NHS............good & bad points.

[Salad Dodger]

Mrs Salad has been through breast cancer this Summer. A very small, but virulent tumour was found, operated on and she starts radiotherapy soon.

The medical care has been superb. The staff have been lovely. The machines and apparatus used, if not state of the art, appeared to be modern and well up to the job. A wound infection was treated by daily visits to the local practice nurses, who amazed the surgeon by clearing up the infection in about 4 weeks, when he had estimated it might take 6 months to heal.

But the NHS admin has been shocking. There were several duplicated appointments and confusion about how far along the road to recovery Mrs S had gone.

In the overall scheme of things, these are but minor inconveniences. But when you already feeling low, having to sort out queries about appointments, or the lack of, is an avoidable cause of stress that you could really do without.

 

[PK99]

Had my ACL OP at SWLEOC yesterday.

On every measure the service was 10/10.

I would find it hard to criticise or improve upon any element of the experience.

All staff simply oozed competence, warmth and friendliness. All stress and worry simply melted away.

A real confirmation that specialist dedicated units is the way forward for the nhs. A full list of ACLs, hip's and knees in all the theatres but no element of rush, business or stress.

Having had crappy experiences got myself, my wife and my daughter at St George's and St Hellier DGHs over the years, the focus and efficiency of the dedicated unit was a real revelation. It lived up to expectation fostered by its reputation.

 

[postman]

Out of three appointments with my Prostate Consultant.HE has failed to turn up twice.I am waiting for another appointment,i AM going to ring Monday morning.My treatment is now running late.I am normally a passive sort of chap.But i have had enough of waiting Monday i start chasing them.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I know nothing about the NHS or how its run. The three times I needed treatment recently I was mostly well treated. My close encounter with Angina in 2008 I couldn't fault anybody, from the GP that I first saw to the Cardio Consultant that sorted me out they did a good job, my emergency admission with major plumbing problems in 2012, the only complaint was that they sent me home too early after the first episode, five day later I was back in, apart from that they efficiently got it sorted, my bad reaction to a sting earlier this year was efficiently dealt with, the ambulance was prompt, they got me sorted and in to Warwick Hospital where I was well treated before being discharged later in the afternoon.

 

[ufkacbln]

There is a lot of the NHS that would not work in the Private Sector

We do a scan for Parkinson's disease

The cost of the injection alone is over £750, before taking into account staff time, equipment, expendable etc..... yet the nationally agreed price we can charge the referrers ..........£423

Another one for neuro-endocrine tumours has an injection cost of over £1000, and the same maximum £423 charge to the referrer

Most of the work I do is at a level of loss that would see me bankrupt in the first month if it was a private business

imagine walking into a bike shop, picking a £1000 bike and offering the shop £400

Yet "experts" managed this for the NHS

 

[Julia9054]

A couple of years ago I was referred by my GP for physio on my shoulder. She did warn me that there might be a bit of a wait but after 4 months, I rand the hospital physio department to find out what was going on. They had never heard of me. I rang my GP surgery and got a call back from the GP apologising for what was her mistake. She explained the system to me. Apparently, she writes it down on a post it note and hands it to the reception staff who fill the details out on a slip. A bloke from the hospital physio dept drives round all the GP surgeries in his Ford Fiesta picking up all the slips of paper, takes it back to the department where someone sorts it manually into appointments! Apparently, either the post it note or the slip had got lost. Why is this not done by computers?

 

[srw]

A couple of years ago I was referred by my GP for physio on my shoulder. She did warn me that there might be a bit of a wait but after 4 months, I rand the hospital physio department to find out what was going on. They had never heard of me. I rang my GP surgery and got a call back from the GP apologising for what was her mistake. She explained the system to me. Apparently, she writes it down on a post it note and hands it to the reception staff who fill the details out on a slip. A bloke from the hospital physio dept drives round all the GP surgeries in his Ford Fiesta picking up all the slips of paper, takes it back to the department where someone sorts it manually into appointments! Apparently, either the post it note or the slip had got lost. Why is this not done by computers?

Because the private contractors hired to deliver NHS computer systems are unable to deliver, and the people in the government who are supposed to be the clients are unable to manage the contractors. And an awful lot of public money has been wasted on computer systems.

For example... https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/18/nhs-records-system-10bn

 

[ufkacbln]

Because the private contractors hired to deliver NHS computer systems are unable to deliver, and the people in the government who are supposed to be the clients are unable to manage the contractors. And an awful lot of public money has been wasted on computer systems.

For example... https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/18/nhs-records-system-10bn

This morning it took 45 minutes to open an email

To approve a change in staffing - 27 minutes

To place an order 18 minutes

NHS Computer systems are absolutely minimum standards,

 

[PK99]

A couple of years ago I was referred by my GP for physio on my shoulder. She did warn me that there might be a bit of a wait but after 4 months, I rand the hospital physio department to find out what was going on. They had never heard of me. I rang my GP surgery and got a call back from the GP apologising for what was her mistake. She explained the system to me. Apparently, she writes it down on a post it note and hands it to the reception staff who fill the details out on a slip. A bloke from the hospital physio dept drives round all the GP surgeries in his Ford Fiesta picking up all the slips of paper, takes it back to the department where someone sorts it manually into appointments! Apparently, either the post it note or the slip had got lost. Why is this not done by computers?

For years such things have been booked directly into the pc on my gp's desk. Now in the new multi practice health center physio, xray, blood tests and pharmacy are in the same building.

 

[ufkacbln]

And your trust will make money on a lot of other things. Tariff is swings and roundabouts...

The question remains.....

Would the average high street company work on a principle where the buyer is allowed to undercut by 50% or more on the product?

 

[JtB]

Speaking personally, the care I received as an inpatient from the nurses doctors and all ancillary staff was absolutely excellent, I could not fault it in anyway. The care I received in A&E however prior to being admitted was totally appalling. They sent me away several times with stupid instructions like take a warm glass of milk to bed. At the time I was passing out everytime I fell asleep and when you pass out a dozen times or so in one day you kind of guess that it's not trivial. But A&E really could not be bothered to scratch below the surface and they just wanted me out of the way. Furthermore, as the patient I wanted to believe their false reassurances because the prospect of somethimg being wrong was really quite frightening.

Anyway, thankfully my wife dug her heels in and I was admitted to the accute assessment unit where they hooked me up to monitors and were able to observe ny normal heart activity stopping for 40 seconds as soon as I fell asleep. By then I had their attention and was immediately admitted as an inpatient, and the care from then onwards was absolutely "top notch".

 

[srw]

But those systems are specced by the NHS 'experts' (currently called NHS Digital). Who seem to be a bunch of people who don't know their arse from their elbow... one only has to look at the mess they made of the Summary Care Record, of the eReferral upgrade (it worked perfectly well before) and they're making of MESH now (something of the bane of my life at the moment).

The private sector may not have delivered - but they are not entirely to blame. It's hard to deliver on something when the goalposts are being changed every five minutes... something which the NHS complaints about itself on a regular basis.

If you'd actually read the post you were replying to before wading in to demonstrate how clever you are you'd have spotted that it shared blame between contractor and client.

 

[marinyork]

Apparently, she writes it down on a post it note and hands it to the reception staff who fill the details out on a slip. A bloke from the hospital physio dept drives round all the GP surgeries in his Ford Fiesta picking up all the slips of paper, takes it back to the department where someone sorts it manually into appointments! Apparently, either the post it note or the slip had got lost. Why is this not done by computers?

That's exactly how a lot of pharmacies do/did order patients' medication.

 

[ColinJ]

Some of my late mum's medical notes and test results were lost so she had to make repeat visits to hospital. She was very frail so it was upsetting and exhausting for her. My sister asked for an explanation and was told that the information was shipped to NEW ZEALAND (!!!!) to have the notes typed up, and they had got lost in transit ...

That's exactly how a lot of pharmacies do/did order patients' medication.

That probably explains why my 12-weekly repeat prescription was not ready for me in August. The pharmacist asked me to wait and sorted it out for me.

A couple of days ago, I got a text message from the pharmacy telling me that my prescription was waiting for me. I went in and picked up ... the AUGUST prescription! I pointed out that I was given that back in August and it was now actually time for the OCTOBER prescription ...

The prescription given to me was still at my old dosage, so it was definitely done from the August prescription.

The staff then asked if I still wanted the October prescription this week! I suggested that since the 12 weeks worth from August just given to me would now last me 10 weeks at the new dose, the best thing to do would be for me to use up what they had given me and remind them in early December that I would be needing 12 weeks worth of drugs at the new dose shortly afterwards!

 

[ColinJ]

That's actually not lawful... which hospital?

I think it was University Hospital (Walsgrave) in Coventry. It would have been 2007/8-ish. (Next time I talk to my sister, I will see if she can remember the details better than me.)

I wasn't 100% convinced that the story was true at the time, but it seemed like a very odd lie for someone to make up!

Our family's experience with the NHS is about 70% great, 20% acceptable, and 10% terrible. A 10% failure rate would be good in some walks of life, but it is too high in medicine!