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I just think it’s really really important in the current time in the economic downturn
that we really keep a strong focus on human rights in the NHS and in all aspects of the
patient experience within the National Health Service.
I heard a wonderful example recently that just showed me how important it was that Nurses
were aware of human rights. It was an issue around the way people with schizophrenia in
the mental health service and it was an example really of very poor quality, cheap medication
being used to control schizophrenia, medication that really has been modernised enormously
in recent years. It was the experience of a group of Nurses
who were campaigning for a group of patients and saying that they shouldn’t be on the
medication they were being prescribed and it was completely right- they shouldn’t
have been on the medication but it was that group of Nurses’ awareness of human rights
generally that gave them the confidence to be able to tackle that within the service
and with the doctors who were making those prescriptions for Nurses. It was a lovely
piece of work and a very timely reminder of the importance of that work.