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[alan colson]

After 14 months of waiting I arrived at hospital today for my long awaited operation. Arrived at 11am, seen by nurse and had all paperwork, weight, hight, blood pressure, fitted with elastic stocking etc. done by 11.30am. Got called to see consultant at about 1pm, all checked out ok and signed consent form. Told I was first on afternoon operating list and would be in for operation within the hour. 20 minutes later called by nurse, expecting to told to get ready for operation, but NO!!! I was told they had not got a bed for me and sent me home. I was speechless, and for those of you that know me I am sure you find this amazing as I have often been told I can talk for Britain.
Alan

[Patrick Henry]

Friend of mine had a replacement hip fitted last week, supposedly a complete success. Two days later he was up and taking a few steps...the nurse assisting him said 'that's enough for a few minutes, sit yourself down'. He did as he was told, sat down...and couldn't get up again. The new hip joint failed completely, practically falling to pieces, so back into surgery he had to go...he was not amused.

[Roadrunner]

The NHS has been failing for years now, my wife had our first child back in 2005 during which she suffered greatly with many problems, the care she received through the NHS was appalling for a woman who was pregnant, everything got put down to 'water infections', when in fact it was much worse and at 6 months into it due to the lack of care when kept in for 3 days she nearly lost our daughter.. needless to say i was not amused!

After that I took out Family heath care with Bupa, now not everyone can afford private health care I know but at least i know when things go wrong I don't have to put up with crap being dished out especially with my kids! Since taking it out my wife has had hand problems sorted out within 2 weeks of problems occurring, and had her back problems fixed due to her pregnancy's with our kids!

I will have to make a claim later this year for some dental work i have been putting off for a few years, and it won't come with the hefty bill!

The Americans got it right.. pay for your health care after all its your health and its priceless!

[dougal99]

The NHS has its problems but on the whole I think it does a good job. Sorry to hear about your situation Alan but don't judge the whole enterprose by one incident (although this does sound, on theface of it, a grade one snafu).

Roadrunner, try getting medical cover if you have any history big, big, bucks.

I cannot for the life of me see the virtue in a system that says you can only be treated if you can afford it.

An acquaintance had cover for him and his family as part of his remuneration package. His wife was admitted to the private hospital to be told by the Doctor "How did you get in here, you're really quite ill"

No, give me the NHS warts and all

[alan colson]

dougal99, I have only mentioned todays problems, but they spoilt the first scans and did not tell me, it was only after I chased it up that the problem arose, so I had to wait for more scans to be done. I had a date for a pre-op this was cancelled the day I was due to go (that was last November) I had a pre-op date in December. Then I was told to go to another hospital for my op, they refused as I did not meet their requirements. I booked myself in for todays op with the admitions secretary only to have the op cancelled at the last minute.
Alan

[DickyD]

The  NHS gets my vote.

As many of you will know I seem to be spending a lot of time in my local general hospital [four visits since Christmas ] and my wife has worked there for 15 years.

During my four visits they have brought me back from dead on two occasions. You dont get that at a private hospital.

My father in law died in a BUPA hospital after a knee operation on the day he was to be discharged. He had a blood clot from the op that caused a heart attack. Being a private

hospital there was no doctors around for emergencies.

Sorry about your problems Alan but it could be someone like me that has been given your bed.

We still have the best Health service in the world and we should be campaigning to improve the iffy bits not running it down all the time.

I could go on but I am still a bit shaky since my last visit to hospital and my typing takes for ever, though my Welsh typing has improved LLLLL.

[madrob]

Its the pen pushers that are ruining the nhs, the doctors and nurses work wonders.
Ive been unfortunate enough to have been ill abroad...then you realise how good the nhs is

Dont knock the nhs.what would we do without it.this coming from somebody who was told over the phone by the pen pushers that he had cancer

[Made it to 80 (25p Richer now)]

I have no problems with the NHS they sorted me out, didn't go into hospital for the cooking went in to be sorted out. it's not the NHS fault that things are growing again

[mikearace]

As someone who works in the NHS the common held view is that its the penpushers, the managers, the jobsworth that cost too much and take away from front line services.  Sadly whilst the cost of backroom staff continues to grow its not as a result of the NHS per sae but as a result of government targets, moves to Foundation Trust status that Mr Blair brought in and changes in employment law etc.  And that is the same for a lot of organisations not just health.  7 or so years ago you could employ someone and need only their NI number and a reference.  Now you need to carry out Right to Work Checks, specific rules on references, Identify Checks as well as right to work and 3 other full checks including checks against barred lists as well as CRB checks.  All of which needs reporting to the Department of Health on a monthly basis.  Every month employment law on who can and cant be employed changes and the NHS rely heavily on a certain percentage of employees from overseas.  A typical year will see 7 or 8 changes in laws governing employment checks.  For example from this month rules on countires like Poland changed.  And thats one example only. There are a whole host of new reporting checks that come in every month as employment law changes all of which cause extra work. Every NHS organisation now has to go through a number of inspections on an annual basis rather than single inspections - NHSLA stages 1 2 and 3 and CQC checks.  Believe it or not these require people working on them full time to produce the evidence every year.  During the swine flu scare 18 months ago the Do H required full staffing reports every morning and every afternoon 7 days a week.  Can you imagine the difficulty in this?  All NHS organisations can also have their commissioned services put out to tender at any point and it then requires people to work on the tenders to either retain them or get new ones.  Again a fulltime job for a lot of people.  Then their is annual reports to Monitor the body that overseas NHS Foundation Trusts.  Its not for me to say these are good things or bad things but that it something that is purely down to successive years of government that have brought in these requirements, not the NHS.  They are things that have all been enshrined in law and to do them they need a lot of staff and these all cost money.  It would be great to sweep away a lot of rules and reporting needs and the way the NHS internal market works and put the money into More services but that isn't the world the governments have put is in over the last 15 years. 

[regiment]

would be nice private hospital but  what insurance company would insure me at 80 years  plus 4 months  but then my doc gave me a clean bill of health last week  so i will stick with the nhs

[raymond]

And when things start looking dodgy or become dificult ,where are the private hospital patients moved to, yes straight to an N.H.S. Hospital to sort out the mess

[pugwash]

Yesterday afternoon my wife was up at the stables when she felt ill - came home and checked her pulse (with a portable heart monitor
she had bought when she was a GP.  Heart was racing up to 220 bpm so straight to local A & E.  Triaged withing 5 minutes and on
cardiac monitor within another 5 mins.  Doctor saw her within 10mins then the registrar, then the consultant, then another consultant,
and admitted within the hour for treatment.  Brilliant service.  After the drugs settled her heart down she was released this afternoon
and will see the Cardiac Specialist in Newcastle on thursday.  I don't think she could have had been treatment anywhere
And it wasn't as if A & E was quiet when we went in.  It was Chokka.  So don't knock the NHS.  There are problems and there
are people who shouldn't be working there but by and large they do a fantastic job. 
When you do get serious problems like they did at Stafford a few years ago it was the bckroom boys cutting back on staff to make
the books look good - not the doctors and nurses.

Geoff

[Colin Bishop]

I've had a couple of routine experiences with the NHS recently and the service was excellent.

Colin

[Roadrunner]

I suppose REGION has something to do with it, Cornwall like a fricking 3rd world country down here! I know my grandparents received a lot of care in the London area and have never had issues like what we have been through. But my faith in the NHS is non-exsitant, Every doctor in the past we have seen can barely speak English, puts every thing down to simple silly things there clearly not.

Good example, went to hospital with chronic diarrhea which i had been suffering with for a few weeks daily, i would have gone to my GP but i had to make an appointment which i couldn't have for 3 weeks!

Some doctors did all sorts of tests, put it down to bad food, then changed there minds and said i might have bowl cancer...  then came back and said no its probably a hemorrhoid. this went on for a few weeks and still no answers, in the end my booked doctors appointment came up, and the nurse took a blood sample, week later diagnosed with IBS, and prescribed the medication for it (which i have to take daily) problem sorted! when i asked why it took so long to find the problem the doctor told me they sent the blood sample to there lab in Liskeard not Plymouth... surprising what a different hospital will pick up, far as im concerned NHS sucks i'm sticking with Private, yes it costs a fair bit for family cover but i'm not going to put up with the NHS failings in the part of the country when there putting me and my family at risk through lack of care, regardless of they say there doing for improvements!

[essex2visuvesi]

 i would have gone to my GP but i had to make an appointment which i couldn't have for 3 weeks!

That sounds Familiar..... When I was in the UK called my GP to make an appointment, was told theres nothing for 2 weeks.... Ill either be dead or better by then!

She didnt like it when I said "Well Ill be ill on the 26th of next month can I book an appointment to see the doctor"

I was Involved in the great IT upgrade of the NHS and I have to say it was poorly conceived, poorly implemented and the work was done by people who didnt have a clue.  I was employed as a backstop, basically going around clearing up other peoples messes.  90% of the time my work involved putting right blindingly obvious mistakes that anyone with more than 1 braincell should have noticed.
The money wasted on that project was astronomical, it could have been done better and more effectively for a lot lot less.

I have all the praise in the world for the NHS frontline staff, its the alleged management I have issues with.

[funtimefrankie]

If you think you've problems now ... just wait 'til the Tory/Lib Dem sell off begins to bite

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/

[Roadrunner]

When phoning up the GP to make an appointment the 'normal' question the receptionist asks is..

 ''What's wrong with you?' which normally I reply... '' if i know that i wouldn't be asking to see the doctor''

Or '' that's between me and the doctor to discuss and not some person who can answer a phone!''

Or the best one '' are you a qualified doctor that can diagnose me over the phone?'' getting the answer ''no'', my response '' well stop wasting my time and book me an appointment that's not going to take me a year to receive.

And i have used the '' SO i cant have an appointment for 2 weeks?, OK i will book that and try to be Ill on the day, but if i'm dead by them I'll be sure to have my wife sue you!'' ( normally that one gets me an appointment the same day. 

[essex2visuvesi]

When phoning up the GP to make an appointment the 'normal' question the receptionist asks is..

 ''What's wrong with you?'

Another way to deal with this is to say something along the lines of
"Well I looked up my symptoms on the internet and it says I have Ebola Zaire"

[Dekan]

Politicians and committees are basically "staffed" by "manager types" who can't do any kind of job.. but think all it takes is to tell somebody to do some thing and its done.

All you need is enough managers to manage them...

[john s 2]

The big problem with the NHS is the varying treatment standards even within the same Hospital.Everyone
posting on this thread has received different levels of treatment . Some excellent, some not so. How every
hospital can be brought up to a high standard and kept there, is something that begs an answer. Sadly it
does seem that higher standards were acheived in the past. Matrons worked then. But sadly not now as
Human rights have taken over making discipline much harder. John.