Joys of the NHS

[Sportsman]

My 86 year old Father in Law is currently in Hospital. For around a year he has had a cough and occasional dizzy spells.

His GP said that he had Bronchitis and an inner ear problem.

Around 10 days ago he felt unwell and called a Dr. He was seen on that occasion by one of the weekend Locums who took his pulse and said that he needed an ambulance to go to hospital.

5 hours later the ambulance arrived and took him.

The initial diagnosis was Pneumonia for which he was given antibiotics and an irregular / slow heartbeat for which he was placed on a small, mobile monitor so that they could record his heartbeat over a few days.

After a few days the cough wasn't improving and no-one had checked the monitor so he asked a nurse to explain to him what the monitor was doing. She had a look and said "not much, the battery is flat" so nothing really had happened over the first 4 days.

The battery was replaced and he was monitored over the next couple of days which showed up an electrical problem with the heart causing a mild left sided failure. This was causing the cough / dizzy spells and in fact he had not had pneumonia at all, let alone bronchitis or an inner ear problem.

This afternoon he was taken to theatre where he had a pace maker fitted. This procedure is carried out under local and may be uncomfortable but should not be painful. This old soldier said it made him cry from the pain.

He returned to the ward at 6 pm and we have just spoken to him. He has not yet been offered any pain killers although he is complaining of severe pain. I have just phoned the ward and "had a word" with the ward Sister.

They say that foreigners go to the UK as medical tourists. If this is the standard of care and attention they receive then they are welcome.

[chesters1]

When my mrs had her second knee i found her crying with pain the evening of the op and i told the nurse in charge my mrs does not cry for anything so something was wrong ,next evening was the same so i repeated what i said to a different nurse ,next evening she was in a terrible state so i made a fuss and insisted something was done ,eventually a morphine machine turned up and she finally calmed down.

 

When she went to her pre op for a repeat replacement of the knee 11 months later to our horror the woman said no pain killers were given until that morphine ,what can you do they all blame each other and nothing changes

 

The replacement replacement went better and she was out in 2 days unlike the 9 the op before !

In 11 months only two nurses and the tea lady was the same in the entire ward ,cheap nurses on short contracts so they can be paid less than the minimum wage i expect ,one nurse back in the philipines was highly trained she said but it wasnt recognised here so she was on the bottom of the pile in the system ,bugger knows how she supported her two kids back home and existed here? I expect even the most caring person would quickly become jaded in those conditions

Edited April 24, 2014 by chesters1

[Sportsman]

Don't know about poorly paid nurses. If they are agency staff they are probably paid more, certainly no where near minimum wage.

They may well be poorly trained, poorly motivated and poorly managed though.

From my own experience as a patient and from stories related by family members then NHS care is very good in the critical care areas but much less so in the day to day routine care that they offer.

In this case a mixture of lazy medicine from the Doctors and disinterested nurses.

[barry luxton]

sounds like a case for privatisation, getting some motivation going.

 

 

 

i'll get me coat

[chesters1]

Don't know about poorly paid nurses. If they are agency staff they are probably paid more, certainly no where near minimum wage.

They may well be poorly trained, poorly motivated and poorly managed though.

From my own experience as a patient and from stories related by family members then NHS care is very good in the critical care areas but much less so in the day to day routine care that they offer.

In this case a mixture of lazy medicine from the Doctors and disinterested nurses.

The agency is certainly paid more but i doubt the nurses are after all the agency hold the cards on who works and who does not and they do or (did not ) not have to pay minimum wage to staff on short contracts hence the continual new faces you see in the workplace

 

I think the explanation for having these vastly expensive agency staff is because someone is getting back handers to employ them. simple

There cannot be a plausible explanation if so those that offer the contracts need replacing as they do not deserve a job

If a contract nurse is say twice as expensive as a normal nurse then even i see how to solve the problem and i'm not on 60 grand a year (or whatever it is for whoever does it)

Edited April 25, 2014 by chesters1

[corydoras]

Don't forget that you don't need to pay employers NI for agency staff, and if one is broke you can just ask the agency for another.

[rob.imk2]

My Lady has seen both ends of the spectrum of the NHS .On Thursday she had an appointment to see a Dermatologist about a lump on her arm that had been bleeding ,the consultant said if we could wait an hour she could have it removed . The procedure went ok the nurses were really attentive and friendly .Before we went home the Senior nurse said to change the dressing in 3 days which I did then make an appointment with our local doctors nurse to have the stitches out at a later date .Here,s where the performance started ,I phoned the doctors to be told they dont do that stuff any more and to get in touch with the local medical centre to see if they would do it .I took my wife to the medical centre which is around the corner from my house the receptionist said we could make an appointment IF she could get hold of the nurses .To cut a long story short my Son contacted of two of his friends who are district Nurses who said one of them would come round to our house and take out the stitches .What really bugged me was the receptionists attitude when she said IF she could get hold of the nurses as if they were on another planet when both of the nurses told me they can easily be contacted when they are on duty .

[gozzer]

sounds like a case for privatisation, getting some motivation going.

 

 

 

i'll get me coat

 

I assume that you think that there are no shirkers, or cases of mismanagement in the private sector then Barry?

 

 

John.

[poledark]

sounds like a case for privatisation, getting some motivation going.

 

 

 

i'll get me coat

Best start saving now if that's what you want.

 

Sportsman seems to be very unfortunate with the NHS experience, the flat battery is a classic!

 

Den

[Sportsman]

Not really Den, I think my experiences are fairly typical. It may be that I am more aware of the shortcomings because of my previous experience as a Registered Nurse.

To connect an important piece of equipment with a flat battery is , in itself, indefensible. What is worse is that over the course of 4 days no-one had looked at it.

makes you sort of wonder why they were monitoring his potentially serious irregular heart beat.

An example from my own experience.

In 2000 I was laid up in bed in hospital following a back injury. One of the more serious potential effects of laying still in bed is the risk of blood clotting in the leg veins, a deep venous thrombosis or DVT. The blood clots can break up and travel back up the veins until they lodge in the lungs a Pulmonary Embolism. This condition is potentially fatal.

To avoid it they use anti-embolism stockings - elastic stockings toe apply pressure to the legs to aid venous return. The key word is pressure, so the stockings have to be pretty tight to be effective.

A staff nurse came around and applied a pair of stockings to my legs as per normal procedure. Due to the injury my legs were paralysed and I had suffered from severe muscle wasting so they were pretty skinny. The stockings she applied were at least two sizes too large and were, to put it mildly, useless.

When I questioned it she genuinely didn't seem to understand the significance and just said "They'll be fine" before breezing off. She really didn't seem to know why she was putting the stockings on or what they were supposed to achieve.

I would love to say that this was an isolated case but I doubt it. The fact is though, that most patients wouldn't have questioned it. (Most patients shouldn't have to)