Re: Booted Out.

I would not want to be a nurse these days. They get budget cut by the government. So wards are closed leaving less beds for patients. They are short staffed. Go into work at 7am work their shift, get asked to do another shift to cover for staff shortages, finish at 9-30pm. Then have to be back on the ward next day at 7am. If a nurse leaves, or are on the sick, the ward will not employ another.
If anything goes wrong they are first to be blamed.
Most nurse see the NHS being run down, they think the government are running it down, to make everyone go private.
So if you need someone to blame look no further than Government.
To many managers and not enough ground staff.

Re: Booted Out.

Hi Chippy, I think you have misunderstood what I was trying to say. I too admire (most) of the workers in the NHS and I too believe that the fault lies in the underfunding. That is exactly the point I am making.

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You need to look at things properly.
Included in those figures are people who have died and are moved to the mortuary, women who have had babies and decide to go home, people who discharge themselves and people who go to A&E at night and have treatment before going back home.

The NHS was design to run at 85& efficiency so that there was space for disasters, at the moment the NHS is running at 100% so should a disaster happen it will not be able to cope.

I agree that we are now a merging into a third world country though.

Re: Booted Out.

It is right the NHS is being underfunded, but this has been going on now for some years not just with this government.
What has caused the problem is down to the fact we are living longer, that being down to good medical care and science.
What is the answer? should we be looking at why folks are in hospital, smoking obesity and many other self inflicted causes for ill health, should there be a time when doctors say we are too old for treatment, all a big problem for the NHS.
Should folks just be made comfortable when they reach a certain age and not put through painful and extensive treatment if the odds are against them.
I know I wouldn't like to be the person to make that decision, but I feel somewhere down the line this has to be the case.
What do you think?

Re: Booted Out.

A personal tale:

Needing a new replacement hip joint, I was admitted into hospital on 20th December last year. There were four bays on the ward each with 6 beds. As it was near Xmas there were two others in the bay where my bed was located and these people had had minor surgery and were discharged during the evening. My operation was scheduled for early the following morning (21st December) however there was an emergency overnight and my operation didn't take place until the afternoon. On completion of the operation I was taken into the Intensive Care Unit overnight, but transferred back to the ward from whence I came the following morning.

As it was so near Xmas the hospital had emptied the ward, there were only three other patients, all women. Two of them were in single bed side wards leaving one elderly lady in a bay all alone. I too was placed in a single bed side ward which also contained an on-suite toilet facility.

Because of the reduced numbers of patients, the hospital were also able to reduce the numbers of nurses, but nonetheless the care and consideration I received whilst in hospital was excellent and could not be faulted. The bed I was in had an air mattress which also had a machine connected enabling the mattress to vibrate gently to prevent me from getting too sore. The slightest movement I made in the bed made the mattress 'rustle' and in the shortest possible time a nurse would come from the nurses station outside to see if I was ok, or needed something or some assistance.

Such care and consideration continued for the next seven days until my discharge on 28th December.

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We are told we live in a 24 hour society and this means more people are about during the night which must contribute to hospital admissions.

Personally, if I was unfortunate enough to find myself in hospital I would want to be discharged at the first possible moment day or night would suit me fine.

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The NHS isn't perfect but it is better than the alternatives, imo.

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As I said on another forum recently on this very subject, as is the practise in many hospitals, they remove the deceased patients during the night so that it does not cause distress to other patients who are still in the land of the living.
I feel sure that discharging the dead during the night accounts for many of the stated 8000 people

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Moving deceased is one thing to minimise distress, but to move (force) people to move when there is no way they can look after themselves and/or nowhere to go is quite another.

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Absolutely Willow darlin' - well said!!!