Hospital

[Igottastartthinkingbee]

Anyone watching? A stunning insight into the running of a busy London hospital. Cannot believe the amount of time highly skilled doctors are forced to waste waiting for beds to become available. And the poor man with oesophageal cancer who's operation was cancelled for the second time. Wow. NHS is at breaking point!

Exactly blackpoolassy

I haven't worked in a hospital for ages (primary care nurse) but have had many patients that truly don't understand why their operation got cancelled because there were no beds. They told me "but I saw loads of beds lined up in corridors!" Once I explained they couldn't just wheel them into a space and park them there but would need more nurses, a proper bed space with oxygen, suction, lights, a call bell, maybe a bedside locker. None of them ever considered that having a bed meant more than just a physical bed.

I think the general public also have very little concept (understandably) that we don't have ICU/HDU/CCU beds just lying there waiting to be filled with emergencies. The concept of planned care passes them by and hopefully with programmes like this they will start to understand a little more about the pressures facing hospitals, GPs, managers, transport, paramedics, social care, community care etc.

Is the problem too much centralisation? A lot of St Mary's issues seem to arise because it's a critical care facility, therefore all the most serious cases come to them, therefore ICU is constantly overstretched etc. If there were more hospitals able to offer critical care it would take the pressure off them and maybe give them more options - e.g. if they had no intensive care beds they could maybe look at shifting operations to hospitals that do have ICU beds.

It's an amazing programme. The woman who filmed us for 999 what's the emergency did this programme too

I'm frustrated that so much money is wasted on big IT projects that fail and yet you see surgeons and nurses walking around a huge building manually trying to track down resources. All that money and stress for the patient prepping for a major operation wasted.
You can't run at 99%. Not unless you have decided to let people die.

^^ for political dogma just in case it looked like my frustration was with staff.

Exploded yes I agree about the IT projects. We spent millions on one about five years ago, which replaced the very useful and cheaper whiteboards. Which is now being decommissioned. Millions of ponds wasted. Also a fingerprint clocking in system for staff that never got off the ground. Arghh!

Ah the old weekend working argument. I already have to work one in 5 weekends, and in fact the week I am oncall I work from Mon at 8am till the next Mon at 8am. I have to come in every day for 8 to see all the new patients, and those that are recuperating and any referrals from inside the hospital and do any emergency operating, and then go home at night with the possibility of being called back in. That includes sat and Sun too where I might be the only person that has seen the patient before. So to save taking a 3 year old in with me (not cool as the GoJetters say) I have to pay for additional resident childcare, and get family to help out at weekends.
Funnily enough, I'm not jumping up and down to do more operations at the weekend, even if I was paid an extra incentive payment to do it. I want beds and theatre staff so I can do the cases I have booked on my regular weekday list and not have to aplogise to them

Just wondering why the bloke from the overseas patients office is not using an interpreter (phone or otherwise) when the patients clearly don't understand the conversation.

Because it's expensive? Seriously? It's not his fault they don't understand.

I wonder how much they're able to recover from these overseas patients. Incredibly complicated situation.

Why does no one have travel insurance!?

Yes I was wondering that. The poor lady stuck on her own with new quads and her husband not coming over. (According to today's times he can't afford the flights.)

I'm so angry with that hospital manager hassling that woman who has just had the babies. She's on high dependency care, she has lost one baby, has three more very sick in nicu. It's not her fault she was turned back from America when she had the correct visa. As a midwife if I was caring for her I would have turfed that bloke off the ward with a flea in his ear.

I understand the hospital feel the need to recover costs but firstly there's a time and a place and secondly how unlikely is it that they're ever going to get money off her?

Good question....

I guess lady with the quads didn't have insurance as the hospital in America had agreed to care for them/her.

There is no way that it is right that they go to someone with no money lying in Intensive care with sick babies in intensive care and hassle them about huge hospital bills.

I have been in that situation where our hospital oversees person has wanted to talk to someone I'm looking after and I've told them to go away. Which they did.

I couldn't do his job

Where is the personal responsibility? Who would just fly into a country where they don't have residency without travel insurance?

Yes I do agree re the lady and babies, I am watching slightly behind. But the bloke who has clearly come to the UK for the treatment...

Why is he bugging the Filipino lady's sister for money? Telling her she needs to think about a monthly plan? She isn't responsible for her sisters bill.

Yes. Quite abhorrent.

I would laugh at someone who told me I'm responsible to pay any debts my brother had run up.

But I do think that lady was very silly not to have travel insurance.

Was wondering how the Nigerian lady would have got treatment in the US had she been allowed in as some places won't even give emergency treatment without insurance. Unless her family were going to pay.

Quite agree about chasing the sisters money.