Two cases that raise questions about community service staff and health and safety rules

You take your life in your hands, when you put it in other people’s hands.

For the most part, you will get good care.

But not always, as two recent cases demonstrate.

Alf has been reading that –

* A community services worker will be taken to the Human Rights Tribunal after leaving a severely disabled man strapped alone in a hot van for 45 minutes.

* And, in Britain, a paramedic allegedly refused to carry a dying schoolgirl to an ambulance for ‘health and safety’ reasons.

First, the local story.

Sense and sensibilities – the case of a rebuffed fatty who cried foul at frankly expressed dieting advice

Alf has some sympathy with the “foul-mouthed” surgeon who was reprimanded for swearing at a severely obese patient and for punishing her by removing her from a waiting list.

The doctor, known as “Dr B”, told his gastric bypass patient, “Ms A”, that she was “going on a f****** diet” after she complained she disliked the word “diet” and preferred to talk about “lifestyle”.

He had put the Maori 44-year-old on a list to be considered for surgery after a tense consultation last April at which he used forms of the F word at least three times.