Pan(t?)dering to the god development.

Somethings to ponder on a weekend while no new announcements are being made

The radio waves (891) carried a piece a few weeks ago featuring David Panter who is now designated the CEO of the Railyards Hospitl project.    The Presenters were feeding him questions so he could answer them.   For those of us who have been following this saga over the past 12 months, they were questions that had been not only asked, but argued before.     The capacity of the new hospital now about 800 I think he said.     Interesting to work out how that would be achieved without an increase in the cost.      If I am wrong and the capacity is still only 700, then any well researched questioner wouls know that is only a few wore than the designed capacity of the North Wing on Frome Rd without considering any otheer spot.     Then the matter of the new hospital being a clean hospital without the nasties (MRSA, VRE) that reside in the present site.    The assurances were given that this is a major advantage of the rebuild, showing an ignorance of the nature of human infection either in the interviewers or in the interviewee.      If Dr  Panter genuinely doesn't know anything about this mechanism, then we have a serious problem in a CEO responsible for the implementation.    I would suspect that he is well experienced and educated in the matter which then puts this airing into the category of propaganda - political spin, and if the interviewers have insufficient scientific education to see the problem , then it illustrates why governments get away with spin.    (And if you are wondering - these infections are brought in with the patients, the only way of avoiding colonisation is quarantine , keep all the patients waiting for a week before letting them in the door which wouldn't work for a major trauma hospital.     Anyway avoidance of  transfer of infection is best managed by rigorous handwashing and better staffing levels, just ask the infection control nurses)    And I am simply an ignorant layman, but I heard all this explained on 891 before the election.   Perhaps the interviewers were'nt listening at the time.