One peculiarity of living in Worcester Park is that it's a bit of a no-mans-land as far as councils, secondary schools and hospitals are concerned. If councils are going to build something expensive they usually want to do it somewhere near the middle of the borough and not 400 yards from the council boundary, which is a painfully myopic viewpoint to hold. I gather that if you're unfortunate enough to require an ambulance round here you can pretty much choose whether to go to Kingston Hospital, Epsom Hospital or St Helier Hospital to be treated though after the news today you may want to review your options.
All of the newspapers and news sites are running the sad tale of Martin Ryan, a 43 year old man with Down's Syndrome and epilepsy who starved to death in Kingston Hospital after 26 days without food because of failures in the hospital processes back in 2005. He had suffered a stroke which left him unable to swallow and communicate and it was only 18 days into his stay that they realised he needed a feeding tube fitted, but by then he was too weak for the procedure and he died 8 days later.The Surrey Comet has recently run a story on the bid to privatise elective surgery at the hospital being reduced to one applicant, effectively killing it as a competetive process, but in the process has cost around £300,000 in management and legal fees.
I know that this all happened back in 2005 but perhaps you can relate your own more recent experiences at any of those hospitals, either positive or negative?
The Parkerilla
http://theparkerilla.blogspot.com/
Man with Down's syndrome dies after starving for 26 days in hospital
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/24/neglect-nhs-learning-disabilities
One firm left in Kingston Hospital's privatisation bid
http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/news/4160186.One_firm_left_in_Kingston_Hospital_s_privatisation_bid/
1 comment:
I have a mate who claims, seriously, that if he got knocked own outside St Helier he'd demand to be taken to Kingston.
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