02.19.07
Scare mongering
Apparently, if we are to believe the BBC news children must not be allowed to watch TV before the age of 3 or else they will suffer untold (well autism, shortsightedness to mention but 2) harm. Not that I can find reference to this report on the web! I use the TV in my bedroom as an alarm clock, hubby uses the real clock and gets up at some kind of unearthly middle of the night hour, and to be frank the BBC news I hear subliminally as I reach levels of consciousness is damaging my psychologically. Being the kind of person who likes to hear news as it is, I have always been a BBC type person, but just recently the Breakfast Programme has turned into a tabloid of the Sun or perhaps Daily Mail proportions. Each item is given a maximum of 2 minutes and many quite important sounding type stories are given all of about 30 seconds, but in that time you could be forgiven for worrying that you cannot eat anything, do anything, go anywhere or let your children do anything without something awful happening.
Mind you I was amused to hear that the government is now suggesting round the clock surgery to clear waiting times. The very idea of getting your routine hernia repair, or hip replacement at midnight sounds bizarre beyond belief. We have PCTs who are bankrupt telling NHS Trusts not to operate on their patients before April and suddenly it is a good idea to operate in the dead of night. How much would it cost your average cash strapped hospital to run services in this way, and how many doctors would be left to cover the day time hours? Puts a new perspective on ‘day’ cases which would be come ‘night’ ones and if the hospital was in London would save money for all by avoiding congestion charges! Maybe the idea has mileage after-all?
The Angry Medic said,
February 19, 2007 at 11:22 am
Heh. That last ‘congestion charges’ but gave me a chuckle. You have to admit though, the idea has all the hallmarks of a New Labour gem! Smacks of desperation, suggested in a time when all their other policies are targeted in the exact opposite direction, and announced without any apparent planning or feasibility studies. Oh yes, New Labour gold, right there.
And hey, at least the BBC isn’t Fox News in the USA. Yet.
Neil Wilkinson said,
February 19, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Surgeons’ performance is going to be worse at night for the obvious biological reasons. That alone should stop the nonsense dead in its tracks. No way would i have elective surgery at night.
As regards the BBC report, I’d like to see some good quality research properly published first.
There’s enough poor science masquerading as fact on TV already (just watch any programme on diet and health)