NHS criminal neglect proposals

[Studio25]

Yep Margaret that is spot on. My theory is that if you can have twice as many medical staff on the ward, they will halve their stress (probably more than that because there's no reason why economies of scale shouldn't work in a hospital). It's the same reason they avoid having open beds.

My most controversial plan is the opposite of the action that prompted the thread in the first place. I'm not sure if it's even legal to make NHS practitioners exempt from liability claims, but that's the sort of thing I'm aiming for. We live in a blame culture, and it's getting worse. We need to tackle it.

Look around you - doesn't matter what your job is, just look at your immediate surroundings and assess how many truly incompetent people you meet on a day-to-day basis.

It's not many.

So why are the gifted and capable workers subjected to so much ass-covering on the assumption that they are going to get sued?

[Margaret Pilkington]

I also think it has to be made easier for whistle blowers.
When I was at QPH we had a consultant working with us who was, well let's say...not very good(on a number of levels)
When Nursing staff expressed concerns we were left in no doubt that if we were to report things, that our job would be on the line.
OK, it wasn't said in so many words, but it was implied in a very intimidating fashion.

In the end, action had to be taken, this person no longer works in the trust, but it took a long time and a lot of effort to sort out, and a lot of nursing staff were worried for their patients and also for their own careers.

[Barrie Yates]

Originally Posted by flashy

1, there is NO such thing as a ''quiet'' ward,
2, admin work is 80% of every nurses, auxilliarys, ward clerks, domestics, doctors, physio's, occupational therapists, consultants, security guards, porters job, so there is no way of cutting back on it, however much you would like to

everytime i so much as touch a patient i have to write it down, we have charts for turning people, charts for what implements we use to turn them, lift them or move them, we have to write down if the bed is static or not, if they have sat in the chair at all, how much and what they have eaten in a day, fluid intake and output, diet requirements, moving and handling requirements, bowel movements, mobility, if they have any blanching to pressure points, then there's the obs....usually hourly ones that need to be wrote down, when a patient leaves we clean the patients area from top to bottom, we have to fill in an A4 bed check list to make sure everything is suitable for the next patient...then there is the cleaning of equipment we use...we have to write down when we have used and cleaned the hoists, commodes etc

and thats just the admin that us auxilliaries do....nurses have 2/3 times more admin duties to do aswell as looking after every single patient on the ward, so next time you reckon you can 'fix' the NHS, studio, please think again....oh and next time you or a family member has to go to hospital, just take a second to think about how much crap the staff already have to put up with...before you think there is a quick fix to things

You are obviously on a different ward than the one I suffered for 10 days, a month or so back.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Barrie Yates

You are obviously on a different ward than the one I suffered for 10 days, a month or so back.

or C5 I was in last year, mind you Barrie I have a lot of experience within the NHS like 30 years worth of being an in patient, I'm pleased to say that bad wards are few and far between, C5 last years was by far the worst I've ever come across and the only time I have ever bollocked a consultant, which actually worked wonders

[flashy]

Barry, the ward i work in is a specialist ward, its a very very busy ward, but it is a very rewarding job and i love it

[Barrie Yates]

Originally Posted by flashy

Barry, the ward i work in is a specialist ward, its a very very busy ward, but it is a very rewarding job and i love it

Is the care provided in all wards, in all hospitals, not supposed to be of the same standard?

[Margaret Pilkington]

Barrie, it is supposed to be of the same standard.
I can remember being co-opted onto a Benchmarking scheme(being me, I was quite cynical about what outcomes we could achieve, but we had some very good end results).

This was supposed to look at areas in a patients hospital journey and we'd meet to determine best practices and by sharing these. We were supposed to improve the experience each patient had.
This was over 11 years ago now. I'm not sure if it is still going, but it was a very valuable tool because different disciplines rarely share their good working practices.

It sounds to me like you haven't had the best experience of the hospital.
If this is the case then you need to put you concerns in writing so that they can be dealt with
The Patient Advisory Liason Service(PALS for short) can help you with this.
here is a link which you might find helpful.

Patient Advice and Liason Service (PALS)

[jaysay]

At the end of the day the running of a ward is down to the ward sister, I've only ever come across a very poor sister, she ran a very poor ward

[Studio25]

Not any more J - there are "ward managers" and "bed managers" who have limited resources and (unintentionally) ensure that ward sisters work with one hand tied behind their back. I'm sure there are others in the hierarchy, too.

[Margaret Pilkington]

I was a ward manager.....but this was because I was Senior Sister on my unit.....and I can tell you John that at one time when a sister(even a junior one)requested something......they got it.
This was not the case by the time I left......and things have got much worse in the eleven years since I was at QPH.
Ward Sisters have much less influence than at any time in the past. I reckon I worked in the NHS at the very best time.
I was allowed to care for patients.