NHS

theworriedwell
I don't think choice of menu had been invented when my DC were born!

Calistemon

theworriedwell
I don't think choice of menu had been invented when my DC were born!

Well this was 50 years ago. You didn't actually get to choose anything other than English or Asian.

Oh, interesting, no it was in fact later than that and Hobson's choice!

I think it might have been the local population reflected in the hospital. The ward was literally half women of Asian descent so I suppose in the days when you were in hospital for a week after the birth of your first child they needed to be catered for. As there was a mixture of Sikh, Hindu and Muslims the curry was always vegetable so there was no problem with pig/cow or whatever.

Actually I think a big pot of curry is probably more suitable for mass catering than alot of standard English meals. I always wondered if many of the kitchen staff were Asian as the curry was as good as a decent restaurant.

The English menu was poor, one day we had a horrible brown soup and then the poor nurse serving us realised she'd served up the gravy. So we had no gravy on the meal, not sure what happened to the actual soup. It was definitely a bonus if you managed to get a curry.

I agree, go back to Matrons running wards and managing beds. There is a huge amount of money wasted within the NHS on administration. This puts pressure on the real treasures of the NGS, the nurses and doctors, plus the ancillary ward staff who play such a vital part. Too much of running wards is farmed out to outside contracts. Bring it all back into the hospitals where it can be managed properly. Bring back meal preparation and cooking in hospital so that food for staff and patients is freshly cooked and nourishing instead of the garbage currently offered. I could go on but think I should stop here!!!

Matrons do run wards and manage beds here still Shropshirelass, but they are called Senior Nurses now. I’ve never known a ward be managed by anybody other than nurses. I’m in Wales though, are wards in England now managed through outside contracts?

The food in the large hospital where I volunteer is noticeably good. The patients all comment on how nice it is.
Dozens of wards each to be run by dozens of nurses? Little empires to be built? Potential shambles. So easy to rubbish what's happening. Read the whole thread to find out and stop knee jerk comments.

Casdon

Matrons do run wards and manage beds here still Shropshirelass, but they are called Senior Nurses now. I’ve never known a ward be managed by anybody other than nurses. I’m in Wales though, are wards in England now managed through outside contracts?

In our local Welsh hospital there were "bed managers" - remote beings who presumably co-ordinated number of beds on wards with planned procedures, operations, surgeons available adding in the emergency factor too.

Annoyed the sister in charge of the ward I was on as a patient no end! She said she had managed to sort that out herself perfectly well for years without the help of a bed manager.

That was a few years ago, perhaps that layer of junior management is now redundant.

The food in the large hospital where I volunteer is noticeably good. The patients all comment on how nice it is.
That is good, but much food is bought in or transferred distances between hospitals, just like school meals are now.

And yes, inefficiency is costing the NHS money. Appointments sent out after the date of the appointments as was happening here? Consultants wondering why so many people with appointments are not turning up for clinics?

Calistemon there were still bed managers when I retired last year, so I expect there still are. The bed managers are a mixture of nursing and admin staff, managed by a senior nurse, who identify where beds are coming up in a hospitals and help the A&E team and emergency admissions unit get new patients into a suitable bed as quickly as possible. Some of the wards don’t like them because they are on the case constantly making sure that there are plans to discharge patients and they are followed through quickly, and beds are never left unfilled (which would make the life of ward staff easier]. If the bed management teams didn’t exist then the queues for beds at the front door would be far worse than they are now. I don’t know what the answer is, the only way they could be dispensed with would be more beds made available, which would cost a lot more.

Casdon

Calistemon there were still bed managers when I retired last year, so I expect there still are. The bed managers are a mixture of nursing and admin staff, managed by a senior nurse, who identify where beds are coming up in a hospitals and help the A&E team and emergency admissions unit get new patients into a suitable bed as quickly as possible. Some of the wards don’t like them because they are on the case constantly making sure that there are plans to discharge patients and they are followed through quickly, and beds are never left unfilled (which would make the life of ward staff easier]. If the bed management teams didn’t exist then the queues for beds at the front door would be far worse than they are now. I don’t know what the answer is, the only way they could be dispensed with would be more beds made available, which would cost a lot more.

A very clear explanation.

Casdon

Matrons do run wards and manage beds here still Shropshirelass, but they are called Senior Nurses now. I’ve never known a ward be managed by anybody other than nurses. I’m in Wales though, are wards in England now managed through outside contracts?

A rose by any other name?