In similar vein, yesterday I was accosted (that's the only word for it) by a young lady in my local Tesco's (something that doesn't happen too often these days, thankfully) expecting me to donate some cash to the local SCBU.
It seems that they are trying to scrounge up £ 100,000 for "essential new equipment", and apparently she thought that the mere mention of premature babies, and all the rest, would have me gushing tears and emptying my (severely limited) wallet!
However, she was a bit taken aback when I remarked that, as a tax-payer who has already contributed to the
existing (and, believe me, entirely adequate) equipment in the SCBU, I felt rather disinclined to forgo the few pence I had already ear-marked for my tin of baked beans.
What's the big deal about neonatal incubators, phototherapy units and radiant warmers (hardly
high-tech, after all), anyway? Why does it all have to be
new? What's wrong with a bit of "make do and mend" (
aka "maintenance")?
The major hospital local to where I am at the moment is an NHS Foundation Trust, by the way. I'm told that this means that "it is run as a business".
Meanwhile, at the well-known monthly equipment auction earlier in the week, I noticed plenty of ex-NHS neonatal stuff. All of it was sold off cheaply enough, and all of it could easily have been put back into use in any UK NHS hospital (but I'm sure that the so-called Third World will be glad of it).
Is this
for real? What's going on here? Is the tax-payer being well-served? Answers please by close of play.
