NHS....we are very lucky to have it

[steveyg]

Wife has a problem with her shoulder which required surgery,up at 5.30 yesterday so she could have some breakfast before 6am and and off we went. Left her at 8am in the capable hands of a lovely nurse

(I am a sucker for the uniform..she was gorgeous though)

Got a call at 4.30 saying she may be released at 5.30,nice one . Got there on time,nurse came out and said my wife was feeling sick and wasn't ready to be released.

 

They were short handed and dealing with all 20+ day release cases,they kept their composure and remained very professional and what was really impressive...compassionate with every patient .

 

Nurse called me in at 8.30 to go through the paperwork and talked through what to do if my Wife felt unwell. She didn't just through the motions but was very considerate and caring.

 

 

Wife had a difficult night but was adamant she was coming home and didn't want to spend a night in hospital.

 

A big thank you to our NHS...WE ARE VERY LUCKY TO HAVE IT

 

 

Give them all a pay rise...!! What we pay our nurses,firefighters,armed forces and police is a joke

 

 

( have to go,wife is ringing the bell I gave her..could be a long day )

 

[aris]

We a friend with an elderly mother in hospital - and the stories I hear from her are shocking. It has come down to her being at the hospital to care for her mum, and even bringing her food.

 

I have no doubt that the majority of NHS staff are all hard working - heroes even, but it is the horror stories and the incongruity in levels of care and professionalism between different hospitals, and even different NHS trusts which let the whole system down.

[steveyg]

We a friend with an elderly mother in hospital - and the stories I hear from her are shocking. It has come down to her being at the hospital to care for her mum, and even bringing her food.

 

I have no doubt that the majority of NHS staff are all hard working - heroes even, but it is the horror stories and the incongruity in levels of care and professionalism between different hospitals, and even different NHS trusts which let the whole system down.

Route cause...lack of funding,enough trained staff is a key factor.

[kdubya]

Try stint in the urology ward at north tees that will alter your opinion up here it depends were you are sent, some good but some very very bad

 

 

KW

Edited September 2, 2014 by kdubya

[four-wheel-drive]

We are not lucky to have it like the freedom that we have our democratic form of government and things like the NHS was not given to us we fought for this over hundreds of years if we had not voted in a Labour government after the war we would not have the welfare state that we all enjoy now I hate it wen people say that we are lucky to live in a free country like we do it is nothing to do with luck it was and has been hard fought for. As for what we pay people who work in the NHS we pay what we can afford to yes we could pay them more if we did not buy the expensive drugs etc and let people die like they do in other countries the US comes to mind.

[aris]

Route cause...lack of funding,enough trained staff is a key factor.

 

Quite right - In this case they have 2 nurses for 20 elderly patients who need help doing everything - including going to the toilet, eating etc. Not enough, and I think the staff are so stressed out that they take it out on the patients.

[steveyg]

We are not lucky to have it like the freedom that we have our democratic form of government and things like the NHS was not given to us we fought for this over hundreds of years if we had not voted in a Labour government after the war we would not have the welfare state that we all enjoy now I hate it wen people say that we are lucky to live in a free country like we do it is nothing to do with luck it was and has been hard fought for. As for what we pay people who work in the NHS we pay what we can afford to yes we could pay them more if we did not buy the expensive drugs etc and let people die like they do in other countries the US comes to mind.

 

pay what we can afford could be a long debate..my post was to promote the fantastic service and professionalism shown from the staff I met yesterday. Thanks for you post though,very thought provoking..

 

got to go...she is ringing that bell again...must be time for a bed bath

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Well I am glad you are happy Steve and that your wife is coping, I too appreciate the good work that the NHS Staff do for us.

[scolopax]

I read an article a couple of weeks ago, cannot remember the exact numbers but it was something like the NHS is the worlds fifth largest employer with 1.7 million staff!

 

 

We only have a limited number of tax payers to fund all of that.

[keg]

We went through IVF on the NHS although we had to pay and couldn't have asked for better service and understanding. Mum is in remission from lung and bowel cancer ( started with it all aged 76) and again, her care was second to none.

 

Even when my daughter was younger and we took her to A&E early one Saturday morning after a cot dive, the staff were excellent.

 

The other side of this is that when my sister-in-law was working as a nurse ( now in NZ) here in the uk, she was demoralised due to working conditions and the number of managers and administrators as opposed to medical staff.

[figgy]

Try stint in the urology ward at north tees that will alter your opinion up here it depends were you are sent, some good but some very very bad

 

 

KW

Been there done that signed myself out and will never go back again. I'd travel any distance not to repeat that.

 

Figgy

[Richie10]

Experienced plenty of personal issues with the NHS. Personal experience of going regularly over the last decade and not one offs of good care.

[figgy]

On a whole I think the NHS is a good thing, it's the way it's being run in some areas that is the problem. Far to many chiefs not enough Indians.

I've had very good care and atrocious care in the past same as most peoples experience.

 

Figgy

[keg]

On a whole I think the NHS is a good thing, it's the way it's being run in some areas that is the problem. Far to many chiefs not enough Indians.

I've had very good care and atrocious care in the past same as most peoples experience.

 

Figgy

Same as my sis-in-law found Figgy, well said.

[lexikia]

 

Quite right - In this case they have 2 nurses for 20 elderly patients who need help doing everything - including going to the toilet, eating etc. Not enough, and I think the staff are so stressed out that they take it out on the patients.

Don't think it's lack of funding, more like to much waste, to many managers, etc. Also stretched to the limit with imigrants etc, using it as a doctors surgery for minor ailments.

[grrclark]

I worked in the NHS for a little while, albeit not on the clinical side and know many people in management, clinicians and administration.

I think that the biggest problem with the NHS is a ridiculous amount of bureaucracy, there are so many rules and constraints around spending public money that in many instances the organisation cannot operate efficiently, it is almost doomed to failure. The same is largely true of all public bodies. There are also far too many mediocre people working in secure jobs for life in management & administration who do nothing to add any value what so ever, they are simply paper pushers.

Undoubtably there are good and bad experiences throughout the NHS, the few times I have had to engage with them it has been generally very positive. In most cases the level of individual commitment from the medical staff is really good, i think that the majority of those drawn into the caring professions really do care about the people that they deal with and do their very best, but the environment makes it harder to do that than it should.

I also think that the attitude of joe public in this country has changed and not for the better, there is a culture of entitlement and I think that places an extra burden on the NHS or all public services when it comes to that.

In Scotland since prescription fees were removed the GP surgeries are full of people wanting paracetamol or asprin who used to go to the chemist or supermarket, but now they go to the doc's to get it for free.

[Fisherman Mike]

Unfortunately dealing with millions of patients takes millions of pounds in resources.

 

We can all moan about our lot but when it comes to the crunch life threatening injury or serious illness is given priority and the rest of us have to make do.

 

Many hospitals and authorities may seem to be wasting what appears to be a large comfortable budget but that's not the case.

 

Because of all the H&S protocol involved in the industry these days and the technical issues surrounding treatment and equipment.. staff levels are necessarily high.

 

My daughter is a 24 year old chartered Physio and often works a 60 hour week and on call 1 day in 4 for 24 hours for about 25k a year... would we do that and not moan about it. and then leave your self open tompersonal litigation because granny hurt her back over stretching ?? I don't think so.

 

One of the biggest problems also is that we are a Nation of hypochondriacs and obese ( speaking generally now not aimed at anyone in particular ) and the time wasting your average health worker has to deal with is utterly staggering.

 

The way forward is probably private FM of some establishments but that has its inherent pitfalls also as any company doing such will need to make a profit.

 

I think its a question of priorities as I'm sure many of us could afford private health care for less than half a case of cartridges per month.

[keg]

I worked in the NHS for a little while, albeit not on the clinical side and know many people in management, clinicians and administration.

 

I think that the biggest problem with the NHS is a ridiculous amount of bureaucracy, there are so many rules and constraints around spending public money that in many instances the organisation cannot operate efficiently, it is almost doomed to failure. The same is largely true of all public bodies. There are also far too many mediocre people working in secure jobs for life in management & administration who do nothing to add any value what so ever, they are simply paper pushers.

 

Undoubtably there are good and bad experiences throughout the NHS, the few times I have had to engage with them it has been generally very positive. In most cases the level of individual commitment from the medical staff is really good, i think that the majority of those drawn into the caring professions really do care about the people that they deal with and do their very best, but the environment makes it harder to do that than it should.

 

I also think that the attitude of joe public in this country has changed and not for the better, there is a culture of entitlement and I think that places an extra burden on the NHS or all public services when it comes to that.

 

In Scotland since prescription fees were removed the GP surgeries are full of people wanting paracetamol or asprin who used to go to the chemist or supermarket, but now they go to the doc's to get it for free.

Same in England, people turn up with the craziest of things and it's not just recent, it's been happening for a while.

[vmaxphil]

in the nhs critical care (operations, cardiac care etc) is on the whole second to none but palliative care (elderly and respite etc ) is woefully under funded by comparison and should be carried out by community hospitals which they can and do well and when they are combined in one hospital the palliative care suffers

[grrclark]

Mike, I agree with a number of the comments in your posting and practitioners such as your daughter are the backbone of the service. There are very many people in the NHS who pursue healthcare careers for admirable reasons and do all that they can in order to provide a level of service they are passionate about and take great pride in. There are of course the unmotivated and disaffected, but they are not unique to healthcare or public service.

 

The problem I have is the approach that almost all public bodies follow when it comes to making spending decisions. I have witnessed clinicians who are brilliant in their respective fields of medical expertise who get involved in things well outside their level of knowledge and experience and make bad decisions.

 

More than that though is the rules imposed on public bodies that mean they cannot make sensible spending decisions, some of this is UK legislation, some of it is European.

 

An example, sourcing rules say that businesses tendering for public business should not be excluded on the basis of their size, so you have small 2 or 3 man band businesses trying to get a share of the public purse competing with massive corporates. This is potentially a good thing, but the 2 or 3 man bands simply cannot deliver the level of service, but they must be considered throughout the sourcing process. Even if they submit bids that are woefully inadequate the procurement teams for the NHS actually have to support them in pulling together a qualifying bid in order to demonstrate that they are being fair in considering all options. Nothing other than a waste of time and money.

 

The procurement teams are limited by the rules in how they are allowed to negotiate, ostensibly to avoid abuse of the process or fraud, but that also limits their effectiveness, meaning that despite massive buying power they will pay more than they should. All of that takes away from budget that can be better spent on treating patients.

If they are to privatise parts of the NHS it is things like procurement, facilities management, recruitment, etc that should be considered. That way the tax payer gets value for money. The NHS in Scotland has a 7 figure cost for recruitment just through advertisements and agency fees, never mind the salaries. That cannot be right.

[overandunder2012]

nhs is one of the few things britain can still be proud off when that goes we really will have taken a terrible slide back into the dark ages.

[spinach]

NHS many a family would be in deep financial trouble if we didn't. In the last year I've had two MRI, a CT ultrasounds and consultant appointments galore , cost was taken into account but always on the basis of small chances went ahead. I had a few waits and mostly happy faces. It is all being dealt with with unending politeness and warmth. I know about the bad lazy and ugly side and recognise it happens but have yet to see it. All organisations can have local problems with managment and staff but I have not seen it.

All my children born healthy an elderly Uncle with dementia dealt with such humanity it made me tear up from cradle to grave .

John.

[norfolk dumpling]

Whilst I totally agree with steveyg's comments there are problems which can produce totally the reverse result. Our son was omitted for a major operation late last year and despite the operation going more or less as planned the care which followed was hopelessly inadequate. The problem without doubt was lack of resources - read staff - which meant the extra care he needed (he has learning difficulties and severe epilepsy) just wasn't there and the pressure on his parents and sister (emotional and physical) was huge. Add to the initial post-op care two further periods with serious infections. We have been caring for our son for 37 years and never in all that time, with many hospital visits included had we experienced such a lack of care. This was the lowest point in our lives.

[keg]

Mike, I agree with a number of the comments in your posting and practitioners such as your daughter are the backbone of the service. There are very many people in the NHS who pursue healthcare careers for admirable reasons and do all that they can in order to provide a level of service they are passionate about and take great pride in. There are of course the unmotivated and disaffected, but they are not unique to healthcare or public service.

 

The problem I have is the approach that almost all public bodies follow when it comes to making spending decisions. I have witnessed clinicians who are brilliant in their respective fields of medical expertise who get involved in things well outside their level of knowledge and experience and make bad decisions.

 

More than that though is the rules imposed on public bodies that mean they cannot make sensible spending decisions, some of this is UK legislation, some of it is European.

 

An example, sourcing rules say that businesses tendering for public business should not be excluded on the basis of their size, so you have small 2 or 3 man band businesses trying to get a share of the public purse competing with massive corporates. This is potentially a good thing, but the 2 or 3 man bands simply cannot deliver the level of service, but they must be considered throughout the sourcing process. Even if they submit bids that are woefully inadequate the procurement teams for the NHS actually have to support them in pulling together a qualifying bid in order to demonstrate that they are being fair in considering all options. Nothing other than a waste of time and money.

 

The procurement teams are limited by the rules in how they are allowed to negotiate, ostensibly to avoid abuse of the process or fraud, but that also limits their effectiveness, meaning that despite massive buying power they will pay more than they should. All of that takes away from budget that can be better spent on treating patients.

 

If they are to privatise parts of the NHS it is things like procurement, facilities management, recruitment, etc that should be considered. That way the tax payer gets value for money. The NHS in Scotland has a 7 figure cost for recruitment just through advertisements and agency fees, never mind the salaries. That cannot be right.

The whole public sector accounting policy is mad. If they don't spend it by FY year end, they lose it. NO accruals or carry over....mental.

[deny essex]

I too am glad we have the NHS, it may have its hiccups and problems but what big under funded organisation does not.

My wife is now on oxygen 16 hours a day and a host of medicine, hopefully she will get accepted on a lung transplant list. I would hate to think what would happen in some other countries as no way in retirement could we afford the treatment she is getting.