Interesting Facts

Around 5000 people need treatment in hospital for severe allergic reactions each year in the UK. (Sadly some cases are fatal, causing an average of 10 deaths annually. According to the European Academy of Allergy, food allergies affect more than 17 million people across Europe. It reminds me of the story in the UK , about the supermarket that had to remove packets of nuts from their shelves, because they didn't warn people that the packet contained nuts.)

A pie that's a whopping 800 calories, is being sold at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, just around the corner from the cardiac rehabilitation ward. (The pie, dubbed 'a heart attack on a plate', includes a slice of bacon, a sausage, a black pudding and beans, topped with an egg. It is a third of a man's daily recommended calorie intake. Stunningly hospital bosses have ignored calls for a ban on this whopping pie, insisting "other meals are available". What next? The MacDonald's coronary care unit?) Source: The Wright Stuff

NHS hospitals in the UK are going to be ranked on the quality of their food. (I can see it now!  A GP recommends a patient goes into hospital, and the patient asks which one does the best lasagne.)

Imagine this, you have a blood clot and you're being rushed to hospital, then the ambulance stops and you realise it's to pick up a couple of hitchhikers. Well, that's exactly what happened to  60 year old Glenn Buscombe. (He was in the vehicle when it picked up a pair of hitchhikers, and dropped them in the next town before taking him to A&E in Plymouth. Unsurprisingly one of the hitchhikers was a woman in a skimpy skirt.) Source

With recent calls for drunks to be banned from A&E (Accident and Emergency) departments in NHS hospitals, according to charity Alcohol Concern, 1/3 of people seeking treatment were under the influence, this rises to 40% at the weekend, and a shocking 70% of people who seek treatment in the early hours. (In 2013 over 1 million patients were admitted to hospital in the UK with alcohol related illnesses or injuries, at a cost of £3.5 billion. One problem I faced on having hurt myself in the early hours, is that 100% of doctors and nurses presume you are drunk. (I wasn't.))

This goes nicely with what Poetria said in today's reading on Skype .  Only 0.5% of the £95.6 billion budget for the NHS goes on food. (According to official figures some hospitals spend as little as 69p on each meal.  That might be about to change as hospitals, schools and prisons are about to be told to buy British.  Whether that will improve the quality of the food is debatable, but it will certainly make it more expensive.)  http://www.learnenglish.de/vocabulary/food.html

The NHS (National Health Service) in the UK, received more than 162,000 complaints about care in 2012/13 – around 3,000 every week. (A recent (2013) report into the NHS and its handling of complaints recommended that all NHS patients should have a pen and paper by their hospital bed for writing down complaints. I would have thought having a nurse, interested in their well-being, near their hospital bed would be more useful.)

According to figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre, some hospitals in the UK are feeding patients for around £ 4 .15 a day. (The amount is less than half the national average, which according to the Department of Health, has risen by £1.10 from £8.77 to £9.87.  Interestingly figures also showed that some hospitals charge £4 per hour for parking – three times the national average. Nice to see where their priorities lie.)

Under new plans for the NHS, trainee nurses will train in basic care for a year, feeding, washing and dressing patients, to ensure compassion. (This is partly in response to the Stafford hospital inquiry, where harrowing neglect and abuse took place between 2005 to 2008. Interestingly no such recommendations are to be made for doctors or surgeons.  Maybe there were no doctors and surgeons at Stafford hospital, or perhaps they are considered to be above such things as compassion.)

According to government figures, a child under 10 is admitted to hospital due to alcohol problems every 3 days in England. (It's not that surprising when you realise that some supermarkets offer beer at 54p a pint, and a 750ml bottle of branded water, sells for the equivalent of 57p a pint.)

Too much coffee can land you in hospital, with caffeine intoxication. (Jasmine Willis, 17, developed a fever and began hyperventilating while working at her family's sandwich shop. She had drunk seven double espressos! She must have been hanging off the ceiling!)