[Richard Mcadam]

In the UK, in my opinion, protocol introduction was, from a healthcare point of view, a terrible idea, as I understand it, it took the clinical decision making out of the hands of the healthcare provider, to keep them within the boundaries of their medical insurance requirements, what could possibly go wrong became blatantly clear, when, in 2020, covid turned up, and what followed, was what could best be described as a disaster. In hindsight, it now makes sense why the politicians replaced Matron with 6 figure salaried management puppets who would do the politicians bidding, prior to this, the NHS ran like a Swiss watch, for a fraction of the cost, doctors were allowed to use their skills to assess their patient, and treat as they saw fit, I doubt Matron would ever have willingly agreed to the introduction of protocols.

[IMA-HelenT]

Thanks @richard mc … My mother trained to be a Sister in the NHS, and she always said the Matrons were the glue that held everything together. They knew the wards, they knew the staff, they knew the patients and, importantly, they had the authority to act when something wasn’t right.

COVID certainly exposed how dangerous that can become when a protocol is treated as the answer rather than a starting point.