Occasionally the vermin are caught in the headlights!

And here's a prime specimen, a perfect example of one of those squirrelly types of vermin responsible for all sorts of mayhem but who are rarely if ever seen in daylight:

 

I give you - Sir David Nicholson!  He is a 'They', as in, 'They did this', or 'They failed to do that' or 'They are a pain in the arse', in other words, he is your archetypal Jobsworth, a Pecksniff, a pen-pusher, a pox-doctor's clerk . . . he is one of that great multitude of faceless, anonymous bureaucrats who cock-up almost everything they touch.  Only their innate idleness stops them from totally wrecking the country.

Normally we never know their names but the scandal of the North Staffs Hospital, part of our beloved Nationalised Health Service ("the envy of the world!"), has suddenly shaken a few of the rascals into the limelight, especially Sir David Nicholson who was running the supervisory body responsible for checking the management of this concentration camp institution.  Subsequently - and I find this difficult to type because my rage is interfering with my typing - he was promoted to be the boss of the entire National Health Service!  The fat, useless thickoe was on my telly last night pontificating behind a barrage of bureaucratic non-managment speak saying, in effect, 'nuffink to do wiv me, guv'.

I want that man sacked, stripped of his knighthood, strapped to a hospital bed, unfed, unwatered and uncared for just like the poor bastards that had the double misfortune of being ill and then being taken to Belsen to North Staffs Hospital.  The only slightly good thing to emerge from this disgusting tale of stupidity and cruelty is that the reputation of nurses as being little angels of mercy is well and truly dead with a bloody great stake through its heart!

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Comments

[Oswald Thake]

But Duff..."lessons will be learnt"..."new and better targets put in place"..."etc"..."etc"...you know how it goes.

[Andrew Duffin]

I share with your evident anger.

It is almost (but not quite) unbelievable that nobody has been prosecuted, fired, or even disciplined over this outrage - and apparently nobody ever will be.

Can you imagine the uproar if Tesco's had done something that caused 1200 deaths? Can you even begin to think of the sorts of things that the Graun and the bbc would be writing and saying?

The envy of the world.

Feh.

[David Duff]

Oswald - that's not nice! I was out this morning and had recovered my usual sweet temper but now you set me off again and flecks of spittle are spattering my keyboard.

And Andrew, I don't ever want to imagine, let alone read or listen, to what the Graun and the BBC have to say about anything.

[Kevin]

You forgot to mention that he was a member of the hardline wing of the Communist party and he promoted his floozy wife from the typing pool to become head of Birmingham Children's Hospital.

[backofanenvelope]

I expect you felt better after posting this morning's rant. You must know, that even if he was forced to resign, he would escape with half a million or so and a nice fat pension. Where is a islamofascist bomber when you need one?

[David Duff]

What an unutterable A1 shit!

[dearieme]

I'll bet he doesn't know where the bodies are buried. He presumably knows where the figurative ones are, though.

[Umbongo]

In a blistering article re the Francis report in today's Times, Alison Pearson notes that in 2008, Cynthia Bower - the then head of the NHS West Midlands strategic health authority (which oversaw the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust) - was appointed chief executive of (of all things) the Quality Care Commission. This was a facet of the history of the NHS which unaccountably was omitted from the celebrations during the Olympic opening ceremony.

[H]

Look, as Dr. Mengele might have put it, he didn't mean to kill anyone, it was just the culture of the institution and the pressure to achieve results without proper consideration of the consequences. It really would be most unjust to punish him.

[David Duff]

Thanks, Gentlemen, particularly 'H' who made me LOL.

[Able]

Whilst I agree wholeheartedly about each and every one of the 'management', my utter disdain is saved for the supposed 'nursing' and 'medical' staff. To blame a culture, difficulties, shortages, etc. for blatant abuse is beyond... I can't even put it into words!

Are the supposed circumstances which led to this treatment unusual? No! I regularly, and have for years, see colleagues working 12/14 hours without breaks (on a paid 8 hour shift). I've called partners in to 'force' colleagues home, sent collapsed to A&E and dragged senior clinical managers in to work the wards. I see colleagues dragging medical teams out of bed (or consultants in from home) at 2 in the morning to get some action or prescription to make their patients more comfortable (and moan as they will the doctors do so without fail). The situation at times (all too often) is desperate... but the patients are, and will always, be cared for.

Each and every supposed clinical member of staff who not only did this to patients supposedly 'in their care', but every one who worked in the areas and allowed these 'practices' to go on should be summarily dismissed, struck off and barred from any access to a care environment ever again.

Managers and politicians, as bad as they undoubtedly are, did not stand by and literally watch as these people suffered and died in squalour, distress and pain.

I despise them!