AIB to ask why people expect/feel entitled to 'first class' treatment by the NHS?

[depressedhealthprofessional]

I ask because, having worked frontline in the NHS for nearly 20 years it feels like peoples expectations are becoming more and more unrealistic and out of step with the reality of what can atuially be achieved within the resources available (limited and shrinking in real terms each week)

I can honestly, hand on heart say that I have yet to meet any health professional who has 'survived' more than a few years in direct patient care who does not give more than 100% each and every day. yet all I hear is people grumbling and complaining that the NHS did not get this or that 100% right. I am not saying that we get it right absolutely all the time but for gods sake, if I have to hear about someone moaning about the quality of the mashed potato on the ward , the fact that the home help (provided by the NHS/social services) is refusing to wash the net curtains, or that it took (gasp) more than one investigation to find out what was wrong with them (they don't know what they are on about'/they are incompetent/ they are wasting my time') I am going to scream. It isi just so soul destroying that the nhs saves and improves the lives of countless millions each and every day yet all we get (in the main) is negative pres and individuals having no idea of what we are up against and just how damn hard we work.

I bloody challenge them to get on and step into our shoes!!

Rant over!!

I'm sure like many other jobs it's very difficult.

However, regarding your other points...I think it's the postcode lottery that pisses a lot of people off and I'm not talking about mashed potatoes or curtains here.

Some people receive woefully inadequate NHS care despite being forced to pay National Insurance...yet other people (depending on their area) receive good to brilliant care.

That's what needs to be sorted out.

I've met plenty of HCPs who barely seem to be giving 10% let alone 100%. I've never expected "first class" service. I did expect breakfast when I was lain flat on my back unable to move for three weeks, and not to have my bleep deliberately moved out of reach when I complained. I did expect my uncle's cancer to be diagnosed at some point in the eight consultations he had before it finally was(by which time it was terminal). So not first class. Just fit for purpose will do.

Amen to that.

Perhaps the title is poorly expressed but why should people only expect/be entitled to second class service? isn't the argument about the NHS that it is meant to be world-class. If actually we should just accept that it is a second rate service only, it needs a bit of a rethink.

Op I mean (too much )

I work in Ooh - people seem to think it is actually MacDonalds.

Agree with the OP. I left the NHS some years ago - couldn't cope with the aggravation. DH works his socks off for them and is constantly having to deal with ungrateful foot-stamping diva-like behaviour from people while he is doing his level best to help them. It seems having to wait a day or two for a result or a follow-up appointment has suddenly become completely unacceptable.

The 'care' I received in childbirth nearly killed me. I actually would have been better left alone.

That is way below 'not first class'

Chub I realise that there will always be poor care. The reasons need to be examined and out right of course. But I honetly believe people who have never had the pressure (mental and physical) of caring for sik people day in day out quite simply have bugger all idea of the challenges we (health professionals) face day in day out.

I love my job and care passionately (couldn't and wouldn't have survived this long otherwise . Yes I get paid but no money in the world can compensate me for the stress and physical and mental damage to my health over the years. I quite literally often cannot sleep at night for worry about some of my patients and the lack of resources available for them.

Because I'm paying a large percentage of my salary and expect to get a service. If I could stop paying NI and put that money into a private scheme where I could guarantee being seen in a timely, efficient, courteous, coherent manner and without a litany of lost files, disaffected staff, and rudeness I'm afraid I would. But I can't, so I continue to put up with shoddy service because I refuse to pay twice for the same thing.

Some NHS staff are lovely. Some aren't. Some are efficient. Some aren't. Some care. Some don't.

Same with most public sector jobs.

Because when you work in customer service you should give your all for the benefit of the customer.

Because moving over to the next town and into a new PCT can mean the difference between you being mobile and working to being incapacitated and close to being signed on the sick (see my post on the medication thread currently on this AIBU board).

Because there are some horrendously vile people in the NHS who shouldn't be in the posts they're in and virtually abusing very very vunerable sick people. Every time I have had to be an inpatient I have had the misfortune to suffer at the hands of lazy, inept, incompetent bank staff.

Because if you rely on the NHS to function like some of us do you deserve to be treated with respect and not a nuisance or annoyance or interuption to your day.

I love the NHS. I love that we get free healthcare at point of delivery. But I hate hate hate nigh on all the workers I've encountered. Decent, caring, genuine people are a minority in my experience. People who went into nursing for vocational reasons are disappearing as the education standards for the post increase so the care element of nursing is disappearing as they see it as beneath them.

I could ramble on all day about the pros and cons of the NHS but I'm tired and sore and angry with it right now (again see other thread about medication for why) and I really hate that by being one PCT accross that I am being rendered disabled.

Posterofapombear I experienced similar with one of mine. Nearly killed me and my child. It wasn't care it was negligence.

in any profession and particularly the medical industry there must always be a focus on the errors and their prevention - but when they occur in your industry they can have awful consequences for the patients and their families so they are bound to "moan". It is the system allowing the nhs to be so stretched and poor management causing people to have in some cases dreadful outcomes that give people a cause to "moan" - in many cases valid complaints.

My clients who aren't solicitors don't understand the pressures I face day in day out. I don't actually expect them to give a shit. They're entitled to good service. Do you think HCPs are the only professionals who emotionally take work gone with them? You're deluded if so.

Oh one last rant. Communication skills are seriously lacking by many front line staff.

The mumbling. The talking into the computer screen and not the patient. The twiddling of the thumbs in a disinterested manner. I even encountered one nurse, picking at her hang nail, who told me to hurry up because she was hungry and needed to go for a lunch break!!

But I honetly believe people who have never had the pressure (mental and physical) of caring for sik people day in day out quite simply have bugger all idea of the challenges we (health professionals) face day in day out

And I honestly believe that sick people should not have to contend with how you feel about your job. NHS workers do not have the monopoly on stressful jobs. While improvements should always be made where possible none of it is your vulnerable patients fault.

Actually the 'care' I had when giving birth to DS2 could have directly resulted in me having a Haemorrhage because the trainee midwife buggered off and left me alone when she was expressly told not to.

Her 'reason'? She had a million and one other things to do

So actually whatever mental or physical stress she was under, wasn't actually as important to me as surviving to raise my kids....

people have higher expectations of everything, not just healthcare, and in an era of google they expect their doctors and consultants to know at least as much and preferably more than they do about their condition. Sadly this is not always the case. my grandparents grew up in a world where you didn't question authority, doctors were to be trusted, and you didn't complain. This was not, imo, better than now, where authority can be questioned, trust earned not given and complaints can be made, although not much is done, and if you're too stroppy you still risk getting stuck in a side room and denied medical care til you die!

I expect a good service, however having been involved in NHS care (on a patient basis) for a long time I have a greater realisation of what to expect - which is probably more realistic than most NHS users. When they tell me an appointment is going to take an hour I plan for two etc.

I don't hand over meds for the nurses to distribute as they're too busy to dish out our regular meds (and like hell am I waiting for them, I've missed several doses in the past doing that).

Basically, I have received some shocking care, but also some excellent care. Our paediatric care has been fabulous at our local hospital but not always at other places. In some places we are just a number (not even a name FFS) which is awful.

We should be proud of the NHS however, it is ran by people and as in all walks of life, not everyone gives 100%. Problem with this is that on a medical level is causes serious issues and potentially loss of life. I have no doubt that you sound like a great, contentious nurse. But trust me, not every nurse is like you.

Because we pay for it. Not oy with no but with lack of investment on other services. USA spends far higher per cent of GDP on education for example.

However I would never blame front line staff for a second. Every gp app cut short, every referral not made, every fob off issue to the system. Cant Nhs staff see that?

I do think people's expectations are unrealistic. I work for the NHS and of course there is no excuse for poor care. But I do think older people in particular have very unrealistic expectations. I think they have a sense of entitlement because they remember the NHS starting. Anyone who's lived abroad for any period of time is always amazingly grateful in my experience.

Sirchris and others, I have a huge amoutn of sympathy with people who have had the misfortune to recieve poor quality of negligent care, and I honetly believe people like yourselves should be compensated and things put right.

But I am not talking about people being expeted to put up with negligence, It more about people having unrealistic expectations of what the nhs is set up to and able to deliver.

With the best will in the world, I just don't beleive that people can be offered the degree of choice and service (ie hotel lie surroundings, virtually no waiting times, high nurse/care staff to patient ratio) in the same way as can be provided by private care.

I too have at times 'gone private' and yes I have been seen much more quickly, spent longer with my care team and had much 'nicer' hospital surroundings, but that is because the resoures were there not because the NHS care staff were crap or indifferent!!

Agree totally op. DM works in a hospital and its not just the patients who expect luxury hotel service - she had had to deal with relatives who expect soap/clothes/hairdressers/slippers/nail clippers etc be provided on the NHS for the patients to the point that all the staff on the ward pay into a fund to provide the basics like soap/shampoo for the patients.

But why should we be grateful? NI costs a lot. I could get private medical insurance for less than NI costs me.

My son had heart surgery in southampton and all the doc and especially the nurses were wonderful. I think it depend on where you live and it shouldn't.
There was talk about closing that ward for budget reasons. I think a lack of funding from the govt is the underlying problem.