Improving the NHS experience.
Discussion
I have injured my pelvis and am at the mercy of the NHS, at least until I can establish exactly which bit I have damaged.
Yesterday I needed a hip X-ray. A very helpful PHer specialist told me to make sure that they took two images at different angles because they would be required later. But the X-ray people wouldn't do it.
The problem wasn't the X-ray radiographer but a slightly senior member of staff who, according to her colleagues, is generally a pain and as self-important as she is ignorant.
I was politely assertive, but to no avail. I asked to see a medic, but this was refused.
There seemed to be some concern about the results of the image, but any discussion about it was denied and I was told I must wait the 10 days until the images arrived with my GP. Eventually I was grudgingly told that the image revealed nothing, but no further information was forthcoming.
By making it clear I was going nowhere until serviced improved, it was agreed that the X-ray report would be faxed to the GP yesterday, though at close of play it had not arrived.
There were a host of other patient care issues, but I am not that bothered honestly. I just wanted a more helpful treatment of the subject at hand.
I suspect that more experienced NHS users learn how to get a better service than I did. Does anyone have any tips? Is there, for example, any mechanism for immediate redress if you feel you're being fobbed off? At the end of the day it will cost everyone more money if I have to go back for another X-ray next week.
From their point of view: "I want TWO PICTURES as someone on the internet told me you need to take two"
I sympathise with your frustration though
Across my family ages, 0 months - 80 years I have had many dealings with NHS the last 18 months and 9 times amazing and one time a bit poor and disorganised.
I sympathise with your frustration though
Across my family ages, 0 months - 80 years I have had many dealings with NHS the last 18 months and 9 times amazing and one time a bit poor and disorganised.
TwistingMyMelon said:
From their point of view: "I want TWO PICTURES as someone on the internet told me you need to take two"
Not at all. The specialist in question and I conversed offline and he is an expert in his field I believe. I would no more ask for additional X-rays based upon PH wisdom use PH wisdom as a defence in court.As it turns out, the X-ray the radiographer said was "entirely normal" wasn't. It does in fact show clearly where the damage is.
Okay I don't know your full story specifically how bad the pelvic injury is i.e. are you in a wheel chair, on crutches, in constant pain, etc. but it seems like you may be making unreasonable demands. The 10 day turn around on the X-Ray is pretty normal to be honest, took that long for me and there was a chance I might have had cancer. The fact that your problem isn't life threatening probably pushes you down the pile a bit. Unfortunate I know but such is life. Also turning up a demanding two X-Rays really isn't going to help. Generally they can only do whatever your GP/consultant has asked them to do, in this case probably a single X-Ray. You're not going to get anything other than that unless it has been requested.
Personally from around this time last year I went from not having been to the doctors for about 15 years to becoming exposed to the full NHS experience. It's had it's ups and downs but for the most part things have been quite positive. Things really swung into action when I got referred to the hospital as a suspected cancer case. Luckily I didn't have it though unfortunately another chronic condition which is now being managed. From that point on the appointment with the consultant was within a few weeks, broncoscopy a few days after that, referred on for a biopsy a few weeks after that and eventual all clear for cancer a few weeks after that. I'm sure if the results had been cancer I'd have known sooner. The anxiety and stress I went through at each stage were huge and the waits between each set of results very difficult but I guess in reality from start to finish it was only a few months, seemed a lot longer though. That part of it was great and the teams I dealt with along each step of the way were true professionals.
What's been more difficult from a experience point of view has been the care post-diagnosis, I won't go into loads of detail but basically I've had to do a lot of chasing up over things. I think this is indicative as to how overstretched the NHS is. It's frustrating to say the least but then making a few phone calls to chase things up really isn't that difficult I supposed.
What does frustrate me is how data is managed by them in this day and age. I wish I could just log into a site somewhere, see my medical history, my current prescriptions, communication between my consultant and GP, etc. but everything is disjoint. I see the consultant, he dictates a letter to my GP, his secretary types it up, this now supposedly gets sent electronically to my GP but last time this failed and I had to get them to put a copy in the mail. Finally the GP gets it and it is scanned onto their system then I can have my prescription. Madness. If you want something done in a hurry they still send stuff by fax!
Personally from around this time last year I went from not having been to the doctors for about 15 years to becoming exposed to the full NHS experience. It's had it's ups and downs but for the most part things have been quite positive. Things really swung into action when I got referred to the hospital as a suspected cancer case. Luckily I didn't have it though unfortunately another chronic condition which is now being managed. From that point on the appointment with the consultant was within a few weeks, broncoscopy a few days after that, referred on for a biopsy a few weeks after that and eventual all clear for cancer a few weeks after that. I'm sure if the results had been cancer I'd have known sooner. The anxiety and stress I went through at each stage were huge and the waits between each set of results very difficult but I guess in reality from start to finish it was only a few months, seemed a lot longer though. That part of it was great and the teams I dealt with along each step of the way were true professionals.
What's been more difficult from a experience point of view has been the care post-diagnosis, I won't go into loads of detail but basically I've had to do a lot of chasing up over things. I think this is indicative as to how overstretched the NHS is. It's frustrating to say the least but then making a few phone calls to chase things up really isn't that difficult I supposed.
What does frustrate me is how data is managed by them in this day and age. I wish I could just log into a site somewhere, see my medical history, my current prescriptions, communication between my consultant and GP, etc. but everything is disjoint. I see the consultant, he dictates a letter to my GP, his secretary types it up, this now supposedly gets sent electronically to my GP but last time this failed and I had to get them to put a copy in the mail. Finally the GP gets it and it is scanned onto their system then I can have my prescription. Madness. If you want something done in a hurry they still send stuff by fax!
Radiographer here. Your scenario sounds like amateur hour but I'd like to offer some kind of explanation, making a few assumptions along the way.
Firstly, demanding x and y will not fly. Radiographers have to work within the law and under IR(ME)R have to give as little radiation as possible. This means only taking one picture when one is enough. For hips you only need two x-rays when looking for a neck of femur fracture (not indicated if the injury is more than a few days old and you walked into the department, which I assume is what happened since your GP referred you and you didn't attend via A&E), or when a consultant orthopaedic surgeon requests it for another reason.
There are no medics to hand in an x-ray department. You go to A&E if you need to be seen straight away, and I can assure you doctors will have better things to do than listen to your complaint.
A good radiographer will recognise the need to have a second pair of eyes double check the images for diagnostic quality, and signs of injury, so this is normal. It may be that a student took your x-ray, and they always have to have their work checked, but they should have introduced themselves as a student if this is the case. Pubic rami fractures can be very subtle so can be missed, even by experienced radiologists, who have years of training in interpreting x-rays. Radiographers aren't trained to the same level without specialist training. We also don't have access to the high quality, properly calibrated viewing workstations that are used to read images from. Regrettably things do get missed.
As mentioned above, the one thing you need to recognise is that your injury is not life threatening. There would have been a number of people in that radiology department waiting for the test that will tell them whether or not they have cancer. These are the truly 'urgent' scans and virtually everything else is secondary to that. If the system is overloaded with 'urgent' things which aren't, then the whole thing collapses. If you didn't attend A&E on the day and you are walking around then a few days wait is not going to make that much difference to your prognosis. With that being said, if the first radiographer had concerns, then they should have at least fast tracked the report without you having to ask. Even better would have been to get somebody to look at it straight away, and contact orthopaedics to see if they could see you in clinic if need be, but this not always possible given staffing levels in an average radiography department.
Firstly, demanding x and y will not fly. Radiographers have to work within the law and under IR(ME)R have to give as little radiation as possible. This means only taking one picture when one is enough. For hips you only need two x-rays when looking for a neck of femur fracture (not indicated if the injury is more than a few days old and you walked into the department, which I assume is what happened since your GP referred you and you didn't attend via A&E), or when a consultant orthopaedic surgeon requests it for another reason.
There are no medics to hand in an x-ray department. You go to A&E if you need to be seen straight away, and I can assure you doctors will have better things to do than listen to your complaint.
A good radiographer will recognise the need to have a second pair of eyes double check the images for diagnostic quality, and signs of injury, so this is normal. It may be that a student took your x-ray, and they always have to have their work checked, but they should have introduced themselves as a student if this is the case. Pubic rami fractures can be very subtle so can be missed, even by experienced radiologists, who have years of training in interpreting x-rays. Radiographers aren't trained to the same level without specialist training. We also don't have access to the high quality, properly calibrated viewing workstations that are used to read images from. Regrettably things do get missed.
As mentioned above, the one thing you need to recognise is that your injury is not life threatening. There would have been a number of people in that radiology department waiting for the test that will tell them whether or not they have cancer. These are the truly 'urgent' scans and virtually everything else is secondary to that. If the system is overloaded with 'urgent' things which aren't, then the whole thing collapses. If you didn't attend A&E on the day and you are walking around then a few days wait is not going to make that much difference to your prognosis. With that being said, if the first radiographer had concerns, then they should have at least fast tracked the report without you having to ask. Even better would have been to get somebody to look at it straight away, and contact orthopaedics to see if they could see you in clinic if need be, but this not always possible given staffing levels in an average radiography department.
Edited by zeDuffMan on Friday 30th October 13:33
sawman said:
The thing is that the technicians taking the X Ray's are directed by the person who referred you for imaging, they are not able to randomly take extra views, also as radiographers rather than radiologists they are not responsible for interpretation of the film .
There are protocols for x-rays requests from GPs, but unlike the US, radiographers DO have the authority to take additional images, if they feel they are justified. Conversely we can also refuse requests if they aren't justified. In the UK we aren't 'technicians' as the responsibility for the radiation dose is on the radiographer, not the referrer.Edited by zeDuffMan on Friday 30th October 13:35
zeDuffMan said:
Radiographer here. Your scenario sounds like amateur hour but I'd like to offer some kind of explanation, making a few assumptions along the way.
Firstly, demanding x and y will not fly. Radiographers have to work within the law and under IR(ME)R have to give as little radiation as possible. This means only taking one picture when one is enough. For hips you only need two x-rays when looking for a neck of femur fracture (not indicated if the injury is more than a few days old and you walked into the department, which I assume is what happened since your GP referred you and you didn't attend via A&E), or when a consultant orthopaedic surgeon requests it for another reason.
A good radiographer will recognise the need to have a second pair of eyes double check the images for diagnostic quality, and signs of injury, so this is normal. It may be that a student took your x-ray, and they always have to have their work checked, but they should have introduced themselves as a student if this is the case. Pubic rami fractures can be very subtle so can be missed, even by experienced radiologists, who have years of training in interpreting x-rays. Radiographers aren't trained to the same level without specialist training. We also don't have access to the high quality, properly calibrated viewing workstations that are used to read images from. Regrettably things do get missed.
As mentioned above, the one thing you need to recognise is that your injury is not life threatening. There would have been a number of people in that radiology department waiting for the test that will tell them whether or not they have cancer. These are the truly 'urgent' scans and virtually everything else is secondary to that. If the system is overloaded with 'urgent' things which aren't, then the whole thing collapses. If you didn't attend A&E on the day and you are walking around then a few days wait is not going to make that much difference to your prognosis. With that being said, if the first radiographer had concerns, then they should have at least fast tracked the report without you having to ask. Even better would have been to get somebody to look at it straight away, and contact orthopaedics to see if they could see you in clinic if need be, but this not always possible given staffing levels in an average radiography department.
Okay, to be clear, I demanded nothing and was very polite. Surprisingly polite, given that I had just been marched part-clothed through the main X-ray reception, gown flapping open, no trousers, wearing boots and clinging to my clothes in a bundle. I am unsure whether the people in reception found this spectacle arousing, but I found it a little humiliating.Firstly, demanding x and y will not fly. Radiographers have to work within the law and under IR(ME)R have to give as little radiation as possible. This means only taking one picture when one is enough. For hips you only need two x-rays when looking for a neck of femur fracture (not indicated if the injury is more than a few days old and you walked into the department, which I assume is what happened since your GP referred you and you didn't attend via A&E), or when a consultant orthopaedic surgeon requests it for another reason.
A good radiographer will recognise the need to have a second pair of eyes double check the images for diagnostic quality, and signs of injury, so this is normal. It may be that a student took your x-ray, and they always have to have their work checked, but they should have introduced themselves as a student if this is the case. Pubic rami fractures can be very subtle so can be missed, even by experienced radiologists, who have years of training in interpreting x-rays. Radiographers aren't trained to the same level without specialist training. We also don't have access to the high quality, properly calibrated viewing workstations that are used to read images from. Regrettably things do get missed.
As mentioned above, the one thing you need to recognise is that your injury is not life threatening. There would have been a number of people in that radiology department waiting for the test that will tell them whether or not they have cancer. These are the truly 'urgent' scans and virtually everything else is secondary to that. If the system is overloaded with 'urgent' things which aren't, then the whole thing collapses. If you didn't attend A&E on the day and you are walking around then a few days wait is not going to make that much difference to your prognosis. With that being said, if the first radiographer had concerns, then they should have at least fast tracked the report without you having to ask. Even better would have been to get somebody to look at it straight away, and contact orthopaedics to see if they could see you in clinic if need be, but this not always possible given staffing levels in an average radiography department.
Edited by zeDuffMan on Friday 30th October 13:17
If it wasn't a student doing the X-ray, she could not have been long qualified. There was a student with her, who was making faces behind the back of the woman who deemed herself in charge. The whole situation was nothing if not unprofessional.
I fully understand that radiographers are not at the beck and call of the likes of me and the less radiation I am exposed to the better. But I have been in a lot of pain for a month now, and am having difficulty moving about. So when a good reason is presented why a side view might be helpful, I'd hope it would at least be considered.
But the point that does pee me off is that bossy woman spotted something odd. The radiographer and assistant spotted something odd, but no one would discuss it. I asked if a medic could take a quick look to reassure me and I was first told no, then bossy woman went off and spoke to someone and returned saying my hips are perfectly normal. Which they are not. I think, in truth, she spoke to no one and considered that her expert opinion would be good enough.
Good to have a radiographer reply though, thanks.
13m said:
Okay, to be clear, I demanded nothing and was very polite. Surprisingly polite, given that I had just been marched part-clothed through the main X-ray reception, gown flapping open, no trousers, wearing boots and clinging to my clothes in a bundle. I am unsure whether the people in reception found this spectacle arousing, but I found it a little humiliating.
If it wasn't a student doing the X-ray, she could not have been long qualified. There was a student with her, who was making faces behind the back of the woman who deemed herself in charge. The whole situation was nothing if not unprofessional.
I fully understand that radiographers are not at the beck and call of the likes of me and the less radiation I am exposed to the better. But I have been in a lot of pain for a month now, and am having difficulty moving about. So when a good reason is presented why a side view might be helpful, I'd hope it would at least be considered.
But the point that does pee me off is that bossy woman spotted something odd. The radiographer and assistant spotted something odd, but no one would discuss it. I asked if a medic could take a quick look to reassure me and I was first told no, then bossy woman went off and spoke to someone and returned saying my hips are perfectly normal. Which they are not. I think, in truth, she spoke to no one and considered that her expert opinion would be good enough.
Good to have a radiographer reply though, thanks.
With the gowns, they should have offered you/given you/told you take two of them and wear them opposite ways, and a bag to put your clothes in. That is poor service. They wouldn't have found it particularly amusing because they see a lot of people in gowns and a lot more else besides, but that obviously does not stop is being embarrassing for you.If it wasn't a student doing the X-ray, she could not have been long qualified. There was a student with her, who was making faces behind the back of the woman who deemed herself in charge. The whole situation was nothing if not unprofessional.
I fully understand that radiographers are not at the beck and call of the likes of me and the less radiation I am exposed to the better. But I have been in a lot of pain for a month now, and am having difficulty moving about. So when a good reason is presented why a side view might be helpful, I'd hope it would at least be considered.
But the point that does pee me off is that bossy woman spotted something odd. The radiographer and assistant spotted something odd, but no one would discuss it. I asked if a medic could take a quick look to reassure me and I was first told no, then bossy woman went off and spoke to someone and returned saying my hips are perfectly normal. Which they are not. I think, in truth, she spoke to no one and considered that her expert opinion would be good enough.
Good to have a radiographer reply though, thanks.
That does sound unprofessional. One of my bug bears at work is when there are more people in an x-ray room than there needs to be. It should be one on one unless there's a risk of being accused of something untowards (e.g. male radiographer x-raying a young girl) or something along those lines.
I would have asked you about the injury etc but given the information in this thread, I would have stuck to one view. A neck of femur fracture is highly unlikely after a month.
Bossy woman sounds like a cow to work with. Unfortunately they are out there in any line of work!
zeDuffMan said:
With the gowns, they should have offered you/given you/told you take two of them and wear them opposite ways, and a bag to put your clothes in. That is poor service. They wouldn't have found it particularly amusing because they see a lot of people in gowns and a lot more else besides, but that obviously does not stop is being embarrassing for you.
No, just one gown and I couldn't do it up. I am not worried about the staff seeing me in pants, but walking me through the main reception to give patients and guests a good view of my (admittedly pert) arse with ankle boots to complete the ensemble is, I think, unacceptable.
C0ffin D0dger said:
What does frustrate me is how data is managed by them in this day and age. I wish I could just log into a site somewhere, see my medical history, my current prescriptions, communication between my consultant and GP, etc. but everything is disjoint. I see the consultant, he dictates a letter to my GP, his secretary types it up, this now supposedly gets sent electronically to my GP but last time this failed and I had to get them to put a copy in the mail. Finally the GP gets it and it is scanned onto their system then I can have my prescription. Madness. If you want something done in a hurry they still send stuff by fax!
When wondering why they do not have electronic systems, just remember that the NHS is not like a company. It is not like going to Ford to fix your car. It is like going to garage A, which diagnoses a fault in vicinity of the OSF suspension, however you must then go to garage B who is an expert in this area, garage B confirms the fault is your spring. Following this he advises garage A of this fact, and books you into garage C for the repair.
Following repair your car is left in garage D to settle and be observed. Garage C advises garage A of this fact. They also advise you to see garage E for some driving suggestions and procedures following installation of the new part. None of the garages know each other in person but B,C and D are in the same of the industrial estate. None share computer systems, none have the budget to invest in it. However all of them own a fax machine.
ucb said:
Of course there was a nation-wide NHS IT program which was in the process of being implemented before it was canned during the last Parliament.
Sounds like the OP wants a private opinion and radiology request
The NHS IT programme was a farce, billions paid for nothing and for the most part quite right to be canned. On the bright side some of our brightest IT bods are currently working for HSCIC and they are starting to deliver really super results, Electronic Prescribing Service Release 2 (EPS2) is up and running reasonably well and GP2GP 2.1 is going to make patient notes transfer between GPs so, so much easier, with a real prospect of paperless patient records.Sounds like the OP wants a private opinion and radiology request
The biggest issue is patient consent, until the NHS is allowed to share patient details end to end we are always going to have projects held up by claims of the Data Protection Act being violated and the silos this creates to help prevent these claims. I've just spent multiple hours answering a complaint about a patients telephone being given quite legitimately to a pharmacist and NHS England made me feel like a criminal, rather than support my stance of sharing details with a healthcare professional with a legitimate reason for receiving these details. While that sort of thing happens we will never get to go paperless and share all relevant information
Getting back to The OP, to my mind they have unrealistic expectations on the responsiveness of outpatient radiology, anything classed as normal always takes the longest to report on and they have more checks than something that is obviously wrong and easy to report on. Obvious red flag results get sent very quickly to practices via email and telephone follow up if not acknowledged, otherwise they are sent electronically to the practice clinical system for the GP to action.
Thee OP Has a legitimate gripe about his gown though, complain on this point to the hospital, if only to stop other poor sods experiencing the same.
Taking two x-rays and expecting immediate feedback is for the realms of private health care, given the pressures on our NHS & the rather low % of GDP we spend. Even then my experience of patients having private health care can be diabolical, but I'm
Highly unlikely to hear about the good experiences as I'm at times trying to help those having had a poor experience.
I must stick up for the nhs somewhat. Just last Friday I had an operation, previous to that, Mri scans, X-rays, the works. All this at a hospital that has a very bad reputation.(Hereford)
I couldn't fault them at all, all staff were busy but always had time to give me anything I needed post op. Very understaffed but always remained professional. If I had to pick up on one thing it would be the cleaners, post op I was sat in a chair with an ankle that quite clearly had problems, the prick had no problems with bashing her floor cleaning thing into it. She got the message when I told her to f
k off. But they were not hospital staff, just contracted cleaners.
I also have rheumatoid arthritis at 32 years old. I often have to go to the same hospital for check ups due to the strength of the drugs I am using. Once again, they are very professional and do as much as is possible to make my life easier. For that, I am truly grateful to them.
On the whole I think you should think yourself lucky. How many other countries get the care that we do? With the majority of hospitals grossly understaffed for the amount of people they have to deal with on a daily basis. Working ridiculous hours for pittance.
They do an exceptional job with what they have.
My advice if you want a personally thorough service is to go private and pay through the nose for the privilege. That isn't I dig at you by the way.
I couldn't fault them at all, all staff were busy but always had time to give me anything I needed post op. Very understaffed but always remained professional. If I had to pick up on one thing it would be the cleaners, post op I was sat in a chair with an ankle that quite clearly had problems, the prick had no problems with bashing her floor cleaning thing into it. She got the message when I told her to f
k off. But they were not hospital staff, just contracted cleaners.I also have rheumatoid arthritis at 32 years old. I often have to go to the same hospital for check ups due to the strength of the drugs I am using. Once again, they are very professional and do as much as is possible to make my life easier. For that, I am truly grateful to them.
On the whole I think you should think yourself lucky. How many other countries get the care that we do? With the majority of hospitals grossly understaffed for the amount of people they have to deal with on a daily basis. Working ridiculous hours for pittance.
They do an exceptional job with what they have.
My advice if you want a personally thorough service is to go private and pay through the nose for the privilege. That isn't I dig at you by the way.
I could write an entire book detailing the absolutely disgusting levels of patient care, (un)professionalism and incompetence that I've witnessed at 2 different North Wales hospitals with my Old Dear over the past 12 months. The entire NHS is rotten through to the core and should be scrapped and started again.
Some of the highlights :
- 2 nurses having a joke about something while one of them is inserting an IV tap into her arm and verbally teasing the other one. The 2nd one pushes the 1st one in retaliation which causes the 1st one to lose her balance and tear a 5" laceration up my Old Dear's arm with the needle.
- My Old Dear was due to take her morphine dose and the 2 nurses were there with their clipboard to sign it off and witness the taking (as they're required to do) but my Old Dear didn't have any drink to take the pills with other than a fresh cup of tea. Instead of getting her some water or a cool drink as she had requested, one claimed they were "too busy for all this messing about, here, just have it with your cup of tea" and between them forced her to put one of the pills in her mouth then held the steaming hot cup of tea to her lips and tipped the cup up with predictable results. My Old Dear jumped in shock from the hot temperature and then nurse dropped the cup which scalded nearly all of my Old Dear's chest, stomach, lap and one of her arms, as well as her mouth. The blisters that resulted were nearly as big as my fists in size and the scars will never go.
- Toilet requests just plain and simply ignored, particularly by the younger nurses. When the nurses do eventually haul their lazy arses away from their iPhones at the main desk and answer the buzzer that's been sounding for the past 20 mins, it's then too late. I actually witnessed this 1st hand with the neighbouring patient to my Old Dear who got so desperate that she started banging on her table to attract attention (buzzer had already been going off for a good 10 mins). I came to her rescue and went to the nurse station and told them, "yeah ok, someone will be over". No-one came. Patient started yelling for help, totally ignored. I went back again to see 5 of them sat there huddled round a mobile phone viewing pics. "That lady still needs help." One of them points to another "your turn!" and starts laughing, then finally goes off at a glacial pace with a scowl on her face to finally see the poor woman who sadly now needed cleaning. My Old Dear reported this happening to me on a number of occasions and I was that fuming that I went and had a discussion with them about it and they denied it ever happening. At my Old Dear's request I let it go as it'd be her that would suffer if I'd had my way.
- Absolutely no care or consideration for the patient's needs or current feelings. My Old Dear had not long come out of surgery (2 days prior) and was out like a light recovering and fast asleep. Next thing, she's woken up (it's around 1 am) and told (not asked) that she has to move bed to the one the porter has brought along with him. Naturally she asked why but wasn't given any reason other than "I don't know, it's come from another ward." Extremely pissed off at being disturbed and woken up for such a non-event she quite rightly kicked off and refused to move until they could provide her with a proper reason. Which was? "This isn't an x ward bed, it belongs to y ward and they need it urgently as they've got a patient waiting for it." So yeah, apparently perfectly fine to wake up a very weak and frail patient in the middle of the night to move them from one bed to another identical one, apart from a small label on the frame with a different letter on it.
I could go on but I think you get the idea.
The nurses are nothing more than clueless immature kids that when you take a look around has you wondering if you've actually walked into a High School. The doctors are much the same with more "juniors" and "students" than you can shake a stick at. None of them can answer any questions and have to refer it to someone else, who refers it to someone else but by that time point someone has now decided to move her to another ward so you're back to being asked the same dumb questions "what's your name, where is the pain, do you smoke, what medication are you on, have you got an allergies" over and over again, then they'll manage to lose your case notes again so that's another 6 hours you'll lay there without any medication or assistance until they turn up because no-one knows why you're there and what you need without them.
And don't even get me started on the monumental clusterfk that is the discharge process . In summary :
Day 1
"Got some good news for you Mrs. Jazz, the doctor has said you can go home!"
"Great! Come on luv, help me get all my stuff together"
"Just waiting for the doctor to sign you off and write your prescription."
An hour goes by, nothing. 2 hours, nothing. Grr. 3 hours, grrrrrr. Make some enquiries "oh I'm afraid he's busy seeing other patients at the moment but he shouldn't be long."
Another 3 hours have gone by and it's now 10 pm. Another night in hospital.
Day 2
"Ah sorry about yesterday, he should be along shortly though."
Some hours pass.
"Oh hi, yes there's been a bit of a mix up, we can't find your case notes."
More hours pass. And some more. Eventually you get told that it's been done and now you're just waiting on your meds from the pharmacy.
Another 4 hours goes by and no sign. It's now 10 pm again and ANOTHER night in hospital.
Day 3
On day 3 you discover that the hospital pharmacy has 2 pharmacists to count and deal out pills to approx 100,000 people every day. Armed with that nugget of information you quickly realise that you will still be here on day 7 waiting for your meds but by that point there will no longer be any need for them as you'll have lost the will to live and died. Instead you're left with no other choice but to walk out and source them through your local doctor once home, much to the protest of the hospital staff on the ward you're walking out of.
The whole system is an absolute farce and seriously, baboons could probably run it better. It's no wonder they're hemorrhaging money as no-one can make a decision to save their life (no pun intended) and things which should literally take 10 mins end up taking 10 days because "it's not my department, you'll need to see x to have that signed off." endless red tape.
Some of the highlights :
- 2 nurses having a joke about something while one of them is inserting an IV tap into her arm and verbally teasing the other one. The 2nd one pushes the 1st one in retaliation which causes the 1st one to lose her balance and tear a 5" laceration up my Old Dear's arm with the needle.
- My Old Dear was due to take her morphine dose and the 2 nurses were there with their clipboard to sign it off and witness the taking (as they're required to do) but my Old Dear didn't have any drink to take the pills with other than a fresh cup of tea. Instead of getting her some water or a cool drink as she had requested, one claimed they were "too busy for all this messing about, here, just have it with your cup of tea" and between them forced her to put one of the pills in her mouth then held the steaming hot cup of tea to her lips and tipped the cup up with predictable results. My Old Dear jumped in shock from the hot temperature and then nurse dropped the cup which scalded nearly all of my Old Dear's chest, stomach, lap and one of her arms, as well as her mouth. The blisters that resulted were nearly as big as my fists in size and the scars will never go.
- Toilet requests just plain and simply ignored, particularly by the younger nurses. When the nurses do eventually haul their lazy arses away from their iPhones at the main desk and answer the buzzer that's been sounding for the past 20 mins, it's then too late. I actually witnessed this 1st hand with the neighbouring patient to my Old Dear who got so desperate that she started banging on her table to attract attention (buzzer had already been going off for a good 10 mins). I came to her rescue and went to the nurse station and told them, "yeah ok, someone will be over". No-one came. Patient started yelling for help, totally ignored. I went back again to see 5 of them sat there huddled round a mobile phone viewing pics. "That lady still needs help." One of them points to another "your turn!" and starts laughing, then finally goes off at a glacial pace with a scowl on her face to finally see the poor woman who sadly now needed cleaning. My Old Dear reported this happening to me on a number of occasions and I was that fuming that I went and had a discussion with them about it and they denied it ever happening. At my Old Dear's request I let it go as it'd be her that would suffer if I'd had my way.
- Absolutely no care or consideration for the patient's needs or current feelings. My Old Dear had not long come out of surgery (2 days prior) and was out like a light recovering and fast asleep. Next thing, she's woken up (it's around 1 am) and told (not asked) that she has to move bed to the one the porter has brought along with him. Naturally she asked why but wasn't given any reason other than "I don't know, it's come from another ward." Extremely pissed off at being disturbed and woken up for such a non-event she quite rightly kicked off and refused to move until they could provide her with a proper reason. Which was? "This isn't an x ward bed, it belongs to y ward and they need it urgently as they've got a patient waiting for it." So yeah, apparently perfectly fine to wake up a very weak and frail patient in the middle of the night to move them from one bed to another identical one, apart from a small label on the frame with a different letter on it.
I could go on but I think you get the idea.
The nurses are nothing more than clueless immature kids that when you take a look around has you wondering if you've actually walked into a High School. The doctors are much the same with more "juniors" and "students" than you can shake a stick at. None of them can answer any questions and have to refer it to someone else, who refers it to someone else but by that time point someone has now decided to move her to another ward so you're back to being asked the same dumb questions "what's your name, where is the pain, do you smoke, what medication are you on, have you got an allergies" over and over again, then they'll manage to lose your case notes again so that's another 6 hours you'll lay there without any medication or assistance until they turn up because no-one knows why you're there and what you need without them.
And don't even get me started on the monumental clusterf
k that is the discharge process . In summary :Day 1
"Got some good news for you Mrs. Jazz, the doctor has said you can go home!"
"Great! Come on luv, help me get all my stuff together"
"Just waiting for the doctor to sign you off and write your prescription."
An hour goes by, nothing. 2 hours, nothing. Grr. 3 hours, grrrrrr. Make some enquiries "oh I'm afraid he's busy seeing other patients at the moment but he shouldn't be long."
Another 3 hours have gone by and it's now 10 pm. Another night in hospital.
Day 2
"Ah sorry about yesterday, he should be along shortly though."
Some hours pass.
"Oh hi, yes there's been a bit of a mix up, we can't find your case notes."
More hours pass. And some more. Eventually you get told that it's been done and now you're just waiting on your meds from the pharmacy.
Another 4 hours goes by and no sign. It's now 10 pm again and ANOTHER night in hospital.
Day 3
On day 3 you discover that the hospital pharmacy has 2 pharmacists to count and deal out pills to approx 100,000 people every day. Armed with that nugget of information you quickly realise that you will still be here on day 7 waiting for your meds but by that point there will no longer be any need for them as you'll have lost the will to live and died. Instead you're left with no other choice but to walk out and source them through your local doctor once home, much to the protest of the hospital staff on the ward you're walking out of.
The whole system is an absolute farce and seriously, baboons could probably run it better. It's no wonder they're hemorrhaging money as no-one can make a decision to save their life (no pun intended) and things which should literally take 10 mins end up taking 10 days because "it's not my department, you'll need to see x to have that signed off." endless red tape.
I feel you're pain. This is my experience...
I have been suffering from acne for over 10 years, the type that is cystic and scaring. I was under the supervision of a NHS dermatologist and I was on a last resort antibiotic before going on Roaccutane. During this time I developed a blood disorder and the Hematologist had no clue to what was going on and blamed it on the Acne meds so I was told to stop.
During this time my test results were lost a number of times and I was only allowed to see the Hematologist once every 3-4 months if I was lucky, eventually I lost the plot and went mental to which my results suddenly showed up and it turned out I had haemochromatosis and all the time that they were pissing about, my iron levels were getting to a critical point but they kept on insisting it was all fine. Eventually I got treated for the blood disorder and I was told that I would need a confirmation letter from the Hematologist to get the go ahead for the "miracle cure" acne medication (Roacctuane), however the stupid Hematologist had forgotten about this and my Iron levels were back up again which meant I had to get treated for the blood disorder again and wait longer for the ance med, while all this time my acne was getting worse and the scarring was getting worse.
Again I finally got the Iron levels down but the same cycle got repeated and they completely forgot about my acne issue and it got to a point that I was begging them to send the damn confirmation letter which was meant for the Dermatologist in the same damn hospital. Eventually after 1.5 years of waiting and wasting my time for this simple letter, I gave up and found out the dermo I was seeing also did private work. I ended up seeing him and I've paid almost £1500 and counting for the treatment I was given the go ahead 3-4 years ago.
I'm not angry to why I've had to spend this much money or why I'm seeing the Dr privately, I'm pissed because I wasted so many years waiting for them and during this time my acne got worse and worse which caused a lot of emotional issues. If I knew how incompetent the NHS was I would have seen the private dermatologist a lot sooner.
I have been suffering from acne for over 10 years, the type that is cystic and scaring. I was under the supervision of a NHS dermatologist and I was on a last resort antibiotic before going on Roaccutane. During this time I developed a blood disorder and the Hematologist had no clue to what was going on and blamed it on the Acne meds so I was told to stop.
During this time my test results were lost a number of times and I was only allowed to see the Hematologist once every 3-4 months if I was lucky, eventually I lost the plot and went mental to which my results suddenly showed up and it turned out I had haemochromatosis and all the time that they were pissing about, my iron levels were getting to a critical point but they kept on insisting it was all fine. Eventually I got treated for the blood disorder and I was told that I would need a confirmation letter from the Hematologist to get the go ahead for the "miracle cure" acne medication (Roacctuane), however the stupid Hematologist had forgotten about this and my Iron levels were back up again which meant I had to get treated for the blood disorder again and wait longer for the ance med, while all this time my acne was getting worse and the scarring was getting worse.
Again I finally got the Iron levels down but the same cycle got repeated and they completely forgot about my acne issue and it got to a point that I was begging them to send the damn confirmation letter which was meant for the Dermatologist in the same damn hospital. Eventually after 1.5 years of waiting and wasting my time for this simple letter, I gave up and found out the dermo I was seeing also did private work. I ended up seeing him and I've paid almost £1500 and counting for the treatment I was given the go ahead 3-4 years ago.
I'm not angry to why I've had to spend this much money or why I'm seeing the Dr privately, I'm pissed because I wasted so many years waiting for them and during this time my acne got worse and worse which caused a lot of emotional issues. If I knew how incompetent the NHS was I would have seen the private dermatologist a lot sooner.
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