Supporting NHS

It is not free and I repeat, it is not free. That’s the attitude that supports the state it is in I feel. Anyone who pays tax is paying for the NHS. Please explain why you feel it’s free as maybe the rest of us have been misinformed. But even free, neglect isn’t ok!

I think, too, an awful lot of NHS time and money must be spent on appointments that wouldnt be necessary, if an original problem wasn't given the care that it should have had.

WithNobsOnIt

Wow You and your family have been in the wars. Hope everyboduy is getting better.

Just think if you had to pay for all that treatment. How much would is cost. Even with private insurance.
It would cost a fair wack for monthly premiums.

I've us the NHS more. Over the last five years than l ever did before l became an old lady.

Whatever problems with have in UK today. I am glad we live in a country where we have access free health care.

So from the bottom of my heart.

Thank You NHS and all your staff
😻👍🇬🇧
XXX

We do pay for our health care. It’s not free. And the staff are employed ( not volunteers and not doing us a favour) to do a job which sadly a good number of them do not do properly, kindly or compassionately. Great for people who’ve received good care but unfortunately that is not shared by many.

Wow You and your family have been in the wars. Hope everyboduy is getting better.

Just think if you had to pay for all that treatment. How much would is cost. Even with private insurance.
It would cost a fair wack for monthly premiums.

I've us the NHS more. Over the last five years than l ever did before l became an old lady.

Whatever problems with have in UK today. I am glad we live in a country where we have access free health care.

So from the bottom of my heart.

Thank You NHS and all your staff
😻👍🇬🇧
XXX

Something I have noticed recently is NHS staff make no attempt to talk to patients who have speech problems. My husband’s speech was affected after his first stroke and even the GP at our health centre keeps asking me to speak for him. Various nurses and HCAs in hospital do the same and it’s very upsetting for my husband. They just need to give him a little extra time and listen more.

Madmeg, this really is what it has come to, I think it's inexcusable abuse of the elderly. I hope you continue to get the support you need, and deserve, at home and the quality of your husband's (and your) life improves.

icanhandthemback

Visgir1

Thousands and Thousands of people are seen and treated by the NHS every day they are grateful, happy with no issue.
Only a very small % moan, and kick up a fuss.
I'm a recently Retired NHS professional, I know how hard everyone works.

Ah, good old fashioned empathy with those who don't get well treated. Do tell the mothers who had stillbirths through the lack of care, the families of the elderly who have watched their loved ones die through lack of treatment, the people who weren't listened to when they had cancer so treatment was delayed that they are moaning and kicking up a fuss.
I'm the first person to praise good practise, try to find a way through when things appear to be going adrift with polite questions and being as helpful as I can with information but I also reserve the right to call out shoddy treatment.

I absolutely agree icanhandthemback. Complaining about bringing someone (DD) to the brink of death through failing to run the right tests, is not 'moaning and kicking up a fuss' It is a life or death issue

Complaining about A&E first failing to book a patient so that being seen and treated was delayed by 3 hours, then failing to recognise the signs of heart failure and sending a patient home is not 'moaning and kicking up a fuss, it is a life or death issue.

Complaining about being misdiagnosed, twice, with TIAs, which delayed treatment for the real problem by over a year, and it was only properly diagnosed when I paid for private treatment is not 'moaning and kicking up a fuss' , not a life and death issue but it certainly damaged my mental health for over three years.

Just because people work hard does not mean they are doing a good job. In many cases they are working so hard because their place of employment is badly managed and their hard work actually does harm to people

MadMeg
I could cry for you, as I expect many others on this thread could. 😪

Your experience is a good example of how the elderly are treated in the NHS. In the last few years a friend in hospital with breathing problems finally got out of bed as no one answered his call and he would have wet his bed , got to the toilet, fell over due to dizziness and ended up in a terrible state as a result. Unless you are used to wetting or soiling your bed than it is not something that would come easy whilst you wait and wait for help. Same happened to another friend but she hit her head and died a few days later as a result. It is appalling and shocking and has gone on for years. Ask around. But apparently and ‘complaints’ come under the moaners and whiners. Maybe one day you will be in hospital in your 80s at the mercy of the angels of mercy nurses and discover first hand the reality for so many elderly. I hope not for your sake.

Mostly excellent service from local GPs, out-of-hours clinic and hospital (albeit long waits in A&E and it is a 40-minute drive with virtually no parking). Recently mixed service after calling 111 and 999 (the latter last week) for DH who suffered a fall 8 weeks ago and became almost totally bedbound. He was already on a wait list for neuropathic physio but still on it 11 months later - at nearly 80 he will probably never get it. Excellent service from Elderly Care team, physio visits twice-weekly, hospita; bed and other equipment arrived same day, emergency home carers for 3 weeks. All served to get him out of bed daily and walking short distances indoors with a rollator. Until a week ago when late at night I noticed him slumped sideways in his chair, eyes shut, unresponsive to my voice. He rallied slightly but I was already ringing 999. They told me a wait of at least 4 hours. An on-call medic appeared after 30 mins and performed various tests (bp/pulse/responsiveness etc and ambulance arrived after an hour. They performed more tests and agreed to admit him.
I told them he was largely immobile but they wheeled a high bed to our front door which he had to hoist himself onto (he can't do that) with a gap across the threshold of about ten inches. I had to manhandle him onto it myself and he was clearly PETRIFIED that he was going to fall. The paramedics did little to assist me and I wrenched my shoulder while doing it. Off to hospital, put into a side-room in A&E and left there for 3 hrs before seeing a doctor, who ordered a CT scan. Made to climb out of bed onto a trolley, made to climb onto the scanner (nearly fell both times), wheeled back to bed. A few other bedside tests and remained in bed on his back for the next 14 hours. No commode provided so had to wet himself and wait for his (provided) pad to be changed. Not moved position for those 14 hrs. Was discharged with "no abnormality detected" but didn't get home for another 6 hrs. Was given some meagre unappetising food which he couldn't sit up to eat. The result of all this was he has not walked since. Has lost the use of the muscles to sit himself up,, suffers a new pain in his side (suspect muscular) and only today has managed to use his rollator to walk about ten very tiny paces before becoming exhausted and scared. Two months of kind useful physio down the pan. He can now barely manage to get on the commode (was doing well before this, with minor help). His confidence and will have both taken a severe hit. If someone had just asked him what was best for him while in bed he would have told them. Lie on his right side, knees slightly bent and help to sit on the edge of the bed for a short while (ten mins) every couple of hours. He could then use a urine bottle at least (by himself).

Brought home at 10 p.m. and left to me to manhandle him to bed. What a trauma it was for him - and me. He still lolls to his left (used to be to his right before that) and still can't walk safely with his rollator.

I could cry and indeed I have.

Visgir1

Thousands and Thousands of people are seen and treated by the NHS every day they are grateful, happy with no issue.
Only a very small % moan, and kick up a fuss.
I'm a recently Retired NHS professional, I know how hard everyone works.

Ah, good old fashioned empathy with those who don't get well treated. Do tell the mothers who had stillbirths through the lack of care, the families of the elderly who have watched their loved ones die through lack of treatment, the people who weren't listened to when they had cancer so treatment was delayed that they are moaning and kicking up a fuss.
I'm the first person to praise good practise, try to find a way through when things appear to be going adrift with polite questions and being as helpful as I can with information but I also reserve the right to call out shoddy treatment.

No longer a general fan, and quite skeptical about some.

Nothing but praise for the breast screening and follow up service, but so disappointed at the total disappearance of orthodontics except for small children.

eg 1 Small gallstones found by accident - solution is no longer about care and dietary advice, no check as to which type, just take it out. Quite bullying about it.
eg2 Nasty fall - great emergency dental care, head injury - sit and wait for 7 hours in a dark draughty corridor totally ignored - ended up having to go home and my GP was brilliant to check me over the following morning. Paid for osteopath to get my spine and knees put back into place so I could walk more than a few step. Worst was waiting for NHS physio for 3 months just for an assessment to put me on a list for a 5 month wait to see them
e.g 3 Mum in with UTI, foreign doc who spoke very poor English - no antibiotics for over a week until I threw a tantrum at the trust CEO. They parked 5 older ladies in a side ward and simply forgot them, paying out for contract nurses - one lady fell out of bed, broke her hip and died. Another's daughter drove 100 miles to fetch her to take her to her local hospital.
So many checks are being performed by, albeit efficient, outsourced technician with result going back to GP to deal with, rather than by specific medical professionals.

Come on Visgirl - tell us what sort of ‘health care professional’ you were and where you worked if you’re so proud of your perfection and so dismissive of moaning patients kicking up a fuss. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a disgusting post on GN.

Visgir1

Thousands and Thousands of people are seen and treated by the NHS every day they are grateful, happy with no issue.
Only a very small % moan, and kick up a fuss.
I'm a recently Retired NHS professional, I know how hard everyone works.

What an incredibly unkind post - maybe to be expected from an NHS professional. Moan and kick up a fuss ? How dare you. Come back and posit when someone you loved most in the world died in pain and fear in the ‘care’ of the NHS. How dare you - your post says everything. Moan and kick up a fuss? Shame shame shame shame on you

Thousands and Thousands of people are seen and treated by the NHS every day they are grateful, happy with no issue.
Only a very small % moan, and kick up a fuss.
I'm a recently Retired NHS professional, I know how hard everyone works.

Monica -that is an excellent post.

lixy I wonder if nursing has become too academic for the patients’ good somewhere along the way?

I think there is a lot of truth in what you suggest, but this has happened because a nurse's job has change so much. Initiallth main purpose of nurses was to nurse and care for their patients but now they are a core part of the medical and support staff team. They are expected to be able to do many tasks that were previously only done by dotors, operating and managing complicated machinery and making decisions how technical equipment and the medication the patient need could be balanced. They now carry out minor medical - and surgical procedures.

At my surgery a nurse does the annual check up on minor medical problems I have and the clinical pharmacist advises and changes my medication. Tasks that were previously done by doctors.

It is the upgrading of the work the nurses do that has made it a degree subject. Perhaps there title could be upgraded to Nurse technicians and then there could be non-graduate courses for nurses whose task would be to physically care for the patients.

JANH’s post above set me thinking about what happened when nursing became a graduate profession. We used to have a two tier nursing profession - SRN, who were the career nurses and SEN who stayed with the hands on work at ward level. And then of course there were care assistants too.

I wonder if nursing has become too academic for the patients’ good somewhere along the way?

They were a minority, in my case.
With a few marvellous exceptions

The majority of stsff are great, work to the best of the conditions provided. Sadly the conditions are not always the best. Departments are overrun at times especially A & E, Acute Admissions are like cattle markets. I'm so fed up with Covid still being uttered as the reason for the state of affairs. To me there is just not enough investment given to staff, equipment, and buildings. Wards that used to accommodate 24 now take 36 but staffing level just the same.

When my mum was in hospital (same one) it is the first time in my life thay I had ever seen her cowed, and nervous, as were the other ladies on the ward.
The atmosphere was really horrible and oppressive.

I have been appalled by the care given to the elderly in 2 of our hospitals. Just recently a friend of mine who is in her early 90's was taken into hospital with pneumonia. She is normally physically healthy but does have dementia which has been assessed as mild by her GP. Whilst that assessment might be something her family, who live with and care for her, might dispute, they are able to accurately assess she is normally healthy and happy. Obviously the pneumonia had affected her mind as well as her physical health which is quite normal. Before she had been in hospital for 12 hours, the staff wanted to put a DNR on her record. Her family objected but the staff were adamant they would only make her 'comfortable." It was a battle to get the treatment she needed. 48 hours she recovered enough to go home and is continuing to recover. This doesn't seem to make the NHS something to be proud of.

And those who make the rules quite possibly go private. The wealthy have their paediatrician on speed dial. Need a scan? No wait times for them, just ring up and book one - at a date and time convenient to you too. Kerching! But peace of mind for those with disposable income.

I went to a walk in centre a few years ago and it was dreadful, not enough seats for patients, unruly children dashing about shouting. There were 3 doctors on duty. One was foreign and came into the waiting room calling out the next patients name, nobody moved, nobody could understand what he was saying, he tried a few times and then walked out and came back with a receptionist who said the name and the unlucky patient had to get up and go with him. What chance did that person have of being understood or understanding what was said to them? The next doctor to call for a patient was overweight, shirt hanging out at the waist and unbuttoned with greasy hair and generally unkempt , I was dreading seeing him as I knew I would have to undress and be examined. Luckily a clean. tidy very pleasant Asian lady called out my name and boy was I glad!

I’m sorry Primrose to read of your continuing issues with your husband’s care. It’s hard isn’t it trying to get the care he needs in a system which in many cases seems to have given up on caring - in all senses of the word. I actually think staff shouldn’t have mobile phones whilst on duty.