Peter Rhodes on hate laws, hospital gowns and good intentions on your plate
An old cartoon shows two elderly chaps hobbling along a hospital corridor on walking frames with their backsides exposed in their rear-fastening hospital gowns. In the foreground a poster proclaims: "The dignity and privacy of our patients is our highest priority.”
Why is human dignity so often the first casualty of a stay in hospital? Why is there such a yawning gap between good intentions and the reality of life in a ward? For example, the NHS has strict guidelines on ensuring men and women are cared for in single-sex wards, to reduce stress and physical danger. Yet the Observer reports that NHS England has recorded more than 120,000 breaches of these guidelines in the past six years. Worse, the numbers of breaches are rising, not falling. Shameful.
The company producing the meat alternative Quorn reports declining demand. Quorn, healthy, versatile and cruelty-free, is good intentions on a plate. We know we should buy it, we know we should eat it. But somehow, even when you enter Sainsburys full of Quorn-resolve, mentally chanting: “Quorn, Quorn, Quorn,” you somehow come out with a pork chop.
