Silent Night

Too Difficult For Doctors

Apparently, North Staffordshire NHS Trust now has an orchestra. This is apparently to lift the gloom. The film extracts of the interview shown on the Sentinel.co.uk show an orchestra who has little in the way of smiles :). Perhaps things will change during their actual concerts.

"Musicians include a GP, radiologists, radiographers, speech therapists, a biochemist and a medical secretary. Violin and cello solos are in the caring hands of a junior doctor and medical student, and two Keele University music students have been drafted in to swell the ranks"

Interesting idea. Not sure if they are in tune on the video but there we go. 10/10 for trying and it will be alright on the night.

"This week's concert represents a 'follow-up appointment' for the University Hospital Orchestra, which enjoyed its first incarnation at a carol concert at the complex two years ago. Interest subsequently waned and it was trimmed down to a quintet called Take Five, which provided the accompaniment for this year's NHS 60th anniversary celebrations at Etruria's Best Western Stoke-on-Trent Moat House Hotel, the city's primary care trust's awards ceremony at Trentham Gardens and even at a 90th birthday party in the front room of a Clayton house"

It is good to see the doctors getting together, while the Coroner asks for more nursing cover. I don't expect any doctor at North Staffordshire NHS Trust to campaign for an improvement in the quality of service because doctors just don't do that there. They do though play in orchestras.

The hospital is pitching to be a Foundation Trust which means even more lack of accountability than it already has. The doctors are playing in the Orchestra.

The A and E Crisis continues . The doctors are playing fantasia

The parking is in crisis. The doctors are still coming to terms with the semi quavers.

They were blamed for the MRSA Crisis at the hospital but they remained silent and did not defend themselves. Of course, the MRSA Crisis wasn't the junior doctors fault, it was the fault of mismanagement of the Trust. The hospital has a track record of blaming junior doctors for the Trusts own inadequacies - easy target is it?!

There was of course once a Ward called Ward 87 during Christmas in 1998. The cover-up of the data on this ward, ensured the creation of Keele University Medical School. The person responsible for the death of patients there Dr Monica Spiteri, teaches at this University. Many people died, the death rate was never recorded.

The doctors kept silent.

Easier to Play

The art of playing Silent Night is well practised by many doctors at North Staffordshire NHS Trust. They have practised it for many years and can play it very well indeed.

Similarly, while the GMC enters the dark year of 2009 and as Revalidation looms, the Doctors will be playing Silent Night. This is because it is easier to play Silent Night rather than playing Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff is difficult, complex and risky but offers long term stability whereas Silent Night ensures short term safety but long term disaster.

No one plays Rachmaninoff ......