NHS gets worse!

rebbonk · 04-04-2013, 08:31 AM

Last night my son called NHS direct. This was about 8.00.

The telephonist couldn't help him, so suggested he could either go to a "drop-in" centre or she could get a nurse to call him. He opted to speak to a nurse and was advised that there was a 16 hour wait! As you can understand he declined this offer.

Ringing the "drop-in" centre he was told "We are 'rammed' and not letting any more in here!"

At this point his sister rang his own doctor. "We are closed, please contact NHS direct, blah blah blah..." Perfect circle!

I told him to go to A&E; he wouldn't as he said it wasn't either an accident or emergency. He ended up at a late night chemist being talked into buying Ibruprofen.

Camoron reckoned that the NHS was safe in his hands, it doesn't look so safe to me.

**Gladys** · 04-04-2013, 08:44 AM

OMG- this is entirely due to Government ' planning '. NHS Direct don't have many nurses that is probably why the 16 hour call back was given. Seriously worrying and I would say he should make a complaint to his MP, The Community Health trust and to his GP.

rebbonk · 04-04-2013, 10:39 AM

I will pass that on Gladys. - Thanks

**Gladys** · 05-04-2013, 08:12 AM

Rebbonk and any one else,you may find these links useful reading. I hope they work still. I got them from the mail online.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...nts-lives.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-meltdown.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-training.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ents-back.html

rebbonk · 05-04-2013, 08:25 AM

Thanks again Gladys.

He wrote a rather stiff letter to his MP yesterday, but I doubt it'll have much impact unless the MPs are overwhelmed with complaints. Of course, few people actually bother to complain, they just grumble and then accept things. If he gets a reply, I'll let you know.

**Gladys** · 05-04-2013, 08:37 AM

I'd like to think he will get a reply but in the end its the quality of it that counts. This is a very contentious issue right across the UK and The Government is trying to keep its head down about it as such its a 'hot potato' . Do let me know and tell your son to copy his letter to both his GP and to the Community Health Trust- just Cc them into it even after the event.

cathidaw · 06-04-2013, 02:14 AM

two years ago. boxing day I dislocated my shoulder.I went to Banbury hospital . it was packed out. I registered and waited 2 hourS. The triage nurse came and said I need an xray but the wait was 3 hours- if I was lucky.Then the doctor was going to be 2 -3 hours -if I was lucky. Thats what she said to everyone.If you are lucky. Some people were bleeding all around me.
No tea machine, only coke , which ran out. My Daughter -'we'll go to OXFORD'-She knew someone -a doctor.who worked there.who was off duty.She arranged for a referal letter to be waiting for when I got there. There were 4 people waiting - they'd been there for 2 hours.. no doctors about.
I was ushered into another dept. 3 doctors in there.. -xray anaesthetic to put it back. Within one hour I was on my way back. £500 lighter and then the fee for the letter. I borrowed money on the day,paid it back-my council tax money.
Just shows how the rich can get away with it.
i wrote to Banbury and they denied that it was crowded and the waiting was so long. Wrote to the MP but the hospital lied.Altho' they admitted the drinks had run out.

What a set up and it will get worse.

**Gladys** · 06-04-2013, 08:57 AM

Cathidaw, This was absolutely dreadful for you and poses a terrifying picture of what we now can face. Yes, I fear it is going to be a common place theme with our hospitals and healthcare. Its a simple equation between supply and demand that has seen the balance tipped. There' s not enough resources as in staff to supply to provided effective safe care for the growing demand in the population we have today. Don't forget the last 7 years has seen a mass influx of people into the UK which has in itself added to that demand. On the flip side of that increase the supply of trained staff has been actively reduced so we no longer have the numbers we did doing the jobs we had. The common complaint is also that those doing the work lack the experience and knowledge. Mid Staffs comes to mind as an example but its a simplistic example. (The Royal College of Nurses in the ' RCN Bulletin ' November 2011 issue reported that there were 56000 nurses unemployed. Many were highly experienced, knowledgeable people. I don't know what proportion of them were trained and what number were health care support working level nurses but it tells a tale anyway.Why were they unemployed? I suggest you ask Mr Cameron- he may know but I doubt he'll answer.))

cathidaw · 06-04-2013, 12:22 PM

How can a nurse be suitably trained at university.Half days in hospitals is not enough. I trained at the hospital doing the job, with lectures fitted in between. The trainees were 'nurses form the 3rd month, albeit juniors. We learnt how to handle people who were sick.learned from the bottom.One does not have to be university fodder to be a nurse.There would be hundreds of nurses if we went back to training on the wards.people want to 'nurse from the start. This have to have a degree idea will not work to get more recruits.It didn't cost so much either..ok we moaned at the money but we had the best training in the world and a qualification free of charge.This armchair nursing wont work. I saw the other day --nurses are going to be shown how to make beds and give bedpans.I learned that the first week.
ON THE OTHE HAND-There is light.2 years ago tomorrow I had an ankle joint replacement at Birmingham Royal Orthopaedic hospital. It was an eye opener My 6 days in there were just like old times. Nothing was too much trouble. I was offered toast at midnight from the ward kitchen the day I missed my dinner.transport was arranged for my subsequent visits..for a year.
I am to have the other one done this year-at my convenience.The hospitals here were not interested except to provide me with more and stronger painkillers.
There must be other hospitals like that one.

**Gladys** · 06-04-2013, 01:39 PM

Cathidaw, your training was like mine and your experience at The Birmingham Royal Orthopaedic Hospital is uplifting and I hope is still the same today as it was 2 years ago. I am all for upgrading the Professional status of Nursing and Midwifery in recognition of what it deserves but not at the expense of the standards of care that it should provide. I think this is what has happened. Having standards of care at the caring level which is at the bedside in which lies a patient aka a feeling living human being. We are all living feeling human beings and as such are all able to become patients let us not forget that. Ill health can strike us all at any time. Then the patient being in varying guises of ill health leaving him or her dependent on the professional training of a qualified individual able to recognise what is needed, who is able and willing to deliver the things that matter to aid healing or better the quality of life. Learning about health and then meeting ill health in a book and class room scenario doesn't draw out the real vocational empathetic side of the role of the professional nurse. To people delivering care of the standard that is safe, effective and satisfying for these reasons is why people used to stay in nursing but now they are faced with increased pressure of targets to meet and achieve with little to do with the quality of the patient's experience. and more importantly less about the comfort in that caring act and the relationship at the time of the care being given. These things are part of the standards of professional nursing care and are what matters. Anyone can call them selves a nurse and many do but how many are trained to standards that encompass all of these things with the intelligence to improve the standards when needed? I could go on and on and on..... (I will spare you that but I think you get the gist.)

**Gladys** · 22-04-2013, 01:26 PM

Have you heard what The Government have decided must be built into Nurse Training? CARING

Er, excuse me but if the Government would get its nose out of matters best left to the Professionals who are in these Professions we might not have the rubbish we are dealing with now. Nurses were nurses and chosen to be trained as such because they demonstrated caring from the start. You either did work as a carer prior to getting into training and had a strong reference list supporting your ability to be caring or you interviewed in such a way you showed it then.Of course you also had to show you had achieved an academic level as well but that was less important than demonstrating the caring ability. Those less academic often became the foundation rocks of the profession as Enrolled Nurses who are now a defunct breed. They backed up the Registered Nurses, dished out good old fashioned basic nursing care and helped monitor and train the students and Health Care Assistants who used to be known as Auxillaries. Everyone cared and if they didn't they were weeded out at the start of training. They usually showed them selves up any way and were spotted a mile off at which point they failed in objectives that had to be met in order to progress through training. It should be the same now. Choose a potential candidate because they show they can care and do it well- monitor them through every stage of the training and if they fail- show them the door - End of story, its simple really. We don't need a Government telling us things that should be set in stone.

cathidaw · 23-04-2013, 12:34 PM

I thought caring was part of the job training process..
As I said before, we can do without university trained armchair nurses.
Pitching in at the deep end is the only way to learn.

**Shizara** · 23-04-2013, 04:05 PM

Starting in at the deep end is the best way to learn. Dare I say "Bring back the scary matron!!" ?

**Gladys** · 23-04-2013, 05:27 PM

They duped the public on that one as well. They brought in a truck load of posts called ' Matron of ..' this and of that department. What has it done? Zilch. The old structure was that a Hospital was run by Consultants and a team of administrators who ran the Hospitals as their Consultants deemed fit. The Matron was in Charge of Nursing care and of Nurses. She stood along side the Senior Consultant and more often than not it was done her way not his. (Very Carry on Matron ....) This won't happen now because Hospitals are run by administrators, Consultants don't have a say in things other than what their Department Budget will be spent on. Nurses are managed by administrators too. The Director of Nursing is more involved with Nursing Budgets rather then with Nurses and Nursing Care. The Matrons are slot in posts as so called heads of nursing by departments.( Cardiology, Eyes, A&E ) They are meant to be all about nursing care and nursing standards but it does seem in reality the accountability element of the role of the Professional Nurse has been lost somewhere in all of the paperwork.

**Gladys** · 04-05-2013, 01:03 PM

Rebbonk, Has your son had a reply from his letters? I have been tuned into the news from last night about how dreadful the 111 Service performance is. A very few people have had positive experience from it most have had shambolic experiences. The NHS Direct derelict and defunct organisation only holds 3 areas across the UK now and one is in the Midlands- Birmingham etc. This service is at the centre of investigations into incidents one of which is a death. There are countless terrifying stories of near misses. NHS Direct had teething troubles in the early days but not like this. Back then the public didn't quite know what to make of it nor quite how to use it but they soon learned and so did NHS Direct. It was embraced by the public who have once again been duped. It began to demise as it was run down and now the remaining staff are fewer nurses who are mostly less experienced, less knowledgeable and cheaper than those who staffed it before the run down. The 111 service is staffed by similar level nurses but by design many more untrained personnel. Nurses and Midwives by the Professional code of Conduct are amongst other things ACCOUNTABLE for their actions, untrained personnel are not. Is this another design and as such a design fault? The 111 Service has to get its teething troubles sorted out but is it too late as lives have been lost from the appalling lack of professional EXPERTISE and lack of accountability? It would seem there are too few teeth to grip hold of what has become an institution that is now falling apart; The NHS. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-meltdown.html