Hospital experience - is this how it always is?

[seeker]

My ds has a badly broken wrist, so for the first time I am having to deal with hospitals not as a visitor or someone having a baby.

I expected the mammoth waits. I expected it to be hot and busy. I expected the staff to be hugely competent and generally brilliant - and in all these expectations I was proved right.

However. On Friday we booked in, saw a doctor, went for and x ray and then saw a doctor. On Tuesday we booked in, saw a doctor, went to the plaster room to have the cast taken off, went to x ray, saw a doctor and went back to the plaster room for another cast. We never, and i mean never, saw the same person twice. And I had to tell the story every single time we saw someone. Nobody seemed to write anything down, there didn't seem to be any notes, we seemed to go back to the beginning every time - and I several times had to remind people about the facts of the case. I am an articulate, non-panic-y person and English is my first language. I just cannot imagine how somebody who wasn't any of these things would manage. Is this how it always is?

Sadly it is often like this due to the shift patterns worked by junior doctors and the cover arrangements which senior doctors are required to adhere to.

There will be notes but, as a doctor, I know I often ask patients questions which they will already have answered many times to other people.. It helps me to get a feel for the situation, allows a little bit more human interaction and is also a bit of a safety check. For example health staff ask frequently about allergies - better to be safe than sorry. Sometimes it's quicker to ask than to find the right place in hideous hospital notes or read difficult handwriting. This may not apply in your current situation but may explain it a little.

Hope ds feels better soon. And thanks for saying something nice about NHS staff

When my 3 sporty boys were younger,the local fracture clinic and I were on first name terms because of the amount of visits I made it was always like that, back and forward from x ray to plaster room ect.
I think also, broken bones in children are horrible for them, and worse for the parents,but they do mend. Last year my ds1 nearly died after a tooth extraction,and the same hospital saved his life .
we were surrounded by doctors and they all knew what they were dealing with and what had happened,I think in a serious situation you would find things very different.
Hope your ds feels better,my boys were always proud of there plaster casts once the pain had gone.

I'n not criticising - and the staff were brilliant (And my ds has a fracture that has a potential impact on the future growth of his arm and hand - so it is incredibly important that they get it right) I was just concerned that I was fortunately in a position to tell them what was going on - many people wouldn't, and without adequate notes problems could occure. For example, we were sent to have his plaster taken off for an x-ray, and it was ony when it was half way off that I realized the person doing it thought that it was coming off for good at the end of the 6 weeks - not coming off temporarily after 10 days. His technique changed dramatically, I have to say when I told him!