No wonder the NHS is struggling - can't quite believe this!

[outpatient]

Today I went to the hospital. On the from door entrance there was a member of staff whose job it was to say "do you have an appointment, so you have any covid symptoms"

That's it. She's was being paid to do that. She was there all morning, just to say that. This is in addition to the receptionist that checks you in when you actually arrive,

Is this not bonkers? NHS is screwed if someone thinks this is entirely reasonable to pay someone to do this.

It is beyond saving, and likely not running out of money just making really shit decisions WITH the money

The volunteers at my local hospital are lovely. They are welcoming, helpful and polite.

The same can't be said of some of the receptionists in admin.

I suspect the volunteers want to be there, are retired and may have held fairly responsible jobs which have given them confidence whereas the adminstrators on little more than NMW don't want to be there and are generally ignored by those on higher grades.

I think EDI is extremely valuable. However I fail to understand how my local trust can spend money on an EDI director when the majority of staff address women with less courtesy than they address men. In my local hospital outpatients department the men are called as Mr John Smith and often then addressed as "Sir". The women are called as Jane Smith. I hear the guff about Ms, Mrs, Miss but it's easily resolved by not addressing the men as "Mr". Notwithstanding the fact that the man may not necessarily be Mr. They may well be Dr, Professor, Captain, Brigadier, Sir, etc., as indeed a woman may be a Dame or Commander.

In 2022 it is wholly unacceptable to address some people less favourably, or courteously, than others because of a protected characteristic.

It should be John Smith or Jane Smith. Sadly EDI directors on c£70 to £80k haven't worked it out and neither sadly have our drs ans nurses.

Same and I’ve headed up a finance function in one so have a pretty good idea of costs.
picking on something random like paracetamol is quite a siloed way of looking at things.

I'm hoping to spend a lot less time trying to deal with the NHS since DMIL died. A 20 year break would be great. I shall probably look for a private GP option. I don't need a GP often, but when one is necessary, I'll pay for a prompt service.

We can see our NHS GP the same day.
And if you have serious complex illnesses involving various teams, you need the NHS team approach.

This my mum had intravenous paracetamol yesterday when she presented with an acute infection and temperature.

Greeters at our local hospital sit at a desk at the en

If you don't fund the paracetamol, you're skimping on something extremely cheap by NHS drug standards, saving a tiny bit of spending on patients who are costing you a lot of money to keep as functional as possible. You're probably wasting some of the intended effect of the more expensive drugs you prescribe, by increasing the risk the patients will struggle to always have the paracetamol they need. You're causing levels of unnecessary pain and discomfort that the NHS would generally be willing to pay far more to alleviate than the cost of a few hundred paracetamol a month. You're also damaging the quality of documentation about those patients and making it harder for doctors to provide safe care for them. It's a false economy to refuse to provide paracetamol on prescription as a blanket rule.

Entrance and are volunteers, they wear badges to say they are, they are mostly retirement age. The person was probably a volunteer.

There are two hospitals in the city where I live, both of them use volunteers, especially the larger ones which has guides to direct people to all the different wards and clinics. When I had my first Covid jab the whole thing was made a really smooth process by volunteers organising and directing the queues.

Agreed but just one of many ways our money could used more wisely. It wasn't me that originally posted about paracetamol etc I just happen to agree with the general sentiment. There's lots about NHS finance that is not sensible. You want to fund it instead of ask people to pay 29p themselves then crack on. I don't have the figures but I suspect that most of it is not prescribed for those with chronic pain but for short term problems people could fund themselves.

My aunt used to do this, she was a volunteer.

We use ketamine a lot, ENT use cocaine.

Someone tell the DM we also use loads of heroin! Or we did until there were supply problems.

Most GPs refuse to prescribe items like this. As explained it will be in large amounts, for hospital use, or in a form not available over the counter.

I have to get prescribed aclovar for cold sores very close to my eye - a recurrent problem. It is a lower strength than the type you can buy over the counter so it does not damage eyesight. If you saw this on sheet you would think it is outrageous, but it is impossible to buy over the counter.

Paracetamol used IV post op and for acute infections. It's one of the most effective ways of managing post op surgery pain and fever. Was alot of that about last year. Something to do with a pandemic. Had major surgery last year it worked amazingly well and is cheap . The headlines are deliberately misleading. Patients in England don't get it on prescription unless for example you need a calpol prescription for nursery to use as the won't give unless prescribed . Yes.calpol is Paracetamol and included. In this.

Brilliant!!!

Processes and systems that cause inefficiencies it’s not a case of telling someone to go faster

ask anyone who works for the nhs is it efficient and does it waste money

They get about £155 a year for each adult registered. Not exactly huge funding levels to cover the complexity they have to deal with.

My DD has had many GP appointments
and monitoring this year. The hospitals ask GPs to do monitoring that at one time hospitals would have done.

Oh OP, this has clearly pissed you right off. I volunteered during covid doing something similar at my local hospital. I'd sometimes meet people who took offence at the, in their opinion, waste of money paying me. I have to admit, I did delight in telling them that I don't cost the NHS any money, I'm a volunteer.

The person on the door even if paid, may prevent covid spreading through the hospital. The knock on effect and cost of this is enormous. Longer patients stays, potentially if a patient catches it. And sick pay for staff, if they get it, which you obviously don’t agree with!

@outpatient Not had much to say since your original post (5 hours ago) have you?

I have experienced inefficiencies in the NHS in the last year. These were first my mum dying in hospital rather than at home as she wanted to. That was because they could not find carers in time. For health and safety she needed two people to do some tasks so I could not have looked after her alone. She was in hospital when she could have been at home costing the NHS more money. Social care issues to blame.

Relative on waiting list for an operation and became more ill. Was admitted to hospital and monitored closely until having an operation a week later. Money wasted having him in hospital for a week being closely monitored, but presumably they were operating on more urgent cases. Lack of qualified staff to blame and money.

DD who has a specialist genetic illness was seen by various people locally for one particular issue. None knew enough to really help which I said but was told they had to try local solutions before being able to refer her to a specialist in her illness in a different Trust. After many appointments, she was finally referred and quickly seen. This happened partly because so few people seem to have an understanding of her illness as it is incredibly rare.

You do realise that if a patient in hospital has paracetamol it has to be prescribed?

I've got two different hospitals for medical treatment.

Local one has a HCA/staff member in the room with the consultant crazy on every clinic.

Transplant hospital just the consultant.

It's nuts to me how my local hospital has such surplus staff sat listening to every word when they could be used on wards with less staff.

I think if the OP is so concerned about the cost of greeters, she should volunteer and help whatever costs there may be down!