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?

@blossomtoes may I just say that when I had a mentally unwell teenager, the greatest frustratuon was not that suppprt wasn't reasonably readily available, but also that when we said we were able to pay, the response was, "this is the NHS and we can't and don't recommend private providers, even when they work for our team and also do.private work. Google therapists/psychiatrists on the internet and find your own". CAMHS and the GP kicked us between a rock and a hardplace and gave the imoression they wouldn't help because they didn't believe some young people shouldn't be helped because their parents were able to pay. No explanation about clinical etoquette, all rather political. As lay people we were not equipped to trawl through hundreds of therapists and to pick one and that in otself was a safeguarding issue but what did the NHS care.

Presumably because if they made a recommendation and it all went tits up you could sue.

I was working for the NHS when the Tories started privatising the service, the difference was felt very quickly. It was as if a lot of the humanity you could appreciate in NHS decisions was overtaken by a desire to manage it a corporate cut throat business.

The privatisation soon appeared to make things more expensive but as we know… the lady party is not one for turning, isn’t it? And don’t start me on Agenda for Change, it crippled a lot of the service.

No i am not saying that. I am saying he has further sold out the NHS. Its already been underfunded, but he - imo - has done a deal to make it far worse and private health care more profitable.

That’s the most ridiculous and baseless conspiracy theory I’ve seen in a very long time. How does that work with Burnham’s ambition to improve healthcare by integrating it with social care and eliminating or regulating the private sector? I keep forgetting it’s the school holidays.

😩 I no longer care

As indeed we could within the NHS. The point is that if the NHS can't or won't help vulnerable young people, parents need good signposting to safe alternatives. For example, chose a therapost who is x registered, who works with an umbrella organisation, etc. It's hardly rocket science. Young Minds and Mind manage it.

SG?

It’s more because it is wildly unethical to recommend your mates for private work from within the public sector. That is particularly true if you’re talking about vulnerable people with mental health problems.

Singapore one of the best in the world

Spit on again oatsotoga. I worked for a CSU which Wes also decided on a whim had to close, despite the amazing work they do (often not patient facing, but vital to the running of the NHS). I left as redundancy wasn't worth waiting for. My ex colleagues (corporate) have spent the best part of a year working their asses off trying to find homes for all the essential services, farming people out to other NHS organisations, while knowing they won't have a job at the end of it. And to what end? And in the ICB they just let anyone take voluntary redundancy who applied. No plan whatsoever, they just had to cut WTE. I feel sorry for those left to pick up all the pieces.

I was assuming Senegal, which would have been a questionable choice.

They aren't allowed to ... especially in nursing.. it goes against nmc code of conduct as it may be seen as promotion (Me recommending the same therapist... conflict of interest etc )

Not unreasonable at all the NHS is so understaffed now due to so many reasons. Pay being one of them. My aunt works for the NHS and she posts on FB quite a bit how they are understaffed, underpaid and over worked. I feel for them I do. I work in care not nhs but couldn't do what they do.

I don’t think so. They stopped the NHS bursary for homegrown HCPs. My own mum and sister were able to train as nurses under the old bursary system because it paid for them to do so. Once this was stopped, we had to rely on the four corners of the world. Priorities were totally wrong. It was cheaper for the NHS to do this. I’m sick of people saying immigration hasn’t contributed to the complete mess that is the NHS. It’s absurd. Of course it has had a huge impact.

Yes absolutely. I’m also in the midlands.

This is what happens when a country stops investing in its own. Why did they cut the NHS bursary to train as HCPs? Oh yeah, because importing from the four corners of the world was cheaper for them.

However it wasn’t a hostile policy against immigrants.

“The explicit aim—stated directly by May in 2012—was to "create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants" to make life so difficult that individuals without legal status would choose to voluntarily leave the country.”

Illegal immigrants. There is a big difference.

Interesting that your original comment that I was replying to got deleted. I just went back to see if it was you and it has gone!

They are not given funding. They have student loans and pay for the privilege of a MH nurse degree. They get a measly 5k a year.

The old NHS bursary system whereby you were paid a living wage, and more if you had dependents, made it very attractive for someone to train as a midwife or nurse in this country. Midwifery courses under this system used to be very competitive.

They shouldn’t be taking out loans from student finance and working for free on placement. It’s exploitation, and it discriminates against older candidates who often bring vast amounts of life experience into the roles of nursing, midwifery, occupational health, paramedic science etc etc. Of course the NHS is going to import registered nurses when the process of becoming one in this country is so shockingly shit. I know a 19 year old currently training to be a midwife, and alongside placement blocks where she doesn’t get paid, she also has to work in a shop. Many of her peers on other courses are absolutely not living her student lifestyle right now. She isn’t even guaranteed a job at the end of it, but she will be saddled with debt.

Yes it got deleted. Pathetic.

Yes. I guess that's why the comment got deleted, because it was pathetic.

I know a number of MH nurses who qualified in the last five years who have moved to bank work as pay is often better and also gives them the freedom to move about easily

too many have be subjected to aggression and violence and have not been adequality protected due to not having enough more experienced staff around

even the pension is not such a good draw for NHS staff now as it once was

Argh 'Spot on' obvs 🤦‍♀️

And this, in itself, is wrong IMO. Letting the rest of the world pay to train medical staff then stealing them.