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.

A likely story.

TBF this has happened to me, sprained ankle, x rayed, told to walk and mobilise, that was on a Saturday (many years ago, N. Devon District)
Monday morning a consultant reviewed the x ray and i was told "dont mobilise, needs to be plastered"

This also happened late last year to a friend of ours.

Very small chips or incomplete fractures can be very hard to spot, its understandable, especially with shortages of staff/orthopedic consultants.

BS.

NHS bashing for the fun.

What a twat.

Doesn't make sense at all. Sounds pretty shoddy changing the diagnosis.

Hmmm. Where did I say anything at all about my job being ‘the hardest’?! Check your reading skills!

The NHS is failing to deliver let’s be honest but not due to staff laziness on the front line or due to nurses and doctors “bimbling” about. How ridiculous!

Op your daughter has received good treatment.

Consultants are regularly asked to give a second opinion on X rays; they are incredibly difficult to read and tiny hairline fractures can be missed. Consultants are busy and non emergency cases such as your daughter’s will not be prioritised over more serious cases.

Great you’ve been recalled. There have been fantastic advances in the treatment of fine fractures. She’ll likely be fitted with a light weight boot and follow up assessment at a fracture clinic.

The NHS has not failed you and your daughter. This is just NOT an example of poor service in any shape or form.

Such nonsense.

It happens all the time - I fractured my ankle about 5/6 years ago and when I first went to A&E on a Thursday night 11pm, I was X-rayed and told it was just a bad sprain and sent home ... At 10am I was called by orthopedics as they had reviewed my film and there was a fracture and I needed to go back to the hospital. Went back and was strapped up, put in an air boot and given crutches that I had to wear for the next 3 months.

It happens all the time

This doesn’t mean incompetence. An orthopaedic consultant can only review an X-ray and offer a second opinion when they are available. Obviously in A and E emergencies take priority.

If it’s a case of waiting all night in hospital for an orthopaedic surgeon to analyse your x ray or to be sent home and re called back if a slight or incomplete fracture is detected then it’s common sense to opt for the latter. That is a safe option and the best use of resources.

thank you, @brokenankle- whatever. I'm in a quandary. I've done 19 years in the NHS. I'm 60. I've been dithering about retirement, given that I'm (with DH) in a position to do so. I'm not a nurse, I'm a radiographer. But, I'm done. I'm now surrounded, with post-Brexit 'overseas trained' staff; who are, frankly, dangerous.

But, you possibly don't realise, in your heightened emotional state, how fucking annoying it is to hear that ppl like you think we're all unconcerned, and chatting on our 13 hour shift, rather that leaping in and treating you, you, you... now!

But your post reminds me that I, with my 40 years experience, have had enough. I'm gone. Welcome to the Nigerians who will take my place. Lovely. But unqualified.

This is on you.

@Fordian was it necessary to call out a particular race of people? You stated your pointed which was noted.

There's many wonderful Nigerian staff who are competent if it's getting to that stage... you ought to retire.

I care about the NHS.
I think people who don't should be made to go to America, and take a good look at their healthcare system. You will come back here mega-grateful. Sorry your little one is ill but at least she's had an X-Ray & you're now at stage of waiting for results

@Fordian how is a Nigerian unqualified?
Anyone from overseas has to ensure their qualifications are our equivalent. If not they have to top up up their qualification. Without that they can't get registered with the NMC.
So I don't understand what you mean about Nigerians?????

Why didn't you go to minor injuries this time?

This is ridiculous and insensitive comment. Your daughter hurt her ankle and you are ranting about dead babies and mothers. On a parenting site. Wise up!

Free?! 😂

Free?! 😂@santastolemycat how is it free?

I assume pp means free at the point of care - the average person will pay £2700 per year (2020 figures).
Obviously some will contribute more NI others less, some none. Likewise, some will be heavy users and so on.

Cancer treatment from all the diagnostic tests, treatment (ops, chemo, radiotherapy, lines, drains, inpatient stays), pain killers, follow up scans for 5 years, outpatient appointments, doctors, nurses, physio, OT, CNS etc will cost hundreds of thousands, maybe more.

The biggest financial outlay for the NHS is probably type 2 diabetes (the life long prescription free treatment across all drugs) and all the complications that go with it.

I am not sure how much it costs to have a healthy baby in hospital but I have heard of people being give a huge bill when they delivered in America without insurance ($10 000? Don’t quote me on that).

So yes, the NHS is not free but the overall outlay is minimal compared with the costs of some of the most commons treatments and you don’t need to think twice about how to pay for it when you find a lump.
The downside to this is that the service can be abused.

The US system is not a good comparison but is always wheeled out. There are other very successful and far more efficient systems - we should look towards some of our European neighbours. I do feel that we need to radically overhaul the NHS.

I thought this was the usual procedure. When I took my child to hospital with a suspected fracture they said that it's reviewed at the hospital by a generalist. If they think it's just a sprain you get sent home. They said that it was then reviewed by a specialist, just in case anything has been missed, and the hospital will give you a call if so.

Yeah, try being in a&e resus, I was the other day and the man opposite me had a cardiac arrest, the staff never flapped at all, calm, all knew what they were doing, man taken to ITU after a successful resuscitation, everything resumed without anyone taking a few minutes to gather their thoughts. All other patients including myself saw professionalism and care. Totally different than being sat in paeds for 120mins with a turned over ankle!

You really are entitled.

The trouble with the UK is the notion that you cannot say anything negative about the NHS. If this is the case, how are problems ever addressed? While a short wait in a and e isn't anything major, most people are waiting 18 hours in ambulances and can't get seen and dying in corridors. Infection control is out the door and you go in now with in thing, you die from something else you catch when you go in. It's a mess and keeps me awake at night. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the amazing people who work there, but after my mum just died at home I'm sat feeling grateful it wasn't in a hospital bed from covid or c diff like a lot of my friends parents have done, after being admitted for a completely different issue

I don’t agree that people can’t say anything negative about the NHS.

The frustration is that instead of people thinking critically about how and why the NHS is failing patients- gross mismanagement and underfunding to name a couple of reasons- you read accounts like these where patients are jumping to blame the overworked underpaid staff on ground level. Most of whom will go above and beyond for their patients and are abused by the public (particularly in A and E departments)

Nurses for example are leaving the profession in their droves for these reasons; there is a crisis in understaffing.

To add, I don’t think op and her dd were failed by the NHS at all in her example.

Attended A and E ; triaged, referred to paediatrics, offered biscuits and crisps by a nurse who saw them waiting, examined, x rayed and sent home within about 2 hours.
Re called the following morning when an orthopaedic consultant had reviewed the x ray, treated and provided after care.

What the fuck is the complaint?