To think the NHS is in serious trouble?

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WARNING: INJURY DETAILS
Hi all, after some advice or ideas here. Last Saturday my DH had a motorbike crash right outside our house. He was turning back to get his riding gloves, ironically. He still doesn’t remember what happened, but our DS (5) saw his bike fly up into the air and my husband fall from it. 4 paramedics were on the scene very quickly in 2 cars, but the ambulance took an hour to arrive.
My husband was nonsensical and we were worried about a concussion. He hurt his shoulder very badly, but there was also a huge chunk of flesh out of his knee that he barely felt, I’m assuming because he has severed the nerves.
At hospital they took him off the stretcher and sat him in a chair for 6-7 hours. He was finally put on a bed in a room and they decided to do scans across his body to check for internal injuries, for which they needed to immobilise him. This involved a hard bit of plastic digging into his neck. He was left like this, in pain, for another 2 hours. During this time A&E virtually emptied out.
They finally decided they would need to admit him 14 hours later and put him in a ward. He needs surgery on his knee. It’s very messed up. After a couple of days, they carried out an op to clean the knee out and put him on antibiotics to fight infection.
It’s now 7 days later and he is still waiting for the op to repair the knee. They are not giving him food or water for almost 24 hours each day, “just in case” they can do the surgery. They’re no longer giving him antibiotics and as his knee is strapped up and covered, there’s no telling if he has an infection. There is almost no one checking on him each day. I am worried that he could potentially lose MORE of the knee, or the lower leg altogether if it gets infected. He can’t feel much around the injury, so if they’re relying on him telling them, he couldn’t.
AIBU to think that surgeons must have an idea, at least half way through the day, if not right at the beginning, as to who they will operate on and roughly how long it would take? Yes the hospitals are short staffed, but I’m witnessing lots of care and staff looking after some patients and virtually none on others. AIBU that communication and organisation are big factors in the failing of the service too?
I’m finding it hard to view this objectively, given my DH is in pain and not getting the nutrition and hydration he needs to heal his body. I’d appreciate any advice or points of view here.

I work in a trauma centre. The patients with the most need go to theatre first so if something comes in the front door that trumps your husbands injury the he’s pushed back. 7 days is a long time to wait but if already been washed out and he’s on antibiotics it probably won’t be infected. Where I work there are not enough staff to man the theatres, they all got made to work in icu during covid and left so lack of theatres is the problem. But yes to answer your question, the NHS is Fucked!

Thank you so much for your response. I’m trying to be understanding, but I’m also a bit worried that our patience is causing DH to be overlooked. I feel reassured about the infection side of things. That has really helped me this morning, so thank you again.

Patiently and politely keep asking questions. On repeat. Only squeaky wheels get oil.

Get on to PALS & ask for a clear outline of his treatment plan and monitoring

I'm sorry this is happening, all you can do is persist and if necessary complain.

To answer your thread title, yes the NHS is in real trouble, it is the fault of the Tories and everyone who votes for them is a little bit responsible too.

I have no knowledge or insight. But just wanted to say what a stressful and terrible situation for you and your husband. I hope he gets his op soon and is on the mend.

Yes. The nhs as it is in the hands of current government is in serious trouble. I won't bore you with my experiences, but briefly our family has had both large and small incidents in which you say "this isn't acceptable". Having lived in other countries, the NHS compares really badly. But then again it is only country in which it is free.

Thanks for your messages of support and advice. I’ll try PALs to get some more information.

On the one hand I appreciate the staff are busy and overloaded, but there’s a lack of bedside manner, where they treat the patient as a human and give them the information they can. They’re acting as though my DH is being unreasonable for wanting information about when he can eat, whether he will have an op that day and what sort of treatment he can expect.

There are massive issues within the NHS at present. We are hugely over stretched and way under resourced.

I'm so sorry your husband is having such a horrible time. Waiting as he is is awful for him. Have you spoken with his Consultant?

I have worked in the NHS for 30 years, and I've never known things to be as bad as they currently are. Staff morale and staff retention are really concerning.

There are many problems within the system, but this disgraceful government is the biggest, most disastrous one.

I should say, the government is obviously the issue on a huge organisational level. (In my opinion!)

What matters to everyone is the care the family members are receiving/not receiving and of course you absolutely should be raising concerns about your husbands situation.

@feathers7 no DH hasn’t spoken to a consultant. The surgeon spoke to him yesterday evening to say that his op wouldn’t be done that day (he’d been nil by mouth since midnight), but DH has no real info on what’s happening. It doesn’t help that I caught a cold from my DS, so I’m having to stay away from the hospital in case I make him ill on top of it all. I’ve told him to politely ask if someone can speak to him and not to sign any paperwork that states he knows details about his injuries or treatments, as he hasn’t got a clue.

All he will be asked to sign is a consent form for the surgery.

He will be under a consultant, so he could ask to speak with him/her, or to the ward manager to explain exactly what is happening. Everyone is just absolutely snowed under, but I realise that is not a good enough explanation when he's been waiting this long. As someone above said, cases have to be done on priority need, as hard as that is, when you feel like he has already been waiting so long.

I really hope he gets the procedure he needs ASAP.

Well your advice to speak up and asked questions is paying off! DH has spoken to a consultant, who has added him to another operating theatre (unbelievable that they don’t just have one queue! His need may have been higher priority on another theatre). They are checking back in with him earlier afternoon, to let him know whether they can operate today. He has had breakfast and hopefully will have lunch, if they can’t operate. Thank you again everyone for your advice.

They’re just under a lot of pressure at the moment. I was rushed to hospital about two months ago as I’d had 4 seizures. I don’t even remember anything until I woke up in casualty attached to a drip. Anyway, I was there on a trolley in casualty for around 15 hours until they could find me a bed. I get so hungry and thirsty after a seizure and I need sweets and full fat coke but I had no money to buy it. They seemed to have forgotten about me and I occasionally brought me an extremely dry cheese sandwich and tea without sugar. I was so hungry and thirsty that I drank and ate it anyway. I didn’t get taken to a ward until about 1am and then a woman on my ward was there with her carer and was constantly shouting ‘kill me’ ‘kill me’ It was awful.

I'm glad he's eaten. A few years ago, a friend was left like this for three days. Finally he got his wife to bring him food, after realising that it could go on.

it did go on another two days.

i am really sorry to hear this. Mum was 18 hours on a trolley in A&E and we had hoped that emergencies like yours would have been dealt with better.

In terms of staff not caring, you need to be clear and strong from the outset. I don't know what your experience is like with the NHS but I've been dealing with parent admissions a lot. Everyone means well but there are structural issues that you need to cut through by being a squeaky wheel.

I wish him a speedy recovery.

@BalloonsAndWhistles I’m so sorry you went through that. It sounds horrendous and scary. They could do with some people just to keep an eye on the patients there, to bring them what they need to keep them comfortable. I do wonder how much worse the patients get from not getting basic essentials, while they await treatment.

Thank you @EmmaH2022 . Your poor friend and your poor mum. Wait times are horrendous.

I appreciate the lack of staff means less care. When we first arrived at A&E, I was told that they were packed and not letting relatives in, but they waved me in anyway (I literally hadn’t said a word, so they didn’t make an exception due to me protesting). All the staff were fine with me being there, apart from one, who said I shouldn’t be there, about 6 hours into the wait, because I asked if my DH could have some pain relief. I didn’t dare leave DH as no one was checking on him and at that point he hadn’t had any scans to check for head or internal injuries. If he passed out, he’d be reliant on other patients to get help.

Getting really annoyed with this "not letting anyone else in". One person to help someone to toilet, food and water, is pretty essential otherwise they won't be looked after at all.

of course you didn't dare leave your poor DH.

Well, he finally made a fuss and explained the situation to the hospital staff and he is now having his operation. Hard to tell if it would have happened or not without him chasing them, but I get the sense that they would have left him longer if he hadn’t have spoken up, so thank you all again for your advice. I will follow up with PALs.