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!!

fengirl after a broken hip a patient almost always requires as you call it half a hip replacement, total hip replacements aren't normally a surgery required following a traumatic event. However shouldn't have been left as you describe and I am sorry to hear that

I've seen good and bad in the NHS - good as in ok, bad as in a horrifying, avoidable, violent death.

I expect healthcare that does the job. Why would anyone expect any less?

Expecting patients to have 'gratitude' is slightly insulting, even if the service is very good. NHS patients have paid every penny for their treatment, NHS staff aren't doing their jobs as volunteers, nurses and doctors would expect competent service from another sector, etc. etc.

Might I suggest that NHS staff have 'gratitude' for their pensions? Because that would be appropriate - the staff haven't paid for them, far from volunteering some NHS staff are the highest paid on the planet for the jobs they do, other sectors don't offer pensions anything like the NHS ones (if at all).

I know sirchris. It's called nursing but it seems to be beneath so many so called nurses these days.

I'm a solicitor. I've got two degrees. But when I've got someone in front if me in tears I hand them a tissue, make them a cup of tea and hold their hand. It's not beneath me. It's my job.

Please all don't forget that whilst none of u want to think about this or accept it, in all type of healthcare mistakes can and will happen. Examining and managing risk and adverse incidents is a whole career in itself. Accidents and incidents happen in the orivate sector too, thats the nature of healthcare, where many people all at different levels of experience and competence are practicing often under enourmous stress and with little support or sometimes supervision.

Surely the NHS is about making sure that everyone gets treatment when they need it free of charge.

If you want to opt for an insurance system, then look at the States and the mess there where poor people simply do not get health care. That's certainly not first class.

I'm not pretending NHS is perfect, but it's a damn sight better than any of the alternatives.

I wouldn't be without it, and for all those negative stories, there are very many positive ones.

Erm, I agree with all the other posters... It's not a 'first class' treatment I want, it's just treatment I want, not a total lack of compassion, care & refusal of treatment.

Have horrible nhs stories but won't share on here as don't have the energy, having been left disabled & deteriorating.

Can we find a business anywhere which does not make mistakes?

100% excellent service record?

I don't think so. And yet people expect it of the NHS? So yes, the OP was not BU.

I've never had anything less than wonderful care from the nhs all my life.

We are so, so lucky to have this amazing resource.

My Gran was in hospital in the final hours of her life. My Mum thought she was taking her last breaths so went to get the nurse. She told the first nurse she saw and asked him to come to see my Gran. He turned to her and said "she'll have to wait, I am doing the drug round". . .

I don't give a fat flying fuck what anyone says, that is not acceptable!

But hospital food is important. When you're ill you need simple, nourishing food. I was given slop to eat when I was immobile in an orthopaedic ward for three weeks (when they bothered to feed me). My Dh had to bring me food. I was lucky, I had someone willing and able to do so. Shit hospital food is not a trivial complaint.

I think what sirchris said is exactly why our local hopsital is great. Nothing appears to be below any member of staff. I have seen senior nurses making and cleaning beds, the sister has sat with me with a drink while I cry and a SHO made DS day by drawing pictures with him before starting an examination.

Like most wards they are short staffed but they don't let that get in the way of the care they provide. It's a shame other departments can't work in the same way

NHS saved my friend's life.

They gave my father excellent care before he died.

I had excellent care when I had my child in particularly traumatic circumstances.

For all the stories which you will get on here, there are many positive ones. Responses on an internet forum is not exactly good date for market research.

Sorry, haven't had time to read all the thread but from a perspective of someone who lives outside the UK and has no choice BUt to pay for healthcare - 50 quid to see the gp every time your DD is sick for eg? FULL ie several hundred cost of prescriptions. Anyone? - I would merely like to say I back the OP. Most people do NOT appreciate what they get for very little financial input. Try living somewhere where the NHS isn't. By christ you'll miss 'em. Take it from me. I really miss the UK, and the NHS is a large part of that.

OP - Who do you know who was killed by the NHS? Because I don't know anyone anymore who hasn't got a horror story.

Off to test my theory.

And for anyone saying it would be cheaper to pay into private health care...

There are TWO high dependency private beds within the county I live in.
So any patient that pays for private surgery, who suffers more than a minor complication, is transferred to my NHS hospital. And provided with high dependency NHS care. At NHS cost (ie. none.)

My area has many fantastic, dedicated, hard working staff, who constantly struggle with the demands of the job. All areas have sloppy nurses, just as there are unpleasant people in all walks of life.

OP, I agree, some patients do suffer from a "me...now" attitude, which benefits no-one.

Where are all these wonderful hospitals because I need pointing in their direction.

It may be because this county is full of training hospitals that the staff are crap.

Sorry for being so mardy OP. I don't mean to be. I'm not normally this mardy but when you are in a situation like mine where the pen pushers have ultimately decided your fate it grates. I will now become a burden on the system by signing on the sick which in turn will make me suck up more NHS resources. Not very cost effective really.

As for hospital food. Last time I was an in-patient I contracted salmonella.

And on that note I will bid you all good night.

(yes i'm angry, poor dp keeps looking at me with a strange expression on his face and keeps offering me a glass of wine :o)

The clue unfortunately is in the title of your post.

You set your expectations too low i.e. that you cannot provide first class care.

Every team I have ever worked in aspired to provide a fisrt class service - you seem to think that's unachievable. As long as HCPs believe that they wll continue to deliver sub-standard care.

Imagine turning up for a serious abdominal operation - one you have been very scared about having. You've made the domestic arrangments necessary for facing a hospital stay and agreed time off work. You are prepared for theatre, gowned, socked, have seen anaestehist for final checks and are about to walk down to theatre for this dreaded operation, only to be told 'Sorry it's cancelled - we've run out of clean instruments. Can you make an appointment for another day?'.

That's not first class service - that's not even third rate.

I saw first class service when, due the the NHS exceeding waiting times, I was booked into a private hospital.

If the private hospital can get it right, why can't the NHS?

Private hospitals don't always get it right and private hospitals have a lot less patients they have to deal with. There is no such thing as a perfect system.

Bring back Enrolled Nurses.

Chub with respect I have been an inpatient, outpatient and given birth twice on the NHS. The care was ok to great (yes some bit could have been better but I understood that the staff were balancing my needs against the needs of MANY others) The food was ok, not great but was edible and life sustaining and to be honest I do not expect more. I cannot imagine what you were given for three weeks straight that was so bad it could be classed as 'slop'!!

And please don't get me started on the bloody pensions, do people actually realie that the nurses pension fund IS NOT AND NEVER HAS BEEN in deficit!!!
Yes that means that nurses are paying in more currently that is being payed out to those already retired!! When I retire (if I an continue paying in which I may not now that the contributions have gone up) I will NOT be well off i will still be on a low income!!! Grrrrr!!!

So you lot who hate the NHS, what exactly would you prefer as an alternative?

And I refer you to GinjaNinja's post.

80 euros in Dublin to see a GP.

I had a minor gynae op done privately. It was all fine, but my consultant lost my smear test results and told me to go to my GP.

Mistakes happen across the board.

When you were an inpatient, was that by any chance in the hospital where you work? It helps. A lot.

Suits me - I could have 4.5 visits per month to my GP based on the amount of NI I pour into this failed system every month.

I worked for many years in customer service (private sector) and can say without a doubt that if I treated my 'customers' in the way that the NHS treats its customers I would (and rightly in my opinion) have been sacked.

A really trivial example but it seems to sum up the attitude of many in the NHS .. I received a letter for an outpatient appointment, if the time wasn't convenient I was advised to phone a specific number ...... when I called the number I was told it was the wrong one, when I politely mentioned that it was the one on the letter I was told 'our secretaries aren't responsible for changing the telephone numbers on letters' - what a brilliant job then, to send out meaningless letters and not be allowed to use your initiative to put the right information on the letter !!!!

I am sure there are some wonderful employees in the NHS (and yes, I am grateful that my DS had life saving treatment when he was a baby .. although he did pick up an infection in hospital due to lack of cleanliness) but the general rudeness, lack of empathy and downright dis-interest of so many NHS employees is totally shocking.