This piece in the Spectator on the rate of assault of NHS staff reminds me of the good doctor’s comment that the difference between working in a prison and in an NHS hospital is that the prison is much safer:
If anyone needed persuading of the deep moral disarray of modern British society, the latest figures on assaults against National Health Service staff should be more than sufficient to convince him. It is not so much their overall number — though 57,830 in a year seems quite a lot to me — that is alarming, as the variation in the way with which they are dealt. The predominant response is, as you would expect, feeble, vacillating, lazy and cowardly: or, if you prefer, forgiving.….No one, I suppose, would want a completely uniform, centrally dictated or inflexible response to assaults on NHS staff. There really are medical conditions that exculpate assault. As Hippocrates said a long time ago, life is short and judgment is difficult. And where judgment is exercised, consistency is impossible.Nevertheless, these figures demonstrate that our society — or at least its administrative class — does not have the most minimal agreement as to what properly constitutes individual responsibility, or how to react to behaviour that at least 99 per cent of the population would regard as reprehensible or downright criminal. The official class lacks all conviction, and the rabble has nothing to fear.With economic implosion a distinct possibility, and a society that does not have the confidence to deal even with a drunken lout in casualty, the auguries are not good.
H/t Michael P.
What else can you expect after ignoring the nutritional integrity of food for 70 years. Add to that the destructive power of years of acid rain/ fertilizers on the soil and one would be amazed if the cupboard was not bare. Talk about brain washed by one sick industry.
As an Englishman, I can confirm everything that the good doctor says. If I go into my local General Practioner’s Office, the place is plastered with constant warnings and admonitions not to abuse or attack the staff. I often wondered why this was so, but having dealt with NHS bureaucracy on many occasions, I have more than once desired to ram a sharp object through the receptionists’ skull.
It is a little unfair to base one’s assessment of an entire nation on the ‘deviant’ behaviour of patients on a psychiatric ward. I suspect that, if the figures were analysed, the main victims of assault would be nursing assistants and other patients. The average NHS Consultant Psychiatrist spends very little time with inpatients and when they do, they are accompanied by their ‘team’ (usually consisting of a social worker and several nurses and medical students.)
“It is a little unfair to base one’s assessment of an entire nation on the ‘deviant’ behaviour of patients on a psychiatric ward.”
Even if that’s what he was doing I’d probably have to agree with you, a *little* unfair.