Patient dying of thirst rang 999

I cannot speak for the UK, but all that is happening here in the US.

Just as an example, one of my friends is an LPN. First her company took all the staffs profit sharing, and used it to open a new facility. Then they started bringing in patients that basically constituted medicare fraud at that facility (the wrong type of patients for the what the facility receives funding for). These patients were extremely difficult to deal with, most of whom were people whose families could no longer deal with them, but they had no true medical issues. The company was, and still is, being investigated for fraud over this, and it resulted in a rather public stepping down of the companies VP. Next they started forcing folks to take rotating days off to eliminate all their earned PTO time. Finally they came in one day and informed all the LPN's that they could re-apply for their jobs in two weeks, only a few would be hired back, and the ones that were would be starting over with no benefits after years of service.

These same tactics are going on all around the medical sector in the US. The threat of cutting back medicare to medicaid levels was used an an excuse, even though it has yet to happen. In my field, we have not received even so much as a cost of living increase in more then 7 years, and have also had our holidays, vacation time, and benefits cut. To make matters worse, it seems like the patients we are getting are more difficult then any we have ever had before, and our patient load is being looked at to be increased by another 1/3. I've been where I am for 10 years, and I get two weeks of vacation time plus 3 sick days. Of course there is always a screaming match when I apply to use any of that time I've earned. I received three holidays last year. I've been told to just get used to it, because its never going to increase, regardless of what the employee handbook says. If I don't like it, I have been told that I can leave whenever I wish.

Of course all these facilities know that the economy sucks, and no one whats to be out of work, so they are taking full advantage of the situation to line their own pockets. I know its even worse at some offices, and there is at least one group in my building that has been told that if they wish to use the bathroom they have to provide their own toilet paper. Others have had all their benefits completely removed, and some, such as my friend, have ended up getting royally screwed, then let go for no reason.

In many fields where medicare costs were cut, they were done so because physicians/hospitals were making too much money on various services after they were investigated. For example, in my field, reading of tests was cut because Doctors were being paid for 2 hours, when it was found that it really only took an average of 45 minutes to preform. Doctors, and hospitals, of course, refuse to accept cuts in pay, and since they hold all the power, they instead take from the staff.

Expect this to get a lot worse, because people are getting fed up, but afraid to speak out for fear of losing what jobs they do have. Then add to it, that on top of having harder work loads, being understaffed, and having more difficult patients, the government keeps adding new hoops to jump through on a yearly basis, for less and less compensation.

Right now, most of your highly trained medical staff members, who work in jobs with zero tolerance for mistakes, are working harder, making less, have less time off, and fewer benefits then guys with high school diplomas who work on your car, fix your plumbing, or hang drywall.

As long as I’m on the topic, I suppose that I should bring up one more dangerous trend that is going on. Medical facilities are cutting from the top down. In other words, they are often cutting their experienced staff members in lieu of cheaper, younger, inexperienced staff members, who are more prone to make stupid mistakes.