Have a Good NEWS

While acknowledging its flaws, it is wise to remember that the NHS is still working well for less money than the health systems in many countries "

My wife spent 48 hours in a hospital in the NHS this month (still all good now) and I am delighted to announce that the treatment he received from doctors and nurses were excellent . It is not always the case of hospitals in London. The quality of nursing care can vary greatly from room to room. But I just had to enter this Victorian building, although many are, to recognize an institution that works on the subject for the common good.

mention it because the newspapers have been more than usually full of articles deploring the abuse of older people, both in hospitals and one in five nursing homes in the wake of the Quality Commission Care (CQC) highly critical report last week.

all serve to illustrate the differing views on how we see the NHS - more comprehensive social services as well as - and what we expect of them. A weekend article by journalist Ian Birrell on the treatment of his severely disabled daughter, Iona, brought this into clear perspective.

. Thinking cap, Birrell is a former deputy director of the Independent on Sunday who later wrote the speech David Cameron and the files is free to comment, but I thought their complaints in the Daily Mail on the agreement of your family is surprising in the system, to say the least. Am I right? Not sure, but that's it.

The CQC report has generated a discussion on what was wrong. Does nursing education in the modern NHS? It advances a vision of Star Melanie (not first), in the mail on Monday -. He blames feminism for more training for nurses and degrade the "humiliating" treatment instincts, once the center of his sense of himself and certainly important for Florence Nightingale

In a place the government on the couch # 10, Tony Blair said a decade ago. Has it changed for the better? No, 'said Mel. As they say today.

Monday in The Guardian Bunting, Madeleine, a tortured soul less, still wonders if the marketing of our society - a transaction involving "investment" price to everyone regardless of their value, as Oscar Wilde, a After almost say - is the central problem in our attitude towards our children and the elderly. Joan Bakewell asked if the secular decline of religious faith - the good as taught in Sunday school of his childhood - played an important role in the decline of attention

I think they are all useful contributions, as befits the nightmare of CQC, excessive red tape imposed on the system trying to keep up. There is a "50 ways to improve old age" based on time on Monday (paywall) that contributes more convenient than going to cut and save. Every little bit helps.

all witnesses above have done is to look at the big picture, how lazy or indifferent behavior of nurses compromises the medical and recovery time often degrades the dignity - but also the way that reflects dramatic changes in our society and occupied.

Even the flag of my wife busy medical staff entered the cockpit of a fighter with curtains of age (81) to discuss your case when she was naked. With a little encouragement from the doctor came to apologize for the rudeness (I told you is a good hospital), but later admitted: ". You lose confidence in the hospital "

What is my only complaint with Ian Birrell? Reading your article - written to mark the 18th anniversary imminent Iona - brought tears to my eyes as she described the frightening realization that he and his wife made before doctors told them their baby was "profoundly brain damaged,"

The poor girl could not walk or speak, is blind and epileptic regularly. On a bad day (from months, when well) Iona cried a lot.

It is, of course, "loving, adorable and amazing." He loves music and goes to dance in a wheelchair. This recall.'s Friend Birrell, including severely disabled child was dead, he admitted that despite the end of the burden of sleepless nights and 24 / 7 care, life without it was less "dynamic". It requires that the rest of us who struggle to make the leap of the imagination of accept that, but I can almost do it.

Birrell when the article is called the line of electronic payment unfriendly, the attack on the failure of the NHS and "white" public services to meet growing of Iona, as it grows -. and the possibility that many of the help they eventually disappear, now that he has organized 18

two years ago, Iona Birrell condition was diagnosed last, something called CDKL5, a rare genetic disorder shared by only 200 known victims in the world. In his article says the diagnosis was delayed a year because the consultant ("in a world-renowned Hospital") has lost a blood test and lied to "cover their incompetence."

obesity, substance abuse - including chardonnay, and Class C - and many other self-inflicted madness added to the bill, including the speed and control with bottles. The same goes for abusive and aggressive patients to assert their "rights" in A & E at night. I have seen. For what you have. The egg tabloids about them, sometimes rightly, sometimes irresponsibly.