Medical privacy

[Ross Anderson]

This afternoon, I drove Patrick Ivan Ross (No. 1 grandson) back from
the maternity hospital. Three points may be relevant to the current
discussion:

(1) Dutiful daughter told me that they'd taken blood samples from him
for the Guthrie card, but did not ask her consent for research. I
wonder why not? Is it because the top doctors at Addenbrookes are
research stars?

(2) We weren't allowed to take the baby away until we presented for
inspection the baby seat that we'd bought for the car. (DD told us of
another young mum a couple of days ago who wasn't allowed to leave, as
the official designated for signing off on all this authoritarian guff
was absent.) No worry, if the hadn't got the right CE mark on it, I'm
sure we could have bought an approved seat at the hospital shop ...

(3) Arranging the logistics was tiresome as you can only call patients
on an 0900 number that charges 50p per minute. The service is flaky,
but, in other direction, outgoing payphone calls are limited to three
minutes.

Thank goodness Ivan was only three weeks premature, and was kept there
for only 11 days. (Oh, BTW, although hospital food is inedible, I
wasn't allowed to bring in a nice healthy sandwich lunch until after
2pm - though she could get a New York Pizza plus Pepsi for 6.95
anytime from the fast food outlet.)

The hospital seems to be excessively risk averse - especially about
risks to the hospital administration. As always, the poor doctors will
get blamed for any consequences. It will never be Milburn's fault.

I am more and more of the opinion that the sooner the NHS collapses,
the better for us all.

Ross