NHS outpatients

[steeljack]

this is whats required to get the hospitals back into shape

http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/corps/QARANC.htm

not all these modern day politicallly correct hospital administrators earning 100k per year who probably think on first sight a urine bottle is some new cute design of a wine carafe by Herpes........oops sorry Hermes

[andrewb]

Originally Posted by garinda

Weren't you the one complaing the other week about how long you were having to wait for a scan?

Scan and a tan.

I was, but not purely about the waiting times. The only reason I have had scans and cameras down is because I went private for a consultation, because private don't want to get rid of you as fast as possible to meet government targets, they attempt to find out whats wrong.. now thats not me making a bad comment over NHS doctors, thats me saying targets are stopping them from doing their job properly in my opinion.

Oh yes, I forgot to add. aftercare (sorry my a key is broke so no capitals as im pasting it every time!) is severely lacking due to targets like this. Once someone gets 'treated' dosn't mean they're better, and dosn't mean they wont have further problems. But they're seen less as the staff are trying to meet waiting time statistics..

[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by nikkival

I was under the impression that they were building all these NHS treatment centres (like the one I went to in Darwen) to relieve the strain on the hospital departments, isn't there one being built on Paradise Street in Accy at the moment?

Am I the only one who finds it ironic that they close down small local hospitals and centralise everything in one big hospital - and then build small local treatment centres to relieve presure on the big hospital?

[jambutty]

This government is forcing the NHS to be privatised by the back door.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by jambutty

This government is forcing the NHS to be privatised by the back door.

Is that a bad thing, so long as it is still funded the same way as the NHS is now?

[Ianto.W.]

Originally Posted by Neil

I know someone who works at RBH for the private cleaning firm and I think she is very particular in her work (That should stop me getting a slap this afternoon outside school ). I do believe that many are not so good, there are not enough of them either. You must have heard the old one, pay peanuts get monkeys.

The people that run the private cleaning companies are the villains of the piece, without wanting to single any particular one out, (for fear of litigation) if you look at the financial pages of a 'good' newspaper, the growth rates of these companies are phenominal, so the profit margins must reflect the running costs i.e. wages, materials, number of employees etc. Privatisation will be the death of the Health Service as we have come to know and expect, so it is OUR JOB to try and stop it, before these (in house diseases) reach epidemic proportions.

[Ianto.W.]

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

Am I the only one who finds it ironic that they close down small local hospitals and centralise everything in one big hospital - and then build small local treatment centres to relieve presure on the big hospital?

No you are not willow I cannot see the sense in it either, two under construction not a mile apart Yet we have a perfectly good Hospital that can and did fulfill this task anyway Victoria Hospital. Will this one be the next for the axe when these new health centres come on line?

[jambutty]

Private companies are in business to MAKE MONEY Neil and private companies involved in providing some NHS functions take money out of the system that could be used to improve the service.

It was recently quoted that the PFI (Private Finance Initiative) companies will make £45 BILLION during the next 30 years and this money is our taxes and National Health Insurance contributions that has been allocated to the NHS to supply a health service to the public. That yearly £1.5 BILLION drain (I would be inclined to call it a theft) would do wonders for improving the NHS.

To recap PFI – private finance pays for the building of a new hospital and leases it back to the area health authority and also supplies the work force to clean and maintain it and I understand to provide patients and staff meals. All at an immense profit for the PFI company. I also understand that the PFI path is going to be taken with regard to schools.

I don’t know where the idea came from but this excuse for a government has gone along with it because it removes the need for the government to spend money on new hospitals. So the government has been able to finance illegal wars, build plush new offices for various government departments and seriously consider spending BILLIONS on replacing a weapon system (Trident) that we will not have absolute control of. And people think that Gordon Brown is the best Chancellor ever. He is nothing more than a con artist highly skilled in the art of ‘creative accounting’.

To digress a little – 6 nukes will flatten the UK and make it uninhabitable for thousands of years. One on Exeter, London, Birmingham, between Manchester and Liverpool, Newcastle and between Glasgow and Edinburgh. If that were to happen and it is a HUGE IF, do your think that the yanks would allow us to retaliate? Not a chance because it could trigger a nuclear world war and the USA would get drawn in, as would other major world powers. MAD only works when there are two super powers. MAD does not work for minor powers like us and North Korea.

If the private sector wants to build and staff, the training of which has been funded by the private sector, its own hospitals to treat private patients then that’s OK by me.

[yerself]

Originally Posted by Cyfr

I really think the staff have no faith in management or government over the NHS.

And it's not just our local hospital that's having problems. Have a read at this:

Patient nips to loo and loses bed

A hospital patient went to the loo and returned to find staff had given her bed to another woman.

Pat Roberts, 68, was away from her bed for less than 20 minutes, reports the Sun.

Staff at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital told her she would have to wait for another bed.

Husband Ron said: "I was with my wife and helped her to the bathroom. When we returned it was not a case of them making up the bed, it was already full.

"We were only away from the bed for the time it took me to push her through the ward to the toilet and back again."

A spokeswoman for the hospital said they would investigate the incident

[Ianto.W.]

yerself, A spokeswoman for the hospital said they would investigate the incident

The outcome of the investigation will read something like this; As this patient was being treated for cronic constipation, following 20 minutes at the toilet, it was thought this patient had 'discharged' herself.

[lettie]

Originally Posted by Ianto.W.

Exactly the point I was trying to make in my last post,it is lack of supervision and the 'cheapness' of life attitude some of (not the bog standard nurses but the so called sisters).

I totally resent that comment.. I am a 'so called sister' on a very busy and short staffed, acute area. I'd like to see you try and do my job. I have special interest in infection control issues and try my utmost best to promote these issues amongst junior staff and students. Unfortunately, I cannot be there 24 hours a day, but the amount of work that I do at home makes it feel like a 24 hour a day job.

There are many causes of hospital acquired infections like C Diff and MRSA (these bugs are carried normally within the human population and only cause problems during illness). I am the first to admit that one cause of Hospital acquired infection is hygiene, not just the staff but also the patients and the visitors. Another major cause is the over-prescription of antibiotics. The next time a doctor prescribes you antibiotics, make sure you ask why......

People are naturally unhygienic. The next time you use a public toilet just watch how many people do not wash their hands after using it...... You'll be surprised.

[cashman]

To digress a little – 6 nukes will flatten the UK and make it uninhabitable for thousands of years. One on Exeter, London, Birmingham, between Manchester and Liverpool, Newcastle and between Glasgow and Edinburgh. If that were to happen and it is a HUGE IF, do your think that the yanks would allow us to retaliate? Not a chance because it could trigger a nuclear world war and the USA would get drawn in, as would other major world powers. MAD only works when there are two super powers. MAD does not work for minor powers like us and North Korea. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------just wondered jim, how could we retaliate if we were flattened?

[Ianto.W.]

Originally Posted by lettie

I totally resent that comment.. I am a 'so called sister' on a very busy and short staffed, acute area. I'd like to see you try and do my job. I have special interest in infection control issues and try my utmost best to promote these issues amongst junior staff and students. Unfortunately, I cannot be there 24 hours a day, but the amount of work that I do at home makes it feel like a 24 hour a day job.

There are many causes of hospital acquired infections like C Diff and MRSA (these bugs are carried normally within the human population and only cause problems during illness). I am the first to admit that one cause of Hospital acquired infection is hygiene, not just the staff but also the patients and the visitors. Another major cause is the over-prescription of antibiotics. The next time a doctor prescribes you antibiotics, make sure you ask why......

People are naturally unhygienic. The next time you use a public toilet just watch how many people do not wash their hands after using it...... You'll be surprised.

I can only speak as I find in the last 16 years I have been in 4 different hospitals more or less for the same disease, cancer the last one was brand new, and parts of it were just being built I do not think my 'gripe' in this hospital was about mrsa, it was about the 'cavalier' attitude of some of the staff i.e. the Sisters at this particular hospital. people were on the brink of death, some were afraid as it was their first experience of hospital. the post I did about cleanlines was about privatisation.

[jambutty]

Remember the nuclear subs armed with Trident missiles cashy?

There is always one Trident sub on patrol out to sea and sometimes two, armed with several missiles (is it still 16 or was that Polaris) where each can dispense several nuclear independently targeted warheads. That is the beauty of nuclear subs, they can retaliate if their country is attacked and wiped out.