PR outfit trumpets NHS deaths 'crisis management'

Here's a top tip for NHS hospitals which find themselves in the awkward position of having a load of dead patients lying about as a result of Clostridium difficile infection: call Freshwater PR who can prevent the resulting press kicking proving fatal to your good name. As proof, try Freshwater's self-congratulatory trumpet …

[Ed Blackshaw]

To be fair,

it is called clostridium difficile for a reason - that being, it is very difficult to get rid of, even if you are practicing good infection control techniques.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not so,

is is called C difficile because when it was first isolated it proved difficult to grow in the laboratory.

[Stu]

Yeah sure...

...but are they really trying to be self-congratulatory?

In light of all those ridiculous blown out of all possible proportion news stories about how we're all going to die of H5N1 or H1N1 its hardly surprising to see this kind of response just to prevent the country from panicking.

[pctechxp]

I've always hated PR wonks

and stories like this are the reason why.

Never let the truth get in the way of profit.

Scumbags

[Anonymous Coward]

Was there a foot here?

I heard a gunshot, and now there is just a crater.

[Matt 21]

Can't help but feel

I'd rather they spent the money on actually caring for patients and stopping outbreaks in the first place.

[Number6]

Birmingham?

They employed a PR consultant to try and protect them from fallout from the Kyhra Ishaq case. However, they tried blaming it on all sorts of others but fortunately pretty much everyone has now seen through their smokescreen and knows exactly who failed. £800/day wasted, perhaps? Maybe they should ask for a refund.

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps they should be rewarded

Maybe the PR people should spend a few weeks in the hospital to see if the outbreak really has cleared up?

My only concern is that PR people are more viralent than the superbugs...

[Cameron Colley]

Hospitals hire PR agencies?

So they steal my money every month in order that they can pay people to lie about problems with the service I'm being forced to pay for?

How the fuck is that even remotely legal?

[lukewarmdog]

more

taxpayers money at work. Won't somebody think of the taxpayers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Absolute Power

Worthy of an episode of that great show Absolute Power. I can just see Charles Prentiss brainstorming with the other PR w****** in their little round think-tank. Come to think of it, I think there was an episode along similar lines.....

[CatNinja]

Yes Minister

Had the classic episode about the hospital with no patients as they would damage the stats.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bless you....

"In light of all those ridiculous blown out of all possible proportion news stories about how we're all going to die of H5N1 or H1N1 its hardly surprising to see this kind of response just to prevent the country from panicking."

Uhuh....you really believe the NHS or their PR company gives two shits about you panicking?! And what morons are `panicking` about swine/bird flu?! They need to get a grip and concentrate on not dying in an RTA, of Heart disease or Cancer. Or maybe falling down the stairs....

You don't think maybe this is all self interest from the trust/s concerned, trying to prove they are the best. They are just like private enterprise now in many ways. Competing for pots of Government (our) money. Run by ex-private sector bods who've been on a couple of ITIL and PRINCE 2 courses and learnt some high- faluting terminology.... oh look at what I've done for the NHS...blah blah...wankers. Work around them all the time.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

@Birmingham?

Obviously they need to hire a better, and more expensive, PR firm to handle the negative media reaction to them hiring the previous PR firm !

[Anonymous Coward]

Bring out ya dead!

I'm not dead yet....

You soon will be.

BANG!

[Jimbo 6]

Is it just me...

...or does 'Freshwater' sound suspiciously like they must be affiliated with 'Blackwater' ?

The normal air-ambulance copter is busy, so we're using this black one instead...

[Anonymous Coward]

No

its not just you.

[Adrian Midgley 1]

@ Ed Blackshaw: Wrong etymology, it isn't

My recollection of the sruce of the name of the bacterium was that it was not that it was hard to kill, but that it was hard to grow in culture.

I consulted some of my colleagues, and summarise below:-

"Initially named bacillus difficilis by Hall and O'Toole in 1935 because it was resistant to early attempts at isolation and grew very slowly in culture, it was renamed in 1970.

Hall I, O'Toole E (1935). "Intestinal flora in newborn infants with a description of a new pathogenic anaerobe, Bacillus difficilis". Am J Dis Child 49: 390."

C DIff etymology now obsolete - ie neither

C diff is a normal commensal which we all have. Inconsequential except when all other gut bugs are zapped and C diff is the only organism which can then grow like crazy.

1970-ish, when I was a Microbiol Reg, is when the Clindamycin side-effects hit the fan. With correctly taken samples and good quality culture methodology there was no difficulty in growing & identifying C diff in affected patients.

Etymology from 1935 state of the art.