Horror I witnessed last night NHS

[ElisabethZott]

At 3pm yesterday I took my 88 yr old mum to hospital as she had an unexpected, sudden anaphylactic reaction to one of her meds and her tongue and throat swelled up to the extent she was struggling to breathe/talk/ swallow. I drove her there because I knew the ambulance wait can be hours.
I witnessed pure absolute carnage. I worked for the wonderful NHS for 30 years and yesterday I had first hand experience of the struggles the poor staff. I have never seen such a horrendous sight of so many trollies with extremely sick and dying patients lining the corridors. I couldn’t begin to count them but there were dozens and dozens. It’s only early November, I can only say, for your own sakes, unless you have a life threatening condition, do not go to A&E.
The staff were absolutely brilliant but there’s not enough of them. The care and kindness they showed us amazing. DM didn’t join the trolley queue as her airways were compromised so we went to the observation ward where she has stayed on a trolly overnight. All A&E wards were rammed to capacity with people not even having their own bay, they were just squeezed into any available space.
Once mum had steroids and anti histamines and she stabilised ( because they were working at full speed to treat other patients) the staff simply didn’t have to time or capacity to help mum. She was offered no water, no blankets no food ( her tongue swelling had gone down a little and she hadn’t eaten all day ). You can see by the tone of my post I am no way being critical of the fantastic medical team , they were pushed to the limits. I don’t really know the point of this thread except to say I am so worried what’s going to happen when winter starts properly.

Thank you NHS but you too need looking after too because you are really broken and sick

@Trailstunning erm; whilst not being separate countries, Wales does indeed have their own government, which is Labour run and receives funding from central government to run their services. They are responsible for their own shit show for their NHS and education, as are Scotland which also has its own assembly and is run by the SNP.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Government

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Scotland#:~:text=Scotland%20is%20a%20democracy%2C%20being,in%20a%20multi%2Dparty%20system.

This is the funding per head across the uk last fiscal year;

In 2021/22, public spending per person in the UK as a whole was £11,897. In England, it was £11,549 (3% below the UK average). This compares with:

• Scotland: £13,881 (17% above the UK average)
• Wales: £13,401 (13% above the UK average)
• Northern Ireland: £14,062 (18% above the UK average).

Yet despite that extra funding,

“OPN survey data also provide strong evidence on waiting times. OPN does not cover Northern Ireland, but estimates that in February 2023, 49% of people waiting in Wales had been waiting for longer than one year, compared with 23% in Scotland and 18% in England”

My husband had an infected stye on his eyelid,went to see the pharmacist who said he needed an antibiotic,our GPs receptionist is about 50 yards away,he told her what he had been advised,her reply was we can’t do anything go to A and E,obviously he never but this is why the NHS is in the state it is.
Managed to get an antibiotic 3 days later by which time it was super painful,total joke.

Part of the problem is that staff are too kind and flexible with treating people.
I was in a&e earlier this year and I was in the minor injuries waiting room while I was waiting for a blood test result having had severe onset of abdominal pain.
This was early morning 6.30am. I had been there all night laying on a chair in the waiting room. The rest of the a&e was rammed with people on trolleys and ambulances were parked outside with patients in them.
I am in the waiting room by the reception desk - an elderly lady walks in. Explains to the receptionist that she has a problem with her ear. She has an outpatient appointment for the following week but she said she thought it might need seeing sooner. The receptionist explained that they were really busy but booked her in to see the triage nurse. She came and sat next to me. Got out a book to read and then something to eat out of a bag.
A healthcare assistant came round with a drinks trolley and offered tea and coffee which was welcome for us all who had been waiting all night this lady had one too ! Even though she had just come in !! - the triage nurse called her in to the office and a few minutes later she comes out and sits next to me again.
A good while later after the shift change, a young nurse comes out of the triage room. She gives the woman the following options regarding her earache.

1. She would ring the ent clinic and get her a slot to be seen in two days time at an earlier clinic. She asked her if that would be OK the appointment time was 10.00am Friday morning.or she could wait to see the emergency ent doctor that day but she could be waiting a very long time cos they were really busy.

The ladies answer ? Friday morning is no good for me dear as I do a volunteering job on Friday but thanks for trying. I will just wait here - she looked at me and said I came equipped I have a bag of food and a good book. I might as well wait until the dr can see me. The nurse was very polite and said ok then I will book you in !!! I came out of thinking why did the nurse give her the option to wait. Why didn't she just say I have made you an earlier appointment in your outpatient clinic off you go, ring your gp if it gets any worse.

I wonder what uptake is like on medical university courses. If I was a young person and considering becoming a doctor or nurse (or a teacher tbh) I would be rethinking my career choices. The NHS needs more staff but who wants to work in these conditions? It’s not a surprise they are struggling to recruit.
With waiting times and lack of GP appointments I think the health of the nation will decline in coming years because people won’t bother their GP to get something checked out. It’s a scary prospect.

Recently I have spoken to Spanish and Polish people who chose to fly home for operations instead of having them here because the wait was too long and staff are so stretched that my friends didn’t have confidence in the care they’d receive. I feel so bad for the staff, they must all be so burnt out

What you've written there is not relevant to the point I've made.

I didn't say more hasn't been spent. I said it's not been spent on the NHS.

The money handed over on crap PPI knocked out by friends' companies was just one measure of the Tory ineptitude and the squandering of money that could have been spent more usefully.

The state of the NHS is dire and it's deteriorated massively under this Tory government. Whether funding or restructuring is necessary then it's on them to do it and has been for 13 year now. Any defence of their performance here is preposterous which might explain your failing to address the actual point I made.

@Fizzadora just answering your post about “half the people probably didn’t need to be there” - yesterday afternoon that simply wasn’t true, people that I saw queueing on trollies were extremely sick. Saturday night I saw one drum person and she was arrested because she was being abusive and kicking the staff

Check out the NMC code of practice for nurses. They even have to pay a license to be able to practice

Lol!

Are you being serious?

Closing down sports and leisure facilities both for the public and state schools, shit school dinners, nothing done about poverty, food std's lowered, postcode lottery on health checks once you hit 55.
Alcohol, fat and sugar taxes abandoned.

Yes the whole system is set up......

As for NHS staff, Govt couldn't give a fuck.

That very rarely happens with the hospitals my partner takes patients to. Nurses refuse to take hand over of patients so the ambulance crews have to stay with them. This week there were crews hanging around for 6 hours in hospital corridors.

They don't work as if they are playing for the same team.

• drunk

I am an ex nurse myself - I think antibiotic prescribing by pharmacists for conditions like your husbands is long overdue. Just imagine how many gp appointments and how much adminstration time it would save.

The core problem is more people are living longer but in poorer health. Plus the demographic timebomb of the 1945 - 1965 generation - look up the dependency ratio - things are going to get very bumpy over the next 30 years.

@TerribleWoman
Because driving with lights and sirens is fucking dangerous. People drive like idiots these days and the state of the roads is abysmal. We are only justified to use them if the patient meets certain criteria ie, if there is a time-critical threat to life and limb. If you think ambulance staff don't get paid enough, we certainly don't get remunerated for the risk of emergency driving.

Sadly all our urgent care centres and walk in centres have been closed. In the immediate vicinity it is gp or a and e.

Anyone who thinks it’s simply a case of voting out the Tories is talking out of the backside quite frankly - the (fully devolved) NHS here in Scotland is in the same mess under the SNP. Labour won’t be able to fix it without a complete overhaul of the system and a new model put in place. I’ve worked for the NHS for 30 years and there’s so much wrong with the structure that tinkering around the edges isn’t going to change anything.

We also need to take more responsibility for our own health. When more than half the population is overweight and obese for example that puts massive pressure on an already overworked system - but no-one likes to be told that.

Glasgow Royal yes, Forth Valley overstaffed and lazy particularly during covid.

I’m glad you recognise state spending has gone up for general support, and has been massive for last few years

if you want specific NHS funding this was in pp

Well the NHS chomps through about £75bn more per year than 2016, so at least people can't say it didn't get that £350m per week that was splashed on the side of campaign buses. As it turned out the NHS spending has grown by much more than that per week.

How much more do you think would fix it?

People like to bemoan extra funding, but I don't believe there is evidence of NHS wastage driving this problem. Our health funding is less than Germany, France, New Zealand, Canada, Japan and quite a few more.

We need more bed capacity, the situation described by the OP is caused by a lack of A&E and inpatient beds across the system. The staff:patient ratio decreases and it stops the basics being covered. This is demoralising for staff and leads to people working in agencies or the private sector.. and our agency and locum spend is a very good example of wastage. Some agency night nurses make 3x the hourly rate of the NHS staff and then they will refuse to be in charge of the shift.

We need social care reform. Where I work people can sit in a £400 a night bed waiting for a care package for weeks.

It's a mess. Has been for years. Only it gets worse every year.

There’s been a population increase of 5 million in the last 13 years. Add to this the ever increasing rubbish food we’re eating, more sedentary lifestyles and lack of responsibility for health and it’s a recipe for disaster for the NHS. I’m by no means perfect but it’s easy to see why they can’t cope. I feel for all of the NHS staff and people desperate for help. A bugbear of mine is seeing people ‘check-in’ when attending hospital on Facebook etc. Of the few times I’ve been to A&E the last thing on my mind was updating my Facebook status 🙄 If only people who ‘needed’ to go went we would be in a better position. Demanding antibiotics isn’t helpful either.

Agree with your post generally but on this

We also need to take more responsibility for our own health. When more than half the population is overweight and obese for example that puts massive pressure on an already overworked system - but no-one likes to be told that.

It is a tough one to solve but these threads are always just about more funding, and even in pandemic when weight was a risk factor we focussed on closing economy rather than health.

There’s no rallying cry for our own health improvement

@Sarahconnor1 That is why a lot of arguing goes on. Nurses refuse handover (because they literally don't have capacity) but they do actually have an obligation to after 45 mins (at least in our area). We all want what is best/safest for the patient but ambulance crews ultimately want to attend the little old lady who has been on the ground in her garden all night or the unrousable baby knowing their last patient is at least in hospital, albeit still in the corridor. I know you know this but just to help anybody else who might be wondering.

Nothing in the NHS will improve until its army of £100K a year rainbow lanyard wearing, cross dressing "diversity managers" are sacked, and that money put in to doctors, nurses, and equipment.

Nothing will improve until people stop quaffing that family size packet of crisps, downing coke, doing bugger all exercise and glugging booze

Not going to get into the arguments (though i do have views) but we've had frequent visits in the past few years - elderly (now sadly dead) parents. None of good.
Two weekends ago a young friend who has had a heart transplant had the misfortune to spend 24 hours on a trolley in a busy corridor when Harefield had directed she needed isolation. Her parents will in future drive her the 200 miles to Harefield at the first whiff of rejection or trouble. They are the biggest flag wavers for NHS staff but said they simply weren't listened to. And counted 26 ambulances lined up outside A&E.

It's a revolution in social care which would have prevented the latter I think. But who's listening?? No one it seems