Saturday - October 20, 2012

just like falling off a cliff

This makes the old tummy do flips.
I could never imagine doing anything like this.
Take a look at this.

He may have nerves of steel but doesn’t show much thought for a young family. 

Heart-stopping moment man plunges off cliff edge after gymnastic stunt goes horribly wrong is caught on film

By Emma Clark
the Mail via YT

An extreme base jumper is lucky to be alive after a television stunt at the top of a 1,200 metre high cliff went dangerously wrong and left him plummeting to the ground just inches from a rocky cliff face.

Richard Henriksen was invited to be filmed for the popular Norwegian series Normal Madness because of his daredevil approach to the sport - which sees him performing gymnastics on a high bar bolted to the edge of a cliff before launching himself into the air.

But his well-rehearsed routine turned to chaos when the bar collapsed mid-somersault, throwing Mr Henriksen unprepared off the cliff in west Norway - with his head narrowly missing a fatal-blow from the rocks.

TAKE A LOOK AT SOME OF THE STILLS HERE

Posted by peiper     on 10/20/2012 at 03:07 PM   
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   Monday - July 30, 2012

died in hospital after she was denied food and water.

Well why not? What the hell.  There’s already been a young man die of thirst in a hospital.  Why not an older lady die of hunger?
Alright, a bit more involved but hey.  Something is mighty damn wrong when things like this can make the headlines so often, and yet instead of easing things as in getting better, more people are screwing up.  It’s as if they aren’t aware that the press and public will find out and ask, why? How does this happen?  Sadder yet for family as they unknowingly contributed to the blunder, because they listened to and believed what the doctors were telling them. 

Scandal of healthy grandmother who died in hospital after going without food for seven days

By ANDREW LEVY

A healthy, active grandmother died in hospital after she was denied food and water for more than a week.

Joan Pertoldi, 76, was put on a nil-by-mouth regime while she waited for a routine hip operation at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Welwyn Garden City.

Her family was told she would be operated on within 48 hours but the procedure was put off three times – twice because the prosthesis due to be inserted into the joint was not properly sterilised.

Other delays occurred because there weren’t enough staff at weekends.

The operation eventually went ahead eight days after she was admitted but, severely weakened, Mrs Pertoldi never recovered and died in hospital a few weeks later.

During her stay, Mrs Pertoldi was dropped by nurses on one occasion because they failed to consult physiotherapists’ notes which explained how much assistance she needed to walk.

After becoming dehydrated, Mrs Pertoldi developed a urinary infection which, the family say, lead to blood poisoning because doctors failed to tackle the problem.

She also developed a blocked bowel and contracted superbug clostridium difficile which caused her organs to fail, leading to her eventual death.

Hertfordshire coroner, Edward Thomas has now ordered the hospital to investigate the blunders and her family are considering legal action, claiming she died due to neglect.

The pensioner’s daughter, Anna Pertoldi, said: ‘The treatment my mother received in hospital was disgraceful. When mum went into hospital she was in good spirits. But because of the cancellations she was left weak and then quickly went downhill.

‘Being left on nil-by-mouth was just one of a number of failings my mother had to suffer. Basic standards of care and nursing weren’t there.’

The Daily Mail as highlighted substandard care in its Dignity for the Elderly campaign.

But Mrs Pertoldi’s case also comes after an inquest into the death of 22-year-old Kane Gorny, who died of dehydration while in hospital for a hip operation.

He phoned police from his bed because he was so thirsty but staff at St George’s Hospital in London, told officers he was confused and sent them away.

READ MORE

Posted by peiper     on 07/30/2012 at 12:27 PM   
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   Friday - July 27, 2012

wipes patient with urine soaked sheet but, There is no evidence of general incompetence.’

Thaddee Nsengiyaremye?
What the hell kind of a name is that?  OK, I got the first one but the alphabet soup last one defies me.  Maybe they didn’t sack the lazy jerk because they could spell or pronounce the name.

So now he’s working in a care home?  They’re allowing this gorilla to work in a care home, instead of deporting him?

The he treated one patient, read below, should have been auto dismissal.  Oh wait.  Isn’t he a member of a favored and protected group?  Whoops. Never mind.  He can’t be fired cos it’d violate him cibil rights.
Someday this total turd will be old too.  Maybe with some luck he’ll be feeble and old and be tended by some jerk with his work ethic.

One of the damn scary things about old age innit?

I guess the best defense is a good supply of sleeping pills.  Just hoard those little suckers for the day when.

So here’s what I’m banging on about.  And I’m sure some of you can find stories in the USA that might be the same or close to this.

Nurse who failed to spot a patient had suffered a stroke for EIGHT HOURS is not sacked.

Nurse was supposed to check on patient regularly but checked her only at 9pm and 5.25am the next day

He made no record of patient’s care

Admitted wiping another patient down with bed sheet soaked in her own urine

Council said ban would not be ‘proportionate’

Nurse now works in a care home

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

A nurse who failed to notice an elderly woman had suffered a stroke for more than eight hours has avoided being struck off.

Thaddee Nsengiyaremye missed making nine vital checks overnight as the patient recovered from a hip operation.

He ignored her for several hours as she fell unconscious, her pulse dropped alarmingly and her arms went limp.

When Nsengiyaremye finally checked on her, more than eight hours after the last observation, he did not realise she had suffered a stroke and waited more than half an hour to call for help.

He admitted a string of charges against him when he appeared at a Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing in central London.

But the panel ruled he could continue in the profession because there was no evidence of ‘general incompetence’.

Nsengiyaremye will have to work under supervision and undertake further training over the next 18 months.

Panel chair David Flinter said: ‘A conditions of practice order will sufficiently address the panel’s concerns and adequately protect the public.

‘We have seen records of your supervision sessions in your current employment, which indicate improvement in your clinical practice.

‘There is no evidence of general incompetence.’

Nsengiyaremye was working a night shift at the Sussex Orthopaedic NHS Treatment Centre in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, on April 19, 2010, when he took charge of caring for the woman, referred to as Patient B.

His boss Michelle Hailey told the hearing he should have been checking on her regularly as she recovered from a hip operation at the treatment centre.

‘Even if the protocol is not being properly followed, you would expect someone who has just come out of surgery to have regular observations’, she said.

He was expected to make hourly checks until 2.30am and two-hourly observations after that.

But Nsengiyaremye actually checked on her just once, at 9pm, before finding her critically unwell at 5.25am.

‘There was nothing done by the registrant at 8pm, he carried out observations at 9pm, and then nothing is done by him from 10pm until 6pm,’ said Joanna Dirmikis, for the NMC.

‘He ought to have been carrying out hourly observations until 2.30am.’

The hearing was told the woman had a weak pulse, high blood pressure, and her breathing was abnormal when Nsengiyaremye checked on her at 5.25am.

But instead of immediately calling for a doctor, he went to collect a machine to carry out more tests.

When the ambulance was finally called, at 6am, the patient was rushed to the Princess Royal Hospital opposite for emergency treatment.

Mr Flinter said giving Nsengiyaremye a ban would not be proportionate or helpful.

‘The conduct was serious and not isolated, but areas of retraining have been identified’, he said.

‘We have concluded it would not be proportionate to suspend you and deprive you of the opportunity to address the concerns about your practice.’

Nsengiyaremye admitted all the charges against him, including not making a record of his care of patient B until he was ordered to by Ms Hailey more than 10 hours after his shift had finished.

He was also found to have not made vital records of a patient’s fluid levels during the shift.

The registered nurse further admitted a previous incident when he wiped a patient with a bed sheet soaked in her own urine and refusing to give her a bath.

The woman rang the bell for her bedpan to be changed while Nsengiyaremye was working on November 9, 2009, but he was slow to respond.

When he finally arrived, Nsengiyaremye was aggressive towards the patient, refused to change her urine-soaked gown, and wiped her down with the dirty bed sheet he had just stripped off the bed.

Nsengiyaremye now works in a care home and must undertake regular supervision sessions, as well as adhering to a training plan relating to infection control, medication administration, record keeping, and recognition of clinical treatment.

Posted by peiper     on 07/27/2012 at 09:51 AM   
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   Sunday - July 08, 2012

some scary articles to start your week with. how are things where you are?

THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN?

Or at least, the medical world.
What is happening?  I was going to ignore one or two but stuff like this keeps cropping up.  Now then, either this kind of thing is a regular occurrence in the USA as well, or they do a better job of covering it up.  Because I never read as many nor did we even hear as many nightmare medical stories back home in the US, as have been broadcast here.  And it is scary.  Maybe they are just more open here?  I don’t pretend to know.

Some people may want to blame national health. But I think it’s more then that.  Somehow for some reason, too many of the wrong sort of people are given jobs they just plain do not belong in. There have even been foreign doctors working here who had a problem with English and as a result, patients have actually died.

They may be able to pass a test, and as an example, I’ll use myself and the majority of my classmates who attended a Radio Operational Engineering School, in Newport Beach, Ca., circa 1969.

When I was younger and knowing a bit about some of the then requirements to work in radio, I attended a radio engineering school in Calif.  We were taught how to pass the FCC test(s) that were mandatory at that time.  From early morning to late in the evening every day.  We actually were taught the basics of how Xmitters worked and read schematics etc.  It was all of it very technical.  But we were being prepared to take a series of tests, not become actual engineers.  Back then, you HAD to have an FCC radio operator’s license to do no more then read the meters every hour on the transmitter and then log them.  There were 3rd , 2nd and 1st class licenses.  You stood a better chance of being hired (if you could even find openings) if you had what we called a First Phone, then a 2nd and at the bottom, a 3rd.  And all to read a meter.

You obviously couldn’t take a test for the First Phone till you’d passed the tests for the other two.  A lot of late nights and a lot of work and hundreds and hundreds of Q&A tests at school taking dummy FCC tests to prepare.  The questions numbered in the hundreds although the test you actually took might only have say 50 questions. But don’t let that fool you.  Among those 50 were questions that required you work out the mathematics involved. And the FCC wanted your work sheets where you worked out those math problems.  So in the end, when taking the tests, everything the FCC asked had been covered over the course of the months and months you were at school.  And btw, the majority of us lived right there in dormitories. The discipline was quite military.  And all to do no more then read a meter or two every hour.

Funny thing about that last item.  Once you got to actual work, you were not always as well prepared to read those meters as you thought you’d be, because often they didn’t appear to be like the ones in your illustrations etc.  Or the digits in place of numbers might have been hard to read.  So you simply copied the readings of the guy who was on before you and chances were he had done the same. Sometimes you might alter one number to make some things look okay.  But if a Transmitter failed or something happened, I was no more qualified to go in and repair that huge thing then I was to fly a jet plane.

That’s what chief engineers were for and every station had to have one.  As long as we knew what parameters were safe to run on, and we did, all worked out well.

So what I’m suggesting is, maybe some of these folks working in these hospitals, went to schools that prepared them to take and pass all the correct tests, but are still not qualified.  How else pray tell can we account for these horror stories?  They are far too serious to be referred to simply as, mishaps.  This is very serious indeed.  More serious because I’ve listed just three here.  But there is so much more.
Take a look.

Patient dying of thirst rang 999: Inquest hears of mother’s fury at nurses who neglected son
· Nurses forgot to give Kane Gorny his medication and he became so delirious he called 999
· His mother said she spent hours trying to convince staff he needed attention but was told he was alright
· Alarm finally raised an hour before his death when a doctor realised how serious his condition was
By CLAIRE ELLICOTT

A young patient who died of dehydration at a leading teaching hospital phoned police from his bed because he was so thirsty, an inquest heard yesterday

PATIENT DIES OF THIRST

-30-

Hospital staff suspended after man dies on doorstep of A&E
Eleven medical staff have been suspended and an investigation launched after a patient collapsed and died on the doorstep of a hospital.

The man had been admitted to the Accident and Emergency unit of the Manor Hospital in Walsall, West Midlands, when the incident occurred.
It is thought that despite his condition he was allowed to go outside for some fresh air but collapsed shortly afterwards.
As he lay on the ground just yards from the hospital entrance it is alleged that medical staff, including nurses, porters and paramedics ignored his plight.
It is also claimed that members of the public stepped over the man as they entered the hospital, with some even stopping to take photographs and video footage on their mobile phones.
An unnamed eyewitness said he was horrified by what he had seen.

DIES ON DOORSTEP

-30-

My 17 hours of hell at hospital where a patient died of thirst: Left unattended in agony, one writer’s account of her ordeal at an NHS ‘centre of excellence’

By MELISSA KITE
Lying in an ambulance, drifting in and out of consciousness, I managed to ask the paramedics where they were taking me. ‘St George’s Hospital in Tooting,’ came the reply.
If I could have jumped out and made a run for it, I would have. I was in desperate need, but I think I would rather have put up with an ambulance ride to the other side of the country.
However, St George’s - where 22-year-old Kane Gorny died of dehydration - has been my local hospital for ten years. In an emergency, I was always going to be taken there.
I had no idea then that a patient had died from thirst. My fear of the place was born from my own bitter experiences.

17 HOURS OF HELL

-30-

I sure hope things are better where you are.

Posted by peiper     on 07/08/2012 at 02:34 PM   
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   Wednesday - June 27, 2012

new age nursing? not my job says nurse while patient on the floor.

Why after three years is this now coming to light? Papers don’t say. They just run with the story. 
This might be an odd one off event but sadly, it isn’t.  I just don’t post all the horror stories I read.

My two encounters with hospitals here, were happily non events. The staff couldn’t have been more caring or professional. But that could be our location. I don’t know.  What I do know is that there are so darn many stories like this one, even more then travellers and gypsy stories, that after awhile you just either skip or are aware only as something you see out of the corner of your mind’s eye.
I once saw something like this in an American hospital btw.

When I first saw this article under news briefs in the Telegraph hard copy, I Googled the headline and came up with a slightly different story altogether.
Not that the person described here comes out pure as driven snow. Far from it.

Truro nurse accused of leaving patient lying on the floor

Source: This is Cornwall
Western Morning News

A nurse left a patient lying on a hospital ward floor for 40 minutes and said she was not paid to look after people like him, a hearing was told.

Gugu Shabalala refused to help a colleague move the man into a more comfortable position or review his condition, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

Shabalala was working at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro at the time of the incident in January 2009.

Angela Barron, a health care assistant who worked alongside Shabalala on the shift in question, said she had walked into the patient’s bay to find him in a “very strange position”.

“He was kneeling between the bed and chair with his head resting on the chair,” she said. “I asked him if he wanted to go back to bed, but he did not answer. I tried to help him up into bed but could not move him at all.”

Realising it was a job for two, she went to find Shabalala, who was the nurse in charge for that part of the ward.

When they returned, she saw him roll himself on to the floor and curl up, the panel heard.

Unable to move the man, referred to only as patient B, Mrs Barron said Shabalala then asked her to fetch a blanket to cover him and a pillow for his head.

She added: “He was lying on the floor without any bedding or mattress.

“While he was lying there, Ms Shabalala’s only comment was ‘he obviously wants to be on the floor’.

“I’m not sure how long he remained on the floor, but at about 12pm I went back in to find him back in bed.”

She said she could not recall the exact time of the alleged incident, only that it definitely took place after 9.30am.

Shabalala is not attending the proceedings and is not represented.

She has made no formal admissions to any of the charges, although sent a letter to the NMC in which she claims she was not responsible for patient B on January 29.

But Mrs Barron said as far as she was concerned, Shabalala was the nurse in charge.

Shabalala also claims it was a particularly busy shift.

Shabalala also faces allegations of attempting to catheterise another patient, Patient A, on January 14, 2009, when it was not in her best interests.

In addition, she failed to stop when the patient indicated she was in pain, the NMC claims.

After the alleged incident involving patient B, Shabalala is said to have told a colleague: “I am not paid to look after people like patient B”, or words to that effect.

If found guilty of misconduct, Shabalala could be struck off the nursing register.

The hearing continues.

MORNING NEWS

Gugu Shabalala ??????

I have seen worse, and always think that anyone with a name that doesn’t fit the norm in the host country, should not be allowed to remain unless they adopt a western name. Don’t like it? Tuff. Then go home where they all speak and spell like you do.

Posted by peiper     on 06/27/2012 at 04:49 AM   
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   Saturday - June 02, 2012

BAD white lady. Naughty. You may not complain about dark nurse just cos she’s incompetent

The usual, here we go again you’re a raaaaaaaaacist.  Says the BIG MA-MOO. You will of course know who ma-moo is but here’s a clue.
It ain’t the clean and well groomed white lady. No. She was a patient in a hospital and complained about the treatment given her and a blind patient on her ward.
She reported the nurse in question which it turns out was a great mistake because, that nurse is a member of a holy fraternity or in this case I guess sorority, whose supervisor the nice white lady spoke to, also happened to belong to that holy and much favored minority (not for too much longer unfortunately) and the supervisor who only a year or so before was taken from her tree happily eating bananas and given cloths and made a nurse supervisor, got very angry at the nice white lady and accused her of being ,,,, all together now.  Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacist.  Well now kiddies, if she wasn’t before she got a good taste of why so many white folks are.  But so damn few of em understand that.  Screaming race always shuts down the debate.  I would say that by today’s standards and how that silly word has been applied, anyone can be a racist for merely preferring one group to another. I mean, like seeks like and always has.  So I suppose there’s a certain degree of racist thinking there. So what? Big deal.  Take a look.

Patient who complained about black nurse after treatment left her with punctured lung is accused of racism

Sandra Hynes, 50, went in for acid reflux treatment but following complications was left with a punctured lung

Nurse fed hot soup to a blind patient leaving her blistered and screaming

By NEIL SEARS

A patient who complained about the treatment she and a frail blind woman received at the hands of a poorly-trained nurse was branded a racist.

Sandra Hynes, 50, had only gone into hospital for a simple operation to relieve her acid reflux, but following complications was left with a punctured right lung.

She had to stay in for an extra two weeks and was put on morphine and oxygen to cope with her pain.

But further problems arose when her morphine drip and oxygen needed replenishing over a weekend.

Astonishingly, the staff on duty had not been trained in how to insert a ‘cannula’ needle into her hand, and struggled to provide new oxygen, leaving her in excruciating pain.

When she was given morphine orally instead, and began hallucinating and crying, a member of staff told her off.

Her patience finally snapped when a nurse fed hot soup to a blind patient in the bed next to her, leaving her blistered and screaming.

Mrs Hynes told the junior nurse – who happened to be black – that she should have tested the temperature of the soup before serving it.

Moments later the nurse’s superior, Staff Nurse Maureen Nwadike – who is also black – arrived in the ward, and told horrified Mrs Hynes: ‘You’re racist.’

Despite being in great pain, the patient grabbed a Zimmer frame and tried to leave the hospital.

Now, following a complaint, the Chelsea and Westminster hospital in West London has apologised for her appalling treatment.

Last night Mrs Hynes, of Grays in Essex, said: ‘I was called a racist for complaining about a lady getting scalded, and because no one was able to fix my morphine over the whole weekend. It was a horrific experience.

‘I was in terrible pain, and because it was over the weekend no one could do anything about it.

‘I was scared to be on the ward, and about what might happen while I was asleep.
‘At one stage I even took a Zimmer frame and tried to get out so I could call for help on the street.

‘I never want to go there again, however ill I am.’

Following her complaint, Senior Nurse Sian Davies admitted in a long letter:

‘It is recognised that there are indeed less doctors working at the weekend, which unfortunately resulted in a severe delay in reviewing your pain relief, which is not acceptable.

‘You also described how Nurse Hannah did not know how to change the oxygen. She was relatively new to the ward, not very confident, and has learnt from the experience.

‘And you described how Nurse Maureen Nwadike accused you of being racist.

‘The behaviour you described will not be tolerated and is not acceptable. I will be monitoring her communication skills.’

Contacted at her home in Thamesmead, South-East London, Mrs Nwadike, whose husband Anthony, 54, is a director of a private nursing business, refused to comment.

source

Posted by peiper     on 06/02/2012 at 01:42 PM   
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   Saturday - May 19, 2012

ORGANIC JERKS?

Sometime during the past week I happen to see but didn’t read, an article in the health section of our paper claiming that health food may not really be all that healthy.  But I wasn’t really interested and so ignored it but for the headline.
I try when possible not to over do the yummy stuff that has added to my girth. But that is I’m sorry to say, about as far as it goes.  All the stuff that is supposed to keep me healthy and fit does not taste nearly as good as the stuff that health nazis say is gonna do me in.  He writes as he enjoys a hot cup of PG-Tips xtra strong tea (with Jersey milk which has more cream in it then reg. milk. YUM!) and a strawberry crumpet loaded with real whipped cream.

Anyway, due to things that keep me much preoccupied here, I don’t check my email everyday. But I did this morning and was greeted by the following sent to us by Doc Jeff, and so thanks doc.

H/T Doc Jeff

Does organic food turn people into jerks?

By Diane Mapes

Renate Raymond has encountered her fair share of but a recent trip to a Seattle market left her feeling like she’d stumbled onto the set of Portlandia.

“I stopped at a market to get a fruit platter for a movie night with friends but I couldn’t find one so I asked the produce guy,” says the 40-year-old arts administrator from Seattle. “And he was like, ‘If you want fruit platters, go to Safeway. We’re organic.’ I finally bought a small cake and some strawberries and then at the check stand, the guy was like ‘You didn’t bring your own bag? I need to charge you if you didn’t bring your own bag.’ It was like a ‘Portlandia skit.’ They were so snotty and arrogant.”

As it turns out, new research has determined that a judgmental attitude may just go hand in hand with exposure to organic foods. In fact, a new study published this week in the journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science, has found that organic food may just make people act a bit like jerks.

“There’s a line of research showing that when people can pat themselves on the back for their moral behavior, they can become self-righteous,” says author Kendall Eskine, assistant professor of the department of psychological sciences at Loyola University in New Orleans. “I’ve noticed a lot of organic foods are marketed with moral terminology, like Honest Tea, and wondered if you exposed people to organic food, if it would make them pat themselves on the back for their moral and environmental choices. I wondered if they would be more altruistic or not.”

To find out, Eskine and his team divided 60 people into three groups. One group was shown pictures of clearly labeled organic food, like apples and spinach. Another group was shown comfort foods such as brownies and cookies. And a third group—the controls—were shown non-organic, non-comfort foods like rice, mustard and oatmeal. After viewing the pictures, each person was then asked to read a series of vignettes describing moral transgressions.

SOURCE

Some of you may have seen this on CNBC and so this is for those who didn’t as well as our foreign audience.
And btw .......  how’s this for silly and if anyone understands it, speak up.

I saw some bottled water with a label that read, drawn from organic land.  WTH?

Posted by peiper     on 05/19/2012 at 02:27 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • Miscellaneous • USA •  
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   Friday - May 11, 2012

How to avoid airport security: Wear a burka.

I wasn’t going to bring this one up again as I’d posted the issue yesterday.
However, Littlejohn writing in the Daily Mail, has addressed it well and really shows the absurdity of the officious trolls who along with the terrorist scum, make the travelling public dread the thought of airports and waits and searches. I think his column today is well worth reading, as it is almost all of the time.

How to avoid airport security: Wear a burka

By RICHARD LITTLEJOHN

White airline passengers are routinely stopped and searched unnecessarily at Britain’s airports just so staff can prove they’re not ‘racist’.

Even when customs officials have been tipped off about a black drugs mule arriving on a plane from the Caribbean, they deliberately intercept a number of innocent white passengers so they can’t be accused of discrimination.

John Vine, chief inspector of the UK Border Agency, says staff try to ensure the right racial ‘mix’ even though they have no legal right to detain people on such grounds.  This is because they are petrified about being hammered with allegations of racism every time they stop and search someone from an ethnic minority background.

Tell us something we don’t know. Airport security operates on the same senseless basis.

We’ve all watched elderly white passengers being put through the third degree, while young Asian men wearing backpacks waft past unchallenged.
I’ve seen distressed grey-haired pensioners being patted down intimately and forced to empty all their belongings out of their hand luggage.
Meanwhile, women in full burkas are waved through with a cheery: ‘Have a nice flight.’

Like it or not, though, the fact is that potential suicide bombers do tend to come from that particular demographic. And Al Qaeda suspects have been known to shield their identities behind a burka.  Humiliating every Howard and Hilda heading off on a package holiday, just to meet some artificial racial quota, doesn’t serve to make air travel any safer. It is witless, inconvenient and inefficient.

The authorities know that it causes widespread resentment, which is why airports are plastered with notices giving dire warnings that anyone abusing staff will be arrested immediately and prosecuted.  There’s something horribly wrong with any organisation which has to threaten its customers with arrest before they get to the counter.  I have to bite my lip every time I travel by air to stop myself railing against the insanity of it all, otherwise I’d be in handcuffs before I got anywhere near the departure gate.
Don’t do it, Rich, it’s not worth it.

Passing through Britain’s airports is already an ordeal. And now that the CIA claims to have discovered a new Al Qaeda metal-free explosive device aimed at bringing down aircraft, it’s about to get a whole lot worse. Expect even more stringent security, especially on transatlantic flights.

As someone who travels to the U.S. fairly regularly, I’m acutely aware of the threat posed by terrorists. I was on a North West flight into Detroit just two weeks before the so-called underpants bomber tried to bring down another North West plane above the same airport in 2009. So I’m glad that the authorities are doing everything possible to prevent more aircraft being blown up or flown into skyscrapers.
I just wish a little more intelligence was applied to the process.
When was the last time any plane was hijacked by a 78-year-old granny from Leamington Spa? Precisely.

The nature of the threat makes the case for racial profiling at airports compelling. The security services already do it covertly. Stopping and searching those who plainly pose no danger, simply for the sake of keeping up appearances, is obtuse.
Yet when Jeremy Clarkson suggested recently that a little light profiling of air passengers might not be a bad thing, the twittering lynch mob went knee-jerk berserk and there were bovine calls for him to be sacked from the BBC.

While we are all being urged to ‘celebrate diversity’, we shouldn’t try to kid ourselves that multiculturalism hasn’t brought with it some serious downsides — such as home-grown Islamist terrorists and gangs of Pakistani child rapists.

We’ve all got to rub along in this modern-day melting pot. And that noble ambition isn’t served by ignoring genuine prejudice where it exists, from whichever inconvenient quarter, and gormlessly screeching ‘racism’ where it doesn’t.

Disingenuously insisting that Pakistani child rapists aren’t motivated at least in part by their own wicked brand of racial and cultural bigotry doesn’t do anyone any favours.

And neither does stopping and searching blameless white passengers at Britain’s airports, when you are hoping to catch a black drugs mule.

That’s not a bold demonstration of anti-racism. It’s just plain stupid.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 05/11/2012 at 11:04 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Health and Safety • muslims •  
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   Tuesday - January 31, 2012

pc health police shut down hospital burger king

This is I gather, what happens in a socialist nanny state.  What an outrage.
It is not as though Burger King doesn’t sell salads and other items with less calories and fat.  But that aside, there are damn few hospital cafeterias and none in our area, that are worth much.  So personally, I’d welcome mouth satisfying food as served by BK. And it isn’t like I eat there every day or even every month.
Why can’t people choose for themselves without having other people decide for them? 

And talking about sending out the wrong messages.  I have seen a few medical staff who didn’t exactly fit the image of exercise and healthy eating. 
I wonder what sort of brainwashed world this new generation born in 2012, will see in 2037 when I won’t be here to see it for myself.  And perhaps I won’t want to witness it all and so might be lucky.  They’re being born into a world where everything will be proscribed for them.  Things will be forbidden but it won’t matter since they won’t grow up in a world where they’ll have the experience of choice.
Pessimistic I suppose but that’s how I see it.

Hospital facing $4.8m cuts forced to pay $31,395 to shut Burger King on its site

Fast food store which opened in 1997 has been replaced by Costa Coffee
By ROB COOPER

An NHS trust paid £24,000 to shutdown a Burger King restaurant inside a hospital.

The outlet in the entrance area of Croydon University Hospital in Surrey has sold burgers and high fat meals to patients for 14 years.
But it was replaced with a Costa Coffee outlet at hefty cost to the taxpayer in December last year following pressure from health campaigners.
The £24,000 ($31,395) cost is enough to cover the salary of lower grade nurse for a whole year.

They accused the hospital of hypocrisy for taking money from the fast food chain at a time when Britain is undergoing an obesity crisis.
The Burger King was located close to notice boards promoting healthy eating.
Explaining the decision, Croydon Health Service said the ‘world had changed’ since bosses signed the contract with Burger King in 1997 to open the fast food restaurant.
Figures obtained under freedom of information laws reveal the NHS Trust paid £24,000 to Compass UK - the company operating the fast food franchise - to terminate the contract.
The trust said none of the money would go to Burger King itself. 
The hospital has to find £34.7million savings over the next three years and has been forced to axe 200 jobs and close four wards.
Hospital bosses hope to claw back some of the money by opening a new pharmacy in the entrance area.
The decision has been welcomed by Croydon North MP Malcolm Wicks.
The Labour MP said: ‘From the first time I saw the wretched burger joint, I was upset about it.

“The trust said none of the money would go to Burger King itself.”
They make it appear as if money going to BK would be a high crime, and saying that none of the money would go them, makes it look more like an apology.  But we’re not giving money to “those people.”

A Labour MP. Tells ya all you need to know.  Not that many conservatives don’t deserve a swift kick. The left is ever happy to be outraged or offended on behalf of others and will happily do the thinking for others as well.

‘Advertising and selling fast food, which is generally unhealthy, really grates with what a modern hospital is about.
‘I’ve badgered successive chief executives about getting rid of the thing, so I wouldn’t criticise the hospital for finally taking the right decision, though the costs are substantial.’
Folake Segun from patients group Croydon Shadow Health Watch said: ‘Hopefully the trust will take the opportunity to properly consult with the community before bringing in such companies in the future.’
he original contract was signed in 1997 between the hospital’s landlord Heathcrof Properties and Compass UK.
Croydon Health Service chief executive Nick Hulme said the hospital had never had direct control over what businesses operate in the entrance area.
He said: ‘We made a business decision to invest in this change which will give our patients and visitors a better service.’

Wanna bet? Don’t hold your breath for that. It’s what they always chant. It’s a mantra. Better service, we’ll learn from our mistakes, it’s good for the kids who are our only concern, yadda,yadda.  It all translates to, stop thinking for yourself. We know what’s best for you.

Posted by peiper     on 01/31/2012 at 01:38 PM   
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Commies • Daily Life • Health and Safety • Nanny State •  
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   Saturday - November 19, 2011

mom dies after fall down shaft, firemen told not to break health and safety rules.

This is my final for the night. Hate to end on this sad note but feel compelled to post this story.
A very sad comment on the world we now inhabit.
Sitting here trying to come up with something but hell, I’ll just let the article speak for itself.
Take a look at this, and be sure to see the link below before the Mail removes the story.

Left to die by the health and safety jobsworths: Mother who fell 45ft down mine shaft wasn’t rescued - because firemen were told life-saving gear would break the rules

Alison Hume left at bottom of collapsed 45ft mine shaft for six hours
She suffered fatal heart attack brought on by hypothermia
Inquiry found fire service evidence ‘bullish, if not arrogant’

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue said her death was a source of ‘enormous regret’ but did not apologise

By JONATHAN BROCKLEBANK

A mother of two who fell 45ft down a mine shaft died after fire chiefs refused to mount an immediate rescue operation because of health and safety fears.

Alison Hume, 44, was left lying in agony in the cold and dark for eight hours with several broken bones.

A report into her death yesterday found she could have survived if rank-and-file firemen had been allowed to do their job and bring her out.

One fireman had been lowered down while a paramedic was strapped up in a harness ready to follow.

But bosses refused to use a winch to lift out the mother-of-two because they were slavishly following rules which said the equipment could only be used to save their own staff.

Instead they waited through the early hours of the morning for a police mountain rescue team to arrive.

Mrs Hume was lifted out but died shortly afterwards from a heart attack brought on by hypothermia.

Last night her stepfather Hugh Cowan, 69, said: ‘They need to ask why people are using health and safety as an excuse for failure, rather than a reason for success.’

The case is the latest example of emergency service personnel putting their safety ahead of those they are supposed to be rescuing. Ten-year-old Jordan Lyon, of Wigan, drowned in a pond in 2007 after two police community support officers said they were unable to help him due to health and safety regulations.

Earlier this year coroner David Roberts said the emergency services must be prepared to ‘risk their lives’ after hearing how red tape cost vital minutes during Derrick Bird’s Cumbrian gun massacre.

Mrs Hume fell down the 45ft mine shaft, part of a coal mine that closed in 1926, at 11.30pm while taking a shortcut home across a field near Galston in Ayrshire after visiting friends in July 2008.

She was found by her teenage daughter before Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service arrived and fireman Alexander Dunn was lowered to the bottom of the shaft.

Please see this link for the whole story and photos.
lots more here

Posted by peiper     on 11/19/2011 at 04:50 PM   
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Health and Safety • UK •  
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   Tuesday - April 26, 2011

a ban on bumper cars, or dodgems as we’d say in the usa.

OK, do I file this under humor?  Or stupid people?

I think we called em Dodgems when I was a kid.  The goal of course was to avoid being bumped while aiming for someone else. Heck, I don’t recall anyone ever being hurt. But hey ... health and safety ya know.  And then sadly, there is the legal thing in these days of a very litigious culture. 

I guess maybe I should file under law and courts and lawyers etc. I just discovered there isn’t really anything funny here. 

Bumping in bumper cars is banned at Butlins in the name of ‘health and safety’

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 8:45 AM on 26th April 2011

You could be forgiven for thinking bumper cars were, well, for bumping.

But seaside resorts are introducing their own strict Highway Code on the fairground ride because of health and safety concerns.

Bosses at all three Butlins resorts – in Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness – have decided that the point of dodgems is to dodge one another.

So they have banned visitors from bumping their cars together, requesting that they manoeuvre them carefully and sedately around the course instead.

They insist adults and children can still have ‘great fun’ overtaking other cars – but only while driving in an orderly fashion in the same direction.

However, disappointed visitors have described the experience as similar to navigating ‘an exitless roundabout’.

Ironically, it was Sir Billy Butlin himself who brought the electric bumper car, equipped with its distinctive large bumpers, to British fairgrounds from the U.S. in the 1920s.

The holiday camp confirmed that the rules for their ‘experience dodgems’ had been tightened to avoid customers injuring themselves or others. Staff have been ordered to ban any visitor who dares to flout the strict ‘no bump’ rule.

A spokesman for Butlins admitted the restrictions were ‘pretty vigilant’, but insisted they were necessary.

It is thought the company was concerned about potential legal claims for whiplash or other injuries suffered during a ‘crash’.

But although there have been attempts to claim compensation for injuries sustained while on a bumper car, none has succeeded.

Solicitors say it would be very difficult to prove fault on the part of a dodgem driver, and many believe the level of impact would simply be too low for a compensation claim. 

Jeremy Pardey, resort director at Butlins in Bognor Regis, said he could not allow the cars to bump for ‘health and safety reasons’.

He added: ‘The point of our dodgems is to dodge people, not to run into people.’

The holiday camp has fallen in line with many other fairgrounds which display ‘no bumping’ signs. But few go as far as banning those who break the rules.

Mr Butlin bought the UK franchise for Dodgem Cars, a brand manufactured in the U.S., and introduced them at his holiday camps 80 years ago.

source

Posted by peiper     on 04/26/2011 at 06:06 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
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   Wednesday - April 13, 2011

It Figures

Fire extinguishers could be removed from communal areas in flats throughout the country because they are a safety hazard, it has emerged.

The life-saving devices encourage untrained people to fight a fire rather than leave the building, risk assessors in Bournemouth decided.

There are fears that their recommendation, which has seen the extinguishers ripped out of several private, high-rise flats in the town, could set a national precedent.

Under the Fire Safety Order of 2005, fire assessments must be carried out to ‘eliminate or reduce risk as is reasonably practical’.

But Mike Edwards, who lives in one of the blocks, said he was ‘absolutely staggered’ that risk experts thought it a safe decision.

‘They are worried we will point them in the wrong direction or use the wrong extinguishers,’ he said. ‘But if you are trapped in a burning building, you will work out how to use one.’

The 61-year-old claimed his neighbours were now worried sick that a fire could break out.

Dorset Fire and Rescue defended the move, saying: ‘Obviously, in some cases, an extinguisher could come in useful but, with new building regulations, every escape route should be completely fireproof.’

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents backed their removal because different extinguishers should be used on different types of fire.

That’s why most American households have Class A-B-C extinguishers, which will do the job on anything other than burning Maseratis, which need those Class D extinguishers. The best informed of us who really love to deep fry have made the investment in a Class K extinguisher, made especially for fighting grease and oil fires, although I am reasonably sure that an A-B-C model can handle a small grease fire. Just step back a little so you don’t blast the burning grease right out of the pan or off the stove. Or have a big box of baking soda you can dust at it. A BIG box.

Pretty sure we learned in Cub Scouts that you shoot the source, not the flames. ”PASS”, right? Or was it PASS OUT - pull, aim, shoot, sweep, get OUT? Macht nichts. And that’s about all the training you need for most small fires.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/13/2011 at 11:55 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • UK •  
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   Thursday - March 17, 2011

HEALTH AND SAFETY MEETS CHARITY SHOP … SHOP TO CLOSE …

On the face of it, when I first read this I thought oh no. The idiots at the HSE (Health & Safety Exec.) are at it again. And so it seems.
I’ve never worked in a charity shop and so have no experience there. But I have helped out on some charity events from time to time since, well, I guess since forever. Never occurred to me that I had to be mindful of H&S issues outside the ordinary things.  The wife currently helps out some aged ladies, it isn’t in a closed environment like a store. She does some grocery shopping for them and as needed when able to, takes them to doctors or gives them a lift if they need one.  It’s not every day though.  So I was surprised to read this about a charity shop, and I guess someone - somewhere has to cover eventualities.

Wasn’t always this way though. Was it?  And btw ... this salary works out to more then $50,000 a year. Yikes.

Red tape forces volunteer shop to close

Volunteers at a successful charity shop were forced out of business when the charity owners insisted on hiring a paid manager to look afetr them.

The volunteers had been running the Cancer Research UK charity shop in Cullompton, Devon since 2006 without any paid staff support and had been successul in raising over £40k of funds for the charity every year.

Howevever a recent health and safety inspection identified what it called ‘significant gaps in regulatory compliance’ and Cancer Research UK were told they needed to install a paid manager or cease trading with immediate effect. The charity is unable to afford the £25k salary needed and so the shop has been closed down.

The ‘gaps’ identified by the health and safety executive included ‘inproper use of cleaning materials’ and storing heavy objects too high up on shelves.

The shop’s 30 plus volunteers, who between them have hundreds of years of life experience, are devastated by the decision. As well as raising funds for the charity the shop had become a hub for older people in the community and many of the volunteers had contributed their own funds to cover set up costs when they took over the shop in 2006.

A spokesperson for the volunteers told the Daily Mail, ‘This has become a real hub of the community and, quite apart from turning a tidy profit, has become a focal point for pensioners and widows to come and meet and browse through items.’

VOLUNTEER SOURCE

everything working well with no problems for some yrs now so let fix it.

Posted by peiper     on 03/17/2011 at 10:42 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety •  
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   Tuesday - February 08, 2011

A MATTER OF SOVEREIGNTY AND MEDICAL SAFETY

I have myself come into contact with doctors (not a lot) who I have had to ask to repeat themselves.  Doesn’t happen often but when it does, I’m always left wondering, do they understand me? Do they know what I’m trying to describe? It’s just a feeling sometimes of confidence as in, Lack Of!

This article in the Mail today hasn’t made me feel any more confident I can tell ya.

To be fair, the nurses I have come into contact with on the odd occasion, were highly competent and professional and kindly. I found that in Winchester as well as Southampton.  Which does not make this article any the less scary.

I thought it should be shared as much for the issue of sovereignty as for medical safety. I bang on a lot, on the issue of ‘sovereignty,’ but find I can’t help myself because of what I have seen here over the last 6 and more years.  Keep in mind please that I remember an England that did not have to answer to foreign powers or blocks in the way they do now.  Another example of that is the vote for prisoners.  The European Court of Human Rights has ruled and EU members must follow.
There’s a huge fight going on as I write this on that subject.  If this country refuses the edict, they will face millions in legal action. It’s a mess folks and I know of few here who like the idea.  Well, except for one writer in today’s Telegraph who thinks refusing the vote to prisoners undermines Democracy. Oh really? Then why has it done so well (mostly) over all these years?  And here’s an interesting aside.  It won’t be the EU or their courts that will lose monies.  It’ll be the Brit taxpayer if things go haywire.  Who else?

So naturally me being me, I transfer what I see and read here, to my own country thinking that anything is possible. And it most assuredly is. There’s many a rough and tumble Brit who never dreamed his country would be thus in 2011.  If you could time travel and meet Churchill and tell him what’s happened to his country, he’d think you utterly mad or drunk or both. It would be beyond his imagining.  As an American, I’m inclined that way. In my country? Not a chance of losing our sovereignty. Oh yeah?  I’m seeing first hand what the pc left has done here.  And there damn well are Americans who are their first cousins.
So I worry.  The only saving grace, maybe, is that Americans are armed to the teeth. The question is, will those weapons actually come into use?

Stay Tuned.

Foreign nurses will be able to work here with just TWO days’ testing in EU shake-up

By SOPHIE BORLAND

Poorly-trained foreign nurses will be allowed to work in Britain after completing only two days of role playing and multiple choice tests.

The short course replaces the rigorous assessments and exams currently undertaken by those failing to meet NHS standards.

To work on wards, nurses are likely to need to show only their skills on dummies, with no requirement to speak good English.

The shake-up is being imposed by the European Union, which says tests on foreign workers go against its freedom of movement laws.

Senior health officials fear the multiple choice assessments, which will begin in April, will be unrealistic and too easy.

Under the existing rules, any EU nurse whose training is deemed substandard must go on an intensive adaptation programme lasting up to six months before they can work in UK hospitals. The courses, which can cost up to £1,500, are run by universities and consist of theory tests, written coursework and practical exams in wards or nursing homes.

Although not directly assessed on their English, candidates would struggle to pass without good language skills.

The regime is so strict that only a quarter of the 8,000 EU nurses who apply to work in the UK every year see the process through.

Most are put off by the cost and difficulty of making the grade.

Those not up to scratch largely come from states relatively new to the EU such as Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Estonia and Latvia.

When the MIL was still alive and there were care givers assigned to help my wife, and these weren’t volunteers but paid workers, we had one mouthy and disagreeable young woman from one of those countries mentioned.  Not that she was the only troublesome helper, there were a couple of native Brits who were less then agreeable altho competent enough. But it wasn’t easy getting ppl and the MIL was totally bedridden and so the wife let some things slide rather then gripe. In the case of the foreign worker, she left for a nursing job somewhere, and I feel sorry for whoever finds themselves in her care. She spoke English very well, but I don’t think she understood it as well as she spoke it, and pointing out a mistake was taken as an insult.

The new tests are being drawn up by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. It is understood they will involve multiple choice, role plays and demonstrations on dummy patients – and may last just two days.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: ‘These multiple choice tests will be far too simple.

‘This is giving patient safety no priority. How can nurses’ ability to carry out drug calculations and all the other skills required on the ward be assessed in a multiple choice test? It’s disgraceful that this is allowed to happen.’

John Lister, director of campaign group London Health Emergency, said: ‘This is a retrograde step and this is something the NMC should be challenging in court.’

The council is being forced to take action after being threatened with lawsuits by Bulgarian nurses who claimed it was too difficult to register to work in Britain.

The EU has also blocked rigorous checks on foreign GPs who want to work here. This had disastrous results in 2008 when engineer David Gray died at the hands of German locum Daniel Ubani, who gave him ten times the normal dose of diamorphine.

Mr Gray’s son Stuart, who is a GP in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, said: ‘It’s a ludicrous system. The NHS is a very different to other countries’ health systems and people need training before they can practise here.’

Nurses from countries outside the EU will still face stringent tests.

The NHS relies on foreign nurses and in the past decade more than 90,000 have registered to work in the UK, mainly from the Philippines, Australia, India and South Africa.

Relaxing the entry requirements for EU nurses is likely to see an influx of nurses who had felt it too much trouble to work in Britain.

A spokesman for the Nursing and Midwifery Council said: ‘The test will ensure that EU-trained nurses are able to meet the same standards that we require of nurses who trained in the UK.’

A Department of Health spokesman said foreign healthcare professionals would need to pass robust language and competency tests.

CARRY ON NURSE

Posted by peiper     on 02/08/2011 at 11:17 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety •  
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