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’ve been nursing 37 years albeit in primary care, and am out this year, retiring. So so glad. I can’t do it anymore. Badly underfunded and we prolonging very old life in vast numbers, often frail, demented and in poor health.

Absoulutely this. 👏👏👏👏👏👏

They train nurses specifically for export in the Philippines.

The Tories followed Labour who,if you remember the Labour Chancellors comment, had left the coffers empty!
yhere had been a financial crash in 2008/9 and we bailed out those poor bankers so there was nothing left and austerity was the planned fix - unfortunately nothing had picked up and we have had 14 years of being skint
we now have crap justice system, crap prison service, crap nhs, crap education
thankfully the benefits have not been cut

That’s because austerity was a rubbish idea. It’s just about the only thing economists agree on.

The reason we don’t have a pipeline of consultants is not med school places - more than enough - it’s lack of specialty training places . We have unemployed resident level doctors

I’m sorry you had such a bad experience. My father is over 80 and went to A&E recently with extremely low oxygen levels.
He was put on an acute medical ward and spent 24 hours on a chair because there was no bed. He has very swollen legs that need to not be low down so this was not ideal.They are completely overrun.

Nevertheless, staff are run ragged but you are not being treated
Letter to Matron, make a fuss demand to go home, big complaint absolutely necessary.

Pathetic because our population increased at a rate, whereby local public services and the NHS were stretched beyond belief? And also particularly applicable in certain cities whereby they got “more than their fair share” dumped into concentrated areas?

Wow!

Pathetic indeed.

I do agree. Also, I know a few. They don’t feel like MH nurses, they feel like substance abuse nurses. Many of the individuals occupying inpatient beds are either people who have induced psychosis via ingesting large amounts of cocaine etc, or foreign men with incredibly severe trauma backgrounds.

Susan in the community is forgotten about, because she’s not a danger to the public. It’s a mess. Care in the community also has a lot to answer for.

And then claiming “oh but the NHS wouldn’t survive without foreign workers”. I really beg to differ. They have not invested in home grown training pathways. They cannot be arsed to fund it.
What did we do before mass immigration? The NHS had its golden era. We didn’t need to import nurses from the Philippines.

The Trust I worked for 20 odd years ago absolutely did.

I’m sure. But not to the extent we now rely on foreign nurses. Removing the NHS bursary was disastrous for nurturing nurses of our own. It’s not pleasant or acceptable going to a British hospital and facing repeated language barriers when you’re vulnerable/in pain/elderly etc.

The NHS nursing bursary has been restored.

Really?

Yup.

https://www.nurses.co.uk/blog/career-development/do-student-nurses-get-nhs-bursary-how-you-can-apply-it

5k are you being serious? That is pathetic. My mum qualified as a nurse back in 1999, and with three dependents, received a bursary of around 18-20k each year. She also did NOT have to take a loan from student finance. I’m sorry but 5k can hardly be called a bursary. They really do earn that alone when on placement.

5k a year? Lol. Hardly a bursary.

It’s still a bursary. It’s exactly what it was before it was stopped, which was only for a year or so. It’s not intended to support dependents, it’s to compensate for student nurses’ inability to work.

Your mum was clearly receiving benefits as the bursary was never that high.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1998-07-07/debates/2b3ea85c-dfa4-4b13-99e4-521e840115ce/StudentBursaries

She was never receiving benefits I can assure you. You got more on the bursary for dependents which encouraged her and many other women to retrain as it was financially viable. If you are a student nurse and you cannot work 5k is an insult. My mum also didn’t need to pay 9k a year for the privilege of training. You certainly will not convince me this country has done enough to train people in this country. 5k a year when you’re on a 40 hour placement for many weeks of the academic year, is a complete piss take and you will not convince me otherwise.

I’ve just given you a link which proves you’re wrong. If your mum had £20k a year she was claiming benefits.

In the 1999–2000 period, the NHS bursary included dependants’ allowances, and the amount could increase according to the number and age of the dependants. This wasn’t simply a flat-rate payment for having children.
A 2000 House of Commons debate specifically records that nursing students could receive a dependants’ allowance of roughly £1,700–£3,000 per year, depending on the number and age of dependants. There was also a separate additional payment for single parents.
So, for example, a student nurse with several children could receive:

• their basic NHS bursary
• plus an allowance for their dependants
• with the dependant element increasing according to the number/ages of children
• and potentially a single-parent addition if applicable.

The above 👆 having benefited many nurses with children at the time, who did bring life experience into the role, and whom ended up contributing to years of work in the NHS,
some of them still working to this day. It enabled my own mother upward social mobility at the time and a rewarding, longstanding career. We simply don’t invest like that anymore, we just import.

Many, many years of Conservative government.

You may believe that if you wish. Shame.

I see various comments on sustaining life in the elderly. Care is rationed for the elderly - it doesn’t matter how healthy or active they were prior to a health issue, treatment is often denied because of age. My dad, 35 years older than me can manage much more in a week than I can. People I shopped for during lockdown can manage more than me. I am now a complex patient following all the health issues stemming from a covid infection. I’ve learned that there are a ridiculous number of pointless appointments that seem to serve no purpose or that nothing is done for even when diagnosed. A recent example is it took five separate appointments to get a specific blood test - urgently specified by the doctor at the walk in centre.