Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Terbs]

Yesterday, we got called back from Dorset...problem with the Mother in law. Had to go into Stoke Mandeville for tests on her heart and lungs. She has had infections, but doctor (GP) said its not the infections, its her heart. So 3.00pm ambulance called. Mother in Law refusing to go to SM, threatening to do herself in rather than go there. We were in Swanage....and after rather fierce phone calls between swmbo and her mother, her mum agreed to go, providing we came back !!!!
So we travelled up last night at midnight, which was a bitch as they kept closing the motorways M27 and M3. Ended up on the A34 to Newbury, and backtracking.
Anyway, after contacting m-I-l's neighbour, it transpired that the ambulance turned up at 10.30pm. It also transpires that there were no ambulances available in Bucks, Oxon, and most of Berks.
For those who know their geography, this actual ambulance came up from Didcot To High Wycombe to take her 20miles north to Stoke Mandeville (Aylesbury) Whaaaaat.........

[05omegav6]

Sounds about right

Hope she's being looked after...

[Terbs]

Thanks for your remarks, Al.
After all that, SM have conducted tests, and its not her heart, contrary to GP, it is the afterpart of the chest infection !!!!!
She was sent home this morning....

Was it all worth it

[Terbs]

Mother in law has told us to go back to the caravan. Sister in law is coming up. Just had a call from sis in law.....she won't be coming up, she has just fallen down the stairs, has broken her arm and is waiting for an ambulance. I hope it ain't coming from Didcot to Swindon.......

What is life doing to me !!!!!!!!!!

[Varche]

What a milarkey. Hope you get back to the caravan and have some R and R.

What a problem with a not joined up health service.

Old people are part of a time bomb that will destroy the NHS. We all know that there more and more old folk living longer but not enough money and resources to manage them. If I was a doctor I too would err on the side of "get an ambulance". GPs don't have the resources to handle old people despite trying.

The only solution is to charge for basic services. Labour will NEVER do that. It would be the kiss of death for the Tories to do it. So Britain rambles headlong towards a health disaster with each party blaming the other e.g. "South Staffs".

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

What a milarkey. Hope you get back to the caravan and have some R and R.

What a problem with a not joined up health service.

Old people are part of a time bomb that will destroy the NHS. We all know that there more and more old folk living longer but not enough money and resources to manage them. If I was a doctor I too would err on the side of "get an ambulance". GPs don't have the resources to handle old people despite trying.

The only solution is to charge for basic services. Labour will NEVER do that. It would be the kiss of death for the Tories to do it. So Britain rambles headlong towards a health disaster with each party blaming the other e.g. "South Staffs".

Yes.

[ted_one]

Is it not how ''the old people'' are to blame for being a burden on the NHS,let me just say this...my dad is 90 years of age and is dying from terminal cancer, and I resent any remarks in reference to laying the blame on people like him and Terby's mom.My dad still pays in to the system, as he made provision through paying into his company pension scheme and he still gets taxed quite heavily for being prudent.He also fought for his country...so let's not forget that he like a lot of you was a healthy young man who started work at fourteen years of age and worked hard all of his life and was still working full time until his mid seventies.I myself probably fall into the old person category being sixty seven .....but guess what? yes I'm still working and paying into the system, and incidently I don't go down to the town centre and get pissed out of my head and end up in casualty causing no end of problems to decent people. Also I don't drive like absolute nobhead,  unlike a lot of ''young people'' who bed block the orthopaedic wards after coming to grief after wrapping themselves around the nearest piece of street furniture or another innocent road user.........shall I stop now?? A little bit of respect for our elders won't go amiss...but of course there's so much arrogant shite uttered from those superior beings who are so naïve so as to think that they won't ever be in a similar situation ..perhaps sooner rather than later may well be the case.....so think on!!

[Gaffers]

I wonder how many ambulances between those two towns were actually stuck outside A&E waiting for the triage nurse to fudge their waiting time stats

[ted_one]

Seems like it happens on a regular basis,but the politicians will give that one a swerve

[the alarming man]

What a milarkey. Hope you get back to the caravan and have some R and R.

What a problem with a not joined up health service.

Old people are part of a time bomb that will destroy the NHS. We all know that there more and more old folk living longer but not enough money and resources to manage them. If I was a doctor I too would err on the side of "get an ambulance". GPs don't have the resources to handle old people despite trying.

The only solution is to charge for basic services. Labour will NEVER do that. It would be the kiss of death for the Tories to do it. So Britain rambles headlong towards a health disaster with each party blaming the other e.g. "South Staffs".

that last comment is total rubbish my friend as my mums G.P and my nan G.P are great (different PCT's)...it is not the old that is a major drain on the NHS resources....and you are right health tourists and immigrants should be made to pay for all their treatment no money no treatment and that is VERY easily policed....but then living in Spain you wont need to worry about the 'Health Time Bomb'

[Bigron]

I retired 10 years ago, but still fund the NHS via my "Road Fund Licence" contributions - YES, I still call it that because that is exactly what it was designed for before Churchill got greedy and misappropriated it for other purposes. WE contribute £50,ooo,ooo,ooo to this fund, yet see only c10% of it back in road-related services.

Ron.

[Terbs]

The situation here is that all the main resources at The huge Wycombe General have been closed and moved to Stoke Mandeville or if you are really unlucky..Wexham Park.
Last night a 'blue light' ambulance arrived at Stoke Mandeville and had to wait half an hour to book in. !!!!!! The mileage for ambulances in our area now is colossal. Chap a few doors from me has just quit as a paramedic (and he is bloody good) because the system is crap, recruitment is virtually nil, and morale crap. He said, 'I just can't take any more.'  He now has a job as medical escort to deported immigrants. He says money is top dollar, flies everywhere at government expense. Hotels paid for, etc etc.

Further to Chris's mum finaly getting to Stoke Mandeville last night at 11.00pm......she spent all night hooked up to some machine in A&E because they had nowhere else to put her. We could not contact SM due to the phone always engaged. So Christine went 20 miles to SM, went to A&E ,,,,,,but they could not find her mum. Each was asking the other...nope....is she in the discharge lounge?? Naturally, Christine asked 'Where is that' 'Don't know'....followed by discussions with others as to its whereabouts. Finally Chris got a 'I think its' answer, so set off, asking nurses on the way. Found it at the other end of the hospital. Peered through the doors and saw her mum, went in.. two nurses chatting away, ignored Chris for ages, then asked what she was there for. 'To take my mum home' They were not interested really as another couple were raising cain, as they had been waiting ages for some tablets, which the pharmacy could not find, then found some but wrong strength. Chris gathered her mum and made a quiet exit.

Please don't vilify the old folk....most had done ten times more in the building of this country, both physically, and monetary than half the scumbags today ever will. I have said before, my mum served in the forces in the war, being stationed in London all through the blitz. Just go to SM A&E and look and listen. You will soon see and hear where the majority of 'patients' are from.

[ronnyd]

Well said nitro, i agree 100% with your comment.

[Jusme]

My gratitude to Nitro and Terbert for their very good posts, saved me from having a 'rant' as I'm totally p*ssed off with the 'OAP bashing'.. Listening to that prat Milliband continuously stating, ' we are talking about the future, not the past'... Without a past there would be no future. We worked, 'proper worked' for little pay and many hours, we paid our dues, but now we are an 'easy target' for all the moaners who are not yet OAP's. but, your time will come. Can't forget last year when I had my heart attack, the staff in A & E could have seen to me quicker if not for the two pissed thirty somethings causing hell. I'm sure it must happen, but i have yet to see drunken pensioners raising hell in a hospital.. So bloo*y angry I better get off...     

[Varche]

Oh dear, my comments have been totally misconstrued.

The point I am making is that the elderly are and will get a worse deal as the NHS becomes ovwhelmed by an ageing population. It cannot manage as more and more folk live longer and thus have ailments that wouldn't, have Been they years ago as they would have been ded already.

I most certainly am NOT vilifying any old people. Sadly our family has a litany of Old people who have been let down by the NHS . One is  ww2 war vet who has lived a charmed life only to be let down in his nineties. I think it is a well known fact that the bigt amount of NHS resource is spn o he elderly.

Mrs V spent five months recently in Scotland chasing her aunt fom hospital to hospital.Care received reasonably good but she was bed blocking for months .Why? No care available  at home. And that is my point. These folk have worked hard all their lives, lived/fought through wars and there isn't the money to care for them. That is the time bomb.

So I am not vilifying old people and I was actually empathising with Terbert having been in a similar situation many times In the last ten years and more. I have just read your last post and can identify with that scenario too. Just one example of a process that needs fixing. As I said earlier no party will do it as free NHS is sacrosanct. I hope all goes well for your MIL

Living in Spain (as I do) is an irelevance. I still have lots of relatives and friends in the UK. I am guessing that you also believe the small amount paid in WFA to expats is/was a waste of money.

Health tourism? Your elected government could under EU law put a stop to it .Immigrants to Spain do not get healthcare unless they can prove they have the funds to support themselves. End of. My take in Britain is that successive governments needed all the immigrants they could get.

I can tell you stories of both good and poor GPs , doctors and care staff.