Hospital day surgery staff rant.

Xordium said:
With the greatest of respect this is the reason the complaints system has been put in and you should use it. All your local MP will do is the same or advise you to do the same. Ranting on here or to your MP will make no difference. Airing your experiences with someone is imo the best process. It is not wasted time.

If you were to put in a complaint it would be dealt with appropriately - a fair bit of my job involved this. If you were to go through the PALS route then then they would have come to me and said they aren't complaining merely wish to ensure change and then I would go through pretty much the same process.

If however you do nothing well then the problem will never get solved and imo you are not doing your bit. How can issues be addressed if people are not made aware of them? Complaints and incidents are duly logged and patterns and occurrences discussed. Where there is a pattern it will get noted. There can be no pattern though if everyone remains silent. Nothing will ever get done if no one is aware there is a problem and the problems in the main are traced down to processes rather than people and a multitude of factors that all need addressing.
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I will take your good advice and make the call.

Like I said it is not a general downer on the NHS. I am grateful as I have had 4 operations in 3 years, 2 were NHS and most of the times things went well. My NHS consultant was very pleasant despite having the reputation by other staff members as having the bed side manners of Atilla the Hun.

By posting it here it was interesting to see the reaction. I personally feel there has been a considerable decline in the communication between staff and patients over the last 10-20 years. However many people seem to defend the system no matter what or just grin a bear it.

I had to giggle on the way out tonight, there was a poster on the wall of some rather miserable looking nurses with the slogan 'More local hero's required'.
 
Third Opinion said:
By posting it here it was interesting to see the reaction. I personally feel there has been a considerable decline in the communication between staff and patients over the last 10-20 years. However many people seem to defend the system no matter what or just grin a bear it.
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I would say communication has drastically improved however thanks to the cuts instigated by the Tories peoples actual time to communicate has been rather reduced. Give PALS a ring like I said and they will detail your options. It's not like you want to sue is it just make sure the process is a bit better managed for people who may not have someone to help them like your family did which is why it needs addressing etc.
 
Xordium said:
I would say communication has drastically improved however thanks to the cuts instigated by the Tories peoples actual time to communicate has been rather reduced. Give PALS a ring like I said and they will detail your options. It's not like you want to sue is it just make sure the process is a bit better managed for people who may not have someone to help them like your family did which is why it needs addressing etc.
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I think you talk a great deal of sense but I would have to agree to disagree on the communication.

Unfortunately I have not been blessed with the greatest health over the years. I can say the last 2 stays in hospital nobody has talked to me, discussed with me what procedures I am due to have.

More than once on the doctors rounds there has been a gathering of doctors and nurses at the end of my bed and not once have they asked me how I feel or am I ok. They talk like you are not there, and a nurse has openly ****ged me off for complaining about the pain I was in without anyone batting an eye lid. I was 35 years old and can say I sat there crying when they went as I felt so poor.

A bad time after an operation their was a complication, I was told to say if the pain got worse so did so at 7:30pm. I was told by the nurse to give it an hour or so and then call her if it hadn't improved. At 9:30pm it got incredibly bad so called the nurse who literally shouted at me as the doctor was now off duty.

After a sleepless night I saw a doctor at 11:30 am when it was found my leg had swollen so badly in my cast that my circulation was virtually cut off.

All of this I put down to poor communication.
 
Hey I didn't say it was good I said it has got better - you should have seen it years ago! One eyed man in the kingdom of the blind and all that. Sorry you've had such a naff old time. My family have hardly had the best run with the NHS either - well I could say that if I were to list all the things they've messed up. The problem is I could right a massive list of the things that they did got right that I've kind of forgotten about or just don't stand out so much. The nature of the game is the mistakes and errors are so much more drastic and with so greater consequences. I guess the deliver people at OcUK mess up every day I guess they all do, we all do - however most mistakes will not be ingrained in peoples mind so much. Neither excuses it or makes it right but food for thought.
 
The NHS is doing its best to deal with things like this, for example:
Guy's and St Thomas trust has started doing a training video called 'Barbara's Story', it documents a patient going through the trust to various different departments and how it all seems through her eyes. It has made a difference seeing how your attitude can make such a difference. I know it should be common sense, but sometimes you just need a reminder.

But i do think it sounds like you've been a bit unlucky! One of my friends had 3 battles with cancer and was treated at UCLH, the staff there were lovely and the doctors were even talking me through all the details (with his permission of course).
 
Xordium said:
With the greatest of respect this is the reason the complaints system has been put in and you should use it.
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And to expand on that it also keeps me in a job and a lot of other staff members.
When I start the process of a Clinical Negligence case one of the first things I do is look at our DATIX system to see if there were any Incidents or Complaints with the patient.
From there I will see dozens of correspondence between professionals who will all take it seriously and always at the end of the 'Response' will be measures they can put in place (or try and put in place).
It is your right to complain and all Trusts should have multiple staff to deal with it known as 'Investigating Officers'.
 
What I find crazy is that you have to drive over an hour to a hospital.

We are in the same position in that if I have a heart attack (god forbid), I would have to wait for an ambulance to come from the other side of Bridgend, pick me up and the nearest hospital is Morriston (an hour away), as Bridgend isn't an option as will be closing. The upshot is that with people coming from as far away as Merthyr and Caerphilly (WTF, thats nearly two hours away) you have a very overstretched hospital and a long journey. Now forgive me for thinking this, but doesn't my NI go towards the NHS?

You could be forgiven for thinking that this would happen in a third world country, but seriously?

Anyway, it is wrong despite how overworked they are to give you hassle over a simple question. If you were non pushy, I would have asked to speak to someone with a brain.
 
Muffin` said:
So you think medical staff should work for free? What about R&D? What about the builders who build the hospitals?
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Conscript said:
Not working for profit != working for free, but I think you've purposefully missed his point - good manners shouldn't be exclusive to those paying for private healthcare.
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Dimple said:
... DATIX ...
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I spend half my life reviewing things on DATIX...

The complaints department here used to be part of my responsibility by I have moved away from Governance to Operational Support. That said I spend a great deal of time investigating and responding to complaints since, unlike popular belief, we do take them seriously and do our best to improve service.

The frustrating part is the reticence of people to complain. It is one of the few avenues available to us to find out how we are doing (we don't currently have a PAP but I am trying to put one in place despite concerns of clinicians). Ultimately, the more people complain about an issue, the higher up the risk register it goes and the more likely that tangible change will occur.
 
hurfdurf said:
Medical services should not be for profit above the needs of citizens, what a disgusting attitude to have.
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It is a fine balance though. We would not be able to function as a hospital if it were not for private patient services subsidising the public side. That said, it would never be the case that public services would be curtailed, impinged or whatever to allow for private treatment. I've had many an argument, even with staff, who firmly believe that clinicians are permitted to put their private patients first to the detriment of public patients. Whilst there may be occasional blips that would very rarely happen!
 
robgmun said:
Rubbish, if NHS workers weren't such lazy good-for-nothings then private wouldn't exist.
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Are they? I've had 38 years of excellent treatment from the NHS. I've had to go private once, because the treatment I needed wasn't NICE approved. The private treatment was no better than what I got on the NHS.
 
I've been on the receiving end of a nurse's razor sharp tongue on occasion myself, so I can understand where you're coming from.

But at the end of day the obvious thing to do is put in a formal complaint, I don't see how moaning about it on here will make any difference.
 
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as with most things services can range depending on a person or a service. From experience Private can range from excellent to bad whereas NHS ranges from good to abysmal. You pays yer money and on average get a better service for it
 
robgmun said:
Rubbish, if NHS workers weren't such lazy good-for-nothings then private wouldn't exist.
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your unlucky to have had a bad experience, but as a nurse...please come shadow me in my role as a senior intensive care nurse. Then tell me to my face that im a lazy good for nothing! way to tar us all, do you know how many thousands of us do exceptional work every day?


seriously though please complain, the more its highlighted that nurses are losing their tempers and ill communicating the more it will be investigated and I can bet you that the single factor will be under staffing leading to fatigue and a reduction in quality. hopefully that would lead to positive changes.
 
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