VARNDEAN-L Archives

Archiver > VARNDEAN > 2003-01 > 1043675339


From: Phil Allsopp <>
Subject: Re: Off to the races
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 07:48:59 -0600
In-Reply-To: <f1HYG8L3JDN+Ew4H@isbe.demon.co.uk>


It is indeed still going strong - more's the pity. Ted's piece on the birth
of his son was a hoot. I can just imagine the "safety patrol" officer in
nurses uniform running after Ted and assisting in the brief interlude with
Ted's son. Its the kind of tableau that one would want to capture on film.

I have to laugh out loud when I hear NHS pundits say how good the NHS is and
what they are really doing to improve quality and conditions. BGH still
exists - it is definitely up there among the crummiest hospitals in the
world. My mother spent 8 months in that place last year. She was in a ward
with 30 other elderly women with wide varieties of medical and surgical
conditions. The almost total absence of dignity accorded to the patients by
virtue of the slummy, overcrowded conditions (2ft space on either side of
each bed) and communal bathroom facilities is almost beyond description.
No air conditioning, no space for equipment or for nurses to keep their
charts straight and so on. According to one of the nurses, upgrade plans
for 2003-2004 will mean a new layer of paint - that's all.

I think the staff were doing the best they could and there didn't appear to
be any Obergruppenfuhrers jack booting their way around the place in nurses
uniforms.

Phil Allsopp
Dallas, TX

On 1/26/03 1:09 PM, "john hoskins" <> wrote:

> In message <>, Iris Gilman
> <> writes
> <snip>
>> Is Brighton General still open.I worked there as a volunteer when I was
>> at school.In 1991 my mother was a patient on the geriatric ward. .The
>> standard of care she received was deplorable and I was amazed at the
>> casual attitude of the nursing staff and houseman.We had words.
> I'm afraid it still is - although there is talk of it closing and pies
> going up into the sky. My mother was also a patient there in her final
> months and while she was not badly treated the lack of basic treatment
> was deplorable. For example, no patients were bathed, it seems, unless
> you pretty well held a pistol to the sister's head. Length of stay
> didn't matter, nor level of continence. Looking back - deplorable is a
> mild way of putting it. Trouble is, one always fears making things worse
> by complaining. As a lay relative you had no big stick.

This thread: