THE HOSPITAL: Channel 4 Tuesday 7 April 9PM
Today’s teenagers are drinking too much, having children too young and getting so fat that some commentators have predicted they will have a lower life expectancy than their parents’ generation. In this three-part series examining the relationship between teenagers and the NHS, consultants, surgeons, nurses, midwives and other staff at every level speak with unprecedented candour about the problems they face. The first episode, filmed in the A&E wards of two Midlands hospitals, shows how the seriously ill now have to compete with the casualties of a binge-drinking epidemic.
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Why on earth ruin an otherwise excellent program with the constant repetitive background music. The A/E Doctor had some very pertinent comments spoilt by it. PLEASE no music!
Terry Galligan RGN<RMN<OHN.
I just watched this. I thought it was an excellent programme and it’s great that the NHS staff told it exactly as it is.
I personally believe there should be some major changes to the NHS now. So many things have changed in the 60 years that it was created and changes are needed. I don’t see why everyone should pay more and get less service because of the irresponsible binge drinkers, etc.
They should have ti pay for their own treatment.
I’ll prefix this by saying that I work for a consultancy and I am based in various NHS Trusts across the country. I work with patient information and none of the things I saw in this program were new to me with regards to the patients.
However, I am absolutely disgusted by the attitude of the main female A/E nurse featured in this program. She, as an A/E nurse on the frontline of our ever-changing society, should be adapting to provide the best possible care to ANY patient, whatever their complaint. It doesn’t matter if these people come in 50x over the limit – her job is to treat to the best of her ability. If it bothers her as much as she is protraying, then she is clearly in the wrong job. She was absolutely infuriatingly morose. We will never rid of alcohol, drugs and teenage attitudes – it is in-built now – so she’s going to have to get on with it, or get out of it.
In response to the Doctors question about how you change peoples lifestyles, well it starts at school doesn’t it. Kids nowadays have no respect for teachers, the police or their parents because they know there will be no recriminations for their actions. If there is than the teachers are called bullys, suspended, investigated at the end of the day they are scared to shout or punish for the fear of a parent screaming abuse at them at the end of the day. As I said bring back some discipline in the schools because that where it starts. When I was at school 20 years ago we were scared of getting in trouble and than going home to our parents, but now they seem to congratulate bad behaviour. I am worried for my son because we are strict at home, but his behaviour at school is completely different and when the school speak to us they ask us to sort the problem, but we can’t sit in the school all day. This country is too much of a pc state now. If you want to sort the problem its fairly easy where to look, and everyone I know feels the same, so I can’t see how the government can’t. As far as I can see it will only get worse and its no good blaming it on drink, because if they have been brought up getting away with things, why will they ever change their mentality.
I agree with Cath. Even worse I think she was the A&E Consultant. Her stereotyped views of the world and her judgemental attitude that the world can be divided into the deserving and non deserving must surely jeopardise her ability to work with patients. I certainly wouldn’t be happy if she was looking after a relative of mine, knowing that all the while she is calculating whether they were deserving of sympathy or not. Doesn’t the GMC have rules on this type of thing – I am utterly amazed that he has been allowed to bring her profession into such disrepute – the caring profession indeed!!
The attacks on the considerd views of the Doctor in A/E are typical of those whose blinkerd views of this country add to its decline. She is telling it as it is and how she sees it night after night. What’s more she is qualified to do so. The complainers would be better occupied in using their energy in trying, albeit in vain, to right what is so much wrong in today’s society.
Terry Galligan
I believe the young people of nowadays are taking for granted the benefits they get in the society. For instance, free medical treatment.
It’s amazing how no body wants to hear thye truth anymore…it offends us to hear the reality of the matter. I watched teh programme and it is so true that if alcohol is taken out of the equation, the accidents hence daeths will be much less. No one wants to take responsibility of their actions…The girl that was stuck under the taxi found it funny…”it cost me £20 and a free ride to the hospital” this is a joke to her.
One can only hope and pray that all these things that seem normal will not lead to the ruin of this once admired country.
Tess
Just because she is a doctor, does not make her qualified to judge the people she treats. She chose to work in A&E, and anyone who has ever worked in A&E will tell you that the scenes she describes are typical and have not just arisen in the last 10 years. She knew what she was getting into and then complains about people who need her service; seems contradictory and poorly considered to me. As a respected member of the community her views will have an impact upon the viewing public and she should have considered this.
I think part of the problem is being who make generalisations about the young.
Not ALL young people hang on street corners with hoodies abusing people. Not ALL young people get legless every weekend.
I am 19 years old and I can tell you it’s horrible growing up in this country right now because so many adults and elderly don’t trust the young anymore.
I was bought up by great parents who told me to respect others, they told me what was right and what was wrong.
I have never been in any serious trouble yet I still feel like every adult looks at me with suspicion, simply because I’m young.
There are still some decent young people around so please stop making generalisations.
I don’t think the A&E doctor said anything wrong at all. Everything she said was the truth and she has a right to an opinion. I don’t think it effects her professional judgement and I know for a fact she said in the programme that everyone under her care gets the same level of care.
i completely disagree with Caths comments. They are utter rubbish. The main A&E doctor was clearly operating under intense pressure and treated all patients to the best of her ability. She is a dedicated NHS professional undertaking a demanding job under increasingly adverse circumstances.
By working in an A&E dept., the NHS staff are on the ‘frontline’ and encounter this underclass at their worst; fuelled by drink and anger. The NHS staff have a right to be treated with respect and work within an environment of tolerance. Being shouted at by drunken people who’s limited social skills have been diminished by alcohol is not acceptable.
What the programme vividly illustrates, and was succinctly commented on by Dr Portman, is that Britain has an ever growing underclass of society. An underclass of aggressive, demanding, disrespectful and selfish individuals that have no comprehension of how their behaviour affects others in society.
If one wishes to live in society and enjoy its benefits – decent healthcare, education, protection etc one has to subscribe to its core values and norms of behaviour. Why should society therefore tolerate aberrant behaviour that is anti-social, violent, risk-prone and costly. Why should the NHS face an ever increasing cost from drink related incidents?
Perhaps Cath’s email would have been better served if she had looked for ways to change how people behave and act in society; to address why they seek to drink without limits, why people no longer respect others or authority figures. These are the real problems in society and it’s inevitable that some NHS staff feel frustrated.
Its a little depressing that someone brave enough to name our societies problems on TV gets attacked for being ‘judgemental’.
She articulated these issues in what I thought was a very fair and balanced way, but the sad truth of the programme is that it only looks at one set of symptoms.
A&E staff aren’t the only people who have to ‘pick up the pieces of a self destructible society’. Talk to school teachers, social services workers, benefit officers, child therapists…they will all have similar stories to tell. They will all have shared the frustration of that A&E Consultant of having to deal with the problems of society that they have no power to solve.
We have a growing problem of an uneducated, dysfunctional lower-class, and a middle-class too removed to have any good understanding of the issues.
If anything the A&E Consultant should be applauded for giving a realistic insight into the frustration that must be felt by all front line staff who work within the NHS. Lets face it, this society has gone to pot and I felt angry that the majority of resources in both A&E departments were spent catering for ungrateful rat-arsed individuals who seemed partially culpable for their own injuries. It’s not to say they shouldn’t be treated, and as far as I recall that’s not what the A&E Consultant was saying either. I’d pay tickets to see the likes of Cath and Giles work under such intense pressure and then have bucket fulls of sympathy for a young man whose driven his car at 100 miles an hour into a wall after downing 12 pints. The fact his best friend was in the passenger seat and nearly died didn’t seem as bigger detail to him as loosing his license.
The Consultant wasn’t saying she would not give these people the best care possible, but that is was frustrating over-stretched resources were being redistributed to care for them. The fact that nurses and doctors are physically and verbally abused on a regular basis throughout the course of their shifts, is that acceptable? Or do front line staff now not have the right to voice their concerns for fear of offending the likes of Cath and Giles or coming across as unprofessional?
Caroline, there is no need to pay. As a consultant psychiatrist I have worked frontline in the NHS for the last 15 years and have done my time in A&E. I am simply disappointed that someone who has chosen to work in a particular speciality and with a particular client group should feel the need to publicly express their utter contempt for them.
The NHS was not created so that doctors could receive gratitude from the general public, but to give basic care to those at need, however they came to need it. The fact that she says she will treat all people the same conflicts with the views she is all too happy to express, that some people deserve more sympathy than others. It is inevitable that these views will spill out into her day to day care. I personally would not want one of my relatives to be on the receiving end when she pronounces judgement.
Giles,
The programme highlighted the impact that a section of society has on NHS life; one that people outside of the profession rarely see. Cath was commenting on this impact and making rational statements about people’s behaviour. At no time did she come across as someone who was picking and choosing when to deliver health care.
No one working in the NHS is a saint. All people and resources have limits. All Cath was saying was that there are people in society that no longer operate within normal limits of behaviour. These people have no conception of contrition, of courtesy or decent societal values.
If someone does drink drive and almost kill both themself and another passenger of course they should be treated. But it’s entirely reasonable to understand that they will elicit less symptathy than someone who is ill through sheer misfortune.
Society needs to start being LESS tolerant of these individuals, not more; if we do not do something soon the problem will be get significantly worse. If someone drink drives, why shouldnt they pay for the cost of their health care when they are sentenced by the courts. If someone commits GBH on another person why shouldnt they pay for their subsequent NHS treatment.
The NHS receives the largest amount of funding in its history and yet resources & staff are still stretched to their limits.
If we can change societal values and hence the behaviour of this underclass, we can reduce drink related accidents and violence. This will benefit everyone and make for a more peaceful society. Furthermore, for every drink related incident that is avoided, we will have more resources for more deserving cases. Every time in the future NICE is vilified for lack of funding for a new drug remember how much money is wasted each year in A&E through self inflicted drunken incidents.
Sorry but The Hospital missed out drunken university students, not to mention the drunken and often violent fall out of their respective club members nights: rugby club, horse club, rowing, cycling, motor cycling, who rock up at the hospital I work in as a nurse more often than I care to say. Their manners, I can assure you, are not great! The big increase at A&E we have noticed is from gym injuries and home gym equipment which is also self inflicted and at the tax payer’s expense. I had the impression this programme was really biased against young white working class people in particular.
Interesting comments. I was shocked to see a medication error resulting in a young girl having a cardiac arrest. I think it was brave to show (and right), I think if more errors were shown like this, as they are, in life threatening conditions, the public may realise that most NHS workers are trying to help and do their best.
I absolutely agree with Cathy. A cornerstone of the NHS is to treat people regardless of age, gender, race and indeed situation, even if their plight is totally self-inflicted. It is not a medical professional’s job to moralise, it is their job to treat a patient to the best of their ability. Rolling ones eyes because an 18 year old girl is on anti-depressants and has not eaten all day sets us back light years. Where is her empathy? I can’t help thinking this whole attitude of ‘teenagers these days’ is a) misguided and b) destructive, only serving towards alienating teenagers further.
I disagree with the people who are championing having empathy for these people. If we don’t start to judge people by how they live their lives then the situation will never get better. It is fair enough to say that more money should be invested in educating these people in the first place on how not to destroy their lives but I don’t think they deserve to be treated the same as sober patients in hospital. Most of them could have just gone home and slept it off anyway.
My i can not stop myself from being so angry with tonights programme about being overweight for crying out loud im a size 6 to 8 eat 7 chocolate bars per day, 4 square meals, crisps, chocolate and a whole pack of b****y busquits in one sitting yet if i do not eat this amount per day i loose weight feel ill.do not say eat the good stuff i eat fruit veg and salads but to say you are what you eat upsets me a great deal my mum is a size 22 yet she eats a quarter of what i eat and walks alot, i do no exercise im proberly the laziest person i know i would love to be a size 10 and be healthy but my own doctor looks at me like im mad as im 32 and thin he can not see anything wrong WHAT ABOUT HIGH COLESTOROL OH YES HOME TEST CONFIRMED HIGH OH DEAR NOT ALL FAT PEOPLE ARE UNHEALTHY so please can you stop the stupid comment of you are what you eat ect if i could get help i would dam well take it because it does upset me when i go out order a steak my mum orders salad and they give my dam steak to her then watch in disbelief that i eat the lot i have even stopped going to the public toilets and holding it in as most look at you as to say ha see she is going to sick that up told you she could not eat that. where the hell is the help for the thin wanting to put on weight.
Not a single person did I see being released from a Concentration Camp who was not as thin as a rake. And it had nothing at all to do with Thyroid function. Faulty Genes. Family History. It had everything to do with starvation and exercise. I am sick and tired of the moaner’s who blame everyone and everything but themselves.