The Guardian – Monday October 30, 2006:
A proposal to open up a debt-hit NHS hospital’s radiotherapy unit to dogs and cats suffering from cancer came under fire from a union and the Conservatives’ health spokesman yesterday.
The suggestion that a pets’ clinic could be set up on Saturday mornings to exploit the earning potential of unused equipment came from staff asked to propose ideas to deal with £24m debts at Ipswich hospital in Suffolk. Managers estimated that treatment for pets could earn up to £50,000, enough for two nurses’ salaries. The suggestion has been welcomed as “an excellent idea” by the RSPCA.
Katherine Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Patients’ Association, said she was horrified by the suggestion. “Do we really have to resign ourselves to such desperate measures as to begin treating animals where people are treated?” she said. “Is this really the way forward? I hope this idea never gets off the ground. I think it is a disaster waiting to happen.
Based on my own NHS experiences there would be no need to amend the patient menus either although animal rights activists may object.
I see absolutely no problem with it, as long as human patients are treated with priority. If the equipment is being unused and someone is willing to pay for it, what’s the problem? Everything is kept hygenic and you’re more likely to catch something from another patient than an animal.
Animal feces and urine are not conducive to a hygienic environment. Ever hear of E. Coli?
This might have a beneficial effect on the behavior of medical technicians. Sometimes they can be very rude to patients. Human patients will usually put up with this. A doggie patient might not, they could just take a big bite out of a rude workers ass — something us human patients can only dream about. Such actions might teach these workers to treat their patients with a bit more consideration!
just put all the animals in sacks first, that’ll take care of it 😉
I’m not really sure how this is supposed to work. Will the hospital be hiring a number of veterinarians? It’s not as though there’s a one-to-one correlation between human and animal care. And veterinarians have salaries too.
It’s not necessarily a terrible idea, but there’s so much that can go wrong with it. And it begs the question, is there something lacking in veterinary care in the UK that creates a market for this?
This would never pass regulatory guidelines in the U.S. Nor would vets be overjoyed since their profession has become less lucrative over the last few years. It seems to me that the equipment could be used more by scheduling some patients for evenings and Saturdays.