Job done (not)

Reading in the Observer last Sunday of the apparent poor treatment, verging on neglect, of the soldiers being treated at Selly Oak hospital was truly dispiriting. For blessed baby boomers like me it seems incredible that anyone in hospital should suffer the way that was reported in the newspaper – young men lying in soiled beds or in extreme pain without analgesia because there were “no relevant staff on duty”.

I went in to nursing over 30 years ago for a variety of reasons that I’ll not list, one of which I will happily admit (now) was the inspiration of Florence Nightingale. Since then, my admiration for her has if anything increased as I realize her great contribution to military health, to medical statistics and, of course, to professional nurse training. I couldn’t fail to recognize the latter, training as I did at St Thomas’ Hospital at her training school.

Two of the earliest war correspondents sent the reports which energized her and stirred the stubborn dedication that sent her to the Crimea and the hospital at Scutari. One was the Times correspondent W H Russell and the other Thomas Chenery who in 1854 wrote for the Times of London

‘it is with feelings of surprise and anger that the public will learn that no sufficient medical preparations have been made for the proper care of the wounded. Not only are there not sufficient surgeons – that, it might be urged, was unavoidable – not only are there no dressers and nurses – that might be a defect of system for which no one is to blame – but what will be said when it is known that there is not even linen to make bandages for the wounded’ The greatest commiseration prevails for the suffering of the unhappy inmates of Scutari, and every family is giving sheets and old garments to supply their want. But, why could not this clearly foreseen event have been supplied? It rests with the Government to make enquiries into the conduct of those who must have so greatly neglected their duty’

To see the serious, smooth faced young man whose picture is on the front page, to know that he was injured seriously in the horrible terrain of Iraq and was then, according to his parents, left all night in his own excrement appalls me as a former nurse and as a human being. In 1854 there was public outrage and a public fund to relieve the soldiers suffering was set up. The story of Miss Nightingale and her nurses was an inspiration to the public and to others who went to relieve the distress, most notably Mary Seacole who ran a boarding house hospital and had to wait over a century to have a real public recognition. Miss Nightingale’s unique contribution must be her great organizational skills and especially her use of statistics “God’s work” as she believed it to be.

She revolutionized the care of the military. Now those services have gone. The medical personel who are in the services are of the highest standard but the specialist care of the military hospital, the unique understanding and empathy from people who have experience those terrible personal challenges have gone. Must we have another public rising to re-make what has been dismantled? And is there any chance at all, that in the age of 24 hour “news” and story piling on story that there could ever be that channeling of anger and compassion from the public? Makes me wonder what it is that we readers, viewers, listeners, consumers want all that news for.