One rule for one........

[garinda]

Originally Posted by thindle

I don't know why folk complain it's free, it's the NHS.

Errr........it's not funded by pennies from heaven. We do all pay for it, through taxation and national insurance.

As Lettie said nurses and auxilaries can no longer provide the care they once did. My Aunt was in the said hospital, plus QP and the Royal Infirmary in Manchester last year. Even though my Aunt was incapable of eating, food was dropped on the table at the end of the bed, then duly collected untouched with the comment 'not hungry today?'

You have to feel sorry for the poor souls without friend or family. Who makes sure they are getting the subsistance they need?

[grannyclaret]

[quote=garinda] Even though my Aunt was incapable of eating, food was dropped on the table at the end of the bed, then duly collected untouched with the comment 'not hungry today?'

quote]that is awfal ,,did you complain....they should make time for those patients that cant cope!

[WillowTheWhisp]

Free NHS? We pay for it by direct deductions from salary and then we pay again for prescriptions, for dentist (even if you can find an NHS one it isn't free), for eye tests and glasses (which are a necessity not a luxury)

If we could opt out of the NHS system from the start of earnings and go for private insurance for everything it might work out better in the long run.

Unfortunately we won't get the option because some of us are subsidising others who pay nothing because they earn nothing.

[SPUGGIE J]

Nailed it between the eyes there Willow.

[Margaret Pilkington]

A-B......the plates of food are supposed to be covered......metal covers for hot food and plastic covers for salads.
The amount of money that is allocated per meal and per patient is ludicrously small. So it must be a hard job to make meals that are interesting enough to tempt the palate of a poorly patient.

Lettie is right about nurses feeding patients.....it was the only chance you got of having time to take the weight off your legs.
Nursing cadets used to help with the feeding of patients who couldn't feed themselves too.
I am greatly saddened by the decline in standards in the NHS.....it seems that the nurses who train today want to do all the technical stuff, but don't want to do the 'personal stuff'......and to be honest you found out more about patients worries when you were doing the personal stuff. I'm glad I'm out of it.

[jambutty]

As far as Queens Park is concerned the food leaves the kitchens in an edible condition if you can get over the cooking without ANY salt bit. Just as a small aside. The human body NEEDS salt and without it you DIE. OK! I accept that we have got used to using too much salt over the years but to remove it completely is absolute madness especially for manual workers who strain their muscles in their job and sweat. In fact we all sweat to some degree or other even when asleep in bed so we lose salt and other minerals that must be replaced.

What makes the food just about inedible is the time that it stays in the heated trolleys outside the wards slowly drying out. The last time I was a guest of the NHS, some 4 years ago now, our food trolley would arrive an hour before the meals were due to be served. Goodness knows how long the trolley was in the kitchens waiting to be collected. The only decent food was the soup, what little there was of it.

I know that with hundreds of meals to make someone has to be first and someone has to be last but surely the various wards could stagger their actual meal times to coincide with the trolley arriving and not leave it in the passageway waiting until it was time to serve the meals.

Edible food is as much a part of the treatment as pills and potions etc.

[lettie]

The hospital does not use salt in cooking but always provides salt and pepper in sachets which come with your meal. You are more than welcome to add salt to your own food (and it does make it taste better). The problem with staggering meal times for when the food is ready is that some people may get their lunch as early as 11am. Their tea may not arrive until 5pm or later. For someone like me, who eats little and often, a 6 hour wait for tea would be unbearable.

Times of meals are also timed to correspond to ward routines. It is impractical to have the meal trolley on a ward with a busy theatre list running. There would not be enough space to manoeuvre the theatre trolley bearing a recovering patient around the food trolleys. In an ideal world people would be able to eat what they want, when they want whilst in hospital. Unfortunately it is far from ideal but there is no quick fix solution.

Over the years I have become used to hospital food. Bear in mind that the staff get the same meals in the dining room as the patients get on the ward. We often don't get lunches until about 1.30pm. It is warmed up and dried up by then (that's if we manage a break at all). My solution is to douse it in salt and chuck a bit of gravy on it.....

I have to admit that the worst food I've ever had was Butlins in Skegness during the 1970's............

[grego]

I agree with the Skeggy comment Lettie! As for NHS meals when I was in QPH having Ellie I thought the meals were quite good, I dont add salt so wouldn't need it anyway and Lettie is quite right you get a sachet with your meal unless you're on a recommended salt free diet. I work at BRI and quite enjoy the meals in the canteen, which are the same that are served up to the patients, the cheese pie is the best I've ever tasted.

[Driller]

Sounds a bit like the grub we got at the stop and rest up fielding lane.. stop whining!

[lettie]

Originally Posted by grego

the cheese pie is the best I've ever tasted.

Aaaah....... BRI and QPH cheese pie... It's lovely, well worth going into hospital for. Tastes delicious with baked beans and gives you the worst heartburn and gas you'll ever have but is totally worth the discomfort..

[jambutty]

Hospitals may supply a salt and pepper sachet now lettie but four years ago they didn’t. I had to get my son to bring me my salt seller from home and ketchup and they got passed around the ward at meal times much to the chagrin of the sister in charge. Between us we supplied our own condiments.

Don’t talk to me about the state of the humble cup of tea that they served out. Some clown would leave the tea bags in the kettle and by the time that the nurse got half way round the ward it was like treacle. No one seemed to have the gumption to brew the tea to a nice strength and remove the tea bags. But I’ll tell you what if you happened to be passing the ward kitchen whilst the tea was being brewed the chatter was invariably about some TV programme that the pair had seen or intended to watch.

You can add as much salt as you like onto cooked food but it will not taste the same as when it has been cooked with a sprinkling of salt. In fact if the right amount of salt is used during cooking the finished meal does not need any more.

You are just making excuses for what is happening lettie. Why can’t someone stand up and instead of saying it can’t be done because ….. for once just say “let us see how we can improve things.”

Oh! I get it. Ward routines are more important than a decent meal so patients have to put up with mashed potatoes with a hard crust of dried mash on the outside to mention just one aspect of meals being kept ‘hot’ until eaten. Sorry but that doesn’t wash with me. If one of the many managers pulled their finger out and started to do some real work for a change instead of wandering round with handful of documents in their hand looking important they could organise things so that the patient gets to eat a meal less than 15 minutes after it has been prepared. Let’s face it if it wasn’t for the patients there would be no need for multiple layers of self important managers. Hospitals are split up into wings or floors so what would be so difficult about arranging that floor “A” gets their meals at certain times and floor “B” at different times etc. Oh! I forgot, that level of organisation would impinge on the many regular natters about last night’s Corrie or East Enders or whatever and that would never do.

If a patient requires small but frequent meals or snacks like you then s/he should be provided with them.

But it isn’t only managers who spend more time talking about the job than doing it. Many nurses do exactly the same.

The last time that I was in with a severe kidney infection I was prescribed some powerful antibiotics and they did the trick OK. But they also killed off all the good bacteria in my gut and that left thrush to run riot. It took me three days of mentioning to the ward staff sister or whatever it is that they call them that I had developed a case of severe thrush before she actually did anything about it. I guess it must have been the badly swollen neck and face that finally caught her eye.

Then a couple of days later and old fellow in a bed across from me called George wanted a bottle. He rang and rang and rang and then I rang and eventually a nurse of some sort rushed into the ward to see who was ringing. George, poor soul, was over 80 and there were times when he wasn’t quite with us and at other times he was as lucid as you or me. I explained to the nurse that George wanted a bottle. To my amazement she replied, “He’ll have to wait we are in the middle of a meeting” and rushed out leaving George with no option but to wet the bed. To add insult to injury when the ‘meeting’ was finally over some half an hour later he was scolded for wetting the bed and he ended up with having a catherta inserted. Not very pleasant although you do get used to after a day or two. I’ve been passed the office on many an occasion and the discussions wasn’t about patient care but chit chat. Most times it was more like a hen party than a patient care meeting.

On a previous occasion when clotty blood worked its way to my lungs an old fellow of about 75 was brought in from an old folks home having suddenly lost the power of speech. The way that all the nurses spoke to him was astounding. He was treated like an imbecile rather than an old guy who suddenly couldn’t talk. I could hardly believe my eyes or ears.

After that degrading episode the guy was almost in tears.

I asked him, “Can you understand what I am saying?” He nodded yes.

“You just can’t speak?” He nodded again and tears streamed down his face because someone wasn’t treating him like an old fool.

Some of the other guys on the ward came over and joined in to try and make the guy as welcome as you can do in a hospital and you could see from his face that all someone had to do was to ask the right questions.

We put this forward to the ward staff sister and got back a very frosty, “you should leave the nursing to the nurses.”

Many of the nurses or sisters as they are known now were indeed angels of mercy but far too many just couldn’t care less and couldn’t wait for going home time. That has been my experience of hospitals and the next time that I am forced into hospital I hope that I am unconscious and at death’s door.