NHS Titanic is heading toward the iceberg of poor patient care and safety. Once revered around the world for providing universal care based on need not income, our flagship NHS healthcare system is broken.
Long waits in ambulances, queues in emergency departments and corridor medicine are the frightening new norms endured by patients in our hospitals.
Strikes by frontline staff and an unprecedented exodus of doctors and nurses from the NHS has laid bare the deep-rooted disillusionment with the present working and training environment.
How did we come to this sad situation and what can we learn from the past to fix our NHS?
This unique memoir is based on the true-life NHS experience of a consultant Dr Harry Stone provides some of the answers. He recalls his training to become a consultant starting in the mid 1980s while recovering from injuries sustained in a road traffic accident. He is treated in the hospital where he works and while grappling with his cardboard urine bottle observes the good bad and ugly aspects of today’s acute care.
He contrasts the clinical arena in the 1980s, an era of “doctor knows best” approach to patient care and “see one,do one teach one “ mantra regards training, with today’s more regulated, accountable, safety conscious medical practice.
The view of the NHS from both sides of the fence, as a doctor and patient allows an unparalleled understanding of what needs to change to improve patient care.
This memoir provides hope that there is still time for NHS Titanic to avoid the iceberg of substandard care and fix our healthcare system.
A must read for those working in the NHS or likely to receive NHS care.