Posted by faeryboi on Sat 16 Oct 10, 12:41 PM to faeryboi's blog.
The NHS is truely a dangerous place to be if you are sick. Now please understand this is only my perspective and yes i know many of you work in the NHS or have had people helped by the medical services it offers.
Principally i have discharged myself from the hospital after a 2 week stay in which they carried out 2 fasting tests and an ultrasound scan. I am advised i need a CT Scan and a camera into my stomach but they cant advise me when these things can happen as the queue is so long.
Barts have offered me a bed, but my local hospital need to carry out these tests before i go, and that isnt an emergency so i was expected to wait in hospital until such a time as i reached the top of the list.
Yesterday i was in a desperate situation of having no childcare for monday so i had no option but to leave the ward. The Consultant agreed i could have some home leave while waiting to be transferred but the nurse in charge told me he would give my bed to someone if i left. Daycare is costing me £100 per day so i was left with no other option other than discharge myself.
So Mr Cameron............. whats this about cuts??
The dishwasher on the ward was broken so we had disposable plates and cups, the shower drain blocked for 4 days, the toaster was broken, mental health patients were on the medical ward, i was actually assaulted, the night staff consisted of 2 nurses, yet there were 7 bed ridden people needing toileting and care. The elderly patients were left for hours without being checked on, the lady in the bed next to me was expected to die, so they left her all night alone and unchecked.
My stay in hospital has opened my eyes to the reality of the NHS, its also confirmed for me that if i am ill, if i get to be in need of constant care, i will end my life rather than lose all hope of dignity and humanity at the hands of the NHS
| 16 Oct 10, 12:52 PM Moonlit_P 5 yrs |
Labour used to keep banging on about how much money they had pumped into the NHS (and education) but both seem to have gotten worse over the years and not better. Actually, we do know where all that money went, managers, managers and more managers so hopefully, if they do mean business, that is where majority of cuts will fall. She came, she saw, she laughed her head off. | |||||||
| 16 Oct 10, 1:04 PM x_ele_x UK, 3 yrs |
My sister was in an NHS hospital with terminal cancer and needed help to get to a toilet, after several requests as the situation was getting urgent she asked once again to which the response from a nurse was this... " Its OK for you laying there, I have been on my feet all day" I don't care how hard done by or short staffed they are that is unacceptable. I am very glad I wasn't present at the time as I would now be serving time for GBH. The whole system is fucked up if you ask me...put back the good old fashioned matrons let them run the wards, sack the managers and pay for more nursing staff...preferable ones who actually want to do the job!
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| 16 Oct 10, 1:41 PM Lady_Lancashire 23 mths £ |
There should be a patient advocacy liason service in all hospitals. Document everything for them as in this weblog. Things can only get better if patients and their visitors highlight the realities. Nurses are not listened to (Graham Pink lost his job after writing to the Guardian). The Red Rose Whispers Of Passion (J o'B R) | |||||||
| 16 Oct 10, 1:58 PM firemynx_B UK(B), 11 yrs   |
As opposed to being at home and being sick?
So did you tell them what the Consultant said? Did the Consultant actually agree a bed would be kept open?
Hardly dangerous really, just another solution? I don't think anyone is going to die from it
So if these happened at home, they would be just as much of an issue? Again hardly life and death.
Mental Health patients get sick too you know, just because you have a mental health problem, it does not put you in a nice protective bubble from disease.
Harsh as it may be, exactly what else were they meant to do? Maybe the kindest thing was actually to leave her alone.
I've heard similar things about the NHS previously, funnily enough the people concerned were only too happy for the palliative care they received towards the end. "Dear Santa ........ I can explain!" | |||||||
| 16 Oct 10, 2:40 PM MissP UK(EN), 8 yrs |
The NHS does still need a lot of cuts. I was at a meeting this week, where one of their suppliers confirmed that the NHS was one of the largest customers in the UK of the 4* hotel market. I'm sure better negotiated rates and/or, dare I suggest it, using a 3* hotel with out money might help pay for the waiting lists to be shortened. I know you're at your wit's end with all this, but to be fair, when I visted you, there were plenty of staff, they were all polite and helpful, the food looked good, and you said you were eating it, and the place was clean.
Most people have had both crap and good experiences with the NHS. I hope yours gets better
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| 16 Oct 10, 3:15 PM princess_geek UK(CO), 3 yrs |
I'd like to clarify, its normal procedure to transfer acutely unwell mental health patients to medical wards. Medical wards aren't just for people who are 100% mentally stable. If a patient is having a mental health crisis or needs monitoring closely, there will nearly always be a dual trained or mental health nurse on duty on the ward somewhere, or available to contact should they be needed. Regarding consultants "holding beds." They're not bed managers, so they really have no say in the bed situation. In most busy hospitals, there are more patients in A&E awaiting beds than there are beds available, so holding them is rarely an option. | |||||||
| 16 Oct 10, 3:38 PM Lady_Lancashire 23 mths £ |
If a mental health patient attacked someone on a medical ward then something did go wrong, eg. lack of isolation (medical) rooms for use of patients with extra needs and their extra staff members (which is not always the procedure, however, as it involves overtime pay). I think the frustration regarding holding the bed is about communication rather than that it didn't happen, as with the morphine. Nobody who is expected to die should be expected to do so alone. Then again it is lamentable that her condition was overheard by other patients and flags up a confidentiality issue. Contact PALS. The Red Rose Whispers Of Passion (J o'B R) | |||||||
| 16 Oct 10, 4:09 PM green_and_blue UK, 2 yrs |
The NHS has problems for sure, but we remain incredibly fortunate to have it. There are many places where your healthcare would be far less effective and your life expectancy thus much shorter. A little perspective is a really good thing.
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| 16 Oct 10, 4:57 PM schnaps UK(OX), 2 yrs |
I'd never been a massive fan of the NHS to be honest but then I watched the Michael Moore documentary Sicko and it completely shocked me. I can't believe how good the care we get here is compared to in other countries, yes it's not perfect and there's certainly existing problems such as those you've highlighted but honestly, watch that film and you'll never criticise it again!
"the unknown is the greatest fear of all"- so try everything! | |||||||
| 16 Oct 10, 4:58 PM druidic UK(DD), 12 yrs |
^^^ exactly this.
"A genuine passion is like a mountain stream; it admits of no impediment; it cannot go backward; it must go forward."
- Christian Nestell Bovee |
