Thank you NHS !

[fastbob]

Ten days in hospital and I'm finally on my way home . I have nothing but the highest of praise for every single one of the army of people of all races and creeds who cared for me from the Doctors to the lovely ladies who brought me a cuppa in the morning and everyone inbetween . It has truly been a privilege to watch such an amazing organisation in action and we must do everything to preserve this jewel in England's crown . Thank you NHS !

[Stu]

Hope you're OK Bob

[MikeHorton]

25 minutes ago, fastbob said:

Ten days in hospital and I'm finally on my way home . I have nothing but the highest of praise for every single one of the army of people of all races and creeds who cared for me from the Doctors to the lovely ladies who brought me a cuppa in the morning and everyone inbetween . It has truly been a privilege to watch such an amazing organisation in action and we must do everything to preserve this jewel in England's crown . Thank you NHS !

I can agree with that they did a great job with me last month, I can understand and support the nurses strike. Starting wage for a nurse is shocking and unlike some trades who get bursaries they have to pay for their degree too. If Gary Lineker can get 1.2m for going to Qatar you really do realise how the nation has its priorities all wrong 

[Old-codger]

Glad to hear your on the mend and on the way home Bob, take it easy and rest. Long live the NHS

[rennie]

Glad to hear you're on the way home! take it easy! 

 

And yes! they are brilliant and undervalued

[Bender]

Good news  

[Fozzie]

Glad to hear you got good treatment, and your recovery is in good order!

 

I had the reverse experience to you back in Feb. Left for 3 days before my appendix was removed, my GP went absolutely insane over it. But this was during the tail end of covid, so hopefully just them being overwhelmed. 

[daveinlim]

I've always found that the treatment has been great. Fantastic doctors, nurses, surgeons, staff etc. 

 

But it is always the opposite on the admin side. Constantly being forgotten about, appointments not booked at the right times, long waits and delays etc

[Fish]

who'd have thought a case of hemorrhoids could take so long....

 

In all seriousness I hope that things are on the mend for you.

 

I second what you have said. 6 years ago I had the pleasure of having treatment for a secondary cancer. Other than the hard nosed consultant I was under, who only really needed to work on her bedside manor, everyone was fantastic. Even when I was at my lowest during my treatment they treated me with compashion, dignity and respect. I know there are many issues with the NHS, mostly down to providing services that it was never designed to provide. 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

We must be unlucky. My mother has been in hospital for 7 weeks. To be fair there's been some excellent staff but the system is broken and some of the doctors are clueless.

 

At one stage she needed three blood transfusions. The next morning the doctor told her she could go home as her bloods were fine 

 

Of course they were! She'd just been filled up with new blood. A few days later she's in a terrible state again. But they didn't check why until another doctor discharged her, we set up a home care package, and literally as she was been wheeled out of the discharge lounge they come running after her saying her blood is all to cock again. 

 

They've had her for seven weeks and only today has anyone thought to check why her blood tests keep going haywire. 

 

Needless to say the consultant who promised to ring me didn't. He left it to a junior colleague. 

[MikeHorton]

6 minutes ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

We must be unlucky. My mother has been in hospital for 7 weeks. To be fair there's been some excellent staff but the system is broken and some of the doctors are clueless.

 

At one stage she needed three blood transfusions. The next morning the doctor told her she could go home as her bloods were fine 

 

Of course they were! She'd just been filled up with new blood. A few days later she's in a terrible state again. But they didn't check why until another doctor discharged her, we set up a home care package, and literally as she was been wheeled out of the discharge lounge they come running after her saying her blood is all to cock again. 

 

They've had her for seven weeks and only today has anyone thought to check why her blood tests keep going haywire. 

 

Needless to say the consultant who promised to ring me didn't. He left it to a junior colleague. 

That's not great at all. Have you complained via pals it does normally make a difference as the complaints are reviewed independently. I hope things move in the right direction we had similar issues with my mum we got it sorted in the end 

[fastbob]

Second day at home now and very much on the mend now . It's hard to believe that two days ago I was shuffling around on oxygen with a big tube sticking out of my side  carrying a container of my own blood . I'm generally rather squeamish but I guess when there's nowhere to go , acceptance just kicks in . When I saw how much came out in the initial insertion I could barely believe my eyes . And the colour of it ! Sorry , just trying to come to terms with what's just happened to me . 

Edited December 1, 2022 by fastbob

[bonio]

5 hours ago, MikeHorton said:

That's not great at all. Have you complained via pals it does normally make a difference as the complaints are reviewed independently. I hope things move in the right direction we had similar issues with my mum we got it sorted in the end 

We got nowhere with PALs. The complaint just disappeared into the system. 

[S-Westerly]

6 hours ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

We must be unlucky. My mother has been in hospital for 7 weeks. To be fair there's been some excellent staff but the system is broken and some of the doctors are clueless.

 

At one stage she needed three blood transfusions. The next morning the doctor told her she could go home as her bloods were fine 

 

Of course they were! She'd just been filled up with new blood. A few days later she's in a terrible state again. But they didn't check why until another doctor discharged her, we set up a home care package, and literally as she was been wheeled out of the discharge lounge they come running after her saying her blood is all to cock again. 

 

They've had her for seven weeks and only today has anyone thought to check why her blood tests keep going haywire. 

 

Needless to say the consultant who promised to ring me didn't. He left it to a junior colleague. 

Sounds similar to my experience with my mother. To be fair she is on her way out and has dementia. She went in with one condition which they stabilised but ended up in fairly short order with c.diff and a uti. In the meantime they've bounced her around from the main hospital to a community hospital and a nursing home. All of these are about 15 miles from where my dad lives so when none of us are around he's paying £50 a round trip. Last week she was supposed to be transferred to a home only half a mile from my dad's home but she was found to have another infection so its been postponed until maybe this week. Not too happy.

 

On the other hand my middle grandson was found to have a ruptured bowel on his 10th birthday and the NHS did a brilliant job of saving his life. 

 

I do think there's quite a lot of variability in the quality of care you get.

Edited December 1, 2022 by S-Westerly

[MikeHorton]

1 hour ago, bonio said:

We got nowhere with PALs. The complaint just disappeared into the system. 

That's no good I'd be following that up bad practice needs to be reviewed its a lottery just depends where u live! 

[fastbob]

An update . I was discharged last Thursday and seemed to be doing ok but this Monday I coughed and was plunged into absolute agony . Couldn't move , breath , speak or do anything . Luckily my phone was within reach so I phoned a friend who got me an ambulance . 16 hours of agony in a wheelchair in A&E before I got transferred back to Cardio Thoracic . X-ray done , no further bleeding , observed for three days and sent home with even more pain meds . Just trying to stay comfortable and hoping that my rib stays in place .  

[Bender]

3 hours ago, fastbob said:

An update . I was discharged last Thursday and seemed to be doing ok but this Monday I coughed and was plunged into absolute agony . Couldn't move , breath , speak or do anything . Luckily my phone was within reach so I phoned a friend who got me an ambulance . 16 hours of agony in a wheelchair in A&E before I got transferred back to Cardio Thoracic . X-ray done , no further bleeding , observed for three days and sent home with even more pain meds . Just trying to stay comfortable and hoping that my rib stays in place .  

Good luck, I think you need it. 

 

Talking to a woman I know, husband had heart attack last sat, ambulance in an hour, not great but turned up, operated on, stent fitted home 3days later

[MikeHorton]

2 hours ago, Bender said:

Good luck, I think you need it. 

 

Talking to a woman I know, husband had heart attack last sat, ambulance in an hour, not great but turned up, operated on, sent fitted home 3days later

I had my triple bypass on a Monday out by Friday. Your better off home and moving about of you can. It's amazing how effective new types of operations are and how quickly your body recovers. 

[MikeHorton]

3 hours ago, fastbob said:

An update . I was discharged last Thursday and seemed to be doing ok but this Monday I coughed and was plunged into absolute agony . Couldn't move , breath , speak or do anything . Luckily my phone was within reach so I phoned a friend who got me an ambulance . 16 hours of agony in a wheelchair in A&E before I got transferred back to Cardio Thoracic . X-ray done , no further bleeding , observed for three days and sent home with even more pain meds . Just trying to stay comfortable and hoping that my rib stays in place .  

You haven't had a good run hope it all moves in the right direction. Just try and keep away from all the coughs and colds doing the rounds. Worst time of year to have a chest issue

[fastbob]

Once you're past the A&E barrier the service is second to none and I can't fault it.  Obviously if you had a life threatening condition you would get straight into a ward  . My x-ray in triage showed no extra bleeding so I was parked up as non urgent . I suspect that the main reason I was re admitted was to ensure that I hadn't been inappropriately discharged previously . Anyway , taking it easy but I feel as if I'm making progress this time around . 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

Having got my mother out of hospital she has made good progress over the past 48 hours. I have discovered she has had a long term condition which the hospital ignored and failed to take into account whilst she was there. This is the reason she was deteriorating whilst in hospital.

 

There was nothing they could do for her broken shoulder other than administer painkillers. But over 8 weeks stay they ignored an existing medical condition which needed simple daily treatment, hence she declined in mobility and health. 

 

The day after she got out her own GP visited her, tore up the medication the hospital sent her home with, prescribed what she really needed, and she's showing the first signs of improvement since her fall. 

 

Most of the nurses were good. A couple were just small minded little dictators. The doctors were generally clueless. They looked at the broken shoulder and ignored the rest of her needs. 

 

I'm thinking of trying to get them to move house so in future they can go to a different hospital. When my father was taken ill whilst visiting us he ended up in our local hospital which was excellent. 

 

[bonio]

Problem is the care varies even from one ward to another. My father in law was admitted 13 years ago with a renal problem and left in a bed on one ward where he was neglected for weeks, no treatment, no care. As a result he developed bed ulcers on his heels. They didn't notice them until they had become infected and painful. 

Then they tranferred him to a renal ward, where the nurses were basically lazy and heartless. The place was filthy: shit and pee everywhere. Visiting was strictly 2pm to 4pm. He was left there in terrible pain for five months while the doctors made no decisions about his care. In the end the infections had spread so far that he had to have both legs amputated above the knee. He spent three weeks on a third ward, for the amputations, where the nurses couldn't have been kinder. The ward was spotless. We could visit when we wanted. For him, those were three happy weeks in six months of utter misery. To his horror, they sent him back to the second ward, but they soon discharged him after that.

He never walked again, and had to spend the rest of his life in a nursing home.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

Today I had to take a day off work and drive 150 miles to get my father to a cardiac clinic. When I got there they told us they'd sent the appointment by mistake.

 

That is the second time within the past three months they've pulled that trick. 

[bonio]

Good grief. Did you ask whose mistake?

Mrs bonio had an appointment with a consultant at St Thomas' in London. They phoned the day before to check that she was still able to go. All fine. So off she went on the train, two and a half hours to get over to Tommies. When she gets to the reception, she was told there is no clinic, because the consultant's away on his holidays.

No apology.

Two and a half hours to get home. 

 

 

[S-Westerly]

My experience of the NHS is that most of the people on the sharp end are pretty good but the bureaucracy of it and those who administer it have a special place in Hell.