NHS

[LeeCovFox]

Last night my mum was taken into hospital after suffering from 6 seizures. She is epileptic, but the frequency and severity of the fits was cause for concern so we called for an ambulance. The paramedics and the staff who met her and assessed her condition at the LRI were excellent. Fortunately, it would seem that she will be fine, but it may take quite a while, she hasn't yet recovered her speech, although she is at least conscious in spells now.

The treatment of my mum once she was moved on to a ward has not been what I would expect. I have always held NHS staff in extremely high regard, but today there was one cock up after another. Both a doctor and a nurse were told by me that my mum was allergic to latex. This didn't stop them from touching her later on whilst wearing them. They had to be told three times before they changed into latex free gloves.

They were asked to take her to the toilet, as my mum was trying to indicate that she needed to go. They seemed to ignore this request. By the time she was dealt with, it was too late. Once they had cleaned her up, they left her under her covers with her trousers still round her ankles. She is also still under the same blood stained blanket as she was last night. We mentioned this, but nothing was done.

Ever since I have been old enough to understand politics, I have been a follower of the Labour Party. I have voted for them in every election since I have been old enough to be enfranchised. I have always said that so long as there are elements of the party that stand for the workers and the underpriveleged that they can count on my vote. How naive. There are, without doubt, good, well intentioned people in politics, and in the Labour Party. I have met some of them. But they are not the ones involved in the decision making process. Those that are invariably sell out.

I'm pretty politically active, so for me to consider changing party allegiance is quite big for me personally. But this episode has made me consider doing so. To whom I have no idea, frankly the Tories look to me like New New Labour, so it won't be them. The party to whom I have given my support has let my family down badly today. Whatever the debate about who came up with the idea of the NHS, it was the Labour Party who introduced it. It is probably the single greatest idea that any civilised nation has ever had and put into practice. Never has such a wonderful notion been so ungratefully squandered by successive governments.

I don't blame the staff. They are under a lot of pressure, and they, I have to believe, have only the best intentions at heart. I'm sitting her tonight, unable to sleep properly because I'm wondering whether my mum will recover her speech before we visit tomorrow. Not that I will know. We were told that to hear her voice whilst we at home she will have to pay £12.50 for a phone card. What the **** is that bout? Whoever came up which rules such as these, and whoever is responsible for the pressure which renders health staff unable to do their jobs properly, should be ****ing ashamed of themselves.

[AoWW]

I feel for you and your family. I hope your Mum's ok and regains her speech quickly - it must be a pretty scary situation for you all.

I agree with your comments about the NHS. I don't necessarily have the same political-views that you have expressed but I know when my Gran was in hospital last year myself and my family were shocked at the poor level of care she received on the general ward. Prior to that, I have to say we felt her 'more-immediate' care by the ambulance crew, and in A&E was exemplary - but once she was moved to the ward the level of care and commitment from the staff dropped considerably. Basic 'humane' requests were ignored (I hope this was simply down to over-stretched and under-resourced departments rather than pure negligence although, in all honesty, I have my doubts). She was a lady who hated to make a fuss and always saw the best in people and, in many ways, I feel because she was one of the nicer/easier patients she was easily overlooked. When her condition deteriorated they were slow to react on the ward and seemed more concerned about 'bothering' senior staff than the welfare of the patient. She was later moved to Intensive Care where, again, we were very happy with the care she received. It's just a shame that she had been 'let down' by the nursing staff she was having to rely on earlier.

I hope that doesn't make you feel any more negative about the treatment your Mum is receiving - I certainly don't want to alarm you with my comments as I realise I'm talking about a 'one-off' situation and, doubtless, others have had far more positive experiences of the NHS.

I'll be thinking of you and wish your Mum a speedy recovery. Stay strong for her, eh?

[davieG]

Sorry to hear about your mum Lee and the treatment she is receiving I'm sure we all hope that it doesn't have an adverse affect on her achieving a full and speedy recovery.

As for the NHS I feel that since the creation of the Scottish and Welsh administrations the English NHS has become second class, not with standing that in England you are forced to pay for parking, prescriptions etc but it would seem that both Scotland and Wales have receive more tax payers money per head than we do in England.

I'm all for decentralisation but that should be more to do with how money is spent not on how it is divided up. Whether this in anyway is the cause of the poor treatment and care your mother is receiving we can't say but I feel it is divisive and creates a state of mind where you just feel it might be the case.

Best wishes to you and your family.

[Dr The Singh]

Sorry to hear about your mum Lee and the treatment she is receiving I'm sure we all hope that it doesn't have an adverse affect on her achieving a full and speedy recovery.

As for the NHS I feel that since the creation of the Scottish and Welsh administrations the English NHS has become second class, not with standing that in England you are forced to pay for parking, prescriptions etc but it would seem that both Scotland and Wales have receive more tax payers money per head than we do in England.

I'm all for decentralisation but that should be more to do with how money is spent not on how it is divided up. Whether this in anyway is the cause of the poor treatment and care your mother is receiving we can't say but I feel it is divisive and creates a state of mind where you just feel it might be the case.

Best wishes to you and your family.

Unfortunately the NHS and other services cannot cope with it's demands, and the care for the elderly inparticular has been severly neglected. My aunt suffered similar treatment at the royal, unfortuantely your pleas and complaints generally fall on death ears!! My Mrs used to work for the audit dept in the Royal, and all that money being pumped in certain areas has made no diiference, overall care is worse off!!!!

[Tabou]

From my experience with the NHS, it would seem that the main problem is that the emphasis is on running it as a business, rather than providing quality care.

The NHS (from my experience, will need validating by NHS people...), is terribly under funded and under staffed.

Nurses and Doctors get my full respect for the care and service they try to provide with limited funds/staff/training.

I hope your Mum feels better soon Lee, all the best.

[davieG]

From my experience with the NHS, it would seem that the main problem is that the emphasis is on running it as a business, rather than providing quality care.

The NHS (from my experience, will need validating by NHS people...), is terribly under funded and under staffed.

Nurses and Doctors get my full respect for the care and service they try to provide with limited funds/staff/training.

I hope your Mum feels better soon Lee, all the best.

I thought funding was at an all time high, of course it will never be enough so it's important that it's used effectively. Unfortuntely in modern society change is seen as the name of the game and with each successive Minister, Chairmen, Boards, Directors, Managers etc - that is those in authority feel that they need to change things to demonstrate they are doing something. They seem to forget that change in itself costs money and is often unsuccessful.

Our dentistry system is rotten even though debtist are paid more

GPs are now paid substantially more to do less and are being encourage to extend the hours they work back to what it was but for even more money.

We have the disparagy between provision of service acroos the UK

And that's just the obvious stuff.

From my own experience in industry and local government we had change after change after change and invariably ended up back where we started especially in the critical parts of the business.

Everywhere you look in society it's change, change , change mostly for appearances sake. Industry and Government pride themselves on change - look how much legislation has been introduce a lot of which is just a rehash/renaming of something we already had but it costs money to do it.

[C-man]

I've had a not too dissimilar experience with the NHS in the last couple of weeks.

Two weeks ago I returned from Majorca at 4AM to find a note saying my Grandad had been taken into hospital. My Grandads had a torrid 3 or 4 years since his first heart-attack, so naturally I was worried that it might be another. It turned out that the doctor who regularly cares for him had seen some blood test results (at about 5pm), not liked them and sent for an ambulance to take him to the General.

My Grandad is 87 and Grandma is 89, and they had to wait until 2AM for the ambulance to finally arrive. Still, my family were grateful because the hospital is the best place for him at the moment. I think the problem with him was his kidneys this time, not that we'd know because the level of care at the General was appalling. He'd ask to go to the toilet and no-one would take him for up to an hour; he'd ask for some water and none would be given to him. I understand the NHS staff are very busy and can't attend to all the patients 100% of the time, but these are simple requests that really should be seen to.

Last week when I was visiting, both myself and my Grandma were told that he was going to be moved to a closer hospital (they live in Braunstone, so its a fair journey to Evington for the General), i.e. the LRI. We were quite pleased with this because he's been there before and been cared for a lot better.

Anyway, on Monday morning my Grandma received a phone call from the duty manager at the General saying he was going to be moved later that day. Fantastic, we thought. Then he said he was being moved to Rutland Memorial Hospital in Oakham. Now, I'm quite good at geography and I could have sworn Oakham is about 20 miles further away than the General was. He waited for the Ambulance to take him there and it finally arrived at about midnight on Monday night. When he woke up yesterday morning, he had no idea where he was (he suffers from short-term memory loss) and thought we had put him in the asylum.

So now in my last week before University, every day I'm having to take my Grandma over there in the afternoon before my Dad, who works in Coventry (so he's now travelling over 70 miles to get home), goes to pick her up.

It's a bloody nuisance but at least he appeared to be getting better treatment yesterday.

[davieG]

I've had a not too dissimilar experience with the NHS in the last couple of weeks.

Two weeks ago I returned from Majorca at 4AM to find a note saying my Grandad had been taken into hospital. My Grandads had a torrid 3 or 4 years since his first heart-attack, so naturally I was worried that it might be another. It turned out that the doctor who regularly cares for him had seen some blood test results (at about 5pm), not liked them and sent for an ambulance to take him to the General.

My Grandad is 87 and Grandma is 89, and they had to wait until 2AM for the ambulance to finally arrive. Still, my family were grateful because the hospital is the best place for him at the moment. I think the problem with him was his kidneys this time, not that we'd know because the level of care at the General was appalling. He'd ask to go to the toilet and no-one would take him for up to an hour; he'd ask for some water and none would be given to him. I understand the NHS staff are very busy and can't attend to all the patients 100% of the time, but these are simple requests that really should be seen to.

Last week when I was visiting, both myself and my Grandma were told that he was going to be moved to a closer hospital (they live in Braunstone, so its a fair journey to Evington for the General), i.e. the LRI. We were quite pleased with this because he's been there before and been cared for a lot better.

Anyway, on Monday morning my Grandma received a phone call from the duty manager at the General saying he was going to be moved later that day. Fantastic, we thought. Then he said he was being moved to Rutland Memorial Hospital in Oakham. Now, I'm quite good at geography and I could have sworn Oakham is about 20 miles further away than the General was. He waited for the Ambulance to take him there and it finally arrived at about midnight on Monday night. When he woke up yesterday morning, he had no idea where he was (he suffers from short-term memory loss) and thought we had put him in the asylum.

So now in my last week before University, every day I'm having to take my Grandma over there in the afternoon before my Dad, who works in Coventry (so he's now travelling over 70 miles to get home), goes to pick her up.

It's a bloody nuisance but at least he appeared to be getting better treatment yesterday.

WTF - Oakham that's appalling!

Whatever happened to 'choice' that they continually proclaim?

[LeeCovFox]

Thanks everyone for your goodwill. My mum is back home now, has recovered some speech and seems just to be in need of some rest. Fortunately for her she can't even remember having been in hospital, but the experience isn't one which I will forget quickly.

[James.]

Thanks everyone for your goodwill. My mum is back home now, has recovered some speech and seems just to be in need of some rest. Fortunately for her she can't even remember having been in hospital, but the experience isn't one which I will forget quickly.

I feel for you mate. Like many others I've seen the effect illness can have on the whole family when my girlfriend's father had a serious stroke in April this year. It's been a very tough few months obviously for him but also for his wife and daughters. At least one positive to come from it is the motivation it gave me to do this half-marathon and the subsequent awareness I've tried to generate on behalf of the Stroke Association through my fundraising.

All I can offer is regards and a healthy end to the year for your family.

[Tommy G]

I had a short expereince with the NHS in June, had a small operation on my back. Was in at 1pm and out by 4.30pm, the operation was only 20 mins and I couldn't fault the NHS. I was looked after fine, but as I wasn't a serious patient I thought I would have been disregarded a bit more - but I wasn't.

Needless to say, Lee's example shows that there still are issues with the NHS, considering the money still thrown at it. Hopefully it was a one off, just unlucky that it happened to your mum. Hope she gets better soon

[BigGibbo]

The NHS . . . . simply horrendous at worst. Negligent & massively stretched at best!

[Jon the Hat]

I had a short expereince with the NHS in June, had a small operation on my back. Was in at 1pm and out by 4.30pm, the operation was only 20 mins and I couldn't fault the NHS. I was looked after fine, but as I wasn't a serious patient I thought I would have been disregarded a bit more - but I wasn't.

Needless to say, Lee's example shows that there still are issues with the NHS, considering the money still thrown at it. Hopefully it was a one off, just unlucky that it happened to your mum. Hope she gets better soon

This is not unusual. For many excellent staff the option to move from the general wards, where the workload is unrelenting and sadly the time to care for patients is no longer seen as a priority, is a very appealing one. My Wife works in outpatients, which while busy is better organised and 9-5. Day wards also are seemingly much better run, and of course generally people in for a day require less peronsal care.

[Guest]

I had never heard my grandad use any profanity, not until the day I went to visit him in the LRI. I don't know what shocked me more.

I hope that your mum recovers, Lee. All the best

[Thracian]

Last night my mum was taken into hospital after suffering from 6 seizures. She is epileptic, but the frequency and severity of the fits was cause for concern so we called for an ambulance. The paramedics and the staff who met her and assessed her condition at the LRI were excellent. Fortunately, it would seem that she will be fine, but it may take quite a while, she hasn't yet recovered her speech, although she is at least conscious in spells now.

The treatment of my mum once she was moved on to a ward has not been what I would expect. I have always held NHS staff in extremely high regard, but today there was one cock up after another. Both a doctor and a nurse were told by me that my mum was allergic to latex. This didn't stop them from touching her later on whilst wearing them. They had to be told three times before they changed into latex free gloves.

They were asked to take her to the toilet, as my mum was trying to indicate that she needed to go. They seemed to ignore this request. By the time she was dealt with, it was too late. Once they had cleaned her up, they left her under her covers with her trousers still round her ankles. She is also still under the same blood stained blanket as she was last night. We mentioned this, but nothing was done.

Ever since I have been old enough to understand politics, I have been a follower of the Labour Party. I have voted for them in every election since I have been old enough to be enfranchised. I have always said that so long as there are elements of the party that stand for the workers and the underpriveleged that they can count on my vote. How naive. There are, without doubt, good, well intentioned people in politics, and in the Labour Party. I have met some of them. But they are not the ones involved in the decision making process. Those that are invariably sell out.

I'm pretty politically active, so for me to consider changing party allegiance is quite big for me personally. But this episode has made me consider doing so. To whom I have no idea, frankly the Tories look to me like New New Labour, so it won't be them. The party to whom I have given my support has let my family down badly today. Whatever the debate about who came up with the idea of the NHS, it was the Labour Party who introduced it. It is probably the single greatest idea that any civilised nation has ever had and put into practice. Never has such a wonderful notion been so ungratefully squandered by successive governments.

I don't blame the staff. They are under a lot of pressure, and they, I have to believe, have only the best intentions at heart. I'm sitting her tonight, unable to sleep properly because I'm wondering whether my mum will recover her speech before we visit tomorrow. Not that I will know. We were told that to hear her voice whilst we at home she will have to pay £12.50 for a phone card. What the **** is that bout? Whoever came up which rules such as these, and whoever is responsible for the pressure which renders health staff unable to do their jobs properly, should be ****ing ashamed of themselves.

Sounds appalling. Don't know why you wouldn't blame the staff who were so ignoring of both you and your mum. This wasn't about politics it was about people and if some of those people had so little pride in doing their job properly you have every right to feel aggrieved and to complain. Hope your mum pulls through and is soon back to her best.

[Daggers]

Sorry to hear about your Mum LCF - hope she makes a full and swift recovery.

If I were you I'd be blaming Phube mostly

[LeeCovFox]

Sounds appalling. Don't know why you wouldn't blame the staff who were so ignoring of both you and your mum. This wasn't about politics it was about people and if some of those people had so little pride in doing their job properly you have every right to feel aggrieved and to complain. Hope your mum pulls through and is soon back to her best.

I agree that the situation isn't directly related to politics and that it was indeed an issue with the staff on a personal level, I can't believe that policy from the top hasn't engendered such a poor attitude at ward level. There is no excuse for the behaviour of the individuals involved in what should be a caring profession and complaints have already been lodged. But my personal politics are important to me, and I am of the firm belief that any civilised country should have a high quality health service, free of charge and patient centred. It seems to me, based only on this experience I concede, that this government has simply pissed on the corpse of the NHS left behind by the Tories 11 years ago, and it disgusts me.

[Flynny]

I think the legacy of this government will be to prove that well-intentioned, top-down, high-spending government is inefficient and doesn't get the fine detail right.

I'm sorry if talking about your mum as "fine detail" is a bit disrespectful, Lee. I hope she's back to her best soon. You get my point though, right? The bigger the beaurocracy the less room there is to cater for human beings.

[LeeCovFox]

I think the legacy of this government will be to prove that well-intentioned, top-down, high-spending government is inefficient and doesn't get the fine detail right.

I'm sorry if talking about your mum as "fine detail" is a bit disrespectful, Lee. I hope she's back to her best soon. You get my point though, right? The bigger the beaurocracy the less room there is to cater for human beings.

Don't worry I don't find it disrespectful in the least, because in the grand scale of things, I fine detail is just what she is, there are people in that hospital dying, and my mum wasn't even close to being one of them.

I don't agree with your assessment that high-spending government is necessarily inefficient, I am ideologically in favour of high tax so long as the results are clear for people to see, but in this instance that wasn't the case.

I hear complaints that wards are understaffed and that nurses are overstretched. None of those complaints applied here. Three nurses were standing at the desk doing nothing more than having a casual chat, yet were still ignorant of my mum's, and other patients, some of whom were far worse off, needs.

[Flynny]

Don't worry I don't find it disrespectful in the least, because in the grand scale of things, I fine detail is just what she is, there are people in that hospital dying, and my mum wasn't even close to being one of them.

I don't agree with your assessment that high-spending government is necessarily inefficient, I am ideologically in favour of high tax so long as the results are clear for people to see, but in this instance that wasn't the case.

I hear complaints that wards are understaffed and that nurses are overstretched. None of those complaints applied here. Three nurses were standing at the desk doing nothing more than having a casual chat, yet were still ignorant of my mum's, and other patients, some of whom were far worse off, needs.

I'm fine with high tax, but not high tax at a central level, especially not after the last 10 years. I'd like to see a lot more responsibility and investment in local government, with them able to set taxation as they see fit (within reason) and with reasonably powerful Mayors in every city. The central government should for the most part take on the job of ensuring quality, cohesion and lack of corruption amongst local government and overseeing the uptake of any blunt, top-down schemes that might prove necessary.

[DJ Barry Hammond]

Don't worry I don't find it disrespectful in the least, because in the grand scale of things, I fine detail is just what she is, there are people in that hospital dying, and my mum wasn't even close to being one of them.

I don't agree with your assessment that high-spending government is necessarily inefficient, I am ideologically in favour of high tax so long as the results are clear for people to see, but in this instance that wasn't the case.

I hear complaints that wards are understaffed and that nurses are overstretched. None of those complaints applied here. Three nurses were standing at the desk doing nothing more than having a casual chat, yet were still ignorant of my mum's, and other patients, some of whom were far worse off, needs.

Someone mentioned the NHS was being run 'like a buisness' but any buisness would have sorted out these problems or at least had a way for you to bring them up and for the buisness to acknowledge their failings.

I wonder if in a way thats half the problem with a lot of goverment agencies - they're run for there need not the people they serve. Is there a complaints service for the NHS? Is there anyway for people to log their experiences of a local hospital - surely this sort of information would be better in league table form rather than a random number of cases they managed to get through?

On a side though - My parents have been in hospitals quite a bit over the years, what with my own broken leg (twice!) and my late step grandad and my gran visiting quite a lot. The parking and phones bit is a scandal, but overall the service seemed pretty good, especially in my experience. But I live in Bristol so I wonder if your stories say something about a.) the local council b.) a particular hospital c.) society in general - nurses back in the day would never have let these things happen regardless of the budget - would they?

Finally Lee - may i echo everyone else's sentiments and wish your mother a speedy recovery.