A horse is a horse, of course, of course.........Dr Rant has been given the inside track on an extremely worrying new NHS joint venture in Cambridgeshire that is apparently top secret and 'commercially sensitive'.
Addenbookes hospital in Cambridge is a world renowned centre of excellence, and Newmarket in Cambridgeshire is the epicentre of the international horse racing industry. We have it on very good authority that Addenbookes' management, having recently expanded the borders of their little empire by annexing the pathology (blood test) work for Hinchingbrooke and Papworth hospitals, are planning a new venture in partnership with HFL - a company that handles blood testing and lab work for the horse racing industry.
Now, that might sound scary, but the truth is even more frightening than you can imagine. The Addenbrookes twaterati's grand new plan is to use the Horse Doping people to analyse the blood samples from ALL the area's GPs, and provide them with a minimalist, 'no-interpretation' service - just the bare results and nothing else.
Whilst this might sound to some like private sector efficiency belatedly being thrust upon us economic Luddites in the NHS, it really is NOT A GOOD IDEA. Here's why.....
When Dr Rant takes blood from a patient, it goes to the local hospital where the samples are analysed on machines operated by experienced Biomedical Scientists (BMSs) who know their jobs inside out, can produce accurate results and interpret their significance to aid the doctors looking after the patient. They are also particularly knowledgeable about Human blood, and why it sometimes goes 'tits up'. On average, Dr Rant needs a telephone conversation with one of these priceless people once or twice per week. He can also speak to one of the consultant doctors in haematology or biochemistry at the drop of a hat, because they work in the same building, and they can be called to the phone there and then. Biomedical Scientists, with all their education, skills and training are already paid scandalously low wages, yet they are the backbone of the pathology service.
What hospital managers in Cambridge think is obviously a very different matter. Blood results are blood results right? GPs don't need to know the results very quickly, and they certainly don't need them interpreted do they? They can wait a few days for the results anyway, can't they? Horses four legs - humans two - virtually the same right?
No, no, no and for fuck's sake no!!
There is no way on God's earth that this private company can match the level of service and clinical input provided by a remotely well run hospital laboratory service. The stupid bastards obviously don't acknowledge, let alone quantify or attach significance to the 'value added' by the professionals in NHS laboratories that deal with HUMANS. The horse doping company's mistakes will be more numerous, more costly and more deadly.
I can't see HSL veterinary technicians tracking down GPs at 7 o'clock in the evening to pass on details of patients that they have correctly ascertained to have subtle yet life threatening conditions.........
Oh that reminds me - thanks to the Haematology BMS who worked out my patient had malaria and managed get hold of me on my way home the other night - the patient says thanks as well.
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4 comments:
Jesus christ. If my patents Hb is 6 I danm well want phoned about it.
Yet anouther criminally stupid idea.
To give you an example of how the private sector… er...ahem...."integrates" with the public. This is Ozzy based mind.
When we get the yearly (Ok, Ok, 3 times this year) noro outbreak we have to screen those with the shits for noro. To do this you take a sample of poo and send it to the hospital lab. The lab then send it to a private lab elsewhere. That lab works 8-4 and does not process the sample same day. It takes 2 days to get the test done.
Back to the ward 1 person in a 4 bedded bay shits themselves. We cannot then move anyone in or out of that bay (except to home). We have to wait up to 4 days for the all clear or infected results (allowing for couriers). The bloody noro spreads far far quicker than that. Clinically, you can isolate the bay. But so far that is 1 person in that bay with the shits. The others cannot be moved to safety. The others are often frail and really do no need the shits on top of their e.g. pneumonia. The original patient with the shit may well just have a spot of benign poo or meleana (not so benign). Because it takes 4 days to test for the noro you are so far behind the ball it is laughable. The public lab can do the screen 24 hrs/day. The private does it in working hours only.
Take the example a step further one of the patients in that bay has black poo. Not likely to be noro, but it still can be. The chances of infection control letting that patient off the ward for their investigations are pretty small. If I could clear that patient based on prompt and accurate lab results I could arrange for their scope.
In this case private des not meld with public. It may be similar in Cambridgeshire.
Also the lab guys get paid dirt for their work. It is a fucking disgrace. They are essential.
Dr Sniper
The Observer article makes me shiver. Talk about circling like vultures. And I despise overpaid creeps who muse about the "challenge of long-term conditions" - whilst having never handled a bedpan in their life.
Dr Sniper - bang on. Whilst the topdown superstructure lumbers on, those at the actual coalface [and especially lab staff, path porters, blood bank etc] won't be missed - until it's too late.
This sounds like a Common Purpose "Leading outside your authority" type initiative to me.
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