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Journalists need to have a heart in reporting the NHS

ANOTHER day and another excuse for the BBC to have a pop at the NHS and, in particular, its nurses.

Even though the recent furore over Obama’s healthcare plans led to an unprecedented Twitter campaign in defence of this British institution – clear evidence that an overwhelming majority of people who receive its services think the NHS is a good thing – Auntie continues to be navigated by the middle class sensibilities of its inexperienced reporters and editors.

Whereas Twitter truly is a democratic indicator, the Beeb has rarely had to reflect the concerns of its audience. And, while immigration may be the best example of where the Corporation’s reporting is at odds with the views of a majority of the British public, in any area of life where there is a liberal-conservative flashpoint, the BBC will inevitably plump for the former, rather than the popular, view.

The targeting of nurses marks a new low for the BBC. Even it recognises that soldiers are the new angels, and therefore has at least the sense to drawback from delving into the darker side of combat. Instead, it has gone after the nursing profession with a venom it usually accuses tabloids of employing.

This year, particularly on its incredibly poor breakfast television offering, the Beeb has run a succession of stories that ignores or plays down the increasingly tough situation on the wards and has instead levelled heavy criticism at those that deliver the care, focusing particularly on tales of neglect or, preferably, cruelty. If these cases are proven – and, often, they don’t seem to be – there seem to be no investigation into the background and causes of such instances.

This latest report focuses on 16 cases of suggested patient neglect in England. The Patients Association, which brought forth the complaints, says there are “hundreds and hundreds” of similar examples, adding that 2% of patients and relatives believe the service delivered was poor.

Interestingly, it means there has been no change in that proportion since 2002, while 43% of respondents in the latest survey rated health service delivery as excellent – a “significant increase on last year”, says the BBC. The Patients Association also qualifies its findings by saying all the examples it uses were reviewed critically because complaint do “not necessarily reflect the reality”. Much of this is buried deep down in the story on the website, and was mentioned not at all on the morning bulletins.

This would have made it a non-story had it not been for the excitable comments of the Patients Association’s president, Claire Rayner. According to herself and to the Beeb, she was once a nurse. Whenever that was – and Wikipedia devotes just one line to this episode, recording that she trained “originally” as a nurse at Guy’s in London – nearly everyone in the UK will know her as a time-served agony aunt.

Even though we can pretty safely assume that she has not walked the wards in uniform for some decades, she was able to offer this judgment: “I am sickened by what has happened to some part of my profession of which I was so proud. These bad, cruel nurses may be – probably are – a tiny proportion of the nursing work force, but even if they are only one or two per cent of the whole they should be identified and struck off the Register.”

Even the Royal College of Nursing, often deafeningly silent on most matters affecting its members – particularly pay and conditions in recent times – was prompted to respond. Dr Peter Carter, its chief executive, said: “Two per cent is too many but we are concerned that this might undermine the public’s confidence in the world-class care they can expect to receive from the NHS. Furthermore it could also dampen the morale of the millions of staff who work tirelessly to help their patients.”

Amen to that. There are plenty of faults that can be levelled at NHS staff, not least their tendency to shrug – a kind of shorthand for “you can’t change the system” – when appointments are broken or made so far in the future as to be of no benefit, because people get better on their own. It somewhat makes a mockery of the word ‘delivery’.

But nurses on wards across the length and breadth of the UK are bombarded on an almost weekly basis with presents from patients and their relatives, who have seen them go the extra mile in providing the care and rehabilitation that poorly people so crucially require. This care – staying late, working extra shifts, sitting with a patient and holding their hand through the dark nights of illness – is an unseen love and, in the case of the BBC, an unreported love.

Dr Carter raises an interesting point about changing perceptions. As the country moves ever further away from real and commonplace hardship, so many patients have begun to confuse hospitals with hotels. The darkside to this change in attitude is ever-rising assaults on healthcare professionals. We are now at the point where attacking medical staff should be considered as serious as punching a policemen. Another example of this shift comes through increased litigation, with patients and their families prepared these days to sue for lost nightdresses – often fraudulently. More commonly, nurses are frequently called to plump pillows, fill the glasses of patients who can take their own refreshments – even to arrange flowers. This is not the work of trained professionals, because they could be used better elsewhere.

Everyone who is in hospital is at different stages of recovery, with requirements unique to them. A nurse will, on average, be responsible for around 10 patients. If one soils their bed just minutes after they have been seen to, and must remain that way if another patient suddenly develops a serious problem, such as a heart attack, it will of course look terrible if relatives arrive to be told by the patient that they have remained that way for hours. But how does any of us solve such a dilemma, particularly when the cost of healthcare – especially particularly through drugs and equipment – is ever on the rise, and budgets are being squeezed?

All of this proper inquiry appears to have passed the BBC by. Static claims of nursing neglect remain enough to lead the morning news. And shocking though they may be, serious illness is unlikely ever to be controlled to the level that the Beeb seems to suggest that it should be. Finally, and perhaps most ironically, reporting of this kind plays right into the hands of those odious right wingers – roundly despised by BBC hacks – who would rather that 47 million Americans remain without proper healthcare, by giving them another stick to beat the NHS with. And it was here that the far more representative Twitter came in.