NHS balls: Margate Hospital fast-tracked RAF man in ‘ofensive uniform’ for cultural reasons
When RAF aircraft engineer Mark Prendeville, 38, was injured at work he was taken to A&E at Margate’s Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, Kent.
What happened next is little unclear.
The Sun: “AttenSHUN!EXCLUSIVE: Hospital moves RAF man over ‘offensive’ uniform”
AN RAF sergeant taken to A&E after a training accident was moved by hospital staff who said his uniform would upset other patients… workers twice ushered him into empty corners, claiming his camouflage fatigues may offend other patients
The source of the story appears to be Mark’s father Jim, 63, a former Sgt Major with the Irish Guards:
“Mark was moved because of his uniform — he was told that twice. The first time, they asked him to move around the corner. Then someone else came out and took him around another corner so no one would see him. They said they didn’t want to upset people in the hospital. The words they used were, ‘We’ve lots of different cultures’ coming in. Mark was quite annoyed, but he’s a quiet lad and he didn’t want to kick up a fuss.”
Well, that desire not to cause a fuss is today’s front-page news.
Comrades took the married 38-year-old — a war veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan — to A&E, where a member of staff ushered him to an empty corner of the waiting room. Dad-of-one Mark, wearing camouflage fatigues, was then moved again round a corner by another worker.
He was sat away from all other patients.
Well, maybe.
Daily Mirror:
Aircraft engineer Mark Prendeville, 38, was taken to an empty corner of the waiting room before being moved behind a corner by hospital staff – form fear of upsetting the “different cultures coming in”
The Mail:
Staff moved him to sit in a corner before asking him to sit behind a wall.
Daily Express: “Outrage as hospital moves injured RAF veteran out of A&E because he was wearing uniform”
A spokesman for East Kent University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust apologised to Sgt Prendeville for “any embarrassment”.“A member of the armed forces in uniform attended our A&E and was asked by a member of staff if he wanted to sit inside the department rather than the waiting room. This employee was acting in good faith because previously, there had been an altercation between a member of the public and a different member of the armed forces in uniform.”
Rather than having to sit with the riffraff in A&E, Mr Prendeville was taken inside the department.
And there can be nutters in A&E. Take these stories from July 2015:
A hospital patient threatened to “kill” staff as he assaulted two nurses, a court heard. Aaron Stewart, of Bentick Court in Manvers Road, Sneinton, also grabbed one of the nurses in a headlock, clenched his fist and said he would “smash you all up” after being admitted to the Queen’s Medical Centre with a cut hand.
And:
A doctor and nurse were attacked by a violent patient high on drugs. Jennifer Coxon, 25, also shouted vile abuse at other patients waiting to be assessed at the Accident and Emergency Department of Manchester Royal Infirmary.
Might it be that Mr Prendeville was given treatment faster than those not in uniform?
Posted: 26th, September 2015 | In: Reviews Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
