HAVING YOUR OPERATION ON FRIDAY IS DANGEROUS !

The British Medical Journal has discovered that patients who suffer operations in UK hospitals on a Friday have a greater chance of dying than those who have their procedures carried out earlier in the week. This conclusion is the result of research reported in the journal this week.

 

Well, poke me in the eye with a sharp stick !

 

The simple truth is, and has been ever since I first worked for the National 'Sick' Service in 1976, that many senior doctors like to take Fridays off; this might be when they see their private patients, or they might just nip off for a round of golf or a long weekend on the boat. The obvious consequence is that, whatever the hospital records might say, Mr Blogs the senior consultant didn't carry out or even supervise, Mrs Miggins' bunionectomy; it was the lad wot done it ! Mr Blogs was just the one who cut her leg off afterwards, when the gangrene had set in, but he was too late to save her.

 

The only surprise in this report is that people seem to be surprised by it. As a general rule, patients, both emergency and non-emergency, receive poorer care at weekends and over holiday periods than they do at other times; the senior and most experienced staff leave everything to their juniors, and this includes nurses and other so-called 'health professionals', as well as doctors. Those who have their operations at the end of the week will almost certainly also experience a poorer level of post-operative care than those who have their procedures carried out early in the week.

 

Doctors, supported by the most powerful trade union in the land, the British Medical Association, will often squeeze every last ounce out their contracts, refusing to work a minute beyond their hours without recompense; although nominally in charge of their departments, they do not have the open-ended contracts of senior managers, who are required to work whatever hours are necessary for the fulfilment of their roles. Doctors enjoy a vast range of additional payments and, while some truly are the wonderful people they're painted to be, many are not.

 

Until both government and people wake up to the awful truth about the NHS, nothing will change; that truth is that it isn't the 'envy of the world', in fact, it's the laughing stock and the sooner it's dismantled and rebuilt around a mixed 'part public, part private' model, the better. Only when the staff are in the direct pay of the patients will there be any real chance of improvement.