter waiting times of cancer patients has been put in “special measures” by Monitor, the health regulator.  An “improvement director” will be appointed by Monitor to ensure the [Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust] turns itself around. “The leadership of the trust will be reviewed as part of our scrutiny of the trust’s governance arrangements and, if necessary, further regulatory action will be taken.”•Hundreds of teenage girls have had genital cosmetic surgery on the NHS, prompting doctors to call for an end to state-funded “designer vaginas.” Internet pornography has driven a five-fold increase in female genital surgery in the past decade and more than 2,000 women a year now have the procedure on the NHS.  Ruptures are reported in up to a third of cases and NHS surgeons report seeing women with complications caused by surgery in...
Source: Running a hospital - Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs