War Against Elderly Patients in the UK—Nurse Struck From Rolls for Exposing Abuse

A nurse in the UK reveals terrible abuse and neglect of elderly patients at a hospital in the UK. You’d think the powers that be would give her a medal. Nope. As I reported here yesterday, Margaret Haywood secretly filmed and proved how badly patients were being treated. Her reward? She’s lost the right to be a nurse. From the story:

Nurse Margaret Haywood has been struck off the register with immediate effect after secretly filming for a BBC Panorama programme exposing neglect of elderly patients in a hospital.

Nurse Margaret Haywood secretly filmed the neglect of elderly patients Photo: PA Miss Haywood, 58, recorded appalling conditions at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton for a BBC documentary screened in July 2005. She said: “I was convinced that it was the right thing to do at the time as, in fact, I had reported the issues and nothing had been done.

Yes, well the-powers-that-be don’t like to be made to look bad—and so Nurse Haywood, you are a nurse no more! And with that, a very dangerous and insidious message has been sent to all medical personnel: You witness abuse and we decide to do nothing about it, you keep their mouths shut—or else!

And don’t think neglect doesn’t happen here in the USA. Backstage today, I heard an appalling story from an SHSer, of an elderly relative becoming dehydrated in a nursing home, and when it was discovered, of the Sisyphean effort it is taking just to get an IV put in ta vein to hydrate the relative and save the person’s life!

Some days I want to pull out my hair.