Health & Medical Newswire

Archive for August, 2009

Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor for Telegraph.co.uk reports that one million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, according to a major report released today.

In the last six years, the Patients Association claims hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with ‘neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel’ treatment.

Claire Rayner, President of the Patients Association and a former nurse, said: “For far too long now, the Patients Association has been receiving calls on our helpline from people wanting to talk about the dreadful, neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel treatment their elderly relatives had experienced at the hands of NHS nurses.

“I am sickened by what has happened to some part of my profession of which I was so proud.

“These bad, cruel nurses may be – probably are – a tiny proportion of the nursing work force, but even if they are only one or two percent of the whole they should be identified and struck off the Register.”

The charity has disclosed a horrifying account of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff. Read full story.

Palin calls Obama health plan evil

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called President Barack Obama’s health plan “downright evil” Friday in her first online comments since leaving office, saying in a Facebook posting that he would create a “death panel” that would deny care to the neediest Americans.

“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care,” the former Republican vice presidential candidate wrote.

“Such a system is downright evil,” Palin wrote on her page, which has nearly 700,000 supporters. She encouraged her supporters to be engaged in the debate.

Read full story.

Betty Lichtenstein Impersonates A Nurse

Norwalk, CT – Betty Lichtenstein, a 56 year old woman, has been charged for illegal use of the title Registered Nurse, reckless endangerment and criminal impersonation.

The story is being compared to the 2000 comedy “Nurse Betty”, where Renee Zellweger pretended to be a nurse, however residents say this is no laughing matter.

Prosecutors said that Lichtenstein paid $2000 of her own money for a staged celebration dinner honoring herself at The Connecticut Nursing Association. The problem is there is no such legal organization known as The Connecticut Nursing Association. Lichtenstein made it all up.

In fact Lichtenstein never had a license to practice nursing, but yet she gave intramuscular injections, medical care and advise to patients. Inspectors from the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit began investigating only after a  complaint that Lichtenstein injected a patient too quickly causing them pain.  A warrant for her arrest was issued.

Watch video.

In an interview with Dr Gerald Weiss, where Lichenstein worked, he said it took him all by suprise. He believed she was a licensed RN but could not find a copy of her nursing license. Under advise from his attorney he has no other comment.

Dr Weiss and his staff became further convinced something was wrong after Lichtenstein won The Connecticut Nursing Association “2008 Nurse of the Year Award”, a complete fabrication.

If she is convicted of all charges, she faces up to five years in prison.

Find nursing jobs and nursing information about travel nursing at Nurses Forum.