Wednesday 13 May 2020

Harsh, But Not Unfair...


I was reminded of this when the news was running another 'NHS hero down!' story, and it was obvious that, shall we say, the risk factors were high.
Her heartbroken best friend, Sarah Bredin-Kemp, revealed her sorrow in a touching Facebook post about the medic, who most recently worked as a 111 operator, 'She was a high maintenance, foot-in-mouth oversharer with a love of cheesy music, crappy tv and an inexplicable hatred of small animals.'
Doesn't look like her foot was in her mouth as often as small (grilled) animals!

But seriously, why does a service ostensibly dedicated to health appear to have an overabundance of staff who are, to put it bluntly, porkers?

H/T: PNN via Gab

11 comments:

MTG said...

A 'service' sharing much in common
with plod. Trashed by useless management and a ruinous, corrupt Union; staffed by wasters, fatties, massive egos and Shipman characters. And like plod, just another black hole for resources. So what could go right?

Sobers said...

" why does a service ostensibly dedicated to health appear to have an overabundance of staff who are, to put it bluntly, porkers"

Simple - its another negative consequence of the socialist nature of the NHS - if you are a motivated, self reliant, get the job done type of person (of the type likely to look after your own health) you will soon have that knocked out of you by the utter shambles that is the NHS, and you either leave or become the same as all the others who work there. The NHS structure self selects employees who are lazy, slovenly, lacking in self control or sense of personal responsibility. Just as bad money drives out good, bad employees drive out the good, if the bad are are never disciplined or made to keep up to the mark. The good either get fed up and leave, or slide down to the behaviour of lowest common denominators.

Anonymous said...

It might be an idea to remember whatever their personal health is like many still turned up at considerable risk to nurse others who were sick. Some paid for this devotion to duty with their lives. I for one am grateful we have such people in the NHS and wonder how many would be so critical if their own life depended on the presence and care such people often give.

Sobers said...

"It might be an idea to remember whatever their personal health is like many still turned up at considerable risk to nurse others who were sick."

Thats just not true. No ICU staff in the NHS have died of CV-19, despite them being in direct contact with multiple infected patients. Of the NHS staff who have died, the numbers suggest that they are no more at risk than the general public. In fact the analysis that has been done shows that front line NHS staff are marginally less likely to get infected than the backroom staff, thus suggesting that NHS staff are slightly more likely to contract CV-19 outside of a hospital than in it.

https://www.hsj.co.uk/exclusive-deaths-of-nhs-staff-from-covid-19-analysed/7027471.article

Andrew Carey said...

@Anonymous: you are clearly not a fan of people in the not-NHS systems of universal healthcare. It would be ironic if you were a Remain voter. I too wonder how many would be critical if their life depended on the presence and care people in the world's not-NHS systems often give.

Northish said...

Weight gain can be stress related. Put yourselves in their shoes. For most of their working day, they have to deal with self-obsessed hypochondriac chavscum who are just looking for an excuse to sue the people that are treating them for free. I would be driven to eat comfort food because the law wouldn't allow me to send them on their way with something strong from the pharmacy.

Doonhamer said...

After a lifetime successfully avoiding hospitals, except for ferrying others there, I had to use their facilities last year as a recurring outpatient. Sitting in a specialist department waiting area it became obvious that there are two types of staff.
The trim ones who beaver away doing the real work and the more rotund doing make-work. The system seems to encourage / tolerate this.
Instead of the consultant being allowed to call his own patients in there is a gatekeeper who walks all of 15 yards to the local reception and notes, on a bit of paper, who is due to see the consultant. Then the gatekeeper sits down, chats to other staff, goes back to reception just in case. When the consultant is ready to see his next patient somehow or other the gatekeeper learns of this and calls the next patient by name to enter the hallowed room.
The secret seems to be to always carry a bit of paper, or push something, and not to stay in one place for long. A long time ago I saw and used this method of skiving in big industry.
It's as if technology had stopped before the invention of the pneumatic tube method of delivering bits of paper. A small army passes the time strolling about delivering bits of paper.
The high ambient temperature must me a factor in this. Once a person exceeds a certain BMI it becomes harder not to slow down. More a beached seal than a hungry wolf.
This will not improve.
Plus as always, Parkinson's Law applies in an organisation with infinite resources.
Have you seen those hospital documentaries about how the NHS is struggling with limited "funding". Committee meeting of dozens of all departments, from The Head Honcho, (plus minions), Big Chief Accountant plus Minions, through all levels of all medical departments (plus minions) down to basic services (after all the Ones-In-Charge-Of cleaning and porters have to make known their lack of resources.) And all to decide which "customer" is allowed to have a life changing operation.
Given the high salaries, the time of pre-meeting-prep, the meeting, and post-meeting de-brief and cogitation, this must cost many thousand.
As they bleat about lack of "funding" and resources, going forward of course, their lack of self awareness boggles the brain.
End of rant.

Ed P said...

The last time I ventured into a disease centre ( for a consultant's appointment) there were five of these overweight admin people behind a large desk. None had anything to do except chat.
When I was called in by the consultant's assistant/nurse, the "fatuous five" had nought to do except add one tick to a piece of paper, despite all sitting behind PC screens on which the same details were visible.
I will not clap for these parasites, who already use up at least 75% of NHS staff wages and are absorbing nearly all the extra money thrown at this unfit bureaucracy.

JuliaM said...

"A 'service' sharing much in common with plod. "

Except for the clap.

"...its another negative consequence of the socialist nature of the NHS..."

I suspect there's a lot of truth in that!

"...many still turned up at considerable risk to nurse others who were sick..."

You mean, 'did their job'? Well, so what? So did hundreds of thousands of others. As Sobers points out, at potentially even greater risk, too.

"Weight gain can be stress related."

It can be, yes. But I fail to see how much stress would be needed to cause that amount of it!

JuliaM said...

"Sitting in a specialist department waiting area it became obvious that there are two types of staff."

And the type we don't want to encourage are paid the same...

"...there were five of these overweight admin people behind a large desk. None had anything to do except chat."

Oh, tell me about it. And they usually finish chatting before they condescend to look up to answer your query!

Andrew Carey said...

A recent case in point
https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/health/coronavirus/covid-nearly-took-me-please-be-careful-recovering-hartlepool-paramedic-tells-traumatic-personal-battle-virus-2872498
"I’m a strong fit fella", he said. I nearly spat out my cider through my nose laughing. Sorry mate, I'm glad you're back at home, but you ain't the type of fit that pedals to the bargain store.