How the NHS wastes money.

My dad was given a new white metal and plastic shower stool by the local Occ health service ( part of NHS). It was provided free of charge but unfortunately dad passed away by the time it arrived . I tried to make arrangements to hand it back, but after several phone calls was told they do not take them back and I should take it to the local tip. It still had the labels on. I ended up advertising it free on facebook marketplace as I couldn’t bear to just throw it away. What a waste that these cannot be taken back and used again particularly when either unused or still in good condition.! I am sure there are lots of similar things happening across the country.

If a UK citizen travels anywhere outside our borders we have to pay for any form of health care hence the need for travel insurance whether we are able to communicate or need assistance. Wonder how much UK medical centres actually recover from tourist incidents, never seem to see figures on that. Before even getting into an A & E dept in USA you have to give credit card details.

I worked for the NHS for over 30 years, so I won't hear a word said against it. If you don't like the NHS get a private doctor., see how you like that.

MrA had to go in for a urethral splint to be fitted last week. I waited in the reception area for 5 hours for him. In that time I saw all sorts of goings on with patients arriving late, attending on the wrong day or wrong time and one even at the wrong hospital as he didn't want to travel to the correct hospital. I can only imagine the number of medical staff sitting around waiting for patients to arrive to allow them to do their jobs.

On the other hand the op MrA went in for wasn't performed in the end so we spent 5 hours and £12 parking for nothing. The op was rearranged for this morning.

When he got there this morning he was prepped for the op then told that they wanted to take another scan just to be sure of what was going on. The scan showed the op wasn't needed so he was sent home again. So another £30 in taxis for nothing.

I'm very happy that he didn't need the op so something is going right, but this week must have cost a fortune for the NHS as well as us.

I get paracetamol on prescription 200 at a time cos I'm on maximum dose and would be having to go to a shop to buy them every other day. I would gladly pay (as I would for other things on prescription) but I don't have the chance.

loopylyn2 I understand your difficulty. My horse was prescribed paracetomol when he had cellulitis and buying it via the vet was very expensive so I said I'd source my own. It turned out to be a cheaper option but incredibly time consuming. OH went to our local pharmacy and was told they could only sell him 16 so he said it was for a horse and they wouldn't sell him any as they could only sell them for human consumption. He then trekked round all the supermarkets and chemists buying the maximum he could, fortunately the horse only needed them for ten days but it was a bit of a nightmare.

TerriBull

I broke my arm last year, after being attended to I was given some pain relief, can't remember what, with the instruction, also take Paracetamol if necessary. He also said 'sure you have some at home' we do with the added comment 'I won't give you those then what you pay pence for the NHS pays pounds for' Why,??? Multiply that item and umpteen other things that the NHS pays more than it should for all the hospitals round the country

I believe that the NHS agreed to curb the prescribing of over the counter medications around 2017. My surgery does not prescribe anything you can buy yourself. Logically speaking, if you are still paying for prescriptions it's generally far cheaper for you to buy the medication then to pay a prescription fee.

My stay in hospital recently was excellent on the medical side ( once I got a bed). The food however was dreadful- a nurse told me most of it was scraped into the bin! I was horrified that your money and mine was being wasted this way. I was going to send a letter to the local paper about it but couldn’t bring myself to do that as it felt ungrateful after the great help I had got medically.

I thought you could get transalation programs on your phones.
Re the maintenance, surely they are given job sheets each day and an expected time for the job, perhaps he hadn't got much on.

I was visiting my NHS physiotherapist DD. She arrived home a bit later than expected. She explained that her lateness was due to signing off an older person to go home before the weekend but the daughter said her mother couldn’t go home because she, the lady’s daughter and carer, was going away for a while.

Now when I had to go into hospital of a small intervention including a general anesthetic, I was told when being discharged, that if there was no one staying where I was sleeping, I would have to stay in the hospital at X euros the night.

After an op, my OH was discharged by the consultant at 10.30 on Wednesday. He finally got home at midnight on Thursday as he had been waiting for the pharmacy to dispense his meds.
My cousin had a long wait from being discharged 10am and finally getting prescription at pharmacy closing time at 5 pm. The beds could not be changed ready for another patient.
Apart from that we have had excellent care from several outpatient departments over the last year. I personally have had appointments within days of being refered by our GP. At one appointment, the nurse saw me before she went for lunch rather than making me wait till after her lunch break. We haven’t noticed any ongoing work in the hospital, plenty outside. The one thing I detest is seeing several patients standing around smoking under the very large “No Smoking” signs making people breath in their smoke as they pay at the parking ticket machine.
Thank you and well done ELHT.

I had 5 physio appointments booked a week apart and I was given a card by the hospital with all the dates on. I then received FIVE first-class appointment letters and FIVE instruction sheets about the hospital and how to get there.

4allweknow

If a UK citizen travels anywhere outside our borders we have to pay for any form of health care hence the need for travel insurance whether we are able to communicate or need assistance. Wonder how much UK medical centres actually recover from tourist incidents, never seem to see figures on that. Before even getting into an A & E dept in USA you have to give credit card details.

When I travel to the Uk I am covered by my own French insurance.
However, the three different uk doctors I saw refused to let me pay, ' it's too much paper work' but that was pre-covid so maybe things have changed.
It is the fact now in France medical centres want to see my 'carte Vital' (NHS card) before treatment, whereas a year or so ago it was only after treatment.

There are enough people in this country for whom English is not their first language and I am sure that many of them work in hospitals! Surely someone could be found to spare a few minutes to interpret for a patient voluntarily without having to pay for interpreters.
Also, they should do "equipment swaps" with other hospitals so that a hospital has only 1 type of ECG machine (needing only 1 type of sticky tags which could be left on patients as they move around the hospital rather than using new tabs for each ECG as the ones in A&E are not compatible with the ones on the ward (personal experience!)
They should also recover and re-issue unopened boxes of tablets - (we have just disposed of 5 carrier bags full of mostly unopened, some still in date, medication - a disgusting waste of taxpayers money!)

I think it’s day 11 now without a toilet in my husband’s bay. I was there approx 4 hours today and a steady stream of workmen came in, opened the door, looked in and left again. At one point three men in work gear were in there, then another man came in wheeling a toilet. They must have lifted it in to position, then they all left leaving an Out of Order sign on the door. 🤣🤣

I’ve been taking paracetamol four times a day now for nearly two years, due to waiting for spinal surgery. I buy it because it’s cheap, but it does mean visiting different shops and buying it every time I go to the shops. Also my husband buys it for me, and he goes into the store and out about four times, simply so he can bring home a week’s supply for me. About a year ago, paracetamol became difficult to obtain, there were some supply problems, I don’t know why. I was seeing my doctor about something else and I asked her to prescribe some paracetamol since it was difficult to find, and she prescribed me 100, and was not happy about doing it, despite that paracetamol was difficult to get at that time. Given that 100 tablets is less than one week’s supply, I wasn’t very impressed.

There is a PALS office (Patient Liaison Service) in all hospitals. If you have a problem with anything you should report through them. They are very helpful. There is also a Chief executive to contact. While it’s good to vent your feelings through Gransnet it is not going to solve the problem.

That's what has been going on for years. It's not all the governments (either of them) it's the NHS Management not being strict enough and following up on contracts that take advantage. Also taking back handers like all the upper Management in all sorts of Public Services.

I have friends that live in Spain and when they visit their GP there my friends have to find their own interpreter and pay her !
Their gp's will not see anyone who's foreign without one, so to cover themselves in case of any misunderstandings .
So it's an expensive visit to their doc !

It can be more efficient for specialist interpreters to be available for patients who have limited spoken English or use sign language. Some patients speak passable English in everyday life but are less skilled with words they may not have needed before or are too unwell to access rarely used English words. Medical interpreters are skilled - familiar with specialist words such as medical terminology and skilled at rephrasing in the patients language to make full use of the subtlety’s of the both languages. They are worth their weight in gold!

The hospital I used to work in did have a list of bilingual staff (for each language) to call on to help out when needed. However this would mean taking staff away from their own duties.

I have recently attended a 6 week Physiotherapy course for a trapped nerve in my back.
I received a letter telling me all the details I needed. Over the following 8 weeks (the course was cancelled on two occasions due to lack of staff and moved to the next week) I received a reminder letter every week plus cancellation letters but every letter I received was backed up by a text to my phone. I worked out that as there were 4 people on the course there must have been 44 letters sent out including cancellation letters. All these were sent first class. All of us received the texts so the letters were a costly waste of money.

I bet if you were in a foreign country where English was the first language you would be glad of an interpreter to assist you, otherwise you might well die.

Yes Mamardoit, Terribull and others maybe.

My husband had 2 broken bones...humerus and pelvis which occurred through lack of attention by the nurses on two different occasions whilst he was in hospital
The ward staff had been warned that I had to return home after 6 hours watching him there and he would need to be watched further as he was still hallucinating
The ward sister wrote to admit their fault after the arm accident but that is not of much consolation or help as I am in my mid 80s and his only carer
He was in great pain from the broken arm when he returned home so I asked for a prescription..... he could NOT be left and the number of analgesics I could buy in town ( 1 hour round journey including purchase if lucky) was very limited and I was not always able to leave the house
I had a case in law for negligence so a solicitor said so think the regular paracetamol and codeine cost the NHS far less

I have just read that our local hospital group had 70,000 missed outpatient appointments and 2500+ missed surgery appointments in the last 9 months - what a shocking statistic!! Patients behaviour needs to be addressed too if we are considering reducing waste in the NHS!