To tell you a good NHS story

[Honaloulou]

I'm not an NHS evangelist - it's got myriad problems and I've been private where I can.

But inspired slightly by a rash of 'isn't the NHS shit' threads I thought I'd tell you what I've been up to for the last few days.

We're on holiday, and DD 2 suddenly got very sick - vomiting, hot, lethargic, and confused.

So off we went to A&E. We were seen within minutes, admitted to a private room on a ward within a couple of hours, and DD was stabilised fairly quickly. An underlying issue was diagnosed, and follow up at our local hospital has been sorted. All the staff were lovely throughout, and it didn't seem chaotic and busy.

I know others have had really bad experiences, and I don't want to undermine that. But wanted to reassure anyone who needs it that, in this snapshot at least, it was still there when we needed it.

It’s my understanding that children get fast tracked through the system. They have their own mini A&E at our local hospital.
A two year old who is sick - vomiting, hot, lethargic, and confused is potentially very serious and your DD will have been put (rightly) straight to the top of the list to be seen.

Just to add, when my DD was small, we also went to A&E. We didn’t wait in the main waiting room and we’re seen in the children’s area. Very civilised.

Tbh I’ve not had a bad experience in our A&E. yes sometimes we’ve had a fairly long wait, but never out of the expected norms.

I work in the hospital so understand the issues with patient flow and how stretched everything is. Under the circumstances I think they do quite well. But then our hospital always comes pretty high up for A&E wait times nationally. If a trust had big issues pre pandemic then they’re going to be a lot worse now.

hope your dd is ok.

I've had many good and bad experiences with the NHS but I was recently seen at ambulatory care at my local hospital thinking I was going to be given advice about Hemiplegic migraine after care. A doctor wanted me to have a CT angiogram and lumbar puncture given my symptoms ("just to be certain"). They discovered I had a subarachnoid haemorrhage and within 24 hours I was transferred to a specialist hospital for surgery.
That was because one doctor wanted to be certain. She potentially saved my life. On average 52% of people die within a week with what I had. A third die after surgery and a third have a permanent disability. I have been very lucky many times over these past two months.

I am currently waiting a response from a complaint I made about my general practice who have made my recovery very difficult, not reading hospital notes, mixing up medication, having a receptionist berate me for 1 missed appointment (I had a brain injury and need text reminders) which she did infront of a room full of people waiting to be seen by doctors etc, witholding repeat meds, having another reception (whos a school mum) read my notes when shes got no reason to ... etc

I'm grateful to the NHS but it's not above criticism.