NHS 24- Ministers fail to deal with basics
NHS 24 is at breaking point and the executive is at war with dentists. Is the health service safe in the government’s hands as more patients die through misdiagnosis?
The distance from his sick bed to the phone was only a few yards but for Steven Wiseman it might as well have been a mile. Crippled with pain, here was only one thing for it: he would have to crawl.
Inch by inch, gasping for breath and sweating heavily, the 30-year-old dragged himself across the carpet.
Wiseman’s worried fiancée, Kerry Robertson, was desperate. “He couldn’t stand up, the pain was just so much,” she said later. “It was easier for him to crouch down to speak on the phone.” His breathing was heavy and he sounded close to tears.
Finally, Wiseman was able to describe his symptoms to the nurse working for NHS 24, the government’s health service helpline. The nurse assured Robertson her fiancé just had a bad dose of the flu. She should give him some paracetamol and let him sleep.
Last week a fatal accident inquiry into the failings of NHS 24 heard how Wiseman’s situation deteriorated rapidly. When a doctor finally arrived at the family home in Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire, Wiseman was gravely ill. As he was being prepared for the ambulance he asked his fiancée — the mother of his two children — for a kiss. Then he asked the same from his mother. Seconds later, he died, the victim of streptococcal toxic shock undiagnosed by the call centre staff.
The story of Wiseman’s death was not the only sign last week of a Scottish NHS struggling to meet the most basic needs of its patients. On Friday, talks broke down between the Scottish government and Scotland’s dentists on moves to provide NHS dental care to every communityacross the country — a service once taken for granted but which is now an increasingly rare commodity.
In the past two years, thousands of Scots have been told by their dentists that they will no longer be treated on the NHS.
In a familiar sight in communities across the country, people have had to queue outside surgeries for the privilege of becoming a private fee-paying patient. Those who miss out, or who move to a new area and find the practices all full up, find themselves with no dental care.
Douglas Murray, 56, has been without a dentist for more than six months and has been refused by two surgeries in Brechin who are not taking new patients. When a tooth broke last April, he decided his best option was DIY dentistry. “When my tooth broke I tried around Brechin but nothing was doing,” he says. “I’ve been getting by with a tube of superglue ever since.”
In recent years arguments about improving Scotland’s health have been dominated by hospital waiting times and waiting lists. Jack McConnell, the first minister, has come under sustained criticism for failing to introduce reforms that have seen improvements in hospitals in England.
Bad publicity about dentists and NHS 24 are a timely reminder to McConnell and his ministers that Scotland’s health service is about more than just hospital treatment. Equally important are more routine demands — the pain of a lost filling in a tooth, or parent’s worry about a sick child in the middle of the night.
McConnell knows these are the kind of health issues that strike a public nerve. These current difficulties are about the fundamentals of providing a basic health service. As a result, the first minister knows that failing to bring NHS 24 and dental care under control will come at a heavy political cost.
The timing could not be worse. Just around the corner is the harsh Scottish winter, when the NHS comes under the greatest pressure, especially from elderly patients and those who fall ill with flu.
So how did two key pillars of today’s NHS come to develop such worrying cracks? Can NHS 24 cope with the expected surge in the number of calls this winter? Can Scots be assured that the haemorrhaging of NHS dentists will stop, and they can be assured of treatment? Is Scotland’s NHS safe in McConnell’s hands?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1817953,00.html
The distance from his sick bed to the phone was only a few yards but for Steven Wiseman it might as well have been a mile. Crippled with pain, here was only one thing for it: he would have to crawl.
Inch by inch, gasping for breath and sweating heavily, the 30-year-old dragged himself across the carpet.
Wiseman’s worried fiancée, Kerry Robertson, was desperate. “He couldn’t stand up, the pain was just so much,” she said later. “It was easier for him to crouch down to speak on the phone.” His breathing was heavy and he sounded close to tears.
Finally, Wiseman was able to describe his symptoms to the nurse working for NHS 24, the government’s health service helpline. The nurse assured Robertson her fiancé just had a bad dose of the flu. She should give him some paracetamol and let him sleep.
Last week a fatal accident inquiry into the failings of NHS 24 heard how Wiseman’s situation deteriorated rapidly. When a doctor finally arrived at the family home in Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire, Wiseman was gravely ill. As he was being prepared for the ambulance he asked his fiancée — the mother of his two children — for a kiss. Then he asked the same from his mother. Seconds later, he died, the victim of streptococcal toxic shock undiagnosed by the call centre staff.
The story of Wiseman’s death was not the only sign last week of a Scottish NHS struggling to meet the most basic needs of its patients. On Friday, talks broke down between the Scottish government and Scotland’s dentists on moves to provide NHS dental care to every communityacross the country — a service once taken for granted but which is now an increasingly rare commodity.
In the past two years, thousands of Scots have been told by their dentists that they will no longer be treated on the NHS.
In a familiar sight in communities across the country, people have had to queue outside surgeries for the privilege of becoming a private fee-paying patient. Those who miss out, or who move to a new area and find the practices all full up, find themselves with no dental care.
Douglas Murray, 56, has been without a dentist for more than six months and has been refused by two surgeries in Brechin who are not taking new patients. When a tooth broke last April, he decided his best option was DIY dentistry. “When my tooth broke I tried around Brechin but nothing was doing,” he says. “I’ve been getting by with a tube of superglue ever since.”
In recent years arguments about improving Scotland’s health have been dominated by hospital waiting times and waiting lists. Jack McConnell, the first minister, has come under sustained criticism for failing to introduce reforms that have seen improvements in hospitals in England.
Bad publicity about dentists and NHS 24 are a timely reminder to McConnell and his ministers that Scotland’s health service is about more than just hospital treatment. Equally important are more routine demands — the pain of a lost filling in a tooth, or parent’s worry about a sick child in the middle of the night.
McConnell knows these are the kind of health issues that strike a public nerve. These current difficulties are about the fundamentals of providing a basic health service. As a result, the first minister knows that failing to bring NHS 24 and dental care under control will come at a heavy political cost.
The timing could not be worse. Just around the corner is the harsh Scottish winter, when the NHS comes under the greatest pressure, especially from elderly patients and those who fall ill with flu.
So how did two key pillars of today’s NHS come to develop such worrying cracks? Can NHS 24 cope with the expected surge in the number of calls this winter? Can Scots be assured that the haemorrhaging of NHS dentists will stop, and they can be assured of treatment? Is Scotland’s NHS safe in McConnell’s hands?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1817953,00.html
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