Despite all the bad publicity the NHS has been getting lately, like wrong diagnosis, patients being neglected, people dying of malnutrition and dehydration in hospitals etc, they are still up to their old tricks.
An acquaintance of mine was recently taken into hospital. For months he had been having trouble with his feet and had been attending a daily clinic to have them dressed but they weren't getting any better. They were painful and bleeding but it was when they changed colour it was decided to take him into hospital.
It was thought to be a circulation problem and he was scheduled to have a procedure to widen the veins in his legs. So there he sat in hospital for over a week, given so many different tablets that he became groggy waiting for this procedure to take place. It was finally decided that he should go home and back to daily dressings at the clinic until such time as this procedure could be scheduled.
On the day of his "release" they decided he could be fitted in that day after all. So there he sat all day long until they finally decided that they actually couldn't fit him in. Probably because this happened to be a Friday, and, as we all know, an NHS "weekend" starts Friday lunch time and they don't like working at the weekend!
By this time is was late and he had no way of getting home. The nurse told him not to worry, they would arrange a car for him. The "car" turned out to be a Taxi and the 16 mile journey cost the NHS £35. The driver admitted that he was earning a fortune from these hospital runs! Proving, yet again, that the procedures have been put in place by idiots. Too much money to throw around and not enough humanity to care for the patients.
Back at the clinic they were shocked that he had been in hospital for over a week and nothing had been done. This is typical of the NHS, they are quick to criticise each other, but no-one will actually "blow the whistle". We all know that this culture of neglect and secrecy has to stop but no-one seems to be able to do anything about it.
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1 day ago
12 comments:
Sounds like the Congress is the U.S. The infrastructure is rotten but no one wants to take it on.
Sad
Hugs
SueAnn
That is a shocking waste of money. It seems that the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing.
Hope the poor patient got the op done in the end.
Maggie x
Nuts in May
Alas it seems the NHS is a shadow of its former self. I think part of the problem is that there re too many pen pushers and not enough front line nursing/doctor staff who know what they are doing. Sadly it all seems to have started going wrong when the ward Matron vanished.
I agree with Eddie.
It's worse here in Irl, the NHS is brilliant compared to our health care system. They put in a middle line of "nurse managers" here, and now nurses don't actually do any nursing. This is to the detriment of patients. Also, so few are allowed to make a decision that everyone seems to run round in circles.
I keep saying that a good supermarket manager, who watched a few episodes of ER, would manage a hospital better.
Why don't "they" do anything about such cases?
The answer is that we are the "they". It is up to us to complain and make a stink. What has your poor friend done about it? Just told his friends or implemented the Complaints Procedure? And if that has come to nothing, his next step is to see his MP. Only if things like this are done will anyone wake up to the fact that our taxpayers' money is being thrown away in this manner.
Add to that the case of a patient taken ill in Lincolnshire being discharged because of lack of beds and sent to Edinburgh by TAXI to only be readmitted to hospital the following day in Edinburgh because of the reaction from tablets he had been prescribed. My thought is get the blinding politicians out of the NHS who use it as a vote catcher with no idea and feel they have to mess with it with reports, targets and bureaucracy. When you get appointments by the minute with no idea how long an appointment may need we seem to have lost the plot.There is a web site called Cure the NHS set up originally by those who lost loved ones in Stafford General. Worth joining - not necessary to do anything but just to give support to their cause.Join it. We're all likely to get there sometime. Let's just hope it improves before we need it.
No Maggie, the poor man is still waiting!
I agree Eddie. Too many "jobsworths" again! The whole system is rotten to the core.
How true is that Mimi! We have "nurse practisioners" who think they are doctors but, quite honestly, I wouldn't put them in charge of a supermarket!
Come, come Doglover, you know how far these "complaints procedures" get you! No-where...and don't I know it.
It could be solved at a stroke. Anyone caught bullying, mis-prescribing, or not cherishing and caring for patients should be sacked. Until that happens they blighly go on their merry way - underpaid and overworked!!!
Your right Doglover and Ladywholunches - I need to get this sorted out because at the age of 72 I'm getting closer and closer to being at their mercy! Eeeekkkk!!
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