English Patients Falling Out Windows

Although the impossibly-burdened British National Health Service (NHS) has been criticized for all the inherent problems of socialized medicine, I doubt that that haste in patient discharges is being accomplished through defenestration.

The nettlesome number of incidents are called accidents.

ONE patient has died and a number injured after falling from hospital windows - bringing calls for better safety on the wards.

Mental health trust Pennine Care was prosecuted after a male patient died when he fell from a third-floor window at Birch Hill Hospital.

The Health and Safety Executive is working with the NHS to improve window safety. The windows caused seven fatal falls and 30 major injuries between 2002 and 2005. That's right -- the windows are blamed for the accidental deaths and injuries. As a result, about $1.6 million has been allocated to window improvement and surveillance.

Offhand, I'd say that the finger-pointers are trending toward blaming gravity.