NHS - Is it really that bad?

[andrewb]

Today I got the privilege of visiting the Houses of Parliament and lobbying Greg Pope about the NHS (along with my mum who works for Unison whilst some other members lobbied Janet Anderson). We were supposed to be meeting Jack Straw too but he couldn't fit us in until late on and we were only staying the day.

Anyway, to cut a long story short (because we got to talk for about an hour which was great), I quized him on a real example where 85 student nurses had been trained and only 10 had been given jobs, clearly showing firstly the lack of money for jobs, but secondly the waste of money in training people who have no job to go to and might just go overseas.

He replied telling me that he believed that due to the current debt that Royal Blackburn Hospital is in (due to the merging of Burnley whom were a few million in debt) that once this was resolved in perhaps 12months time, many of the financial situation cuts would be sorted. Of course that is no help to current student nurses but it does give hope of a positive future.

Now of course he is not directly responsible for Blackburn Hospital but he is a Labour MP so his opinions do count a lot.

He certainly painted a better picture of the NHS than we are led to believe, and he was not at all overly defensive about the NHS like some MP's are. Now its obviously up to you if you believe Greg, but when it comes down to it, I do.

The opportunity of going to Parliament and lobbying my MP (and walking past John Prescot on the terraces had to get that one in!) was a REALLY positive experience. I even got to mention Accringtonweb!

Overall I was greatly impressed by him, and although Labour HAVE mismanaged the NHS in a lot of respects, its not as doom and gloom as I once thought.

ps. If he wants to post and correct me on something I might have misquoted then thats fine. I don't claim to remember everything!

[garinda]

I won't score cheap points, by saying I told you before that you were always to caring to be a Tory, but........


Sounds like you had a great time, and did yourself proud too.

Good for you.

[bullseyebarb]

Well done, Cyfr. Your posts always reflect an inquiring and thoughtful mind. Ten years ago I met with Peter Pike, then Labour MP for the Burnley area, regarding the horrendous treatment my father received whilst dying of cancer at Burnley Gen. The details are too ghastly and upsetting to repeat here. At that time Mr. Pike told me that it did not matter which party was in office because there would never be enough money to give patients everything they might need. Unfortunately, this is the nature of a system with no consumer participation. I truly hope that things will improve.

Hope you gave "Two Jags" a wave as you went by.

[shillelagh]

Thing is though we are lucky we have the NHS. If we have an accident the ambulance comes and takes us to the hospital where we are treated. If we are sick we ring the doc and either go and see him or he comes out to our home. If we were in America we'd have to pay from what i've read they ask for your insurance details so then they can contact your insurance company to find out what level of cover. If i'm wrong then our american members will tell me and take karma from me. I'm sorry if i am wrong. It's just what i've read. Thing with the NHS is that people are living longer due to advances in medicine and also cures and treatment for illnesses that 40 years ago would have been fatal are now common place. How many cancer sufferers would have lived 40 years ago compared to how many survive now?

[WillowTheWhisp]

I've had some bad and some good experiences with the NHS over the past few years. Recently I have nothing but praise for the treatment I've personally received. I'm being quite a challenge to them at the moment and the staff at the Royal Blackburn (which will always be Queens Park to me - I sound like a Billy Joel song!) have been brilliant, even when I got lost in the hospital yesterday. (My excuse was I was still a bit woozy!)

[jambutty]

I would have demonstrated to “Two Jags” that I was still capable of drawing a long bow with either hand or use the middle finger of my hand to point to a flying pig.

I don’t have any recent experience of the hospital arm of the NHS so I cannot say if things have improved or not since my last stay two or three years ago. However during my last stay I was not impressed with the level of service but that was probably due to the lack of staff. But I have to point out that during the course of a day what few nursing staff we had on our ward they spent almost as much time in the office with the sister in charge of the ward discussing Corry or whatever as they did attending to the patients. And woe betide a patient who had the temerity to summon one of them during their natter time. To be fair though many of the nurses, but not all, were dedicated and caring but their care and dedication was constrained by the amount of time they had with a patient – due to lack of other staff to share the work load.

However the non hospital side of the NHS is a different matter. I can get an appointment with my doctor the same day that I ring up IF my problem appears serious enough and I am prepared to wait and wait and wait in the surgery waiting room for either a cancellation, someone not turning up or to be seen as the last patient. Fortunately there is always someone who just hasn’t turned up but that’s a thread on its own.

I recently attended because I was passing blood in my water. Not just a slight pink but a dark red. My doctor decided that I must have some sort of infection and prescribed antibiotics, which I dutifully took as prescribed. Later that same evening I started to experience pain in my big toe left foot. By next morning the pain was more than severe. Even a gentle cough would produce spasms of excruciating pain in my foot and even walking became an exercise in gritting teeth.

I don’t know about anyone else but I always read the leaflet that comes with medication and when I read the leaflet for the antibiotics I was informed that one of the possible side effects might be sore, swollen and painful joints. So I rang the doctor and explained my predicament. “Come to the surgery” the receptionist suggested. “I can’t walk” I replied “Can I speak to the doctor?”

Eventually he rang me back and he decided that I should try a different antibiotic, come and collect the prescription. “I can’t walk.” However to be fair he did arrange for the new prescription to be delivered to a chemist who would then deliver the tablets to my flat but not until the next morning. He did not offer anything for the pain. I take Warfarin so no Aspirin and with a history of kidney problems Paracetamol or Codein are not recommended.

By mid evening I was in agony so I rang NHS direct fully expecting them to suggest a visit to A&E and to arrange it. But no, after talking to one nurse who said that someone would ring me back I was left to my own devices. Some two hours later another nurse rang me back and we went through the same procedure of name, address, medical history, how severe was the pain etc and all she could advise was that she would contact the hospital doctor and he would ring me back. By this time it was close on midnight and the doctor did ring me back. Same old routine only this time it was more difficult because the doctor’s command of the English language left a lot to be desired. Eventually he agreed that he would come out to see me. “When?” I asked. “Within a few hours” he replied.

By this time I had discovered a way to propel myself around the flat sat on an office chair on castors so I was able to unlock the front door and make myself a very welcome brew.

The doctor arrived looked at my foot with disdain in his face suggested that it was gout and told me to take some pain killers. “But I don’t have any” and explained why I cannot take over the counter pain killers. He delved into his bag and brought out a blister strip of tablets together with a prescription form that I had to sign. These tablets worked enough to enable me to get some sleep in my recliner chair until daylight. The new antibiotics arrived and by evening, although still in a lot of pain, I was able to get around and make brews and soup to keep me alive until the morning. By evening I had used all the pain killers so taking my life in my hands I didn’t take that days dose of Warfarin and took Aspirin instead. Aspirin has always worked well on me as a general pain killer and I was able to actually go to bed to get some sleep. Within a week I was back to my normal self and no longer peeing blood.

Compared to the last time that I was forced to invoke the services of NHS direct when a severe kidney infection and a swollen closed tube from kidney to bladder had me in agony and whisked off to hospital faster than you could imagine, this latest episode underlined the deterioration of the NHS. No doubt due to the cut backs that the government claim haven’t happened.

However a more recent experience was down to the nurses but then their morale might be low because of what is happening to the NHS as a whole. But it is still no excuse.

A few weeks ago I was attending my annual check up with the GP’s nurse. I went in sat down and she went through the process of making sure that I was the right patient. I was weighed and she started off about smoking and diet. Then the phone rang, which she answered. Ten minutes later she was still nattering on the phone, which judging from the conversation, that I could hear, was more personal than professional. I was left sat there starting to quietly fume. To be fair as I can be she did repeatedly apologise for the interruption but made no attempt to end the conversation by informing the caller that she would ring back because she had a patient to attend to. Whatever happened to good manners? Surely an attending patient is more important than discussing things on the phone especially as the topic seemed to be personal.

Only this morning I attended an appointment at the Warfarin clinic only to be told when I arrived my usual ten minutes ahead of time that the clinic had been cancelled because the nurse was having a day off. They claimed to have either written to or phoned all those scheduled for today. “Sorry but we don’t have your address or phone number” was the excuse. They had my domestic details last year when an appointment was rearranged and I’ve been attending the Warfarin clinic from my current address for the last five years.

Then to add insult to injury, the nurse who was supposed to be having a day off rang me minutes after I got home to arrange another appointment for next Thursday.

So to answer the topic of the thread, I think that the NHS, as a whole, has gone downhill.

[andrewb]

wit woo for you. i met greg i met greg i met greg in london. who cares?

To whoever left me that karma comment, I posted to let people know how my experience of democracy went and it was ment to be a thread about the NHS in the 'serious discussion' part of AccringtonWeb. It is nothing to do with 'i met greg, i met greg', after all its hardly anything to brag about since you'll able to meet him yourself if you live in Hyndburn and make an apointment about an issue.
I wouldnt actualy mind the negative comment if you had the bottle to leave your name and something mildly constructive.

[garinda]

You certainly weren't bragging.

It is a very informative thread.

Have some karma back.

[garinda]

...except I can't!

Lol.

I.O.U.

[garinda]

My personal experience of the NHS is that it is good.

The drugs I take would cost a fortune if I had to buy them.

My G.P. (Dr. Smith at Rhydding's Surgery) is a fantastic man.

My Neurologist is one of the best in the country, though his bed side manner leaves a lot to be desired, but he's not there to entertain me, and his specialist Parkinson's nurse, who I also have access to, more than makes up for it.

I've recieved first class physiotherapy and speech therapy on the NHS.

It's not perfect, but without the NHS my life would be so much more difficult

[shakermaker]

Nice one Cyfr. Sounds like you asked the questions well & in turn got a good response.
Too much karma given out blah blah...

NHS? Luckily not had a lot of experience with them except for dozens of football injuries Nothing serious though.
My family seem to all have been well looked after with the NHS especially when my mum had an operation at Gisburne private hospital on the NHS because of being on the waiting list for a certain amount of time.
Things do seem to be looking up in places, it's a shame doctors & nurses etc do not get enough credit for their work.

I'm looking to do Sociology & Politics or PPE at Uni & hope I get the experience you seem to have had.

[katex]

Well then, Garinda, I will do it for you ... not as much as yours, but every little helps.

Why, shouldn't he tell us about his experience of going to the House of Commons to help his studies !! I will brag and tell you have had lunch on the terrace myself once or twice, but was just business. His story and question was useful too, because gives us an insight as to what it is like to be able to get a close up of 'The Office'. Will encourage other students too.

to the Pratt who left that Cyfr .. you have got to become tougher if politics is going to be your line and ignore such childish taunts, like most politicians have to.

[Gayle]

Yep, I certainly can't fault the NHS.

When I had Maddie I was in hospital for the six weeks before she was born (plus I had a scare part way through when I was hospitalised for a few days). Although, she was a 'natural' birth (suspect Lettie would argue with that but reasonably natural birth, I was very ill. Received absolutely wonderful care.

When I had Zack, not so ill in the run up bu I had to have a section - again wonderful care.

When my Grandma was ill she was in the hospital for a week or so and they allowed us access at all times of day and night to visit her (on the evening she was taken in we went up to see her at about midnight) - she was made very comfortable and the family were taken into consideration at all times.

I know some people have had bad experiences but I can honestly say that I've never received anything but wonderful care.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by katex

Well then, Garinda, I will do it for you ... every little helps.

Oh, the karma!

Pity, I thought you were offering to come round and rub me down with an oily rag.

[katex]

Originally Posted by garinda

Oh, the karma!

Pity, I thought you were offering to come round and rub me down with an oily rag.

Watcha' like ... Can see now how I am always getting myself into trouble through not explaining things proper. !! Anyway, honey, never an oily rag, would get down me finger nails and not hygenic enough

Hek, those lovely nurses would be appalled. !!

All I can contribute to this thread is that my daughter left the wards, 'cause there was not enough time to give the patients the attention they deserved, and can assure you that she never chatted too long in the staff room if required at a bed side. Like she said, didn't come into this profession to carry out extensive reports, where spending was syphoned more to the colour of the curtains than patient care (although surroundings are important I know).

Also, patients are encouraged to fill in forms if any complaints and went down as low as receiving their hot drinks cooler than should have been, but this is a vicious circle ... not enough time to be a waiter service either.