The British National Health Service is under constant pressure these days. NHS staff are over-worked, bureaucracy–burdened, morale-defeated and have to cope with one “public outrage” after another. MMR fiasco, waiting lists, super-bugs, dirty wards and now of all things…. ghosts. At the weekend, that bastion of truth and integrity-journalism, The Sun, reported that Derby’s spanking new Royal Hospital has an outbreak of spooks with staff reporting sightings of a black-clad figure stalking the wards or corridors.
Senior manager, Debbie Butler says, “I’m taking it seriously as the last thing I want is staff feeling uneasy at work.” So how do you cleanse a hospital of one unwelcome supernatural belief? You could try reason and science but you would be wasting your time. Beliefs are pretty immune to such tactics which is why rationalists are barking up the wrong tree when it comes to changing people’s minds. Best way to combat supernatural belief is with another set of supernatural beliefs.
Butler is reported as saying, “I’ve spoken to the Trust’s chaplain and she is going to arrange for someone from the cathedral to exorcise the department.” Now why can’t they do that with MRSA?
brucemhood.wordpress.com 
NHS staff ‘morally bankrupt’..?! Hmm, I know someone who works for the NHS who might dispute that allegation, I think.
Meanwhile, for the other side of the healthcare/religion debate, from BBC Bristol:
“A Christian nurse from Weston-super-Mare has been suspended for offering to pray for a patient’s recovery. Community nurse Caroline Petrie, 45, says she asked an elderly woman patient during a home visit if she wanted her to say a prayer for her. The patient complained to the health trust about Mrs Petrie who follows the Baptist faith. She was suspended, without pay, on 17 December and will find out the outcome of her disciplinary meeting next week.”
Damn it Gus, You were fast off the mark… See corrected article > Better still, go to Zombies .. it’s so much funnier!
Bankrupt? – yes,
Morally bankrupt? – still working on that one… 😉
This is a story blown out of all proportion by what I call ‘the media’. What Debbie Butler actually said was that she was going to ‘exercise the department’. It’s another of the Government’s ludicrous attempts to shove obesity into the spotlight again.
What I want to know is why does the ghost look like Superman?? I mean, right down to his lace up booties . . . what’s up with that?
I would like to file a formal paranormal petty grievance on behalf of said spook. Why does he have to look like such a dork? Why can’t he look scarier?
I did like “that bastion of truth and integrity journalism.” The Sun is absolutely shimmying in its knickers.
Nosey-cow & Gus … please forgive… hands and brain still frozen by Arctic blast.. No heating here in the wooden shack! Was trying to say something like ‘low morale’… apologies to all NHS workers… including those who are morally bankrupt!
Apparently it’s a Roman soldier. Which is interesting, because the previous building that was placed on that site didn’t have a ghost, though the building was built on what was once a Roman road. So, this ghost does not appear for 2000 years, until it suddenly, because of a new building, comes marching through the corridors.
I really look forward to the interpretations all these so-called expert psychics are going to give for this.
What I find most hilarious though, is that the Sun mentions the ‘real’ case of the Amityville Horror in the article right next to the main article. Just demonstrates what a pathetic rag it is.
Personally, I call this whole thing baloney and an attempt to get more interest from the public.
I know it is kind off topic but I can’t help laughing every time I see the “There’s a couple of inches of snow on the ground in London, the world is coming to an end!” stories that have been running front and centre at the BBC. Something to do with having lived in both Poland and Ontario and remembering going to school through deep paths cut through the snow drifts. Not that Poland has had winters like that for decades now. And, of course, I appreciate that it has everything to do with preparedness and not moral fibre. I certainly would not wish to be coping with a real winter in a typical underinsulated and underheated English house.
Most girls, by the size of their skirts, still don’t seem to notice it is cold though, Konrad.
Strangely enough, though they cannot deal with a small layer of snow on the road (seriously, all it takes is a mechanized shoveller and a thin layer of salt on top, silly Brits!), they are completely insensitive to low temperatures. I still wonder whether that is due to pure foolishness or due to the layer of protective fat on their legs.
The whole ghost thing has to be a bad publicity stunt, ask any member of staff on any ward in any hospital in the uk and they will tell you the story of their resident ghost (whether they believe or not).
I honestly thought that they were delivered free with the first order of carbollic soap.