The Stafford Report, About Blooming Time

[woofgang]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-20965469

Both my mother in law and my Dh had terrible times in NHS hospitals, especially A and E

[youngmafbog]

The NHS is a great dinasour accountable to no one. It absorbs huge amount of cash for which we do not get value for mkoney.

New labours targets, although implemented with the best intent, were unfortunately used by unscrupulous and incompetent management to manipulate facts and deliver disgraceful services.

What seems to fail mot NHS managers is that this is peoples lives here.

The NHS needs t good clear out of the dead wood. but they wont do it because you can bet Red Ed would be up in arms at useless people being sacked.

[Sqad]

ymf.........;-)

[vakayu]

Too many chiefs and not enough indians comes to mine,far too much monetary targets to aim for and also trying to meet set waiting times,to the detriment of patients and any care at all, the basic needs of food and water are being neglected,also nowadats too much emphasis is being put on college qualifications and not grass roots daily care on hand care in the wards which has been sadly lost!!!

[vakayu]

Please excuse typo errors in my post,it just makes me so incensed.

[patsyann]

Sqad
Have no problem at all with the Doctors and Nurses. Mostly wonderful people but There should be a large clear out of Management . Sitting in their posh office suites and coining in huge salaries. Should go back to basics. Small Admin team, Nurses looked after and advised by Matrons and the Doctors and surgeons being allowed to make all decisions on the medical side.

[vakayu]

I totally agree patsyann,back to basics.

[woofgang]

Patsyann I have been in circs of investigating patient abuse and it was the nurses who did it :( led by the senior nurses. When a senior nurse was appointed outside the clique, they made life so bad for her that she ended up having a breakdown. Allegations were made about me that I could prove were false (I am retired NHS non nurse clinician/manager) The bad service that I have experienced in A and E was triage nurses and the front of house admin.
I have also had my fill of decisions made by doctors and surgeons who do not consider all the facts, or even what the patient wants.
I also have experience of consultants who were paid to work whole days but who insisted that the last clinic appointment was 3.30pm because tee of time was 4pm. The nurses who organised the clinic were too scared of the consultant to do anything..it wan't until a manager was put in charge of clinics that this came to light!

[Sqad]

woofgang.........good post and i agree with you entirely.

In my opinion the whole concept of the NHS must change but it never will as the British public will not allow a hand to be put on the NHS.

Good post.

[Sqad]

patsyann....I have sympathies with your post.....but it will never happen.

[patsyann]

Point taken Woofgang. Just think less management and more old style Matrons,Ward inspections regularly,and the Matrons able to stand up to the Surgeons and Doctors and there for the Nurses if unhappy or reprimanded if not doing their job properly. Bring back good old fashioned respect. And much more control of where Hospital funding is spent and accounted for.

[giveup]

Of course I blame various governments and NHS management for a lot of these problems,but how on earth could anybody leave patients in a fouled bed or deny them a drink of water that's surely only human decency.

[Sqad]

Nurses now look scruffy......tops and trousers.....they look like joggers.
The nurses of yesteryear had smart uniforms, each uniform denoting status.
"Midwives" TV series......this showed how smart the London Hospital were in their distinctive uniform.

[jake-the-peg]

We spend 8% of our GDP on the NHS

The US spends 15% of it's GDP on healthcare and still has a system with more infant mortality than Cuba

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:International_Comparison_-_Healthcare_spending_as_%25_GDP.png

That's because of the big profits taken by Hospitals and other Health industries.



Some people are under the misprehension that their health insurance wouold stay the same if we had an American style system.

This is not the case as the NHS picks up a lot of the slack

When did you last see a BUPA Accident and Emergency ward?



There is scope for reform in the NHS but a lot of Staffords issues came from a dangerous level of understaffing

This

[jake-the-peg]

If you wonder why doctors do down the NHS

an average NHS radiologist earns £75-100 K

In the US it's around $300-475K

Like I say - the American Healthcare system is about twice as expensive as ours and there's a lot of greed about

[Sqad]

JTP

\\\\The US spends 15% of it's GDP on healthcare and still has a system with more infant mortality than Cuba \\\

True, but that is largely because illegal immigrants mainly cross the Southern Border of the USA and present at term without having any ante natal care.....not the whole story...I agree.

\\\\We spend 8% of our GDP on the NHS \\\

True, but now there is the question as to how well it is spent.


\\\Some people are under the misprehension that their health insurance wouold stay the same if we had an American style system. \\\\

No I don't think that they do.........that is why it will never change.....the healthcare appears to them to be "free" taken at source and hence do not have to put their hands in their pockets.


\\There is scope for reform in the NHS but a lot of Staffords issues came from a dangerous level of understaffing \\

"a lot".......I wonder?

[mrs_overall]

There appears to be a lack of supervision these days which would not have happened in the days of the old style matrons.
I agree there are too many chiefs on bloated salaries making (sometimes) idiotic decisions while seated behind their desks.
I also think there is too much emphasis on academic skills for nurses and sometimes there is sod all caring and empathy from some of them.

I put in a complaint recently. I was in a 3 bedded room in hospital and over a weekend we had the most slovenly cleaner ever. She failed to wipe the patient trays and lockers. Mine had blood stains on - which weren't mine. It was pointed out that breakfast detrius (not mine) was under my bed - she swept it out....and straight under the bed next to me.
I vomitted into a bowl. It was still on my locker 4 days later.
I received a stick injury from a Venflon needle left on the floor by my bed.
I asked two separate nurses for help putting on the compression stockings. Both said they didn't have time. I was bedbound for 4 days with no stockings on.
I asked for water on numerous occasions. Another patient ended up getting me some.
There was more but I won't bore you with it. After surgery I was in ITU and then HDU. I told them they could leave me in a corridor rather than take me back to that ward.

[Sqad]

\\\\\If you wonder why doctors do down the NHS \\\\

Might that be that they actually work in the NHS and see the deficiencies?

Not ALL doctors do "down the NHS"....many, perhaps the majority support it.

[emmie]

This is an appalling story, and one that shouldn't be ignored, for all those who say our wonderful NHS, i say much of it isn't, and that hospital and some of it's staff should be ashamed to call themselves carers.

[giveup]

Mrs O, I hope you are pushing this because it just should'nt happen,and until people complain and keep on complaining it will just carry on.

[emmie]

giveup, sadly complaining seems to get you absolutely nowhere, the usual response to these sorts of crises is lessons will be learned, no they won't, aren't. until someone actually takes an axe to the NHS leviathan. Or decides that you know what targets are for a dart board, and not patients lives.
I have had similar experiences to the ones Mrs O has depicted, infection caught in the hospital, trays left far out of reach, water not left, and indeed incomprehensible nursing staff, and ones so rushed off their feet that one wonders their shoes didn't catch fire.