Just my tuppence worth. My last stay in hospital was at Newcastle RVI, ward 16 due to a brain haem brought on by an epileptic fit. I couldn't fault any of the staff there, they were great & never let their whole shift. I was there eight days & felt ****ing great when I came out. Nothing was a bother & they gave me all the drugs I needed. RVI is massive & I don't know what the rest of it is like but ward 16 staff, you are all gems in my eyes, .
In fairness, I bet there are horror stories in Spain too. I have, for family, needed the services of University Hospital Durham for dad when he had a stroke 13 years ago, my daughters birth and in the last 4 years my mams cancer ( along with the General in Newcastle) and on every occasion, at every level from consultant to nurse to staff the service has been exemplory. First class. My aunts and uncles; cousins and friends have needed the NHS for pretty major stuff too in that time and have equally lots to be thankful for too. I have been shouting this from the roof tops for years but very few listen until someone complains, then you hear voices. I'm pleased you have a good facility in Spain mate but I wouldn't swap the NHS for any other system in the world for value for money we as individuals pay for it. Wait till Camerons lot turn it private and you will see how much insurance companies charge for it. You'll beg to bring it back but by then it will too late.
The NHS is one of the great British institutions that is being ruined by precious resources being directed to paying for ever-increasing layers of management rather than where it is needed at the front line. This is what needs to be addressed and rectified to restore confidence in this service. Having said this, I wouldn't swap this system for the grossly unfair system they have in the USA and many other countries for that matter.
Alright Billy. The RVI were spot on with my wife and I. Theyve been looking after our twins for the last 10 weeks and the staff there are hero's to us, they saved our twins life. We were sent there as a precaution from our local hospital (North Tees), because they were worried about our twins blood supply. (one twin was pumping its blood into the other twin, causing slow heart failiure). After giving us a thourogh examination we were told we had to get to London ASAP for life saving laser surgery. 22 hours later my wife was in theatre being operated on by the worlds best surgeon for this procedure (Prof Kypros Nicolaides ). All we had to cover was our travel costs, so i cannot fault the NHS for this. I have also heard of some peoples terrible experience with the NHS, but for me personally, I cant thank them enough!!
tash, my woman is a band 6 and is the opposite. She takes the grief & extra work on to protect her staff from the sh*t that gets dished out from managers up above. she comes home stressed every night & drinks far too much. She also has the problem with incompetent staff however she recently, with the help of HR, has sacked 2 people. This she says has seen a marked improvement in the work ethic of the other 3 lazy w*nkers (as she puts it) in her department since this happened. The NHS is a massive complex facility and there is going to be mistakes but I dread to think of a UK without it. The foods sh*t mind.
Teeside, just think how many £1000's of pounds this would have cost you without the NHS. Ordinary working people and their unborn or newborn babies used to die before the NHS was set up in 1947. We all take it for granted these days but only in my grandads days at the turn of the last century, unless you had the money, your health care was 3rd world but top class if you were rich. This is the system Cameron, Osborne and the rest of the millionaires from the Chipping Norton set are hell bent on bringing in. 2 tier education and health for the poor and the rich.
Cest, Spain is no panacea and I'm not knocking the NHS. Saved my lad's life, after all. But there are many ways that it could be made better if someone had the balls to do it. Simple ways, like get someone in to cost supplies properly. Rocket science it ain't.
This is where we can agree fully mate. There is so much unnecessary waste within the NHS its a disgrace but its also the greed of the big pharmaceutical companies selling life saving medicine for obscene profit. I'd love to do the negotiations with them.
Yes thanks mate, it was touch and go for about 2 weeks after the Op. we've been lucky cause they was only a 33% chance they'd both survive. They're due in 7 weeks and I can't wait! We're having 2 boys so hopefully they'll be leading the line for the lads in about 20 years time!! How's things with you mate, hope all is well!
Had my rant about the NHS before, about me late Dad, he was well looked after in one ward. Got moved a floor down and the care (or lack of it ) was horrendous. Quite clearly a flight of stairs wasn't the difference, the staff were. Got a relation similar age to me in her fifties, she CHOOSES to look after the elderly patients. The younger staff try to get away from the elderly as soon as they can as the work to actually care for them is harder. Have you noticed how many "staff meetings" there seem to be now. Always in the middle of the shift and nothing else matters but that meeting! It's a while ago now, but I took my youngest son in to the ER when he dislocated his thumb. He was in a lot of pain, but of course wasn't life threatening. The board said there was a 3 hour wait!!!! There was no more than 7 patients in the area. No ambulances flying in and out with emergencies. A young girl came in with her son about 8 years old with a bleeding cut on his arm. Saw by a nurse then totally ignored for the next hour, by this time the blood was actually pooling under the kids seat. The young mother was fretting so I said I'll go and have a word. There was no one anywhere to be seen, no patients no staff. Then I heard voices from one of the offices, knocked looked in and saw 7 or 8 staff sitting squeezed in the room drinking coffee laughing and joking. Told them about the blood and the Mum fretting. I was told in no uncertain terms they were having a meeting and they would be out when it was over. How the hell I kept my temper is beyond me. 7 patients should have flew through a department that size in minutes not hours, disgraceful work ethic!
MR its not perfect and there should be Matrons brought back to oversee the wards and the patients and much tougher clinical management (not paper pushing management) at the front desk. That experience is totalling unacceptable in any health service.
Couldn't agree more about Matrons, but with the full power they used to have. When I went to complain about my Dads treatment, at the ward desk the nurses and Staff nurse were just sitting talking and even commenting on a magazine article! They made me stand there 5 minutes before I finally asked if anyone was going to ask what I actually wanted! My sister is the opposite to me, she is calm and considerate in nearly all situations. She saw more of what My Dad was going through than I did, the staff actually managed to make her lose her temper. I had never seen her that way before. She had reported blood on the old mans sheets and pillow case and patches of blood around his bed. None of the blood was my dads! Took a day for the sheets to be changed and the blood around the bed was still there days later.
Just thought I'd let you know that Pricewaterhouse are in the local hospitals again looking at cutting front line nurses NOT MANAGERS. Its only 3 years, at a cost of £500,000, since this was done. They recommended cuts which was taken on board by the managers and happened. NHS realised 6 months down the line they were short of nurses and re -employed ALL who had been paid off. Now more money being wasted. 60-70% of managers could be paid off and give those left a proper days work.
I should add that when I was in recently for the kidney stones everything was fine. But then they didn't have anything to do for me apart from increase my morphine dose.
