Two doctors who were the parents of a dying six year old girl are bringing a legal action against the NHS because they claim that they were ‘treated like scum’ by NHS medical staff and by police when they challenged medics about the type of care a hospital was giving their daughter. Doctors Aliya and Rashid Abbasi said that the NHS hospital in question wanted to turn off the life support system that was keeping their daughter Zainab alive and let the child die.
When Dr Rashid Abbasi challenged the hospital’s care of his daughter the hospital called Northumbria Police and had Dr Rashid dragged away from his dying daughter and arrested. The police only de-arrested him when it became clear that Dr Rashid had suffered from a heart attack. Following the incident in which the hospital and the police allegedly treated Dr Rashid like ‘scum’, the hospital, which in many reports is currently not being named, went so far as to bring a case to the High Court in order to get a legal order to turn off the child’s life support , but the child died before the judgement could be made.
From what I know about how bad and intransigent the NHS can be, it is more than possible that Drs Abbasi, because of their professional knowledge, believed that there was more that could be done and disputed the decisions of medical staff. From what I’ve read of this story Drs Abbasi appear to have done what any caring parent would have done when faced with a hospital that was determined to give up on their child, they challenged the decision. Dr Rashid refused to leave his child’s bedside, something any parent would do. The response of the hospital to a committed parent who believed that the hospital was not treating his daughter properly, was to call in the uniformed thugs of Northumbria Police.
The hospital claims that Dr Rashid was being ‘aggressive’ and that he ‘assaulted’ a consultant but anyone who has had any dealings with the public sector in the UK will understand that those working in these sectors have an awful lot of power to claim things as ‘aggression’ or ‘assault’ that may not be so. I can’t help but wonder whether in this case the ‘aggression’ was merely the powerfully expressed emotions of a worried parent who is being handled badly by the NHS? Also, it could well be that extremely minor physical contact, for example by pushing past them in frustration, with the consultant that is being claimed as ‘assault’? It is interesting to note that the police don’t seem to be following up any ‘assault’ allegations and I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions on that matter.
I can well believe that a situation where the hospital haughtily treated Drs Abassi like scum occurred. Lots of us get treated like scum by the NHS. My own mother died because an NHS hospital insisted on prescribing an antibiotic that a relative, my mother’s primary home carer, knew was ineffective on that particular infection as it had been ineffective before. But the NHS doctors insisted that the useless antibiotic must be prescribed as that was the protocol and by the time that a doctor who knew my mother’s case history noticed her on the ward and changed the antibiotic to a more effective one, it was too late and my mother died of sepsis.
The more I read the story of Drs Abbasi and their daughter, the more angry I become about it. The hospital could have listened to Drs Abbasi’s view and considered their proposal for a different treatment regimen. If such a different treatment plan was almost certainly going to be ineffective then the hospital should have explained to these parents why it would be that way. The hospital could have also, provided that it would not have distressed the patient, tried whatever additional treatment the Drs Abbasi suggested.
I’m getting the distinct whiff of arrogance coming out of both the hospital and the police when I read the Sky article. There’s the blanket claim that Dr Rashid is lying from Northumbria Police and the usual mealy mouthed bullshit from the hospital inferring that the presence of Dr Rashid by his daughter’s bedside ‘endangered’ other patients.
This story should send a chill down every Briton’s spine. This is because if an NHS hospital can treat those who are qualified medical doctors like ‘scum’ and refuse to depart from the tick box medicine that afflicts the NHS, just how badly will they treat someone like you? If doctors can be treated like scum then there’s a very good chance that the ordinary Joe from the street is probably going to be treated the same way or worse.
The NHS is a terrible way to provide comprehensive healthcare to a nation. It is expensive, inefficient and all too often unnecessarily lethal to its customers. It’s functionaries are all too often arrogant in the extreme and because the NHS is part of the State, bringing civil or criminal cases against the NHS for malpractice are prohibitively expensive and traumatic for many bereaved relatives to undertake. Other nations, such as France and Germany for example had the opportunity to copy the NHS model when they created their own healthcare systems, but they did not. They opted for a mixed system with some providers being private and others being run by either the state or by charities, but with a significant level of financial support coming from the Governments of these nations for patients. Maybe those morons who continue to cheer the NHS should consider just why other nations looked at the NHS model and said ‘no thanks’?
I despise the NHS. I despise its sclerotic bureaucracy, the excessive waits for treatment, its arrogant and often legally untouchable staff, it’s record of abject failure in cases like that of Stafford Hospital to even feed and water patients effectively and the often poor quality of service that the customers, the patients, get from the NHS. Britons deserve a comprehensive healthcare system, but one which is safe, effective and one which treats both patients and relatives with dignity. We are not getting that from the NHS. Britons deserve better than the NHS.
