To wonder what's happened to the NHS?

[Chefpig]

I went for surgery this afternoon. Waited three hours in a waiting room because there were no beds available. Uncomfortable, especially with pain, but couldn't be helped.

I expressed a wish to the anaesthetist for GA after much trauma from a attempted and failed spinal anaesthetic in the past. Anaesthetist told me that a spinal would be much better for recovery and I should at least trust them and give it a go. Being brave and talked out of a GA, I gave it a go. It was horrific. I have a real issue with things being put where I can't see and it was painful, especially when the electric shocks (?) started on one of my legs. In tears, I asked for a GA. I was told it was very near to being ready and I agreed to keep going with the spinal but after the second electric shock and me in complete panic mode, I begged for a GA and the lovely, wonderful nurse who held me throughout was fierce with the anaesthetist and insisted she stop and give me a GA. That nurse was an absolute angel and held me throughout. I'm now in absolute agony with pain in my leg. Not my surgery site - that's fine!

Back on the ward in a single room, I was left for over two hours without being asked if I wanted drink and food. I eventually buzzed to ask. I had obs done on the recovery unit but not since I've been back in my room and its now five and a half hours after surgery and theres only been two brief visits to me as I buzzed to use the loo with assistance. I waited for painkillers for an hour (not nurses fault at all, she's so busy) and my own tablets haven't been taken care of despite someone earlier saying they'd let the senior nurse know about them.

My details whiteboard hasn't been filled out (dont know if that matters) and the blinds in my room have blinds missing so no doubt across the way has seen my knickers and bare boobs several times.

Staff are absolutely lovely on the ward. They're They're doing their best but I can tell they have very little to give. They need my bed more than I do for a bloody good rest! They're run ragged. AIBU to expect our NHS to invest in staff and their wellbeing so they can care for patients better?

I agree though with our Trust the lower-middle management work their arses off and it’s the higher management who are never visible and just seem
to be sat in meetings, looking at figures and making extremely poor decisions on a hefty salary.

What do the Philippines get out of it?

The nurses send money home to their families. It boosts the economy. £100 or $100 is worth far more there.

This is why I insist on Choose & Book to my local private hospital, the care you get is five star, no waiting for meds or food, press your buzzer & it's like they were waiting outside the door for your call.

@Blossomtoes, there is an issue thought. Whilst I have no issue with nurses from abroad, I have a significant issue with indigenous British nurses launching into diatribes about how lucky Brits are to get free covid jabs and other free treatments, when the foreign staff worry about their families overseas and sending money for them to pay for treatments. It's unsolicited information and it's tone deaf. Why do nurses think people get free NHS services, we don't. There seems to be a tremendous attitude problem.

We pay for the NHS through taxation. Overseas nations have different health systems and different levels of taxation.

I work in the NHS and second this.

From the website link provided:

”Is Funding Today The Same As The Original Bursary?
No, the new funding model pays less to Students than the one that was scrapped in 2015.”
It isn’t even half of the annual tuition fee.

37 years as a senior clinician, I had to quit as the stress was literally killing me and I ended up being very unwell with cardiac issues. I was being managed by a 24 year old who was allegedly qualified as a HCP but didn't even know what MND was and had no clue about triaging.
Another manager was off sick for months then would come back for a couple of months and go off again. He was completely taking the piss.
Forever piling more on more on clinicians so that they can complete their masters modules and be seen to have "changed things".

Doesn't the ward have a lounge of some sort? I had to wait to see a doctor for my discharge notes and medication (not in the UK) and they sent me to a lounge, with tea and coffee making facilities, to free up the bed.

Aging population may be under 20% but in average they need far more medical care, are more likely to be consuming medication long term and I’m sure you already know how much a nursing home is likely to charge a week.

I’m sure there are large aging populations around the Mediterranean, which are made even worse by the amount of people from other countries who choose to retire there.

Burnham is a snake oil salesman. Give it time!
Yvette Cooper took £300k from a mogul who’s been given NHS contracts.
That sticks but the MSM don’t cover it.

Baroness Mone defrauded the Gov of hundreds of £ millions during Covid. And so it goes on.

In Peterborough the main hospital was replaced by a new PPI one with several hundred less beds, in an area of huge demographic growth!
I never did think it made sense given the aging population, the closure of cottage hospitals, the closure of the psychiatric hospitals, and the exponential national population growth.

Theres so much pressure from all sides on the NHS and no clear thinking.

Ooooh… I love a good conspiracy theory, Hotshitmum. What did he sell for good press coverage? His soul perhaps? I think he is not keen on privatisation of public services.

Starmer had no chance, he was left with a shitload of issues no new goverment will be able to sort in decades. He paid for what the Tories left to rot.

As opposed to the Tories who received the biggest recession and financial crisis since the Second World War from Labour when they went into office?

It was a global event that began in the US. Obviously you know that but it suits your purposes to push an erroneous narrative. It doesn’t wash.

Does it change the fact that Labour handed over an economy in huge recession?

It certainly wasn’t the reason they sold off the gold reserve in boom years when gold was at an historic low.

The entire world was in recession. Painting it as the result of government ineptitude is simply misrepresentation of the facts. But you know that.

I really wish we could ditch the ‘he said - she said’ of modern party politics and get some politicians who would actually come together to fix our country before we go into total meltdown.

They seem to be able to team up all right to bring us neoliberalism and corruption.

Surely everyone can now see where Trump is leading. The most openly corrupt presidency ever, with his personal fortune growing more and more every day. So much for American led democracy.

Could it be experiences vary.

I will tell you my son had been diagnosed with a lung tumour. From referral to MRI is was 2 weeks, surgery rapidly followed. His recovery team was excellent, with nurses being outstanding and every single professional who dealt with him being aware of his needs. Within a week he was home and 7 years later he has an active and healthy life. He is a typical 7 year old. Zero health conditions.

In the US children are routinely aborted for my son’s health condition because insurance companies will not cover it. Parents are faces with going into debt by MILLIONS or a prying their baby.

So yes. The NHS has issues. It isn’t perfect and lots of times it falls below standards but it is still a life saver for many. We must invest.

That is irrelevant to the fact that the Tories still took on a country in a huge recession from Labour. You seem quite happy to blame the Tories for the economic problems caused by Covid lockdowns and furlough - things Labour not only supported but wanted more of.

“Events, dear boy, events”

Trump is in America?

Our own government ministers’ personal fortunes also seem to be growing by the day.

I was in surgery last year, it was a real eye-opener. I had excellent treatment and surgery, but the ward! what particularly stays with me was the woman who was claiming to be pain and could not eat. Every time the Surgeon’s came round, she was telling a story that she could not eat or drink. When the Surgeon’s left, she was jumping in a taxi and in her pyjamas to go to McDonald’s and when she was back in bed drinking Vimto and eating salt vinegar Pringles. The surgery could not be conducted because she was so overweight. I have to say it was one of the most dismal experiences of my life and the NHS is dealing with crazy people who won’t follow instructions or look after themselves . I am not surprised it’s on its knees

If so she should be told, surely, so she'd know to mention it, just like if you have an allergy you should tell them. I'd question that, so you know the actual details OP. But they do get people mixed up-I had a nurse talking to me about a procedure and they'd got me mixed up with another patient.

So, I trained as a nurse qualified in 1997, worked in cardiology an left as a then band F some years later and retrained and have worked in Frontline child protection ever since. If you want functioning public services they need to be funded. Years of austerity and outsourcing to private companies backed by middle eastern wealth funds means lots of public services have been privitised via the back door. Obviously the answer is to bring them back in house, accept this is impossible whilst paying these companies to ensure statutory duties are met means there are no funds for local authorities/the public sector to achieve this. At the same time, funding from central government has been cut year after year. This is the same for the police, probarion, the prison service, adult social care. We are now seeing years of under investment and not pissing of tax payers/voters. Something needs to change, I doubt it will and we will blame the tiny proportion of the population who are immigrants.

Yes. Britain copies America and follows its cultural developments fairly closely. We copied their attitude to wealth, we copied their privatization program, their extreme consumerist program, we copied their material culture, we even had their looks imported - plastic and large. I remember when working class culture used to laugh at the American culture, but the working classss have been disadvantaged ever since the 80s. So, surely everyone can now see the level of open corruption there, and one would hope that sensible people would reject that culture. But of course it’s an insanity.

Yep staff see this and similar tales. When we talk about entitlement of patients we are not kidding. Some out there genuinely believe the y are entitled to live like this and face no consequences to their health, because it’s their ‘choice’ not to!