NHS=Negligent Health Service

Well seeing as there is so much negativity in here I wanted to add a positive (kind of) story about my GP.

I've been in a full leg cast for two months due to a car hitting me. A week ago I started getting some pain in my back and right side. It got so bad a few days later that breathing was very difficult. My wife called an ambulance and I spent the day having a plethora of tests including a blood tests for blood clots. I was discharged later that day with a suspected lung infection, pain killers and anti biotics. All good, so I thought. A few days later the pain and breathing difficulties were again overwhelming the pain killers. Imagine someone stabbing you in the side with a knife every time you try to take even a small breath.

So I called my GP to ask for stronger pain killers and to ask where we went from here with an infection that didn't seem to be improving. Even though blood clots had initially been ruled out at my first hospital visit, my GP was firm in her concern that even if she inspected me she would not be able to rule out blood clots on the lung, and that I should get back to the hospital. Her words were "I'm not even going to say it's potentially life threatening - if it's a blood clot then it could be life ending. So are you going to go back to hospital?"

I got myself back to hospital. After another barrage of tests it was indeed found to be a blood clot on the lung (pulmonary embolism) which had travelled from a clot on my leg under the the leg cast (they found clots there too), a collapsed lung, pneumonia and I was admitted immediately to the Acute Assessment Unit. I came out a few days ago after a few worrying days (apparently mortality if you don't get to hospital is 30% and still 8% if you do).

Unexpectedly my GP called one evening this week out of the blue to see if I was OK. She had received the discharge notes from the hospital so realised what had happened to me. That call meant a lot and I properly thanked her. This is the second time, at least, that the NHS have saved my life.
 
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In every service there is people who should not be in that job.
The people who do the job are champions.
Imagine every day at work you see the fragility and the end of humanity every day almost.
You care for people who will die.
You care for people who are suffering and should die but you have to care for their suffering to inevitable death.
And then you have to come home and live your own life like that did not matter.
 
The NHS is still the greatest thing in humanity.
You are hurt you are injured you are unwell come here let us help you simply because it is the right thing to do for other people
not to ******* charge you a bill but to preserve life
 
ChrispyKarma said:
The NHS is still the greatest thing in humanity.
You are hurt you are injured you are unwell come here let us help you simply because it is the right thing to do for other people
not to ******* charge you a bill but to preserve life
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The alternative is the American way, but that's **** poor and very expensive (and I'm not sure the care would be any better).
 
On Feb 9th I had a full knee replacement and it's been a struggle mainly with major discomfort in my right foot.
This was mentioned to the Physio every session and to the Surgeon but both fobbed it off.
All the women in my life, Wife, Kids, Sister, SIL, work colleagues etc have been telling me to get it seen but until Tuesday I took no notice.
On Tuesday the Matron of the Orthopaedic Ward came to see me about a report and I said 'While you're here take a look at my leg because you're an expert'.
She pulled a face, said it's nasty and told me to get an urgent referral :(
She asked if it was warm and I said every evening I wrap a packet of frozen peas around my foot for two hours and once again she said to ring the GP now.
About an hour later she returned with an Ortho Surgeon (their offices are on the floor below) and he just had a quick look and said get an urgent referral.
At 11.30am I have an appointment but it looks like they will have to open it all up again.

Now to get to the point related to the thread, a colleague jokingly said I should put a claim in but working in the Legal department I know that I signed a consent form where it says things can go wrong and ultimately death.
 
theone8181 said:
The alternative is the American way, but that's **** poor and very expensive (and I'm not sure the care would be any better).
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Fed up of reading this ********.

It is not the false dichotomy of NHS or USA. There are a myriad of different health systems in the world not just 2. Go look at some of the best in the world, like South Korea’s, it’s not like the NHS and it’s not like the USA.

Resistance to allowing the NHS to evolve for fear of ‘turning into the dreaded USA’. Is partly to blame for why the NHS is not fit for purpose anymore.
 
I'm usually well in support of the NHS, but today is a joke.

Mother phoned me to say our elderly neighbour, a woman in her 80s who is tiny and frail, was faintly heard calling for help and upon investigating she could be seen lying on the floor of her living room in a massive pool of blood. She'd fallen, banged her head on the TV stand and properly ****** her head and face up, given the pool of blood she'd more than likely been lying there unconscious for some time too. One side of her head and her face is at least 3 times the usual size, there's a massive open gash from her cheek and up through her scalp and it's pretty obvious there's more going on than a few deep cuts and broken bones as her behaviour and speech most definitely suggest a concussion at least. Anyway, my Mother called 999 and both ambulance and police were requested. Police turn up in less than 5 minutes, have a look through the window and bash her back door in (fnarr fnarr, yakk yakk). Police then gets on the radio and also request an ambulance. Can't contact her Son as he works in a local cinema and his phone is off, so the cop gets in his car and goes to get the Son from work. Returns with Son and still no ambulance.

This happened at around midday, it's now 18:00 and there is still no sign of an ambulance. Now I'm sorry, but I thought head injuries were treated as a priority.
 
Have just this moment spoken to her Son, they've had been told that it's going to be at least a couple more hours and when he said how serious it is they gave him a link to send some photos. Upon seeing the extant and severity of her injuries they said she really needs to be seen, and the sooner the better. They told him to get her in a taxi and take her up the hospital himself. He's currently waiting for a taxi.

And in the meantime, the foreign baby factory in the next street is back on the go and is up to something like 30 babies now. I'd still like to know how much it costs to have a baby on the NHS, pre-natal, the birth and a few weeks/months of post-natal care can't be cheap.
 
Malevolence said:
Have just this moment spoken to her Son, they've had been told that it's going to be at least a couple more hours and when he said how serious it is they gave him a link to send some photos. Upon seeing the extant and severity of her injuries they said she really needs to be seen, and the sooner the better. They told him to get her in a taxi and take her up the hospital himself. He's currently waiting for a taxi.
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I cycled past A&E and where all the ambulances pile up at 5pm and there was no backlog!!
 
potatolord said:
It sounds like a wrong call categorisation at the ambulance control room to me, unless they're crazy busy and don't have any units to allocate.
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Like I said, I cycled past A&E at 5pm which is at the very most 2 miles from Malevolence and there was nothing outside!
I always observe because if an helicopter is landing I have to be careful because it can knock me off my bike which it did once :)
 
Mason- said:
Fed up of reading this ********.

It is not the false dichotomy of NHS or USA. There are a myriad of different health systems in the world not just 2. Go look at some of the best in the world, like South Korea’s, it’s not like the NHS and it’s not like the USA.

Resistance to allowing the NHS to evolve for fear of ‘turning into the dreaded USA’. Is partly to blame for why the NHS is not fit for purpose anymore.
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The fear is our government would sell out the NHS to US insurance companies in a heartbeat for positions on their boards when they leave office and that fear is completely justified. The only thing that has stopped them is public outrage. I agree the NHS needs improving, I just don't trust this government to do it, I trust them to sell it out for £
 
Malevolence said:
Have just this moment spoken to her Son, they've had been told that it's going to be at least a couple more hours and when he said how serious it is they gave him a link to send some photos. Upon seeing the extant and severity of her injuries they said she really needs to be seen, and the sooner the better. They told him to get her in a taxi and take her up the hospital himself. He's currently waiting for a taxi.

And in the meantime, the foreign baby factory in the next street is back on the go and is up to something like 30 babies now. I'd still like to know how much it costs to have a baby on the NHS, pre-natal, the birth and a few weeks/months of post-natal care can't be cheap.
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I'm a Paramedic and this happens every day unfortunately. Fallen on the floor with a head injury typically codes as a cat3 response which when the system works is a 1-2 hour targeted response. Cat 2 (18min) would be things like stroke/heart attack.

Ultimately we're so busy now cat2 is 1-2hours, cat3 2-12hours. Basically tonight if my wife suddenly developed chest pain, vomiting and shortness of breath it wouldn't cross my mind to call 999 I'd drive her to hospital. Which is quite sad really seeing as supposed to be proud of what we do and all, but at the moment if you're actually having a life threatening event, and you are physically able to get to the correct hospital, then you probably shouldn't risk waiting for an ambulance.

Just this week a crew from my station was first on scene for a child not breathing, they arrived 15minutes after the call was placed. Can you imagine being that parent realising your child was not breathing, then waiting that 15minutes for help to arrive?!?

There really needs to be public service announcement now telling people to only call 999 if they are too unwell to make their own way. Currently it's just a constant stream of "well I've had this niggling pain in my chest for 3-4days and thought i should get checked out..." which codes cat2 FOR ?ACS, and will take the ambulance that was almost on scene with the elderly person on the floor for 4 hours with a broken hip cat3.

Sorry needed to have a mini rant here, if my wife hears it one my time itll be me with the head injury!
 
@yak.h'cir , I salute you.

At this moment at my hospital in Stoke we have 157 patients in A&E :eek:
That is crazy compared to 10 years ago.
We created a new department called Ambulatory Emergency Care to take care of 30 walking wounded a day and that's over 150 a day now.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I look forward to the Clinical Negligence claim however this seems more of a West Midlands Ambulance Service fault.
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A claim on something like this whilst it does sound justified pribably wouldn't go anywhere. The calls are triaged based on the information given, calls are then responded to in order of priority. If higher category calls keep coming in then they won't get to the lower category onces, unless they worsen whilst waiting and then their category can be changed. People make claims and complaints re response times all the time, the ambulance service just send out a stock response regards excessive demand.

Generally the only time a complaint/claim would go anywhere would be if the call taker or similar input the wrong information during the call,. This is a pretty rare thing as its drilled into them to only ask the question on the screen and record the answer exactly as the caller gives it.

EDIT
Just reading back through the thread and realised you work NHS legal, you've undoubtable got a much better handle on this side of things than me!
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
@yak.h'cir , I salute you.

At this moment at my hospital in Stoke we have 157 patients in A&E :eek:
That is crazy compared to 10 years ago.
We created a new department called Ambulatory Emergency Care to take care of 30 walking wounded a day and that's over 150 a day now.
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Same story everywhere isn't it! I just don't know what the solution is, demand is just so far beyond our capacity and it's not even leveling out.
 
yak.h'cir said:
"well I've had this niggling pain in my chest for 3-4days and thought i should get checked out..." which codes cat2 FOR ?ACS, and will take the ambulance that was almost on scene with the elderly person on the floor for 4 hours with a broken hip cat3.
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Oh that does my nut in. My retort being that's what GPs are for, getting "checked out." (I actually now hate that phrase). And the number of times I've been diverted from 90 yr old Betty and her almost certain #NoF (hip fracture) because Betty's been trumped by 18 yr old Chardonnay-Mercedes having a panic attack (which will code as a Cat2 breathing difficulties). And 111, don't get me started on them. I swear they answer the phone saying "an ambulance is on it's way!"
 
Mason- said:
Fed up of reading this ********.

It is not the false dichotomy of NHS or USA. There are a myriad of different health systems in the world not just 2. Go look at some of the best in the world, like South Korea’s, it’s not like the NHS and it’s not like the USA.

Resistance to allowing the NHS to evolve for fear of ‘turning into the dreaded USA’. Is partly to blame for why the NHS is not fit for purpose anymore.
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The line of thinking that it is either the NHS or USA bood sucking models are the only ways to run a healthcare system has poisoned the well. I had a vague idea that other countries must have some sort of healthcare model that is different but this video really opened my eyes to the other possibilities that are available.

 
yak.h'cir said:
I'm a Paramedic and this happens every day unfortunately. Fallen on the floor with a head injury typically codes as a cat3 response which when the system works is a 1-2 hour targeted response. Cat 2 (18min) would be things like stroke/heart attack.
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Does the location of the incident change things? I.e. if someone fell and hit their head in the street? I can't imagine anyone frail doing to well on a cold concrete floor for even a hour.
 
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