It's not NHS workers who lack compassion, David Cameron – it's you

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/08/nhs-david-cameron-compassion

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David Cameron recently underlined his government's belief that the NHS is not being compassionate enough to its patients when he announced that, starting next April, NHS staff are to be subjected to scrutiny by new "friends and family tests". These will involve asking patients whether they would recommend the care they received at the hands of NHS services to their friends and family, a bit like a user review on Amazon (and probably as reliable and free of bias).

I support the idea that care should be monitored and that improvements should be made when problems arise – as was recently the case in Stafford and Redditch hospitals. It is completely unacceptable for certain hospitals or clinical staff to be able to continue unchecked if their work is repeatedly poor or downright dangerous. But to tar us all with the same brush by telling us we need to "build a culture of compassionate care" is typical of the scapegoating this government indulges in so as to detract voters' attention from its policies, which are currently wrecking public services.

You have to be a compassionate person to want to work in the health service in the first place. Cleaning the shit off someone else's backside takes a massive amount of compassion, as does changing their bloodstained sheets, feeding or washing them when they aren't able to, or holding their hand during a scary medical procedure.

You cannot look into the eyes of a dying person and help them cope during their final few days, nor speak to their grieving relatives once they've passed, without compassion. It's what hospital and community staff already do, every day of their working lives.

As a GP, I see around 35 patients per day for 10 minutes each – during which they unload their physical, psychological and social worries. My colleagues and I then do our best to help. Being able to listen to people who have terminal cancer, are suicidal, recently bereaved or who tell you stories of the horrific sexual abuse they've suffered takes compassion, and it is insulting to be told by a politician that we are getting it wrong.

Ironically, an increasing number of people are attending our surgeries as a direct result of policies initiated by the government. Those are anything but compassionate. The cuts are disproportionately affecting the poor, the old and the disabled and every day I see patients who are struggling because of them. This may be because their day centre, which used to provide support and company for them, has had to be closed down because funding has been withdrawn.

They may be people who I've referred for a hernia repair because of excruciating groin pain who've had their funding for this simple procedure refused, and have come back for pain relief because they cannot afford to pay for the much needed operation privately. Then there are disabled patients who, after being put through a rudimentary physical examination by an Atos employee, have been told they are fit to work and had their benefits slashed. There's no compassion there.

Last December, Cameron caused a stir when he quoted from the Gospel of John during his Christmas message. On the subject of teaching others about compassion I would point him to another verse in the New Testament, this time in the Gospel of Matthew: "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"