Medical privacy

[Ken Brown]

Congratulations to all involved & I hope  Ivan is in good health now.

Ross Anderson wrote:
> 
> This afternoon, I drove Patrick Ivan Ross (No. 1 grandson) back from
> the maternity hospital. 

[...]

> (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. 

How did they even know you were driving away? Did they ask? What could
they do to stop you? When my daughter was born I think we probably
walked home - but we might have taken a taxi. I have no memory of anyone
in the hospital paying the slightest attention to us.

[...]

> (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.

I imagine they assume mobile phones all round these days. Payphones are
provided as a "service" for those too poor to count.

> 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.)

Maybe husbands are tolerated more than grandfathers, or maybe things
have changed in 12 years, or maybe posh Cambridge has more staff to pay
attention to what you are doing than downmarket Lewisham does. When my
Abigail was born her mother was in hospital for many days, and I was
allowed in at more or less any time I wanted, (though there was some
gentle pressure to go home in the late evenings & I never tried to visit
in the early morning - but I would have been allowed to crash out on a
bench somewhere if I'd wanted to). I  brought in things to eat and drink
quite freely. I doubt if any of the staff would even have noticed, never
mind objected. If only because they were so overworked it was hard to
find them.

[...]

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

Since I gave up working for a large US corporation and took a job in a
university I no longer have any rational expectation of being able to
pay for the kind of health care I suspect I will need. So I'm all in
favour of the NHS. It is a way to get my neighbours to subsidise my
needs.

Ken Brown