Nhs

[voodooflux]

I'm not dissing the awful reports here, but it's not all bad.

Keep asking questions though - squeaky wheels an' all that...

WCS

Very sorry to hear about what your grandfather SY01, and my best wishes to you and yours.

I had both parents in hospital earlier this year and found their care to be generally good, although I found the apparent lack of activity within the hospital at the weekends to be frustrating - the place just appeared to shut down aside from the presence of a skeleton staff. From my experience you will need to continually push for updates on his condition and treatment, so keep asking the questions.

Hopefully things will now move a little quicker for you given the start of a new week.

As a complete aside, my brother also suffered a stroke at the beginning of the year while away on business in France. The care he received there was exemplary - and that was an assessment shared by one of his daughters who was a nurse in the employ of the NHS.

[mudskipper]

I had a blood test and the report comes after a week.

It's ridiculous. I took my cat to the vet for blood tests last week - he phoned later the same day with the results.

[rootsnall]

Thanks Owlhoot for saying so nicely what I tried (and failed) to type.)

WHS.

My 96 year old grandad spent his last week on an NHS ward, the staff and the hospital were very good from what I could see and much improved from the last time I'd been there.

[al_cam]

It's not just the old that get carp care.

My 3 year old has only just got diagnosed with a problem that started 2 years ago, and it took a Spanish doctor who was covering for the consultant to identify the problem!

Having just worked 2 consecutive NHS contracts and had a lot of family requiring hospital treatment recently, in general, yes, the staff are too afraid to make a decision, yes the consultants behave they are god and while the staff start out wanting to care and help people, after a while they just give up as they realise they alone can't make a difference.

And private doesn't help either - we tried this. The same NHS consultant was our private consultant (too busy doing private work to do NHS work?) who couldn't do anything privately as they didn't have equipment and facilities to test/treat children.
That said, at least if you go privately, you have your own room, decent food and don't have to be in a ward with a bunch of scum who will steal everything you own while you sleep (which happened to a relative of mine)

Al.

[stingman123]

It's ridiculous. I took my cat to the vet for blood tests last week - he phoned later the same day with the results.

Yes, but how much did that cost?

The unfortunate thing here is that a diagnosis took/ is taking to long. Ask the staff to do a CT ASAP, what hospital is this? Check their rating on the NHS Information Centre website, raise this as an issue.
Mention keywords such as patient experience, quality of care etc....these are thing they are usually measured against.

Good luck

[sasguru]

Sorry to hear about your gramps.

The NHS is now so large and unwieldy that excellence (and yes it exists, especially at the surgical level) is patchy and varies from region to region, hospital to hospital and even dept. to dept.

What gets my goat is that there is really no way to opt out from it and so everyone is condemned to mediocre care. Plus the fact that you can't opt out means that extra pressure is put on it.

Free medical care in this day and age is a chimera. far better to pare down the free NHS to those who really can't afford to pay for health care.

[suityou01]

Sorry to hear about your gramps.

The NHS is now so large and unwieldy that excellence (and yes it exists, especially at the surgical level) is patchy and varies from region to region, hospital to hospital and even dept. to dept.

What gets my goat is that there is really no way to opt out from it and so everyone is condemned to mediocre care. Plus the fact that you can't opt out means that extra pressure is put on it.

Free medical care in this day and age is a chimera. far better to pare down the free NHS to those who really can't afford to pay for health care.

Thanks all. For a change this isn't one of those trademark attention seeking posts I usually upchuck on here. I am currently deeply hacked off.

The consultant came round today and was proper awesome. There are CT scans, ultrasounds, ecgs, yada yada yada. Well chuffed. Well done Luton and Dunstable hospital. After a long wait the finger is finally pulled out.

And then all hell breaks loose. He has another funny turn. Dementia, TIAs, lawd knows what. And he gets nasty with it. He was abusive to a doctor, and now my mother. She has now refused to visit him, or have him back in her house. It's like a bleedin episode of Hollyoaks.

Social services are now involved. Currently discussing the prospect of taking him in. Not sure if when the end comes I want my babies being in the room. Don't want to let my Grandfather down. My head will pop.

Rant over. Thanks for listening.

[mudskipper]

Sounds like tulip. At least you feel stuff is being done - nothing worse than the helplessness of feeling like you're ineffectual.

Tough times for you and family - hope things pick up soon.

[RichardCranium]

Not sure if when the end comes I want my babies being in the room.

I recommend you do not have children present when someone dies or is suffering from dementia.

And if the patient does not know you are there, I'd recommend you're not present either.

[I did write a much longer version including details of my mother's death and my wife's uncle's dementia. Then deleted it - nobody needed to know the details.]

[Moscow Mule]

And then all hell breaks loose. He has another funny turn. Dementia, TIAs, lawd knows what. And he gets nasty with it. He was abusive to a doctor, and now my mother. She has now refused to visit him, or have him back in her house. It's like a bleedin episode of Hollyoaks.
.

That's a little bit harsh. Extreme lairyness is a common symptom of this sort of thing - he can't help himself.