Leatherhead Matters

Clearly some of them don’t! Tangled Web reports:

Isn’t it shocking to read about the multiple sclerosis sufferer who has been FORCED by the NHS to sleep in a chair for six years?

Lorraine Wolstenholme has not been able to get into bed since her local NHS trust banned nurses from lifting her out of her chair in case they were injured.  Mrs Wolstenholme, who is 5ft 3in and weighs less than nine stone, has been forced to sleep in a reclining chair her family bought for her. The case was revealed at the High Court yesterday, where Mrs Wolstenholme has lodged a judicial review against the local primary care trust and the council.  Mrs Wolstenholme, 51, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1995 and had been provided with nurses to lift her. But in June 2002 the Milton Keynes NHS Primary Care Trust withdrew the service because of health and safety legislation, saying three of its staff had been injured trying to lift the patient. (Bet they put in big claims) The trust said Mrs Wolstenholme’s MS caused spasms which made her “hazardous” to its staff. 

This is lunacy. The NHS should shut its doors on this logic, all patients represent some form of risk. The poor woman has enough to deal with without the pc brigade ensuring that nurses will not lift her into bed where she can get proper rest. I say shame on the National Health Service Trust concerned.  Is THIS service really “the envy of the world”?

Did our government really understand the increasingly bizarre consequences of their “elf & safety” legislation?