Caporegime
You disagree that surgery to prevent someone becoming quadriplegic is urgent?
NHS Rant
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You disagree that surgery to prevent someone becoming quadriplegic is urgent?
I was mostly replying to the OP, which is why i didn't quote anyone in particular. But no there probably are more urgent patients, ones that will die without attention. Like i keep saying i can only go off my own experience, and no time or expense was spared. Thinking back it was amazing to witness how so many different teams of doctors and surgeons all got on the case within hours.
Soldato
Unfortunately not borne out in reality
2 work collegues (one dutch living in teh US) and one Us now living in europe had a conversation last year, we were talking about the UK system initally
The US national said it had cost them $25k for an appendix operation before leaving for europe
Bizzarly the Dutch national had a suspected appendix scare not long after arriving in the US, cost $20k
One of my staff is american, she says that cancer in the US will bankrupt you unless you are one of the absolute top, forget healthcare it wont touch the cost of the bills
One of my other US collegues also said that in the US, you get people who have been in a car accident for example refusing to be put in certain ambulances as they know the cost of that ambulance will cripple them
Yes ambulance chasers in the US are the ones who own the ambulances, chasing to accidents trying to tout for business.
Still we will probably get to see this first hand in the UK in a few years once we sell out to the US post brexit
Caporegime
I have it still doesn't mean i'm replying to that post in particular does it. I did also say that yes there probably is more urgent things going on.
I can also see why somethings are cancelled or delays happen. Our son needed an MRI once, the child's one was in use so they took him to the adult one and told the person there to wait. Having seen first hand what the NHS classes as the most urgent i can see why a lot of people are left disappointed, with no spare time when something truly urgent comes in other things get cancelled or delayed.
My dad was always complaining about waiting times he's had operations and waited months if not years for something which left him crying in pain.
But after having seen what real urgent is he kind of understands now.
Yes tints could be improved, ideally you need spare tube throughout the day to deal with none scheduled stuff.
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That is such a shame.
The plot thickens with the local hospital now also.
So when I worte this post yesterday, a short while after my wife received a call from her GP checking up on her (expecting her to still be in hospital) but A&E sent her home the previous evening. The GP was angry, he asked her to attend his office immediately, so she did.
He then made some calls when she was there, she had a bed available on the SAU ward (surgical assessment unit). I drove her to the hospital after going home to collect some things for her, when we got to the hospital at around 5pm there were 0 beds available, and she was left to sit in a chair till around 9pm when she was finally given a bed on a ward. She has seen a doctor today - who said that she is taking far too much pain relief medication, and he thinks she shouldn't be - she explained that she takes them because of the constant pain and suffering she is having. The doctor seems uninterested in her pain and suggested they need to clean out the current blockage in her bowels and then once done they can just send her home again. They ahve given her some laxitive powder - THE SAME amount that she just takes 3 times a day at home, experience of this will show that it won't remove it for her.
They just do not care about sorting her out properly at all. Short term attempted fixes which result in a vicious cycle over and over again in another few weeks. I have drafted a letter to the CEO of the hospital and I will be sending that later today to log an official complaint.
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When my wife is suffering that much than she would rather be dead that alive due to the constant chronic pain is not urgent, what is? Especially when she is swigging morphine from the bottle in order to try to counter the pain, surely this is considered a fairly urgent case? We were not expecting a 1-2 week turnaround, but March to September and not even had the initital appointment for the specialist is a too long for any case... no?
Soldato
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Despite my own criticisms of the NHS, I can still see the incompetence of the policies from successive governments, but I would still much prefer to have a healthcare system that doesn't discriminate based on your condition and how much money you have.
I don't think there is any clear solution to fix it, but I would like to maybe see a mixture of the French and German model to improve certain areas, but even I hear that has many of its own problems.
I don't think there is any clear solution to fix it, but I would like to maybe see a mixture of the French and German model to improve certain areas, but even I hear that has many of its own problems.
Any pain medication, especially morphine, can cause constipation and bind you up something chronic. I know morphine is very good for the pain, but considering her condition it's not going to be helping with gut mobility. She needs fibre/lactulose anything they can give her to help soften the stools so that the limited mobility of the damaged part of the bowel can still do the job without causing the nasty pain.
Soldato
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Yeah and also consider prokinetic drugs too, forgot about those.
She has tried all different type of pain meds and all different diets too, nothing really has a positive inpact.
Soldato
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Has she tried prokinetic agents to stimulate gut motility like metoclopramide, domperidone, prucalopride, and tried SNRI's to help the pain in the gut?
Anyway, ask about those with your specialist if you haven't tried them.
The specialist she has never met yet...?
Will ask her to talk to the general doctor on the ward about them, and also her GP too.Well using my own experience, life or death is urgent.
Our son was born with among other things PPHN.
I've never seen so many doctors and surgeons appear so quickly.
The first hospital we were at the doctor's looking after him didn't go home that night said they didn't have time to handover so just carried on.
Even then they could only just keep him alive but he was still getting worse they could see that he would die if they just carried on. So they had talks with people around the country and then around Europe.
He needed surgery a very rare specialised surgery we were told were off to Sweden it's the only place that has space. Few hours later we were told that his consultant pleaded with alder Hey to take him even though he didn't meet the criteria (premature and too small) they agreed.
Few minutes later the specialist NWTS team turned up closed the ward down and began transfering him.
Our heads were spinning all this in a matter of hours.
It carried on at that pace for 3 weeks. Alder hey staff were amazing the place was amazing, if our son needed something they didn't book anything they just went and told anyone else already there they would have to wait. He had ECMO there, which its self has a 50% chance of killing the patient, 2 nurses thus bedside 24/7 with no exceptions. The poor nurses looked destroyed at the level of constant effort rubbing that machine, constant checking the lines for clots that at any minute could dislodge and kill him, constantly altering the obscene amount of drugs. Well over 20 different IVs going all being altered every minute.
The consent form was so rushed out just had scribbled on it in pencil, reason for operation to save life, with a huge list of complications. Which he did have, he had a grade 4 bleed which is the worst possible he lost the right side of his brain.
Back to st Mary's we spent another 3 weeks there with MRIs every other day. Then transferred to our local hospital where we spent another few weeks.
Even when at home the nurses came every day for neoro checks.
So yes when people complain about the NHS because there in pain. I just have to think that's nothing really you don't know what pain really is, and hope nobody ever has to see what the NHS can really do when it's really urgent.
Soldato
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Apologies, yeah ask your GP about them.The specialist she has never met yet...?
Edit: I just remembered, the GP may say to you they can't prescribe them because they need to be prescribed by a specialist. Obviously you want to get on and get treatment for the symptoms, so if the GP won't prescribe them pay to see privately a gastroenterologist who also works for the NHS and talk to him about the medications, he might be able to write to your GP to ask them to prescribe them for you that way.
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Sorry but this is just rubbish, it's fantastic what the NHS did for your son but that doesn't excuse neglecting people living in pain at all.
Whilst I agree 100% your sons cases was of the top-upmost importance and I'm glad he got such great care.
But it doesn't excuse that she has not even been seem by her specialist for an initital consultancy in over 6 months for something which is giving her daily chronic unmanageable pain. There is a reasonable time frame, and quite frankly it's been broken for my wife.
What you could do, if you are absolutely desperate, and it sounds like you are, is get her referred to the specialist privately by your GP. Yes it will cost but you could just pay for the referral and then when you see the specialist you can opt to be sorted on the NHS after that. This way you skip the wait, the specialist will know how bad things are and things should speed up treatment after that.
Quite a few people do it this way.
Quite a few people do it this way.
Soldato
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Sympathies for you and your wife, I do relate and understand your situation speaking from experience of two family members who have long term illnesses and have had their fair share of testing times in the past decade.
Updated my post above regarding the GP and medication situation too. I hope something helps your wife soon.