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[Rog]

My very old Mum, had her cataract done yesterday. All fine, and given very specific instructions about which eye drops to put into which eye etc. Except that my Mrs noticed that all the instructions related to the wrong eye. Mrs called hospital to check, and was initially treated like a trouble making idiot until someone actually noticed that she was right. Had Mum followed the instructions she could have caused damage to the other eye 

I still think that the NHS is OK, if we could just get rid of this downright sloppy attitude and lack of genuine care. Everyone blames the cuts etc. No, it is down to the people and the managers, the cuts are a simple excuse for bad care.

Rant over

[ozzycat]

+1 got to agree there

[Gaffers]

This requires a follow-up complaint.  There are procedures in place to deal with errors like this but you need to make sure they are kicked off through the proper channels and not swept under the carpet.

Well done for being vigilant 

[MR MISTER]

I haven't been near the doctors/hospital for years but, as I was sixty a month back, I guess it will be necessary at some point. But I'll tell you what, I'll have to be in a pretty bad way before I go near them.

[Gaffers]

I get my final medical before discharge from the Army in a couple of weeks.  It makes sober reading to see how much they have broken me.  I came in perfectly healthy and leaving with a knackered shoulder/neck, IBD and a lot of extra scars.

[aaronjb]

Could be worse though, eh Guffer? All four limbs still intact, etc..

I best not get started on the NHS, though. It could be something great - as a colleague at work pointed out, the budget for the German health system is near as makes no difference as the NHS budget, yet their standards of care, waiting times and so on are infinitely better.. so where's the problem? Probably the 12398712983 middle managers and management consultants.

But then I watch the diagnosis process going on here with Amy's Nan - she's elderly but generally in good health, had a knee replacement last year which gave her full mobility back and was an absolute credit to the NHS, can't fault them there. But recently she's had a long running chest infection and hacking cough culminating in her waking up one morning with shooting pains in (the other) leg with the slightest of movements in her back and unable to bear any weight on it.. my first thought was coughing in the night causing a trapped nerve, but the doctors have so far said:

1) Your hip is shot, old age, probably never be able to bear any weight, terribly sorry, bye!
2) You've pulled a muscle in your sleep
3) When it's got worse with time, oh, you've torn a muscle in your sleep
4) We can do you an X-ray but it'll be a month (meanwhile she's is basically immobile in the house, having gone from being fitter and healthier than me to requiring full time care)
5) Oh, you're here for an X-ray? Nobody booked you in! (Despite the emergency doctor saying he had)

Not once in three weeks has anyone said "Hm, shooting pains in your leg not related to any physical activity, pain when moving your back .. maybe you have a trapped nerve/prolapsed disc" which, to me, seems like the obvious diagnosis to be confirmed with a back X-ray/MRI?

Anyhoo.. moving on!

[Gaffers]

Could be worse though, eh Guffer? All four limbs still intact, etc..

Agreed

[Rods2]

Sadly until the system is changed, so it is like the French, where the hospital ONLY get paid for treating you, then it will always be dire. As the last thing they want to be doing is using their fixed budgets by treating you. 

Personally, I can't see it ever changing and it will get much worse as the country continues to decline and get much poorer and with an aging population more people to treat. 

[albitz]

Have a catalogue of NHS horror stories here right up the last few days.Cant go into detail as it not my own details,but an urgent procedure to supposedly rectify a serious problem resulted in the serious problem not being rectified,but a potentially life threatening mistake being made instead.
Now been taken \way from the HNS and gone private.
Its broken,its in crisis and its swallowing unthinkable amounts of money at the same time.
The woman who blew the whistle in Stafford has had her life threatened,her mothers grave desicrated,her life made a misery and has had to move to a different area to try to rebuild her life.All bcause she couldn't keep turning a blind eye to hundreds of people dying needlessly.
Those engine drivers of the gravy train at the CQC who buried the reports about needless deaths are symptomatic of the disease in the NHS and public sector in general.That it exists for the people who work in it rather than the patients and taxpayers who fund it.The woman who blew the whistle on that one was painted as insane by those who were doing the covering up. That is straight from the Joe Stalin book,of how to discredit your enemies.  Start again with a clean sheet of paper,no sacred cows,no management cover ups,no unions.Just people being paid to care for other people who need caring for.

[Gaffers]

The French system is a lot better in many ways.

For GP and Specialist consultancies you pay (fixed rate) up front and the NI reimburses you 70%.  You normally get health insurance through work which pays most of the rest, at worst you have to fork out a couple of quid to see a doctor.  Same for prescription medicines.

For hospital treatment you give your NI details on admission (or they can work it out by searching the system if you don't have your card with you) and you pay the 30% that the state does not cover.  Again you get this reimbursed through your health insurance.

I have had the pleasure of being treated in several French hospitals for minor and major issues and I can certainly say that it is miles above any civilian establishment here in the UK.  I even got a date from a very nice female doctor in one of them.

Nothing, but nothing, compares to the treatment I received from the UK hospital in Afghanistan (and I am not being biased there either) 

[Varche]

I have had recent experience with various UK family members.

Cataract op. Done on the fourth appointment. Just how much do all these cancelled /can't do it appointments cost? Not isolated at all. I wonder if the persons who reschedule appointments go home and say"I have done a really good days work today OR if only we got it right first time". Cost of failure work.

I read that 1 in ten or 1 in twenty NHS pounds goes in compensation for botched work. There will always be some but why not make the surgeons and doctors pay their own liability insurance. They would soon take greater care before rushing off for golf.

NHS should be a 365 day operation. The sooner everyone is moved to normal seven day working(no increase in pay) the better.

I think Britain could learn from the French and the Spanish. The latter have computerised records and you are given a printout after treatment. Any hospital/ doctor anywhere can see your info and history. How come Britain couldn't do that?