Our most precious institution

A really good outcome - and what a relief. It's what we all dread - a terrifying episode with the grand children. I get very angry when people moan about the health service; we are so, so lucky and we should appreciate what we have. I had an accident earlier this year and the outstanding care and attention I was given in A and E made me feel so much better and calmer. The ambulanceman informed me that they have a call signal for when anyone over 60 has any kind of accident; it is 'Nan Down'. He made me laugh out loud in spite of some quite serious pain. I am grateful to them all, and shudder to think what my small episode might have cost abroad. How people cope with chronic illness I cannot imagine - families must be wiped out financially.

I was very impressed by a patient on TV program Hospital, who had lost her jaw as a result of cancer and was scheduled for an op to enable the bone to grow back; when faced with the possibility of the op being cancelled, she said it was a privilege, not a right - what a great attitude.

Glad to hear of the good professional service you witnessed and the baby is recovering. I have to say a big pat on the back for your daughter most importantly as she acted quickly in seeking medical advice when she felt something was not quite right. Give her a big hug as her actions undoubtedly saved the baby.

We've been watching the BAFTA winning programme, Ambulance. We never fail to be impressed by the commitment and professionalism of our nhs staff. I think because it's free at the point of delivery, it's too easy to take it all for granted.

We do need to find the best way to deal with the very old with multiple health issues and avoid bed blocking.

Come on Jeremy, get it sorted!

Hi Sluttygran, how frightening that must have been for you and your daughter. Thank goodness for our wonderful NHS. I hope your little grandson recovers quickly and is soon home with his family.
I too have many examples of where the NHS has, quite literally, saved the lives of our family members, I’m sure others have too.
However, I don’t like to hear about ‘health tourism’ which is an abuse of the system by others who are not entitled to it. I also get cross about the numbers of people who misuse the health system, going along to A+E for incredibly minor issues.
Three members of my family are GPs and I can assure you all, the stories I get told about people who demand suncream (yes, it’s true), nit lotion, and other minor, and easily available products, drain our NHS of vital funds, which are needed for cases of real need, such as the OP.
I’m so glad your little grandson is recovering Sluttygran, and thank the Lord for our wonderful NHS.

"This Is Going To Hurt" by Adam Kay. Everyone should read it. It's heartbreakingly hilarious. Diary notes by Adam Kay who progresses from Junior Doctor to Senior House Officer over a period of years and eventually, sadly, calls it a day.

Older persons who needed care used to be accommodated in specialised elderly units which concentrated more on comfort and sometimes rehabilitation rather than high-end medical treatment.
I worked on many of these units, and although they were condemned as too institutionalised, I like to think that our patients received the best of loving care and also a refuge from the loneliness and despair that often comes with old age and infirmity.
In my opinion ‘care in the community’ has become ‘neglect in the community’ with minimal care provided by overworked, undertrained and disgustingly badly paid carers. They do what they can, but the accent is on making money for the agencies who exploit them.
I apologise in advance to any gransnetter who runs a particularly good agency - I’m sure there must be one at least!
Private nursing homes vary from good to execrable, depending how much money can be afforded - a very sad outcome for someone who has worked hard all their life and paid into the health system.
We need a return to proper, dedicated elderly care. Acute hospital care is inappropriate and hideously expensive, and exposes vulnerable people to hospital acquired infections - and then there is the bed-blocking!
We certainly do need to prop up and sort out our wonderful NHS before it becomes terminally ill and fails. We really can’t afford to let that happen.

Absolutely agree, SluttyG. As I've remarked in the past on an earlier thread, cottage hospitals could have been used to make the elderly and infirm comfortable, and/or as convalescent homes in general. Baby thrown out with bathwater, I'm thinking.

Perhaps we should hear more of these success stories in the press as well as the very sad tales we frequently hear.
Have had fantastic emergency care for DH but the admin side locally is not good, when DH was last discharged the documents we were given had totally incorrect med history and someone else's emergency contact details. Had there been an emergency for either patient results don't bear thinking about.

Reading your post gave me the shivers, literally, sluttygran. We had a scary situation with one of our toddler grandchildren a couple of months ago, resulted in a 5 day stay in hospital. The demands on doctors, nurses and other staff were clear all the time as was the caring, professional approach to their work.
We are so fortunate and I fear our NHS is being privatised by default

Having lost my mother in law in February.could not complain about the excellent care she was given and died naturally of pneumonia no old age (95)! Was in and out of hospital a few times and always excellent care.

Oh my goodness what a terrible situation for you all to be inyou must have been in a dreadful state, that god everything went ok
Always had greatest admiration for our NHS especially when I fell over in the street and broke my pelvis bone.
Taken by ambulance to hospital operated on next day and
the nurses and doctors were great.

As others have said, admin in the NHS is often terrible resulting in wasted time and missed appointments.

Praising the NHS for what they do excellently well shouldn't prevent us from wanting improvement where it's needed.

Improvement costs money, tho, and it seems no-one wants to make that investment.

Missed appointments are very often the fault of patients. Do we take the NHS for granted because it is free at the point of use? I hope not as I would never like to see that change.

Sometimes they are the fault of patients.
But they can also be because the patient has never received the appointment letter. Or because inaccurate information has been given by admin staff. Or because an appointment has been made for an unsuitable procedure.
All of which has been experienced by people I know.

The existence and funding of the NHS is a political issue. It was founded by the Labour Party and at that time the Conservative Party opposed it. It is a very popular institution so it would be electoral suicide for the Conservatives to appear not to be in support of it. However, several high profile Conservative MPs have shown very little commitment to the whole idea of the NHS. Jeremy Hunt contributed to a book which was highly critical of the NHS and which set out proposals for replacing it with an insurance market system – and called for the private sector to be brought in.

As we have seen, there has been significant progress already made with regard to the second part of those proposals, i.e. the contracting out of many NHS services to the private sector.

Absolutely on the nail Eloethan and sassenach512!

The NHS is being stolen from under our noses. In the future SOME things may be free at the point of use for consumers, but the delivery is being privatised.

Allocation of funding has already passed from the NHS itself to CCGs (local organisations) and the mooted ACOs (which have been stopped for the present) would have meant that a private health insurance firm could bid to allocate local funding.

Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of NHS England (appointed in 2014 by the Cameron government), was previously President of UnitedHealth's Global Health Division - UH being the largest health insurance company in America. Oliver Letwin wrote "Privatising the World" in the 1980's, the blueprint for the privatisation of the NHS amongst other public services.

I am on the international blog Quora and every day there are heart rending stories from the US of medical bankruptcy and financial inability to continue payments for life saving treatment, not to mention horrendously expensive overdiagnoisis and unnecessary treatment.

Sadly it IS all about politics and privatisation! You have been warned!!