NHS visit today

AHarvey

AHarvey

AHarvey

Soldato
Joined
6 Mar 2008
Posts
10,085
Location
Stoke area
So, we had our first NHS visit today due to the wife being 12 weeks pregnant with out 2nd child, and it's changed a little since we went 3 years ago with our first.

£5 for 4 hours parking, appointment at 10:15, first seen at 11:00. We had to answer a load of questions about jobs, and general lifestyle, then all the typical health, family history questions, questions on the first pregnancy etc. All in all it took an hour to sort it.

The midwife managed to get us in for a scan there and then instead of having to go back on Tuesday. So we wait 5 mins and get called through, enter the scanning room. More questions about Down Syndrome test, a few basic health ones and a couple more personal ones (already answered on the forms they had in their hand). £4 for the scan, cheaper since they've dropped the "venture photography" cardboard mounts.

Then we have to wait for 20 mins for a blood test, enter this room and again, booklet with all the info in hand insists on asking the same questions we'd been asked twice already. 20 mins total for taking 4 samples of blood.

Now, I've no issue paying for the scan, but car parking in a hospital is very expensive especially when they are 45 mins late seeing you for an early appointment, no idea how bad it must be by the afternoon. What struck me as insane is the amount of paperwork.

It's a national health service but our hospital is in a different county than our doctors, resulting in different forms and processes. Surely it should be one master database, all the information in already so other than contact details you shouldn't need to answer all these questions, they could pull family history too. This would free up nurses/midwives, cut down waiting times...

It's a happy time for us but it seems so disorganised, and it drives me a little crazy :p

Anyone else experienced such things?
 
AHarvey said:
So, we had our first NHS visit today due to the wife being 12 weeks pregnant with out 2nd child, and it's changed a little since we went 3 years ago with our first.

£5 for 4 hours parking, appointment at 10:15, first seen at 11:00. We had to answer a load of questions about jobs, and general lifestyle, then all the typical health, family history questions, questions on the first pregnancy etc. All in all it took an hour to sort it.

The midwife managed to get us in for a scan there and then instead of having to go back on Tuesday. So we wait 5 mins and get called through, enter the scanning room. More questions about Down Syndrome test, a few basic health ones and a couple more personal ones (already answered on the forms they had in their hand). £4 for the scan, cheaper since they've dropped the "venture photography" cardboard mounts.

Then we have to wait for 20 mins for a blood test, enter this room and again, booklet with all the info in hand insists on asking the same questions we'd been asked twice already. 20 mins total for taking 4 samples of blood.

Now, I've no issue paying for the scan, but car parking in a hospital is very expensive especially when they are 45 mins late seeing you for an early appointment, no idea how bad it must be by the afternoon. What struck me as insane is the amount of paperwork.

It's a national health service but our hospital is in a different county than our doctors, resulting in different forms and processes. Surely it should be one master database, all the information in already so other than contact details you shouldn't need to answer all these questions, they could pull family history too. This would free up nurses/midwives, cut down waiting times...

It's a happy time for us but it seems so disorganised, and it drives me a little crazy :p

Anyone else experienced such things?
Click to expand...


Congrats on your news!

The database thing? Wasn't it tried years ago, failed and then it ended up costing the government billions?
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/18/nhs-records-system-10bn
 
The building I work in is directly opposite the main Maternity entrance where all the pregnant women smoke :(

Regarding databases, I'm with you on this.
I have access to brilliant systems called CIS & IPM and at a glance I can see the patients journey and get access to masses of other information but I can't see information from our two nearest hospitals which are Leighton & Stafford which can be a PITA. I often find by accident that a patient was being treated somewhere else for a while and that's why I can't see certain records. It would be amazing if there was a national database like CIS that took in every patient and where they've been.
A few months ago an OCUK poster who is a Doctor in A&E down south somewhere said that when somebody is admitted he has no way of knowing what a patients co-morbidities are which means he can't diagnose 100% how to properly treat, we do have this at the UHNS. (Co-morbidities means other illnesses the patient is known for such as cardio, diabetes, drug user etc).

Parking - this is why I've been cycling for over 2 years.
Even with staff it is the number one stress factor in the hospital and we have heard it might get worse. When the Royal Infirmary is sold where most people park, they will have nowhere to park.There are rumours that staff will have to drive to the Britannia Stadium which is 4 miles away and then get transported in by bus.
 
I wouldn't complain about waiting all of 20mims for a blood test or your appointment being late, emergencies push everything back

:rolleyes: another ocuk Tory trolling the NHS
 
A hospital in Leeds tried to charge me 25 quid for around 40mb's of fluoroscopy that was after trying to tell me that I was not allowed a copy under the data protection act.

I eventually got my GP to request a copy which was free to him then he copied it to a USB stick.
 
Get used to it and be grateful it's not you up the duff. The girls have to put up with a lot. Enter anti natal unit and leave your dignity at the door. Sounds completely normal.
 
9 quid for all that? Go to America, experience the same treatment and following invoice, and then complain about the NHS.
 
tres said:
9 quid for all that? Go to America, experience the same treatment and following invoice, and then complain about the NHS.
Click to expand...

:) indeed. It will never be a free service and to be fair you do pay a fair chunk for it, but then that's only if you actually have lived here all your life and actually worked here all your life, (obviously bar your schooling years), but 9 notes sounds pretty good to me.
 
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jambutty said:
Congrats on your news!

The database thing? Wasn't it tried years ago, failed and then it ended up costing the government billions?
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/18/nhs-records-system-10bn
Click to expand...

Interesting, thanks for the link :D

Dimple said:
The building I work in is directly opposite the main Maternity entrance where all the pregnant women smoke :(

Regarding databases, I'm with you on this.
I have access to brilliant systems called CIS & IPM and at a glance I can see the patients journey and get access to masses of other information but I can't see information from our two nearest hospitals which are Leighton & Stafford which can be a PITA. I often find by accident that a patient was being treated somewhere else for a while and that's why I can't see certain records. It would be amazing if there was a national database like CIS that took in every patient and where they've been.
A few months ago an OCUK poster who is a Doctor in A&E down south somewhere said that when somebody is admitted he has no way of knowing what a patients co-morbidities are which means he can't diagnose 100% how to properly treat, we do have this at the UHNS. (Co-morbidities means other illnesses the patient is known for such as cardio, diabetes, drug user etc).

Parking - this is why I've been cycling for over 2 years.
Even with staff it is the number one stress factor in the hospital and we have heard it might get worse. When the Royal Infirmary is sold where most people park, they will have nowhere to park.There are rumours that staff will have to drive to the Britannia Stadium which is 4 miles away and then get transported in by bus.
Click to expand...

I know the building, thought it was a canteen though :p

During the last labour there were no spaces and the parking attendant by the A&E entrance told me to park on the road in the hospital bays... turns out it was permit only = £70 fine. My wife was in the maternity wing for 4 days in total due to some complications, I was parking down the road by Halfords and walking down just to save the pennies.

Issue each person an NHS card/chip/number and simply scan it and tada, full medical records. I don't know how you guys do it in the NHS, seems like it's really held back by politics and bad management. Used to work in Morseton House by Vue, the NHS building, we had the 3rd floor and always heard horror stories and complaints from the staff.
 
MrMoonX said:
I wouldn't complain about waiting all of 20mims for a blood test or your appointment being late, emergencies push everything back

:rolleyes: another ocuk Tory trolling the NHS
Click to expand...

I've waited 4 hours in A&E after being stabbed, it's A&E there are going to be emergencies.

Maternity wing is a little different, it's all booked in, scheduled and to be 45 mins late by 11am is bad. My point was not complaining about the actual wait itself, but that filling in all this paperwork etc is obviously having a negative effect on efficiency, and this is a none emergency area of the NHS.

How inefficient is the rest of it?

Also, not a tory, I don't vote at all because I don't feel one group is better than the other. I just believe in common sense and trying to make things better. I have nothing but respect for the NHS staff on the ground, but it can be stream lined and improved.


tres said:
9 quid for all that? Go to America, experience the same treatment and following invoice, and then complain about the NHS.
Click to expand...

Or got to Africa where there's decent medical treatment... see below ;)

mollymoo said:
:) indeed. It will never be a free service and to be fair you do pay a fair chunk for it, but then that's only if you actually have lived here all your life and actually worked here all your life, (obviously bar your schooling years), but 9 notes sounds pretty good to me.
Click to expand...

It's the parking fee that bother me because you shouldn't need to worry about going over your time and being fined when in a hospital, you're there because it's important and your mind should be on that.

If the parking was free and they charged me a tenner for the scan photo I wouldn't have cared :D



The point of my post was not to gripe at service, we were very happy with everything last time and its a great hospital overall, more about how it's not a real national health service and how it can be improved :D
 
AHarvey said:
I've waited 4 hours in A&E after being stabbed, it's A&E there are going to be emergencies.

Maternity wing is a little different, it's all booked in, scheduled and to be 45 mins late by 11am is bad. My point was not complaining about the actual wait itself, but that filling in all this paperwork etc is obviously having a negative effect on efficiency, and this is a none emergency area of the NHS.

How inefficient is the rest of it?

Also, not a tory, I don't vote at all because I don't feel one group is better than the other. I just believe in common sense and trying to make things better. I have nothing but respect for the NHS staff on the ground, but it can be stream lined and improved.




Or got to Africa where there's decent medical treatment... see below ;)



It's the parking fee that bother me because you shouldn't need to worry about going over your time and being fined when in a hospital, you're there because it's important and your mind should be on that.

If the parking was free and they charged me a tenner for the scan photo I wouldn't have cared :D



The point of my post was not to gripe at service, we were very happy with everything last time and its a great hospital overall, more about how it's not a real national health service and how it can be improved :D
Click to expand...


Every department has emergencies, especially maternity, midwives get called away etc. doctors in outpatients get called to emergencies all the times. A&E isn't staffed with doctors 24/7 from every discipline they get called from other departments e.g mac fax doctor will get called out of outpatients to A&E
 
anti-natal clinic, scanning and the blood nurses deal with just that when they are on. North Staff's Uni Hospital maternity wing is mahoosive so lots of staff :D

Midwife said it was a quiet day as well as the main consultant was on a cruise so they'd not booked as many in today.

Either way, you are right that emergencies do happen and I don't think anyone would care about being delayed because of staff having to deal with them. It's like the police force though, paperwork and procedures taking them away from their main duties or holding them up. I'm sure you agree with that :)
 
Don't get me started on the NHS. **** brewery up organise in brewery a couldn't rearrange that sentence and you have my thoughts on the place after 2 weeks in hospital.
 
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