What's wrong with offering a prayer?

It is rare that I think the phrase "political correctness gone mad" has any useful value. But this story: Daily Mail: Persecuted for praying: Nurse who faces the sack after offering to pray for sick patient has made me wonder.

She offered to pray for one of her patients who politely declined. Nobody who was there was offended and yet some self-righteous person has initiated a formal complaint that has resulted in the nurse facing the sack for caring for people.

What kind of society are we living in today where such things can happen?

The redundancy the NHS still needs

Since my post nearly a year ago (The redundancy the NHS needs) Patricia Hewitt has continued to fail to understand the NHS and morale is still low. It has reached the point that doctors are in despair.

*BBC News: Senior DoH staff 'dissatisfied'
*ITV News: Junior doctors in jobs protests
*Yorkshire Post: Hewitt defends doctor recruitment system
*BBC News: 'I'm leaving the NHS for New Zealand'

And just look at the reaction to her name at this protest about the mess that is the Medical Training and Application System:



So it comes as no surprise that doctors have started a petition for the redundancy of this redundant minister:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Remove Patricia Hewitt from the office of Health Secretary.

The number of health workers signing so far is very telling.

Words fail me

BBC News: 'No bed' for woman in labour:

A woman who went into labour at home claims she was told to look in the Yellow Pages because her local hospital had ran out of beds.

Maybe this was an abnormal occurance - the hospital insists their practice when full is to search for a bed at a nearby hospital - but it's horrific that such attitudes can be found in today's "better than ever" NHS.

The redundancy the NHS needs

Patricia Hewitt must be thanking her lucky stars. Any other day and her reception at the Royal College of Nursing would have been the main political story, putting all pressure on her. Instead other events have made it partially buried bad news, a mere part of the wider story of the government's troubles, being upstaged by Charles Clarke.

This Health Secretary is convinced that the NHS has just had its best year ever despite having only visited thirteen hospitals during the last year. Yesterday she was confronted by one of the least militant trade unions of all, a union that has never gone on strike. These are not people who will jeer the government for the sake of it. Nurses know from first hand experience just what state the NHS is in.

A Health Secretary who denies reality about the state of the NHS, who has no clear grasp of the deficits in healthcare trusts and who fails to reassure the medical professions about potential job cuts does nothing to boost crucial morale. There is one redundancy that would give the NHS a morale boost and that is Hewitt's. But it would only be effective if her replacement will get a firm understanding and grip on the job, not live in some other reality.