NHS Woes

Paul2k12 · 27 Sep 2017 at 13:06

I work for my local trust at their newest hospital. The daily struggle members of staff have is a terrible reality. We struggle to recruit staff due to low wages and a workload that is getting heavier and heavier. We all do our best but the service is being ran on compassion - it frustrates me when politicians visit hospitals etc and the experience they appear to have is very false. They should come at 11pm on a Friday night see the abuse and frustrations we are faced with and yet are expected to just carry on and keep smiling! I’ve been qualified 4 years and still haven’t reached earnings of £25k!

danielanthony · 27 Sep 2017 at 13:51

Paul2k12 said:
I work for my local trust at their newest hospital. The daily struggle members of staff have is a terrible reality. We struggle to recruit staff due to low wages and a workload that is getting heavier and heavier. We all do our best but the service is being ran on compassion - it frustrates me when politicians visit hospitals etc and the experience they appear to have is very false. They should come at 11pm on a Friday night see the abuse and frustrations we are faced with and yet are expected to just carry on and keep smiling! I’ve been qualified 4 years and still haven’t reached earnings of £25k!

There should be more emphasis on controlling demand by ensuring people don't abuse the system; health tourists and those visiting the doctors/A&E due to a case of the sniffles. We can't keep throwing money into a bottomless pit where there is no end to the demand.

kinetic747 · 27 Sep 2017 at 14:42

Do convalescence homes still exist? I remember my grandma going into one many years ago for a couple of weeks to recover. My wife has just gone part time to look after her parents, at least until her mum is fully recovered.

Semple · 27 Sep 2017 at 15:24

kinetic747 said:
I know it's an incredible service my wife works in it. What could have been improved? The ambulance response time for one but I guess that's a knock on effect of the long wait once you arrive at the hospital. The ambulance crew wait with the patient until they get to triage. The crew that we had told me that on a 12 hour shift, they often spend half of that in corridors, especially at weekends.

Jumping on the bandwagon late, and someone may have already mentioned this, but there's a program on TV - not sure if it's BBC1 called Ambulance.

They follow around the paramedics and also the call/dispatch centre. Gives a very good oversight of how busy the Ambulance service actually is. Also makes you realise how hard a job a call handler has to juggle around priorities.

There was a local newspaper article recently about an elderly woman who'd fallen over outside the cinema, anyway it was reported that a couple of cinema-goers had gone in to watch a film and had come out to find this elderly lady was still waiting for an ambulance. It was reported that her fall wasn't too serious - a bit of bruising etc, but i think it made people realise that age isn't necessarily a factor when determining the criticality of a situation. I.e. a 30 year old man having a heart attack will take priority over an elderly woman if she's taken a small fall.