Liverpool Care Pathway - On The Record

The worst of all possible worlds.

The patient, in her elder years, with a chronic kidney condition, a heavy smoker with Alzheimer’s and just having undergone a hysterectomy and double hip replacement, she would have qualified easily for her GP’s 1% list. There was just one problem... 

The brief summary of her medical notes she was shown was a fabrication, start to finish. Grandmother, Mary Kerswell, was stunned. She had resolved to obtain a copy of her medical records following a request from her surgery to supply a urine sample for the kidney condition which she did not have.

Mrs. Kerswell’s story is related in Mail Online -

...when the retired scientist returned to the surgery a week later after paying a £10 fee, she was told the notes were not ready.

Frustrated, Mrs Kerswell staged a sit-in and refused to leave until the receptionist printed the records and addressed the errors.

But the surgery called the police and a community support officer attended, before calling for back up.

Mrs Kerswell was then handcuffed and spoken to in a police car. The pensioner, from Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, yesterday told the Mail that she could not believe the reaction to what she claims was a ‘peaceful protest’.

She has since been struck off her GP's list.

Mary Kerswell, a retired scientist, had every reason to be distressed and concerned - alarmed, enough to insist she be supplied a copy of her records there and then. CQUIN payments for 'excellence' in chasing down candidates for the death lists is enough to alarm any sensible person.

The CQUINs paid out for meeting goals may appear a foolhardy expense and further drain on an ever-diminishing pot, but when those goals produce savings in the long term, that paints an entirely different picture.

GP surgeries are now run like private businesses but, with the security of remaining within the net of the State-run NHS, they cannot fail. These days, managed practices are out to make a fast buck however they can. Charging fees for services has become a lucrative income for GPs. 

This is the Daily Echo -

Daily Echo February 2010 

It’s all about the money, money, money.

Like a flotilla of empty vessels in the classroom, the clinicians clamour to rake off the bounty.

The Telegraph

Those who still see the profession as a profession and the work as a  vocation slog on in silence, still making a difference because it's the difference which counts.

It's the worst of all possible worlds.