2011-06-23

Stabbed but not slabbed

It's slightly indirect, but interesting reading the reactions of a response Police Inspector to the programme '24 Hours in A&E'. I've been following it since the start, and it's starting to become somewhat depressing. Filmed at Kings Hospital in South London we see a steady procession of knife victims come through triage. "Oh look, another teenaged / early 20's African-Caribbean guy. Shocker." It's so consistent, it's not even funny. Why aren't people shouting from the rooftops about this? Oh, I think I might know. Commentator VoiceOfReason in the comments notes:

“We all have to be so careful these days, you never know who’s listening and any suggestion that you are not ‘toeing the party line’ will kill your career stone dead.’”

Providing balance, there's an equally steady stream of pissed-as-a-fart agressive, obnoxious and barely intelligible white males in the same age bracket alternating between actual alcohol poisoning and the consequences of intoxication (falls, crashes, fights). This has already been the subject of any number of rooftop shoutings, but is equally depressing.

I'm hoping against hope that the programme makers have been focusing on the "entertaining" gangsta muppets and dickhead pissheads, ignoring a majority of peaceful accident victims and elderly acute cardiac events. But I'm afraid that my optimism is mis-placed.

There are an awful lot of people on that programme who need to be charged the full cost of their treatment, and (since they've already spent their money on booze, bling and clothes) be made to work it off. And a much smaller posse of medical staff (from porters through nurses to SHOs) who should get that money tax-free without any of it being diverted to the bean-counters or suit-wearers upstairs. Like that's going to happen. The Triage nurses in particular deserve canonisation, as the cartoon which used to hang in their room in Chester A&E noted:
The gates swing wide, the trumpets sound, the angels toll the bell. 
"Come in my dear, take up your harp; you've done your time in Hell".

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