Monday 1 December 2008

The Health Danger of Passive Incompetence


Considering we are all Government-bound to think, in every waking moment, about our imminent death if we don't do as we are told, I thought it wise to warn you of those dangerous lifestyle choices again.

Smoking, Drinking, Poor Diet ... the NHS.

I've always found it effective (and amusing) once a GP starts hectoring about lifestyle choices, to reply, "OK, I'll give them up if you lot stop killing people". I used to quote the figure of 30,000 (though I can't remember where I read it). It now seems that the taxpayer-funded death toll is increasing.

Professor Richard Thomson, from Newcastle University's institute of health and society, said the most reliable evidence showed around 10 per cent of patients admitted to hospital suffered "harm" because of treatment.

He told the committee that the number of overall deaths caused by medical care going wrong was far from clear but that some estimates put it at up to 40,000 a year.


40,000? Hmmm ... that figure sounds familiar.

At least 400,000 people in England have quit smoking because of the ban on lighting up in public places.

The smokefree legislation could prevent 40,000 people dying over the next decade, a new survey has also claimed.


"Could". Over the next decade, eh? So, even according to the wild exaggerations of healthist lunatics and their pretend, computer-modelled lives, the smoking ban has only 'saved' (made immortal, presumably) 10% of the real lives that are snuffed out by the medical profession over the same period of time.

Perhaps it's time for the NHS to go SanctimoniousGPfree.

H/T The Ranting Penguin




3 comments:

AloneMan said...

My mother in law was in pretty good shape when she entered hospital, and she came out dead. My wife's uncle was recovering well from an illness and we were desperate to get him out of hospital, but we weren't able to do so before he relapsed. My father in law was left lying in his own vomit for 12 hours, unable to move, before anyone did anything.
The lesson I've taken from all that - if there's any chance, stay out of hospital.

vincent1 said...

Womble on Tour, The smoke-haters think walking past smokers outside the entrance, is the worst thing that can happen to them.

The 40,000, 400,000 in so many scenarios, is just laughable now.
I think they must have got fed up with the 50,000 500,000 figures.

I once googled those figures with "deaths" next to them. I cannot believe, so many deaths, from so many accidents, diseases, ect come to those magic numbers either.
mandyv

Mrs Smallprint said...

I'm not always polite, whatever the rights and wrongs of the Government figures the smoking ban has come as a great relief to me. I have asthma and like many of my fellow sufferers find smokey places difficult.

I do agree that the state of our health service - dispite the billions spent on it is lamentable.

There is one person who I am particularly fond of being rude about and if you have visited my blog I am sure that the super hero I refer to is one you recognise.