Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Thirdly, Do No Harm!

Last week a guy had a long standing medication removed and, as a result, his body revolted to the extent he required emergency hospitalisation - outside.
Yesterday, I was a witness to a man who was arguing over his insulin. An injecting diabetic, this was no small matter. A malevolent or incompetent nurse stood between him, his insulin, and the fridge in which it resided. He was reduced to using, with increasing frequency, emergency short-duration insulin that saw his blood glucose levels bounce between 15 and 25. Which, the nurse said, was all pretty good.
This man had to spend half his pay phoning his consultant to have him phone and email the nick to point out how dangerous the situation was. With the intervention of a (prison) Manager, the insulin was finally issued.
The GP sat in his room at the end of the corridor during this farce, with my man denied access to him. A nurse held his medication, his life, in her hand and flatly refused him access to either it or the only well-qualified medic in the institution.
Such are the games being played by Healthcare. And such are the dangers. To hold such ineptitude to account may doubtless upset those involved but, in truth, when we are so dependent upon them then they deserve to be forced to answer for their actions. After all, isn't that what law is for...?

5 comments:

  1. I get your point Ben, but its so well laboured here to the point of being off puting even. As for people being answerable to the law, (albeit with question mark, as you left it at the end of your post); you know and so do many others that the law is in fact an ass. Its your choice of course to try and hold these people to account using the law, but due to its unreliable nature its likely you could be in for a long haul. I am not saying that the law cannot be used for such purposes, but it is a weird and crazy ass system, right does not always or even nearly always win out. Sad but true.

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  2. Maybe an anonymous note sent to the Nurse containing the sentencing guidelines for Gross Negligence Manslaughter would be in order. It might make her think twice about that situation.

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  3. In an earlier post I stated that the Parole Board Rules required an answer within 7 days. Case law states it is unlawful to extend this time limit beyond the 7 days. The Parole Board Rules 2011 amended this to within 14 days. I would contend that a statutory instrument, secondary legislation, cannot overturn a court decision only primary legislation can do that. It would appear that administrative convenience is dictating the extended time limit to assist the backlog of cases before the Parole Board. The solution is less people in prison, including scrapping automatic life sentences (IPP). Extending the time limit hurts prisoners and will only make the Parole Boareven lazier than it is at present.

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  4. Parole Answer:

    Any sense of urgency in this process is something that, in my opinion, has always been severely lacking.

    I well remember when Parole Answers would regularly go over the proposed discharge date by many, many months. This would occur without there being any form of redress for the prisoner. Simply put, this meant/means? People spending (sometimes far) longer in jail, than those who make such decisions deemed/deem necessary.

    In my opinion, it’s tantamount to False Imprisonment.

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  5. Yes all this is happening with prisoners medication has we speak. I have spent the last five years out of ten, in prison. I was right in the heart of the prison healthcare because of psychiatric and psychological problems. I wasn't medicated properly and the only medication they seemed willing to push onto to me was anti-psychotic medication,( even though I wasn't psychotic). These were Lansopine or Lillies for short. They slow down your mental processes and literally turn a reasonable individual into a shuffling zombie.

    After I was released from my sentence,( having taking Lillies), I was totally unable to function properly in the out side world. I was unable to eat any solid food for a year, didn't have the will to read, write, watch telly or participate in any activities at all.

    It was only after I stop taking the medication, that I finally found the will to think properly and start reading again. I actually cried, because before I use to love reading. At the end of the day, there are still things going on in these types of establishments, that was thought to been eradicated some forty years ago.

    The doctors,psychiatrists,nurses that are employed in the prison system have an instant prejudice against prisoners. This goes against all that is up-held in the doctors/nurses book of law and ethics.

    Kind regards.

    David.



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