to be pissed off with the NHS?

[loflo]

So DS was really poorly in May and in our local hospital. And they did nothing. For six days. As I watched my little boy literally fall to pieces. I was the one who phoned and arranged required tests at a larger hospital seventy miles away due to a crap consultant being too busy (looking at holiday villas online - honestly).

Tests done and DS was rushed back to said larger hospital and thankfully was treated really well.

After a lot of thought and getting legal advice we made a formal complaint about our local hospitial. And we were told we would have a response within 20 working days. And guess what? No response. So I called and was told they needed longer. So I have bit my tongue for another 20 days. Today is 40 days since the initial complaint and have now been told its likely to take at least another week because of folk being on holiday (in their nice villas )

So AIBU to want to throw my toys out and go to the press or should I just bite my tongue and wait for the response?

How on earth do you know s/he was looking at holiday villas online?

"Tests done and DS was rushed back to said larger hospital and thankfully was treated really well."

Was this larger one an NHS hospital?

Hope your DS is better, BTW...

Go back to your solicitor. Send a letter through them. If they still don't respond? Go to the papers.

YABU. Not that you weren't treated badly - you were, but would it really be any better if there were health insurance companies to add into the mix and pre-approve treatment before anything could be done?

YANBU to be pissed off at the treatment given at the hospital and take appropriate action when you know what happened.

YABU to pissed off at the NHS.

YANBU to pissed off with some NHS staff.

Why go to the papers?

What was your child's diagnosis and how do you know about the villa searching?

YANBU - some doctors and some hospitals are crap.

Agree with azazello, the system would be a 1000 times worse if privatised.

YANBU to be unhappy though, try contacting the Health Omdudsman, if you contact a solicitor at this stage you will move from the NHS complaints procedure to the litigation procedure. You may wish to do this a later stage but would not be helpful at this point.

You need to give more detail so we can understand exactely what went wrong.

I work for the NHS and hear lots of complaints - mainly from people who don;t understand how the system works.

I think you need to be a bit more realistic though to think that people won;t be allowed holiday just so there is someone to deal with your complaint!

I am sorry you had a bad experience and I hope your DS is doing ok.

but to be pissed off with the NHS, yes YABU.

Bloody hell, YANBU. The health system is a ghost town in August. for you.

I wouldn't go to the press tbh, or not yet at least. Agree with unfitmother about the Health Ombudsman, sounds like a plan.

Most trusts will have a complaints procedure that states the number of days a complaint needs to be answered by.
I am surprised yours has not been addressed sooner.

I am not sure what the time limit is but I am sure it's sooner than you have been waiting.

I am also intrigued as to how you know the doc was surfing the net for villas.

Maybe you should approach the ombudsman for the DoH ..if there is one.

You'd be entirely within your rights to go to the local press or contact your MP. Or your councillor - local authorities have overview and scrutiny committees that are supposed to oversee the hospitals and primary care trust.

Might also be worth complaining directly to the chief executive - make sure you put it in writing and get their name and location (some trusts have more than one site). Point out you've been waiting for 40 days when their complaints service says 20. So what if people are on holidays, they should arrange cover. (I know this doesn't always happen which is why you need to badger the chief exec - his or her fault if they are short-staffing.)

You need to go through the NHS complaints procedure before you go anywhere near the ombudsman. You have to complain to the organisation, then complain again if you aren't happy, there are several levels to go through before you reach the ombudsman. Pain in the bum and not terribly patient friendly. Dept of Health website or NHS Direct or NHS choices probably has a guide online.

I know he was surfing the net for villas cos I saw him - his office door was wide open.

The other ward consultant was looking at flights

I have already spoken to the public services ombusdman who are on the case too.

Our solicitor suggested legal action due to negligence but I don't want money. Certainly not from the NHS which needs all it can get.

All I want is no other parent to have to go through what we did.

The consultant is question has previously been suspended and is not held in very great esteem. He has been all over the local press so they already have an interest in how he practices and that was my reasoning for considering the press.

I appreciate everyone needs leave but the whole of the NHS seems to stop at weekends and for July and August (note to self must keep serious illnesses for a Monday in October

Thank you all for thoughts

Consultants don't arrange tests, the junior medical staff do that.

Patients / relatives can't arrange tests either. Or arrange transfers between hospital.
Did you self discharge and present at another hospital?

The NHS isn't perfect, but I agree with madamecastazatello trainsetter

Its a bit hard to comment properly without more details.

Going to the press will just piss them off and not achieve a better investigation into what happened, and IF it turns out that part of the problem was your not understanding how the system works, you will look like a pillock

New Doctors start their rotations at the start of August so its never a good time to be admitted then......!

If loflo doesn't understand how the system works, that's poor communication on the part of the medical and nursing staff. Patients aren't experts on the systems and complexities of the NHS and can't be expected to be.

I've got a really good idea. Go to the press and that way even more money can be wasted on press releases etc. Then sue and take yet more money out of the system. Sorry but I cannot stand that whole jeremy Kyle way of dealing with things some people have. If you were treated shodily you deserve an apology and the people in question should be disciplined but why go straight to a solicitor? And surely it is better that fewer people are employed to deal with complaints and more in actually treating people.
Yanbu to be pissed off
Yabu in your attitude towards making the original complaint and since

Loflo - all staff are entitled to breaks and most employers allow staff to use the internet in their breaks. I think this whole villa thing is a red herring.

Can I ask again what your son's diagnosis was?

Because sadly often it is only when they get a solicitor's letter that trusts buck up and pay a blind bit of notice to a patient who has been harmed. Well-run hospitals shouldn't need that nudge but unfortunately there are plenty of chief execs and senior managers who do not see good patient care as a priority. Or may say they do but fail to put it into practice.

The NHS is a fine institution employing a lot of great people but there will always be some bad apples, some bad systems and, often, a failure to apologise and put things right.

Bad apples and bad systems would happen however you funded the health service, however, whether it was private or social insurance or state.

We have what you would probably term a crap consultant at our place - always doing other things than what you think he should be but mostly he can't do what he is supposed to be doing due to having too much admin to do or trust work or having to wait to speak to other health professionals or wait for test results.

I think if the consultant was a complete shitter from the start and there are already issues flagged about him fair enough but so many people have no idea how the NHS works and what you have to wait for before you can start treatment or get a referral that they often kick up a huge fuss and are then left looking sheepish when they are explained to the actual trust procedures.

And no matter how much people whine about NHS staff having time off they have families and children's holidays to consider and should be allowed to have time off as are avery other profession - and yes there should be cover but often it comes down to money and whether the trust will pay for the post to be backfilled by a member of the bank staff or a temp - often there is just not the money - I am dreading getting back from my holiday to the pile probably as big as a mountain as my post will not be filled when I am away - we simply cannot afford it as a trust - would mean essential services would have to be cut - maybe a few kid's assessments or some therapy - easy to stamp your feet but not so easy to look at the big picture.

That was the problem purple - the consultant asked the junior doctor to write (yes write) to the larger hospital to request an eeg. And was going to discharge us the same day. And suggested my son went back to school having seizures every half hour......

So thats when I stepped in and phoned larger hospital who arranged eeg. And after it was done and the neurologist saw how bad it was he spent a whole day trying to phone the consultant and their calls were never returned.

So the neurologist phoned us and told us to take DS straight through to him. And DS would have been in the HDU there if there had been a bed as he was so very poorly. And I should have put him back to school

PS - we didnt go straight to a solicitor - DH works for one