97 Yr old Gran waiting 8 hours for an ambulance with a broken hip!

[LoveCherryTree]

My Gran, 97 years of age, given to this country in World War, paid her taxes and NI all her life. She fell today in her home at 12pm, she has a broken hip, my Father called 999 and it is now 8pm and still no ambulance.
She can’t go to the loo as she can’t get up, my Father who has Parkinson’s and my Uncle, who has throat cancer, both in their 70’s, sitting with her.
This country is broken beyond repair, I even tried to get a private ambulance and they said that it won’t make a difference because all the front line ambulances are sat at the hospital with patients inside because they can’t get them into the hospitals….I despair, so it’s better for my 97 year old Gran to be in agony and wet herself, I just can’t believe it! Anyone know a member of parliament I can talk to about this? I’m utterly disgusted!

The NHS is literally on its ass. I have been waiting since 2019 for gynae surgery.

I hope your nan gets seen soon x

OP wasn't expecting priority treatment.

She was merely pointing out that her Gran had always paid her taxes and was an upstanding citizen in contributing to this country.
Now she needs a bit of help back, it's not forthcoming.

I agree, everyone deserves treatment, obviously.
However OP did say her gran has paid into the system and yet others haven’t and get better treatment…..
I’m Just pointing out that’s irrelevant

Gosh this is so sad, your poor gran. Can't believe this is Britain in 2024.

''Bed Blocking'' really seems to be a problem.

My lovely neighbour had a fall at home, 92yrs pre covid era {In summer, I'd have heard her call, had she called, as my windows were open}

She also had an emergency call button around her neck.....

She had lain there for 48 hrs, in silence- she wouldn't allow ANYONE to have a key, so her cleaner who came on the Monday, called the alarm with her daughter who lived an hour away as she couldn't get in.

Neighbour taken to hospital, and died there within a couple of days.

Her daughter said ''Mum wanted to go... she never would have called {Too proud}

I know she'd fallen before, and had a dread of living with her daughter, as she wanted to be independent.
It's a big problem with the elderly.

Huge hugs for your gran op

Hopefully she'll be on her way soon

💐💐

Labour will NOT fix it by throwing money at the NHS!!!

We need to strip out whole tiers of useless expensive managers, arseholes who WFH pontificating on stats, overloading front line staff with their demands.

Diversity Advisors ....useless in the most diverse workforce in the nation.
TO SAVE MONEY!

A new IT system that effectively communicates across ALL the NHS.

Bring back the hands on, Matrons for each speciality, surgical units, medical units.
Contract out (as we are already doing) as much of the quick through-put, easy surgery as possible, cataracts, hernias, carpel tunnels.

Cararacts are now done in bespoke theatres set up on industrial estates....and a LOT more operations could be rapidly done just like this.

Reopen cottage hospitals for rehab and assessment to liase with local services for returning people back home and emptying hospital beds.

Open more wards.... the population has grown exponentially but hospital beds haven't kept up.

Increase access into nursing without requiring a degree. Enrolled nurses (2 year hand on training)were the wonderful mainstay of past years in the NHS.

Subsidised creches/ nursery places on hospital sites for staff members children.

And all foreign born nationals should be required to have private health insurance.
A credit card taken prior to any treatment.

Time we stopped being the NHS for the world and looked after our own.

It's tragic to see how badly the NHS is now run. I'm so sorry OP from an ex very disheartened employee.

That is exactly the sort of knee jerk response that gets us nowhere.

it is in fact expert opinion that the NHS has been starved of money. It spends far less per capita than comparable countries.

research also shows that degree nurses outperform non degree nurses, and nursing today is a far more complex and skilled job (I despair of people who think modern nurses just think they're "too good" for bedpans. No, they just have too much work to do and that's why HCAs are doing the basics that don't require long and expensive training.) The NHS' problem is not a nursing shortage. It's a shortage of nursing jobs or decent wages because there is no money to pay them. So British trained nurses go to Canada and Australia and the UK turns round and poaches them from elsewhere.

bed blocking is an issue, but there needs to be somewhere for people to go.

Yes, there's some shortage of beds (NHS utilisation is exceptionally high) but you cannot compare it to decades ago. There's more emphasis on keeping people out of hospital, on shorter hospital stays, and on doing procedures and operations as day cases. We simply don't need the same number of beds per capita as we used to.

It’s how I read it too! Think there’s a bit of back pedalling now! Why else was it put in inverted commas?

Yes me too, why would saying someone developed chest pains automatically mean they had a heart attack ?

I agree ,totally irrelevant in the triage system and so it should be.

Genuine question

Would it be better to have a private system funded through insurance for those who can afford it NHS for those who can't? Wouldn't that free up money/space for nhs?

soveryyhv Who pays for the NHS then?
I think a major problem is people have been encouraged to be selfish.

So many people, myself included, can’t get a doctors appointment. Yet last week I worked 7 days and will pay tax and NI on my earnings.
I do not agree with having to pay twice, as it’s always the working person who is screwed over. Never the very rich or the benefits class. Yet those groups get access to what the working person is paying for. Dh is waiting to be seen for a serious medical condition. I asked him if we should consider paying to go private but dh says we cannot afford it.
I won’t have the luxury of being able to retire at 60, I will still be paying tax into the system.
I know several young people who have medical degrees. None of whom work for the NHS. As a previous poster said, they have chosen to work abroad citing better pay and conditions.

Did an ambulance come OP?
how’s your Gran doing?

Laughs in Welsh.

No, Labour will do no better.

I'm sorry OP. It is disgusting. Last year an elderly gentleman broke is hip just outside our Church. We waited 6 hours for help from the ambulance service. After 6 hours the operator rang back and told us to get him to hospital ourselves if possible. A local tradesman helped and we were able to put the gentleman on an old door and load him into the back on transit. The NHS is a third world service.

So you artificially pushed up the list? That's not the answer.

What's happened OP??

@knitnerd you have hit the nail on the head. HCA'S are inexpensive and swift to train. Regrettably they "do tasks" rather than nurse. They have not been trained to nurse, on the wards like the old SEN's.

Degree qualified nurses, some of them, are doing more technical jobs that require higher skill levels but again they do not provide old fashioned nursing care.

Who in the system is nursing nowadays? Calming a distressed patient, observing by look, touch and smell, communicating articulately with patients, relatives and doctors. I haven't seen much of that going on in recent years.

@LoveCherryTree hi OP, thinking of you and your Gran this morning . Hope she is now in hospital and getting treatment .

This is not the fault of the ambulance or nhs the govt keeos cutting their budgets an organisation cannot work effectively with no cash flow the nhs ambulance fire and police are trying their best and critical people are not helping only go to mp if you hzve a solution to the problem or you will be disappointed

My MIL has been in and out of hospital recently and they discharge her when they like. She hasn’t been fit to come home at any point, and we’ve said tbat so they’ve just sent her home oh hospital transport the next day. They haven’t done any assessments to see if suitable care is in place, and they know she’s the main carer for FIL who has dementia.

Last time she was admitted DS2 took her. He’s a charge nurse who is currently doing his masters degree in advanced practice. He spoke to the doctors about MIL, the registrar agreed with him about what she needed as did the nurses and the ward manager. We all breathed a sigh of relief thinking we were getting somewhere, then 48hrs later along came the consultant who decided she was fit for home so that was the end of that.

SIL had to arrange a couple of weeks in a care home as respite, at an absolute fortune, because MIL wasn’t safe to be at home on her own with FIL (he had to go too) as no family was available to look after them.

It’s a complete contrast to when my Nan was in hospital in 2007 but couldn’t go home until she’d been assessed for care. She didn’t go back to her home in the end, she went to a care home because she had dementia and kept falling so wasn’t safe. From being admitted after a fall, having the assessments and finding a care home place it took less than 2 weeks. Yet people say it was the same back then, it wasn’t.

Yes it is irrelevant. But what is relevant is that too often when one interacts with the NHS, everyone is treated like sh1t and as if they are fully paid up members of the great unwashed with fewer brain cells than an amoeba. It should be the reverse and everyone should be treated respectfully and kindly.

If the NHS treats everyone the same, it should be in accordance with the highest common denominator not the lowest.

I've been twice to our local A&E. It is splattered with zero tolerance notices about patient behaviour. Sadly, having observed significant rudeness from staff towards patients (and other staff, including ambulance crew) I am surprised more staff aren't given a punch on the nose. Whilst I don't condone violence, I can understand why it happens in light of some of the foul behaviour which is frankly provocative.

I hope she finally got to the hospital, OP. I've been thinking of her today.

In my 30y as a consultant, I have seen different governments muck up different parts of the NHS. Even as a labour voter, I was not impressed by the PFI contracts.

One main issue I see is that community services have been destroyed. Without community support for physical and mental health, people’s health deteriorates and admission to hospital increases.

And don’t get me started on the ARRS initiative and PAs.

I do think there is waste in the NHS. We definitely need high-quality managers. There is no way a big organisation like an NHS trust could function without them. But I have huge issues with some of the posts that have been created. I firmly believe in embracing equality and diversity, but some of the initiatives have been a waste of time, especially seeing some of the low quality people that we have recruited in our trust. A good manager however can transform a service and we need them. The procurement service is restrictive, expensive and inefficient. We need to let staff order what they need without filling in forms for just one costly provider.

A few years ago in my trust, when we improved the CQC rating, all staff got a goodie bag. It was full of useless stuff with the trust logo on that I would never use. What a waste of money.

However, I do see the biggest problem with the NHS now as a lack of compassion and kindness. However, busy and stressed I am I will never take it out on patients or relatives or colleagues. Having seen how some of my NHS colleagues talk to patients, I am disgusted and appalled. There is no excuse for such harsh, dismissive and sometimes downright cruel behaviour to vulnerable patients. We should talk politely even to the rude patients, whilst being firm about boundaries. I will never excuse rudeness to patients and call it out every time, however much the NHS is crumbling around us.