just to give a bit more context.....my reasons include:
We are understaffed every single day, doctors and nurses. We are rarely fully staffed with doctors at night, and often operate with 2/3 of the staff we should. Recently there was one ward in the hospital with one nurse looking after 23 patients.
Not having enough equipment for anything. I recently suggested that we ask patients to put their fluid bags on their heads like i used to do in Africa, because we simply don't have enough drip stands.
Literally never having space to examine patients, because there aren't enough cubicles/chairs/beds.
Having to sort out "fights" between receiving teams at specialist hospitals and within my own hospital. For example, started a shift a few weeks ago and had to sort out situation where a child had been in the department for 10 hours because she needed to be transferred to a specialist centre and neither of our local specialist centres wanted to take her.....because they are also full and understaffed. (This task alone requires multiple phone calls all via hospital switchboards and takes several hours). There are daily stand offs between in-patient specialities, none of which want to take responsibility for the patient who sits in A&E, sometimes for over 20 hours until the dispute is resolved.
Regularly having patients waiting over 8 hours to be seen. The figures that the government doesn’t release is the length of time patients wait after they’ve waited 4 hours (the government target time). Once they are over 4 hours it doesn’t matter if they wait an extra 5 minutes or 15 hours......and many are waiting the latter.
Ordered a blood test on a patient a few days ago. Samples 1,2 &3 were "lost"......but you only discover its been lost after you've phoned the lab 4 times (having tried at least 10 times because the line was engaged 6 of the times you tried) and checked with the porters.....sample 5 was sent 6 hours after the original sample was requested. This is a regular occurrence.
Dealing with distressed (and often rude - although mostly I don't really blame them for being rude) patients who can't get GP appointments, who are being shunted between various specialities and who really just want answers, but can't get the investigations they need, can't get referrals to appropriate specialities, can't afford to go privately and are just fed up of being stuck in the system. And they cry on me. Every single day. and there is nothing I can do to help them except listen, smile and agree that they are getting a shit service (and often they are just appreciate of this).
Having to make beds, put bin liners in bins, fill up trollies with equipment and push patients around the hospital on trollies or wheelchairs because there is no-one else (or not enough) employed to do this. And its not that I think that any of this is beneath me.......but its just isn't a good use of my time or taxpayers money. I could be seeing and treating patients instead.
Having to answer letters of complaint that are utter nonsense usually about situations completely outwith my control, and apologise for things I had nothing to do with.
Listening to and reading daily news stories of NHS failures and doctors who have 'missed' diagnoses. There is one such story pretty much every single day. 99.9% of doctors and nurses come to work to make a positive difference. There are obviously some cases of gross neglect, but most of the stories are twisted by the press. We are human beings. we do make mistakes, and these are increasingly likely in high pressured understaffed environments.
Nobody in NHS management gives a stuff about anything except figures.
And it isn't a money thing. The NHS has plenty of money, its just wasted and misspent.