NHS - this is why people don't care

[br0kenankle]

In peads A&E with daughter as went over on ankle and it swelled up like a balloon. Been hear 1 hr 30 mins. Paeds A&E not busy - maybe 3-4 patients. Staff everywhere - must be about 10 people milling around tbe computers doing very little. No wheel chair so have been carrying her round the hospital to X-ray , toilet etc.

Just seem to be on a go slow. If I were this slow at my job, i would be in trouble. 🤷‍♀️

Expect to get flames for this of course. We were sat outside X-ray for 10 mins and when they came out, they didn't realise we had been sitting there. I have a hungry grumpy in pain 6yr old.

Fully agree with the OP, in my experience of visiting friends and relatives in various different hospitals its always the same with the ward staff... maybe one of them actually going around attending to patients whilst another 3 or 4 of them will all just be sat around the central nursing station chatting and often moaning, usually with a large tub of Celebrations close to hand.

I can only speak as I find and they certainly never appear to be run off their feet to me.

The thing is, this whole 'the entire NHS is broken and overwhelmed' narrative is what's causing you to look and feel annoyed with what you see.

In reality - the entire NHS is not broken. There are many many aspects that are doing just fine (I work in one). We take our lunch breaks and have time for a chat as well as do our jobs. NHS staff are not slaves to the cause.

There are aspects of the NHS which are run off its feet and as a lay person going in to a hospital etc that's what you expect to see and then start critiquing when you don't. The NHS will never be able to win with the public.

Sorry op but you sound a bit cunty. Hope your DD’s alright regardless.

All public sector staff are entitled. They know they get paid regardless so why should they try? They don't have to compete with other rival companies like those in the private sector do. If they go over budget they can just ask for more tax/NI money next year.

Thats not really true, Government has cut back on pay, building mcte and staff over many years despite the NHS asking for more.

Pretty sure you were praising the NHS staff (along with everyone else) during the pandemic, did they not "try" then?

Didn't enough NHS and social care workers die of Covid in your opinion.

Do you lay awake at night thinking up goady statements?

Wondered how long it would be before a teacher came in telling everyone that their job is the hardest in the world! We all have tough jobs!

There will be ambulances queueing as well .don't forget. They are not keeping you waiting on purpose! Sorry your lo isn't well.but there may be seriously ill dc outside

As I said, I can only speak as I find... and in all my adult life as a patient or visitor I've never witnessed any nursing staff who are clearly "run off their feet"

I certainly don't expect them to be ran off their feet, worked into the ground and slaves to the cause but there must be some middle ground between that and the majority of them sitting around chatting socially for long time periods during their shift.

So, are people actually suggesting that they believe the care staff just decided to leave a 6yo in unnecessary pain for no reason?

Because that seems pretty unlikely to me. My guess is that they were busy with tasks that weren't apparent to the op.

And I can only assume the people saying they've never seen and understaffed team have no real contact with the NHS. I haven't seen a fully staffed team in a long time. I've recently moved from a comparatively well staffed team (only down a quarter of the nurses we should have) to a team that is badly staffed (only has half the nurses it should have). Every single service I know is understaffed!

Australia and NZ? Depending on the day, of course, and how busy the ED is

I wonder how much of the pressure on A&E would be eased if there were more minor injuries/urgent treatment centres?

The OP's DD's injury is exactly the sort of thing I would pop to minor injuries for. There's rarely a long wait (although weekend lunchtimes can be busy with football and rugby injuries), they have x-ray facilities and the images can be checked by staff at the district hospital a few miles away, they are very efficient and rarely seem under pressure.

My ex-husband worked a 90 minute drive away, and when he had a minor injury at work, he drove home to have it treated here when he saw that the waiting time in a Surrey A&E was 5 hours. He was seen almost straight away in minor injuries.

They're a bloody brilliant resource and if they ever tried to close ours I'd stage a sit-in.

Err, no! I regularly work above and beyond my role. Shut your face

Does anyone here actually suggesting people who hate A&E wait times go private consider the fact there are NO private A&E departments in the UK and only a few Private Urgent Cares, all in big cities?

Regardless, OP is ridiculous in their complaint. It's a sprained ankle ffs.

That's odd, because you aren't even allowed water at the nurses stations now never mind food. Definitely something to report to the IPC team because they would absolutely REAM them for this.

As for sitting down and chatting, how long were they sitting for? Did you ask if they were on a break? Were any of them responsible for your relative? Did you ask if they were maybe waiting on someone (usually a Dr) coming back with something for them that was relatively time sensitive, so to save an interruption and having to leave your relative halfway through attending them because relatives seem to think they should always be "doing something" they are waiting for that?

Or maybe, just maybe, they can sit for 5 minutes while it's relatively quiet? Or was someone in desperate need on the ward at that exact moment?

So much context needed on all these "lazy nurses slobbing about eating" claims. I like that it's never Doctors in these anecdotes by the way. Very telling.

The problem is though, that they don't say "Parts of the NHS are overwhelmed" they just say "the NHS is overwhelmed" and then put it on the general public not to overburden the NHS with their needs unless it is an emergency.

The issue there is that, when you do get to see the NHS working when you go into hospital, you don't see the overburdened NHS, you see the inefficient side of it - the side that has 12 nurses to a day unit with 5/6 patients and still taking an age to deal with them (as in my case) - and wonder if maybe the whole "NHS is in crisis" headlines are just hyperbolic hysteria.

This then leads to the rhetoric of "The NHS is just inefficient not overwhelmed" and then you get people who do work on those overwhelmed areas jumping in to insist it is overwhelmed and totally dismissing people who are saying otherwise.

The NHS can be overwhelmed but at the same time it can also be inefficient, so even if the OP is over exaggerating just how empty the paeds A&E was or how unbusy they all were it's no different to the way that some people insist every doctor is doing 48hr shifts without a loo break or chance to do anything but inhale a few dry crackers. The fact nobody can question any part of the NHS service they receive without having to appear grateful is why these inefficiencies continue - nobody seems to be allowed to say "there is room for improvement" without being shouted down and told they should shut up and put up.

Yes the OP might be unrealistic about time frames etc but at the same time, if you can be seen and out in 2.5 hours with inefficiencies you should be able to say "Yes I'm glad it wasn't 5/6/7 hours, but why couldn't it be 1.5hours?"

Can you really call having to eat as you walk to your next patient a break though?

If only OP could think critically. Or read and comprehend these replies from people who actually work in hospitals.

I'd love to see a Poll on "would you pay more to the NHS". I wouldn't be shocked to see a majority "yes I would".

Either way the Tories would still stick their fingers in their ears and yell "LALALA Everything is broken time to Privatise" than actually raise the NI slightly to allow us to help the NHS.

@BitchBrigade totally agree - I would pay more NI - cheaper than a private insurance policy

People struggle to empathise because of people like you. People with NO understanding of how an A&E works posting "there are only 4 patients but 10 staff sitting round doing nothing". Utter utter idiocy to say. The "little ward" you see will be for minors. You won't be able to see majors, or resus or isolation. You don't know what the staff who you can see are doing there or why they are there. You don't know if they've come down from other departments (very common). But instead, with your complete lack of knowledge, you post to hundreds of thousands of people basically saying the NHS staff are doing nothing, are lazy, and you've had a wait an awful 10 minutes for an xray.

YOU are the problem. Not the NHS.

Hard to believe but nurses don't always talk about their favourite TV programmes or what they ate for dinner the previous night. Sometimes, they actually discuss between themselves...their patients...what treatment they've received, whether X doctor should be called, whether they should be concerned about a number of bruises and fill a safeguarding report etc....

Well I have nothing but praise for those in paeds and A&E

Yes I have waited Hours waiting for a non urgent injury/illness to be dealt with.
But I have also had my children's lives saved by them. Including my 2.5week old baby, who had a cardio respiratory arrest and was taken straight by ambulance in to resus and had many different doctors and nurses working on him. Then he was immediately taken in to resus the time I took him in at around 18month, post-ictal and semi conscious. The fact he was seen so quickly saved his life at least once and was testament to how sick he was. On occasiona when I had to wait a couple of hours for him to be seen it was a relief to know he wasn't so sick.

Then many years later his younger brother was again taken straight in to resus when he was having a severe asthma attack and his life was in danger. Again he probably took up 2 doctors and several nurses who battled to.stabilise him. The most heartbreaking thing there was hearing them decide if he needed the one and only remaining PICU space more than the other child in resus. Can you imagine having to make a decision like that, because I don't think I can do it.

With both the children who were taken straight.to resus from.the ambulance you wouldn't have seen them.from the waiting room. You wouldn't have seen the radiologist either who came to resus with portable xray machines to xray their lungs and then immediately assess the xrays. That's radiologists that would have been taking xrays of broken or sprained ankles.if they weren't xraying baby's lungs.

You really don't know what's going on behind the closed doors to resus, and I really hope you never have to know

Yes our MIU can save a heap of time BUT it is only open 8 til 8 and they don't always have a radiographer on duty.

Another MIU was shut for long periods of time.... we ve also seen an overall reduction in the counties MIU due to lack of staff.

a fantastic community hospital no longer has over night beds, no staff.

As always... its cash for equipment and most importantly staff.

Hospital called. They have changed their minds. It is fractured. Back to hospital

Interestingly when my son hurt his arm last year, we called 111 and they booked him an appt at the minor injuries unit. He was seen, xrayed, and plastered up in about 1 hour. Maybe we should have done that instead .

I now think you’re a troll

The hospital have changed their minds on whether it was fractured or not? That doesn't make sense.