To think the state of the NHS is depressing

[ChatterMonkey]

Currently in A&E with dp, hes vomiting and cant keep anything down, getting more and more dehydrated as we wait, but apparently they cant even give a bag of fluid until hes seen a doctor, which could be around 9 hours wait...

Its been ongoing for a while now, he was in on Friday with the same thing, and although he got seen and got fluids faster, the ward had no pillows, the nurses were all apologising for it, but said there werent enough in the hospital.

The staff are all lovely and being as helpful as they can, but it just shows how under funded it all is..

Nope, all they did was check we had our own, and that was the end of it. I assume we'll have to take it home ourselves to dispose of 🤷🏻‍♀️

From an ex paeds a&e nurse of 10years ask for a syringe and do 5 or 2.5mls every 5 minutes set a timer on your phone. Tiny sips are gonna be more volume than you think. Once he’s gone 30-60mins without vomiting go up by 2.5ml. That’s the standard approach for oral rehydration in paeds

The NHS wastes money on diversity managers as well

It’s not underfunded. It’s a money pit. No amount of money would ever be enough for this institution. We spend £200bn which is over 11% of GDP on healthcare in this country, in line with the EU.

Far more of the budget should be directed at promoting healthier lifestyles and getting people to be more proactive about their own fitness and health. But no government seems to want to actually do this. The odd photo of Boris Johnson jogging, and adverts featuring jolly fat people enjoying exercise aren't working, funnily enough. The Tories don't want to upset the very powerful food industry.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know what level of doctor would be wearing red uniform/scrubs? Not seen this colour before, and he defo introduced himself as doctor, just not sure what level this would be?

Not that it matters of course, he was lovely, talked through with us what he thought cause was and the treatment plan, and now dp has had some oromorph and is about a quarter through a bag of fluid, and is asleep so has clearly taken the edge off.

Although this just highlights how depressing it all is. All the staff are so nice, and working so hard and doing their best. But the resources, both time and physical resources are limiting them.

Difficult to say as many doctors will buy their own scrubs in whatever colour they fancy instead of using hospital issued scrubs 🙈 I worked with a doctor who wore lime green because he wanted to!

When I came back to nursing to give vaccinations - covid, was retired I bought my own scrubs (nicer quality/colour) because the only available ones were XXXL. I’m 4ft 10 and size 8 - go figure. So the doc may have bought his own.

Ahh ok i hadnt realised that was a thing! I had thought they needed to wear specific colours for different positions (nurse vs nurse practitioner etc etc) but i suppose makes sense if it was his own scrubs!

And potentialy another depressing indicator of the state of the nhs if staff are buying their own scrubs..

Red scrubs isn’t about a grade of doctor . It is often about different clinical areas. At my hospital red is cardiology. At my last hospital red scrubs were for theatre use and you were supposed to change into blue in the rest of the hospital…

They can’t give clinical care like a drip without a nurse to give / supervise that care and a doctor to assess and prescribe it…

Nursing and support staff usually wear colours that indicate their banding (provided by the Trust). Doctors have scrubs readily available to them, most wear hospital issued scrubs but some prefer to buy their own in colours of their own choosing, it’s nothing to do with funding.

I’d prefer pink scrubs, personally, but nobody else fancied it when we ordered new ones recently

@WetBandits believe me the only available scrubs were xxxl!

Oh I believe it! I’ve done my time in enormous clown scrubs because that’s all we had left some days 😂

ChatterMonkey, it isn't underfunded, it's oversubscribed due to treating people with poor lifestyle choices who expect the NHS to cure them of the various consequences of said choices.

WestwardHo1 , well said. You are absolutely right.

I work with older people and they are so disillusioned currently. Many don't seem to be even being put on waiting lists for hip/ knee operations, they avoid their Gp's because it's so hard to get appointments etc and I've come across an alarming number recently who have been discharged from hospital with bed sores etc. I worked for many years as a Nurse myself and pressure area care was so drilled into us that I don't understand how this is happening so often now I can only think lack of staff. I came across one patient this week where the drs wanted to admit him for pneumonia but there were no beds so he was sent home ! My dd is due to start a Nursing course in September and I worry for her.
On the other hand I had to go to an out of hours centre this week with an excruciatingly painful embarrassing condition which flares up and the pain is unbearable. I rang 111, was spoken to within minutes, directed to the nearest out of hours at 3am. There was a two hour wait to be seen but the Nurse practitioner was so kind and compassionate, thorough and made me feel at ease. the only issue I had was that she was meant to give me some anesthetic gel to get me through the pain for that night until I could get to a pharmacy and she gave me the wrong thing and I didn't realize until I got home that it was just lubricating gel she had given me rather than an anesthetic gel. Unfortunate but I guess these things happen and fortunately not a worse drug error !
I've also been on three of these two week pathways to rule out cancer over the past few years and even during covid, I had the necessary investigations swiftly. Had to have an endoscopy a few weeks ago and was done quickly and staff were lovely. My GP is great , compassionate etc. My dh gets expensive medication to control his asthma delivered to our door monthly at the cost of 1k a time for the injections that give him a better quality of life. We are grateful, this helps him continue to work.

This is why we never employ UK medical personnel, they think this is OK. The primary care clinic I am currently managing, open 12 hours as GP/family health and 24 hours as MIU/first response would do this.

First, isolate in case of infectious disease
Vital signs
Put up fluids to make patient comfortable and IV anti emetic/paracetamol if applicable
Baseline bloods and ECG
Call on call Dr to assess
Either continue fluids and observe for 2 hours or 999 to ED depending on suspected cause and conditoon
If discharged by us, ensure patient is hydrated and able to tolerate a snack and give FU in 24 hours

Who the fuck leaves someone for 9 hours and why would you not give fluids to a dehydrated patient no matter what their bloods say? Barbaric. So sad you think its normal and are actually grateful for this shambles.