Wednesday 18 September 2013

SOAP BOX - CAN'T HOLD THIS ONE IN - STOP NHS ABUSE

I have been ironing and going through the motions of domestic calm this morning but am BOILING inside.

As you know I work for the NHS and love it, but, it is annoying and frustrating to read and hear constant stories about death rates, poor performance, safety issues, bad management and all manner of gross failure and negligence in the press. Yes there are issues, no denying it, but only bad stuff makes the news.

What about the public and their role? It is OUR NHS, we pay for it, but we expect so bloody much.
It is a privelege that we have health care in this country and it would please me no end to see people stop treating it like a RIGHT.

Like the person who turns up for surgery, two and a half hours of allotted time, a full team of aneasthetists, a surgeon, nurses, technicians, and the ward and its staff on standby to care for them in recovery.....not to mention the numerous appointments, letters and phone calls, to agree the date, then the changes, cancellations, and all that. To have that person say that they refuse to have it done because it is not the surgeon they expected is beyond belief. We have waiting lists MONTHS long for elective surgery. We have people who would give anything for their turn. They then went on to demand a new date, with the person they want AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

There are no guarantees in life. That surgeon was called away, it was his team, his registrar in charge that day, with the surgeon's blessing. A phone call was made to the surgeon off site who again reiterated he was more than confident his team could do it. But no. How many thousands of pounds went down the plug hole because of one person? The really sad thing is that we are duty bound at the point of booking surgery to tell them all that we cannot guarantee the surgeon, we do our best, but if there are cancer cases, or joint ops, or even if the poor creature is off sick, someone else EQUALLY QUALIFIED will take care of them. It makes me sad and cross.

Then there is the patient who DEMANDS transport. This is such a tricky one. There are strict criteria for getting transport now, out of the hospital's hands. However, it was agreed that a taxi would be sent to collect the patient for an appointment. Maybe 60 miles all told. The patient said a cab would be fine. However, it turned out that the patient could not get into the vehicle without a two man crew, so a new appointment had to be made and an ambulance arranged. All lost money. The patient then phoned again and again to accuse the team of their maltreatment, the stress they had suffered, their inconvenience......what does one say to someone so selfishly convinced of their RIGHTS? The irony is, the patient has family and refused to ask them to help.

So do me a favour, turn up for your appointments, or call and cancel them. Be flexible if you can, you can bet your bottom dollar we will do our best to accommodate you, and I mean that for my team, but if on the day things are not exactly as you would have hoped, remember being told that it might be so and have a little faith that the people there to do your op are people trained, experienced, willing and happy to help.

Pass it on to others too please. The NHS would work a lot better if we ALL made an effort.



1 comment:

Mrs G said...

You are sooooo spot on in what you say and I couldn't agree more!