To think the NHS is wonderful and on the whole does a marvellous job?

[mrsruffallo]

I had to go to a&e yesterday for a bad wound. Had 2 xrays and eleven stitches within 2 hours, and had a wonderful nurse and several visits from a kindly doctor.
I know it gets a bad press but day in day out I think it is an institution that we should be very proud of.
My only bad experience has been maternity services, I concede that.

I also think the level of specialist care you receive is very high.

I think it's like most things - really depends on the people that you encounter. My maternity experience was excellent but I felt I was treated quite shabbily when DS3 was in hospital recently

True- the nurse and doctor I encountered yesterday were so wonderful I was just in awe of the whole system

Hope you are ok, MrsR - what happened?

i agree with you - I think that on the whole the NHS does a fantastic job. I know I get a better service than a friend in a neighbouring boroiugh because our NHS CT has a much better system for getting a GP appointment - we have no difficulty, and I am always confident with what happens.

We have had excellent service, advice, attention and very expensive treatment for DS's leg condition, and I recently escorted an aunt trhough diagnosis of uterine cancer and treatment. She switched from private to NHS half way through (because her private scheme had gone bust) and really, the main difference was the decor in the waiting rooms - naff corporate designer faux-trendy, with a perky young woman coming to 'show us through' in person, as opposed to dreary overcrowded room with mis-matched chairs and a bad intercom crackling out your name.

I really WISH I could say otherwise but my recent experiences with my elderly parents at their local hospital have been so atrocious that it has coloured my view of the other good bits.

No YANBU. I have no complaints. But listening to other people I know I have probably been lucky.

Feel guilty for posting so negatively now as I know there are many good nurses and doctors working long hours for the NHS who are impeded by the system at every turn.

I think there are good bits and bad bits. My maternity services were terrible and services for disabled kids are pants (1 year wait for a wheelchair. What you meant to do? Carry a disabled 8 yo everywhere?)
The ward we were on at The Children's Hozzie was shite but the paed we have is great. Good bits n bad bits.

But my parents were treated so shabbily though - and they were/are so frail

I am very critical of some children's wards policies and practices - but the clinical service is still very good.

It's the suporting stuff that lets the NHS down - cleaners who drift around dragging a filthy cloth across the exposed parts of bed trays, but not moving anything to clean underneath or behind it. Filthy floors and bathrooms. Horrible food. Endless agency nurses who can't find notes or speak very little english

And, come to think of it, my Mum was left in severe pain and fear, swelling up to huge proportions and undiagnosed with a bowel hernia, over a whole w/e because there were 2 doctors doing the rounds of 120 patients, holding the fort until Monday morning in the Norfolk and Norwich.

Ditto people we spoke to whose dd had an operation on a Friday, was discovered fri afternoon to be allergic to the pain-relief she was give...and no pain-relief doctor back on shift until Monday.

Do not have an operation or an undiagnosed illness on a friday, if you can help it!

always good to hear someone has had a good experience

it is a lottery these days though

Hope you're alright mrsr. Totally agree with your OP (except that my maternity care was also very good).

Blu - my mother has cancer, and when she was diagnosed she asked the oncologist (very eminent) whether there would be any benefit in being treated as a private patient, as he does both. He said that in terms of the treatment offered to her there would be no difference whatsoever. However, there are some things that the NHS struggles with while the private sector excels - speed of getting diagnostic scans spring to mind.

MrsR - awww it is nice to hear of happy NHS experiences. hope you are well

YANBU - most of my contacts with the NHS have been positive

Yep, TheBlonde, definitely a lottery. But I was really pleased to hear that my local NHS Trust (Stockport) came top of a list of maternity provision last week. I had two wonderful birth experiences there and I'm delighted that all the staff there have been given some recognition. Media all too quick to dish out the bad news stories - even the aforementioned survey focused on the worst-performing trusts rather than the best...

this is SO nice.
I am very proud to be an NHS employee.
My colleagues are professional, caring and kind. They think nothing of going that extra mile for people.
We all say that we treat people how we would wish our mum to be treated.
We are on BBC1 (i think) on a Monday night and Friday night....Blackpool Medics, it puts us in a very positive light and i am chuffed that people can see how hard we work because we really do.

I would agree that I have, on the whole, received excellent care any time we've used the NHS. I've had the odd crap GP consult and the usual dodgy HV advice (haven't we all?!) but overall when you need help there's always help there. My maternity care was absolutely faultless - I haven't got a bad word for the hospital or the staff.

In general complaints about the NHS seem to be about procedures or red tape, or individuals. As a whole I agree that we should be really proud of an inclusive healthcare system which operates to such high standards. And IME the people who work in the NHS are generally dedicated and caring.

When it works (which is the majority of the time) it is great.
When it goes wrong, it tends to do so spectacularly.
It tends to work for emergencies and specialist stuff. The more general, longer term care stuff seems to be where it falters.
Suspect this is down to funding and focus as emergency and specialist are high cost, high visibility and high risk areas, the other s are assumed to just be pottering away in the background.

Glad to hear it was such a positive experience.

Yes they were ever so caring after killing my daughter (hospital caught infection)
Then so thoughtful to take away my daughters organs during her post mortem to use for students to examine and "placing them in a bag marking them clinical waste and incinerating them when we had finished " (the consultants exact words) They only time they actually looked like they gave a shit was when I went to the media .

The were also outstanding at leaving me to it with no follow up care ,no counselling and a script for anti d's .

how distressing and harrowing for you, unimaginably horrible.

comfytoast - how terrible for you and your family

Comfytoast-very sad for your loss, I was not suggesting this is acceptable in any way and I cannot imagine the pain and sadness that you are feeling.

Yes when the NHS works it can be wonderful, but when it doesn't a family's lives are destroyed. I'm so sorry for you Comfytoast, I can't imagine how hard it must be for you.

YANBU.

I wish we could appreciate it a bit more and not treat it like it was just another consumer encounter.