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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to blame NHS privatisation for my sister being beaten up?

39 replies

edamsavestheday · 26/04/2014 12:07

My sister was attacked at work last night. She's a nurse in a mental health trust. There aren't enough staff to care for patients safely - 40 per cent vacancy rate - because the contract for her service is coming up for renewal and the trust knows they will lose it. So disturbed patients get violent, sometimes because there aren't enough people to care for their needs, they can't communicate easily and get frustrated, and there aren't enough people to handle the situation safely.

She's battered and bruised, he punched her back and neck repeatedly, she got home at 3am when shift finished at 9 supposedly and she's facing losing her job. Companies bidding for the contract include big household names in broadband and mobile phones FFS. What expertise do they have? And no one knows what kind of service they will provide and how vulnerable people with severe mental health problems and learning disabilities are going to be looked after.

Three other nurses have been assaulted in the past week. This is disastrous for patients and nurses right now but also when the contract changes and people are left without good, reliable and expert care.

OP posts:

NurseyWursey · 26/04/2014 12:10

I am so sorry your sister has had to go through this, it must be so hard for her. As someone who has experience with volatile individuals, I completely sympathise. It's bloody horrible at times.

I don't just think it's down to privatisation however, it's been going on for decades all around the health sector. There's never enough staff, safe guarding staff is out of the window, and often the people on the frontline get the blame rather than those putting in place staffing and procedures.

This privatisation is bloody scary and I hate how it's not getting more news time etc.

LongTimeLurking · 26/04/2014 12:13

I'm not sure it is down to privatisation. Health care has been underfunded (at the front line anyway) for years and mental health is especially bad. There is no protection for staff and patients get shit treatment.

Having said that there is no way privatisation will help. How can a private company provide a better service and make a profit off the back of something like mental health which is often chronic.

NurseyWursey · 26/04/2014 12:18

Virgin bought a paediatric centre last year - I thought it would have been all over the media but nope. Horrible :(

Original poster

edamsavestheday · 26/04/2014 12:21

Thanks. The reason I blame privatisation is the 40 per cent vacancy rate - amongst other things. Posts are not being filled and people are leaving because the contract is coming up. It's never been this bad before.

She had back surgery a few years ago so being punched in her back and neck is very worrying.

And a big business mobile phone and broadband company is a preferred bidder over an NHS trust, FFS? They simply do not have the expertise to run a complex service for vulnerable people.

OP posts:

x2boys · 26/04/2014 12:28

No not unreasonable at all I am also a mental health nurse they just won't employ nurses , its very dangerous on the wards at the moment a few months ago I was doing a 12 hour shift on the psychiatric intensive care unit the minimum number of staff should be four we had three for the whole 12 hours non of us got a break we had very unwell patients its shocking oh and they want to close 54 beds on our unit!

Original poster

edamsavestheday · 26/04/2014 12:49

feel for you, x2.

OP posts:

Nanny0gg · 26/04/2014 12:57

What are her employers doing about it?

What did they say when she reported it?

Treaclepot · 26/04/2014 13:02

Privatisation is having a HUGE impact across the NHS, it is very frightening. Half my family work in different areas of the NHS and slowly slowly it is being broken down. Soon it will be broken beyond compare.

For a few years things were improving, but the more privitised it gets (and thus more about profit) the worse patient care is and worse working conditions are.

CorusKate · 26/04/2014 13:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MsBumble · 26/04/2014 13:21

My mother has been a senior nurse working in mental health since the early 80s. Unfortunately she has been assaulted on a number of occasions - and once very badly. This is definitely nothing new. I really admire anyone who does this for a living, it's certainly not easy.

OldFarticus · 26/04/2014 15:05

YANBU to be angry - there is a catastrophic bed shortage and mental health has always struggled.

I think YAB a bit U to blame "privatisation" though. I support NHS reform but it's being totally bodged by this government. I would rather move towards the French or Swiss system which gives the patient real choice rather than the current idea which seems to be flog the service to whoever does it cheapest and leave what's left of the NHS to pick up the pieces.

Hope she recovers soon.

Original poster

edamsavestheday · 26/04/2014 19:11

Thanks guys. Agree nurses have been assaulted before but I do think destabiling and disrupting the NHS to a severe degree is extremely damaging and dangerous

OP posts:

Original poster

edamsavestheday · 26/04/2014 19:11

Ruddy phone, should be 'destabilising'

OP posts:

x2boys · 26/04/2014 22:47

Nurses specially in acute mental health wards have been assaulted before people are very unwell have no insight into what's happening and their perception is blurred it happens the difference now is that before we always had fully trained regular staff who were able to deal with and deescalate situations now you can walk onto a shift and be working with three agency staff that have not been trained. And often have never worked in mental health its scary and managers do not care as long as the numbers are OK and even if the numbers are not OK it does not matter!! I hoepe your sister is OK op.

x2boys · 26/04/2014 22:54

Ms bumble I appreciate what you are saying about your mother and I myself have been assaulted several times once I had a great big wooden chair thrown at me I crawled on my hands and knees into a bathroom to escape but we had a fully trained team than and police on there way these days this is not the case and nurses could be killed.

juniper44 · 26/04/2014 23:11

I just mentioned this to DP, who is a psychiatrist, and he said 'sounds about right, I'm afraid' but he blames it on the cuts, not necessarily on the privatisation.

He too has been assaulted at work. It's bloody scary.

x2boys · 26/04/2014 23:38

Tbh I blame it on the managers they have spent millions refurbishing wards over the past few years to close them down 1-2 years later not a care for the staff or patients where I work they want to close 54 beds and they propose that community staff will see acutely unwell patients three times a day I can guaranteethat tragedy's will happen and it will be staff is cpn s and psychiatrists that will be blamed not managers in their cosy offices.

Icimoi · 26/04/2014 23:41

This is a disaster waiting to happen. When you look at the disasters G4S and ATOS have been responsible, the thought of farming out the NHS to big private companies is absolutely horrific.

thenightsky · 26/04/2014 23:45

I can guaranteethat tragedy's will happen and it will be staff is cpn s and psychiatrists that will be blamed not managers in their cosy offices. Exactly this. I wish they'd get out of the offices (cloud 9 we call it) and be forced to spend time on the wards.

Sadly the NHS is 90% private by stealth already.

I'm shocked that this is not reported in the press and people don't have a clue.

x2boys · 27/04/2014 00:16

Yes the vast majority of lay people have not a cluecwhat is going on 1800 beds in england in acute mental health health have been closed in the past year it is shocking truely shocking!!

wobblyweebles · 27/04/2014 01:39

I used to work in occupational health in the nhs 10 years ago. Nurses were being assaulted and wards were dangerously understaffed.

Clearly nothing has changed :-(

greenwinter · 27/04/2014 01:58

So sorry about your sister.

I have a relative who has worked in mental health for years. You are right that privatisation is having a massive negative impact. The only focus now is on money. My relative gets pressure put on them to fake the monitoring they have to record. She refuses.

Those who are saying this has nothing to do with privitasiation haven't a clue what is happening.

greenwinter · 27/04/2014 02:03

And we were warned that if the Tories got in they would destroy the NHS. They unfortunately are.

whatcolour · 27/04/2014 08:56

Report it to the health and safety executive - the employer has a duty of care and should have policies and procedures etc in place to protect staff from violence and aggression. If they don't then they are in breach of their duties

MyUsernameIsPants · 27/04/2014 09:50

IME, reporting these incidents has the opposite effect to what you would like to happen, i.e increase staffing levels.

What happens in reality is management 'investigating' the assault, finding fault with the nursing staff i.e there must be something they didn't do, and then give them a checklist and more patient monitoring, more running around like a headless chicken, without addressing the staffing levels.

Happens all the time.

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