Nhs

[sinkov]

Just a bit of a heads up on it's current state, from someone who has just spent two weeks observing at very close quarters. The first thing to say is the the foot soldiers of the NHS, the nurses, the care assistants, the porters etc. are absolutely bloody marvellous, I can't praise them enough, the junior doctors and consultants likewise, but just beneath the surface lies a simmering discontent. In their rare quiet moments when talking amongst themselves, the topic of conversation was inevitably how pissed off they are with their working conditions, their bosses and especially a new computer system just up and, sort of, running at Blackburn Royal. The amount of time the nurses and care assistants spent tapping away on laptops and computers was astonishing, everything including what their patients were eating to what was coming out at the other end had to be logged, and of course while they're tapping away on a keyboard they aren't caring for their patients.

This would all be problematic enough, but to compound the issue, the system, which I was told is unique to Blackburn, is not fit for purpose, the staff are tearing their hair out trying to get to grips with it, without as far as I could tell a great deal of success. I don't know about the rest of the NHS but Blackburn, while I was there, was in a permanent state of crisis, normally in summer there is some spare capacity, but not this summer, they're full, not a spare bed to be had, and Urgent Care resembles a war zone as dozens, literally dozens, of patients lie on trolleys in corridors waiting for admittance to a ward. I was one of the lucky ones, I was admitted after 36 hours in a corridor, many wait a lot longer than that.

And now I'm back home but the dysfunctional computer system is still haunting me. This morning I received a letter, it was dated 4th July and was cancelling an appointment I had on the 13th July at 10.30, my new appointment it said would be on the 13th July at 10.30. Bemused by this I assumed there was some clerical error involved and anyway the letter had probably been delayed for a few weeks in some Royal Mail sorting office. Then I noticed the date stamp on the letter, 17/08/23, which meant the letter has been despatched only the day before, yet contained info that was 5/6 weeks out of date. So I rang the number on the letter and was pleasantly surprised to get through inside five minutes. The girl at the other end was apologetic, I has another appointment booked in September, but the computer refused to print this off and would only print off the letter from 4th July. She told me the new date and time verbally and that would have to suffice, as for a letter, computer says no.

It was fortunate I noticed the date stamp on the letter or I might just have binned it and missed my new appointment, and that is the current state of the NHS, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. But back to those nurses and care assistants at Blackburn Royal, I could hug them all, they truly are angels.

[outwoodclaret]

My older brother has had lung cancer and has already had part of his right lung removed. After a recent test indicated there was an anomaly in the remaining part of the lung it was arranged for him at short notice to go to Oldham for an isotope scan yesterday at 1.30 pm. The transport was booked by the NHS and duly picked us up and delivered us to the Royal Oldham Hospital. We made our way to the Radiology Department to be informed that nothing had been booked with them and that they do not in fact carry out this type of scan at the hospital that my brother urgently requires. A crucial scan has now been missed along with the waste of time for my brother, myself, the transport and the NHS staff. I love the NHS. My father was a GP starting work in 1948 in the fledgling NHS and I married a nurse. It is absurd that people struggle to see a doctor face to face or get to see a dentist in this day and age. My brother is ex-forces with severe PTSD. I do not think he is the only one suffering at the moment from administrative cockups but it causes him obvious distress.

[army88]

My older brother has had lung cancer and has already had part of his right lung removed. After a recent test indicated there was an anomaly in the remaining part of the lung it was arranged for him at short notice to go to Oldham for an isotope scan yesterday at 1.30 pm. The transport was booked by the NHS and duly picked us up and delivered us to the Royal Oldham Hospital. We made our way to the Radiology Department to be informed that nothing had been booked with them and that they do not in fact carry out this type of scan at the hospital that my brother urgently requires. A crucial scan has now been missed along with the waste of time for my brother, myself, the transport and the NHS staff. I love the NHS. My father was a GP starting work in 1948 in the fledgling NHS and I married a nurse. It is absurd that people struggle to see a doctor face to face or get to see a dentist in this day and age. My brother is ex-forces with severe PTSD. I do not think he is the only one suffering at the moment from administrative cockups but it causes him obvious distress.

Sorry to hear that Outwood it’s tragic in what is a brilliant service this country has at its disposal.

Sadly it been on the decline for many years - my father worked there a massive part of his life and he’s been retired for 25 years ish now and just as he was leaving he told me how it was changing - no matrons on wards anymore less doctors - scrapping of nurse training facilities that employed 200lux a year for our region , all gone and more desks and pen pushing middle management ( this would be fine if things had improved but they haven’t ).

Ultimately the NHS is full of brilliant people medically and as Sinkov alluded I can’t fault the nurses doctors and people at ground level let’s call it - they are brilliant and I can say only good about them for looking after my family etc

It s really the elephant in the room though politically the government whoever they are need it because it’s a black hole of money and the more they throw at it the more it needs as it
haemorrhaging money because it’s not run right - however nobody really dares say that - there are a lot of issues that need addressing that are tied to the NHS struggles - right down to infrastructure not big enough to service the nation - illegal immigration - people who aren’t sick wasting time at A and E when they can’t see Doctors and so it goes on.

Personally I have private health now and I know it’s a cop out really but especially since Covid I figure it’s the only way.

[Swissclaret]

I have limited exposure to the NHS. The last time was when my wife had a problem. The condition of the building was awful. However, the nurses and doctors were kind, caring and dedicated. Worked off their feet but still to be first rate. In reading letters and articles in The Times, that is the common theme. The problem does not lie with the medical staff.

Is it a shortage of money? I would suggest not as Governments keep throwing money at it. And yet there are severe staff shortages in the medical area.

What is patently wrong is how it is run and where the money goes to. I remember reading an article some time ago written by a retired nurse who worked in the hospital in Nottingham. She said that when she started, the management team occupied one office on the top floor. They deal with the running of the hospital. When she retired, the management occupied the whole of the top floor as well as an annex.

My daughter worked in HR in the NHS for a relatively brief period. She resigned because she could not stand the stupidity of how it was run. One example was being served with budget cuts which meant redundancies in the nursing staff. They could then re-hire them from agencies at double the cost.

As sinkov has often said - the lunatics are really running the asylum in very well paid office jobs whilst nurses earn a pittance. Meanwhile, thanks to the stupidity of the Bliar Government, nurses have to have a degree, with the associated costs.

[alfinyalcabo]

Always found the NHS brilliant..
Then again ,how does somebody get away with ending sooo many babies lives and ruining families..The mind boggles on how many she has actually done..Somebody needs taking to task over their cover ups.. Nurses ,doctors who complained were told to forget it or they would be disciplinary action taken against them.i mean WTF was going on!!

[yoonited]