NHS=Negligent Health Service

Let me preface by saying I've normally had good experiences with healthcare in this country. This is a minor rant mostly out of pure frustration at not being able to do anything but here goes:

My dad got diagnosed with colon cancer about a month ago, grim prognosis unfortunately (do your screenings chaps, if you wait until symptoms appear it's usually too late to cure). However everything was moving forward swiftly with regards to getting treatment started, so far so good - or as good as can be in this situation. Before starting treatment he had to have a stoma fitted, which he was absolutely dreading. This is where the problems begin. From what I can tell many of the nurses on the ward he's on are borderline negligent in everything they do. A few examples:

  • Told him he could eat whatever he wanted the day following the op, a cursory google shows this to be a terrible idea. How can a nurse not know this? This has resulted in horrendous 10/10 pain (he told me if he'd had a gun he would've shot himself)
  • He had to have a catheter post op, no doctors were available so the night nurse did it. She was visibly ****** off at having to do this. Apparently they're supposed to use some sort of numbing gel/lube stuff. They did not, with predictable outcome
  • He was supposed to have a morphine pump (anaesthetist said he'd be hooked up upon waking). He did not get a morphine pump or anything except paracetamol for quite some time
  • One night he was forced to press the help buzzer thing due to the extreme pain (again, no meds). The night nurse came in, replied 'oh' when he told her and walked off. He then waited 2 hours for pain medication to be supplied (after complaining again)
  • Eventually a doctor appeared and immediately put him on morphine every 4 hours. This literally never happens on schedule, it will often be 2-3 hours late even after he's prompted them several times
  • The stoma has not been working at all 6 days post op. We've been constantly questioning the nurses about this (along with the pain, growing nausea...again a quick google shows this is alarming) and mostly been totally ignored
  • The last couple of days he's been feeling more and more nauseous - again ignored by the nurses (and doctors for that matter). Today he's started violently throwing up green stuff, as if by magic a consultant appears to take it in hand and now finally it seems that it's being taken seriously, think he's going to end up back in emergency surgery
  • It's not as if the ward is understaffed. There are 4-5 staff sitting around chatting at the desk every single time I've been there. I saw a guy who was practically crying in agony calling for a nurse. They were all sat in earshot chatting away ignoring him
I get that healthcare professionals are generally treated like **** and overworked but surely this is not normal?
Sorry for what your dad has been through, no it's not normal but it is happening more nowadays. My mum would collapse several times a month, sometimes she would recover quickly other times not. She was diagnosed in the end with silent migraine, which gave symptoms of a stroke, so she would end up in hospital quite often. Every time she was admitted they would do all the same tests (as she was admitted to A&E) which invariably came back negative. Most of the time she would be waiting for meds or to see a doctor. If she was bad she would be admitted for a time and have a similar experience to your dad. She would have to wait for tablets that she had to take at certain times even on the odd occasions missing them because of the nurses not coming round in time. It does seem when visiting that the staff are chatting more now than they used to.
 
This all needs to be itemised and put into a letter to Complaints.
Hopefully not but if anything happens in the future because of this then people like me look on DATIX and are able to see there is already a Complaint about it and helps your case.

Yep, am noting everything down.
 
This all needs to be itemised and put into a letter to Complaints.
Hopefully not but if anything happens in the future because of this then people like me look on DATIX and are able to see there is already a Complaint about it and helps your case.
So, I've spent a fair amount of time in the hospital over the last 12 months. What has become abundantly clear on most of those occasions, is that patients tend to have a completely different view of what is going on around them - understandable at times, but i do all i can to avoid engagingwith other patients as all they do is whine. There also seems to be an expectation that staff are there to wait on them as if they were on some luxury cruise. Not saying there aren't issues, but we need some balance here.
 
So, I've spent a fair amount of time in the hospital over the last 12 months. What has become abundantly clear on most of those occasions, is that patients tend to have a completely different view of what is going on around them - understandable at times, but i do all i can to avoid engagingwith other patients as all they do is whine. There also seems to be an expectation that staff are there to wait on them as if they were on some luxury cruise. Not saying there aren't issues, but we need some balance here.
True enough, but for patients to be left in pain for hours isn't something that should happen. The level of standards has slipped over the years. Most staff are committed to their job but there is now a bit of shift everywhere not just the NHS to do just enough to get by and no more. The wife has seen this in the hotel services side of the hospital that she works in.
 
It's not as if the ward is understaffed. There are 4-5 staff sitting around chatting at the desk every single time I've been there. I saw a guy who was practically crying in agony calling for a nurse. They were all sat in earshot chatting away ignoring him

I’ve seen this myself numerous times it’s upsetting frankly. If it were tescos or something I wouldn’t be so annoyed but when people are literally crying out for help? Disgraceful.

I’m sorry to hear about your dad, I hope things can progress well and they can help him out. Sounds like he’s been through it and then some.
 
So, I've spent a fair amount of time in the hospital over the last 12 months. What has become abundantly clear on most of those occasions, is that patients tend to have a completely different view of what is going on around them - understandable at times, but i do all i can to avoid engagingwith other patients as all they do is whine. There also seems to be an expectation that staff are there to wait on them as if they were on some luxury cruise. Not saying there aren't issues, but we need some balance here.

Sure, but I don't really expect much. Only that people are competent and at least somewhat pro-active.
 
@RobHu i'm really sorry that you've had the experience you/your dad had. i don't think @firstborn 's comment was aimed at you per-se
in fact, i'd go out on a limb to say that what you've experienced is totally shocking and bordering on negligence...if i were you, i would want answers
 
So, I've spent a fair amount of time in the hospital over the last 12 months. What has become abundantly clear on most of those occasions, is that patients tend to have a completely different view of what is going on around them - understandable at times, but i do all i can to avoid engagingwith other patients as all they do is whine. There also seems to be an expectation that staff are there to wait on them as if they were on some luxury cruise. Not saying there aren't issues, but we need some balance here.

Oh I know that, at the moment I'm dealing with a patient who has 24 DATIX Incidents & Complaints and every single one of them except one is BS.

I was rang the other day to be asked advice of where the wards can get posters to prevent patients/relatives from filming the staff going about their duties to put on Social Media, I really didn't know this was a huge problem and it just so happened HR had the necessary posters.
 
Probably GERD, which irritates the lungs, triggering asthma symptoms as a byproduct. Very treatable with drugs and in the worst case have hiatus hernia fixed under surgery.

Best way to treat it is through diet.

Diet/lifestyle value is such a key but large % of people do not want to change and medical industry is happy with that.
 
I’ve seen this myself numerous times it’s upsetting frankly. If it were tescos or something I wouldn’t be so annoyed but when people are literally crying out for help? Disgraceful.

I’m sorry to hear about your dad, I hope things can progress well and they can help him out. Sounds like he’s been through it and then some.
The trouble can come from people having low pain thresholds, mental illness or just want attention. My son used to be a HCA on a surgical ward and he said he had all of the above to deal with let alone the normal patients.
He now works for the Ambulance Service and still sees it.
 
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The trouble can come from people having low pain thresholds, mental illness or just want attention. My son used to be a HCA on a surgical ward and he said he had all of the above to deal with let alone the normal patients.
He now works for the Ambulance Service and still sees it.

When visiting someone in hospital I noticed that another patient in their unit was always shouting out for the nurse and complaining quite aggressively about being in pain. Over a few visits it became clear that he did this all the time regardless of how often he was attended and that some of the other patients would occasionally shout at him to shut up. Maybe he was in pain and maybe people do get neglected in hospital. But some patients seem to either be confused (dementia etc.) or just like complaining!
 
@RobHu i'm really sorry that you've had the experience you/your dad had. i don't think @firstborn 's comment was aimed at you per-se
in fact, i'd go out on a limb to say that what you've experienced is totally shocking and bordering on negligence...if i were you, i would want answers
It wasn't aimed at @RobHu, as I said just adding a bit of balance based on observations over the last 12 months. Sorry, Rob if it seemed insensitive.
 
Under funding, make it fail, cut & privatise.

Every other industry got strangled this way and until the NHS is brought back into main focus, it'll be bled dry of staff, investment and people that care. Dentistry, another part of the health system is already heading that way, with more & more pushed to private care due to falling numbers of dentists willing to take on NHS patients, due to NHS contracts being not even worth it. (Ex-brother in law was a dentist & stopped taking on NHS patients years ago as the governments contracts meant it cost him money to have them)
 
Under funding, make it fail, cut & privatise.

Every other industry got strangled this way and until the NHS is brought back into main focus, it'll be bled dry of staff, investment and people that care. Dentistry, another part of the health system is already heading that way, with more & more pushed to private care due to falling numbers of dentists willing to take on NHS patients, due to NHS contracts being not even worth it. (Ex-brother in law was a dentist & stopped taking on NHS patients years ago as the governments contracts meant it cost him money to have them)
That £181.7bn per year is really hard to get by on.
 
That £181.7bn per year is really hard to get by on.
It probably should be but it's not well managed. Where the wife works one department is moving so they are having new computers and furniture but the reception area can't get a new corded phone or get painted.
 
That £181.7bn per year is really hard to get by on.
sounds a lot, but it's only £2800 per person

to put it into perspective...
that's one day on intensive care for one person (or a week on a normal ward)
one baby delivered is equivalent to three people's allocation for the year
one round of chemotherapy is ten people's allocation for the year
 
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