Why I’m applauding the NHS 👏👏

My DH and I are both pushing 80, and have multiple age-related health issues. Our personal experience of the NHS locally has been very good, both in terms of hospital treatment and in access to our GP. In fact it's no exaggeration to say that without it, neither of us would probably still be around today. However, I'm conscious of the fact that it's a bit of a postcode lottery as regards quality of care, so we are among the lucky ones. I also feel that staff at every level are struggling to provide care against a background of long term under-funding and under-resourcing.

Callistemon21, yes it was due to Covid but I also had quite a few Strepsils and I did wonder if they affected the roof of my mouth.

Nicegranny

I to applaud the NHS.
After catching Covid in Hong Kong I couldn’t wait to get home to see my doctor as I had a huge ulcer type lesion on the roof of my mouth.
My GP had me in hospital by the very next morning to have a biopsy. It was an ulcer that mimics cancer and luckily nothing to worry about.
I think our NHS is wonderful for so many reasons I respect it immensely.

Did they say that could be a side effect of Covid Nicegranny?
I found I had mouth ulcers for a while after having Covid, but not as horrendous as yours sounded.

annsixty I think that's right, it is mostly very good to excellent but often let down by administrative and other errors, some of which can have serious consequences.

When it is good it is very very good but when it is bad it is horrid.
Just like the nursery rhyme.
I had superb treatment in 1999/ 2000 for breast cancer, second to none.
My H with Alzheimer’s followed by a major stroke followed by a cancer diagnosis was treated shamefully in my opinion.
Just how the dice is thrown is how I would describe it.
And all nurses are not angels, like every profession, some are, many aren’t.

2020 I had my mammogram which showed a cancerous lump.
It was so tiny I would not have felt it.
That was in the November and by the end of April of 2021
I had 2 operations and a course of radiotherapy. Fortunately I
didn't need chemotherapy.
All this was through covid where even to look at a hospital was scary.
Every single nurse, doctor and surgeons were the best so kind and reassuring.
Thank you NHS.

I to applaud the NHS.
After catching Covid in Hong Kong I couldn’t wait to get home to see my doctor as I had a huge ulcer type lesion on the roof of my mouth.
My GP had me in hospital by the very next morning to have a biopsy. It was an ulcer that mimics cancer and luckily nothing to worry about.
I think our NHS is wonderful for so many reasons I respect it immensely.

I applaud 90%? of the staff, but not the NHS as an institution.
I had an incident last year where seeing my doctor who told me to go to the hospital now. He had phoned them after doing an ECG.
When I got to see a Dr he started to wire me up. I asked, what are you doing? An ECG he said.
I told him I’d had one about 3 hrs before.
He said: I’m sorry, but we don’t have the tech to access that 😡
You couldn’t make it up could you ?

NHS care is sadly very hit and miss at the moment. It is also dependent on patient’s age and condition. Cancer treatment on the whole seems generally good, but as annsixty mentioned, dementia care is a different story. Kindness and compassion is in short supply.

Sparklefizz

^However, in the ante natal department the loos are absolutely filthy - clearly someone is saving money on cleaning.^

That's nothing new! When I was in hospital for 5 days in 1998, there were bundles of fluff and hair blowing around in the loos and bathrooms, and not a single cleaner came round to clean the floor in my ward all the time I was there, so I watched the bundles of fluff accumulate under the neighbouring bed.

Reminds me of my friend’s experience. She is a retired Nurse. Her partner was admitted to hospital and on the first day she sat beside him and noticed a pill on the floor under the bed. It was covered in fluff so had clearly been there some time.

She told her partner that would never have happened years ago when she was training and working in hospitals. She decided to leave it alone and see how long it remained. After a week he was discharged and the pill, even fluffier, was still there.

She was also shocked to see how beds were not cleaned down thoroughly after a patient left or passed away. She said she would have been in big trouble if she had not cleaned the whole mattress and frame right down to the wheels with disinfectant.

Having been in recently with pneumonia, I am grateful to my GP for seeing me and sending me in. I hadn’t realised I was being admitted as the GP didn’t have good English but never mind. The waiting in the expected admittance area was ok, hot tea and coffee was available but in those flimsy white cups, a real danger to the many old people there. I was mobile so I fetched water and blankets despite being poorly myself. Once admitted I was told I needed an urgent chest X-ray. I had that 3 days later. They moved patients all night long, woke us at 5.30 (well no one slept but still) for routine obs. No tea until 8.30. A lady of 91 in the next bed had had a broken leg for six days before she was diagnosed. They moved her constantly despite her obvious agony. I never had my sheets changed once in three days despite them being wet ( violent coughing will do that). Food for lunch was mash and chips, yes I have the photographic evidence. The toilet was disgusting and I actually went in after the cleaner and washed the faeces off the various surfaces as she didn’t do it. On the plus side, I was treated so nicely by two senior nurses, spoken to with kindness and care. They explained the medication and situation. I had not one night’s sleep and felt disgusting while I was there. I have recovered at home and at least feel safe here. I could say a lot more but won’t.

However, in the ante natal department the loos are absolutely filthy - clearly someone is saving money on cleaning.

That's nothing new! When I was in hospital for 5 days in 1998, there were bundles of fluff and hair blowing around in the loos and bathrooms, and not a single cleaner came round to clean the floor in my ward all the time I was there, so I watched the bundles of fluff accumulate under the neighbouring bed.

I’m another who is very grateful. Just a few weeks ago, after 10 days of some horrible bug, I was suddenly hit with very shallow, painful breathing. Phoned 111, ambulance arrived an hour or so later, I was blue-lighted straight into an emergency ward - pneumonia, and heart rate up in the stratosphere.
Pneumonia was succeeded by pleurisy, so was in for nearly 3 weeks in all.
Care was excellent - family and I are so grateful to all the staff.

We all have very different stories to tell depending on our experiences. Of course if your experience is good you will applaud the NHS but if your experience is poor then you won’t.

I just feel very sad that it is not consistently good. It varies from ward to ward and hospital to hospital.

My late Mum was very well care for some years ago in a small cottage hospital. Absolutely first class.

When my Dad was terminally ill he was in our major regional hospital which was built in recent years as a flagship hospital.His “care” was dreadful. The nurses used to tie his buzzer up out of reach and he would never have rung it unless he was desperate. They wrapped his heavily messed pyjamas in a carrier bag, didn’t even tie the bag up and tossed it under his bed. Luckily I visited every day and found them but imagine if he had no visitors and they were left for days. They also put some wet pyjamas in his bedside locker, unwrapped on top of his damp face cloth and toothbrush! I was horrified and mentioned it to a couple of nurses and they just said “it wasn’t me” but there was no way my poor Dad did it because he was close to death and couldn’t move.

No two hospitals are the same, no two nurses are the same and no two doctors or consultants are the same.
I had brilliant care four years ago from NHS and awful, uncaring and downright negligent care last Autumn in the same hospital.
It’s the luck of the draw and it shouldn’t be this way.😡

Didn't want to start a new thread. Just to say I had to go to our surgery today. After my consultation I had to go back to ask the doctor a question and the poor girl was trying to have a quick bite to eat. She'd had no lunch, it was 2.15pm. I felt awful interrupting her. Our surgery is coping wonderfully well considering, still doing on the day ftf appointments.
I wish there was a way to thank them.

I was thinking how great the NHS is only this morning while lying on a table having a cataract removed.
It's costing me nothing, I thought as I laid there watching all the bright lights flashing in my eye. Unfortunately I had it done in a private hospital, not my choice of course, but I couldn't fault the skill and care I received.

Our NHS is wonderful but It certainly does depend on which hospital and who your GP is unfortunately. Before the pandemic my late DH was not treated well, he had 4 visits to A+E ,In extreme pain and each time discharged with just simple medication stating he was “just constipated “ Eventually he was admitted to a different hospital and sadly diagnosed as having inoperable terminal cancer . Our GPs were amazing then but it all seems to have imploded now I just am grateful that my late DH didn’t have to suffer the added complication of Covid .

Cleaning is one of the worst aspects. The cleaner on the ward where my DH is currently has no English and plainly did not understand when the nurse dealing with my husband told her to Go Away and not to clean here now..
Another cleaner managed to reverse into an over-bed trolley and knock off a bottle of squash which spilt. Another time it was a bottle of urine.
The doctors, nurses, physios etc have all been excellent.

It does seem to depend on where you are I think. Our daughter had an allergic reaction to something recently. Her face, throat and eye were badly swollen. Her GP spoke to her on the phone and left her a prescription. He didn't even ask her to email a picture of her face. She ended up in A&E for 9 hours the next day. The A&E doc was horrified at the GP's actions and said DD's throat could have closed up.

An organisation which is underfunded and under resourced continues to save lives every minute of every day. My diabetic daughter is receiving exemplary care in her pregnancy. However, in the ante natal department the loos are absolutely filthy - clearly someone is saving money on cleaning.

I am thankful for the NHS 90% of the time.
I recently spent many hours in A&E sitting on a hard plastic chair through the night.
When I was eventually seen by a Dr I was examined in a corridor, she did her best but the whole situation was not good.
This was not due to the staff but due to mismanagement.
Now I come to staff, again, most of them are really good but when my H who had Alzheimer’s and was frequently admitted to hospital and spent his last 4/5 weeks there, some of the staff were rude, dismissive and unfit to do their job.
It really needs to be said.
Emergencies and very serious illness is dealt with in a way that is mostly exemplary, I am a cancer survivor and my treatment was prompt and second to none.
However at the unattractive end of illness, dementia, old age etc it is a very different story.
Sorry to derail the thread, I am delighted with the prompt and excellent treatment some of you have had.
I just wish it was always like that.

Well, I am not applauding the NHS.
After tripping over a paving stone and being attended to by a first aider in a nearby shop my daughter took me to A & E. I was seen by the triage nurse who referred me to the Urgent Care clinic at 2pm. at 7.30pm my daughter went in search of someone to see when I was likely to be attended to, and discovered that apparently I had been seen some hours earlier by a male doctor who discharged me and wrote no further treatment needed on my form.. I had not been seen by anyone.
When I saw the nurse practitioner at 8pm she apologised profusely, checked my head and dressings again and insisted on a x-ray which disclosed that I had broken my wrist, swelling having been noted by the triage nurse, and it was put in a cast there and then. The Nurse was also horrified that we had been in the waiting room for six hours and no-one had asked if we had been seen, or were OK. " It wouldn't happen on my watch" she said grimly.
This male doctor's action was down entirely to his incompetence, filling in details of one patient on another patient's form. Disgraceful. Done in the middle of a peaceful afternoon. Nothing to do with lack of funding, staff or pressure. The department was ordered, well staffed and there were no huge queues or people in deep distress.
I hope someone will tear a strip off him but I have no doubt if they do he will leave because of 'stress' and work privately for more money and less hours.

I'm glad you're ok bevisp1. They saved my husband after his cancer diagnosis. We had 50 hospital appointments in 10 months. Not once were we kept waiting more than a few minutes after our appointment time.
They saved my brother who had a severe stroke and then suffered a heart attack in the ambulance. He is virtually back to his old self now. They are wonderful.

What would we do without them. They are all angels.

When my grandson was ill at Christmas the care he received while in hospital was fantastic.As well as the prompt medical attention he received they made sure that Christmas was special for him.First class care.

Hope you feel better soon bevispl💐