nhs gone mad

[arniejake1]

Hi everyone I definitely think the nhs has gone mad, I was admitted to hospital on Saturday night suffering from dehydration and severe pain, I was seen in a&e where they had trouble trying to get a drip set up as my veins are rubbish. They eventually managed and put me some saline up and gave me some iv morphine, that was at 11pm around 12-15 I was put on the surgical trauma ward, a nurse came in and took my details then left me and my husband, we were in the room for over an hour before anyone came to see us, then only to take more details ( of which I had already given), The morphine they had given in a&e had worn off by this time.

My husband had to leave at 1-30 and on his way out asked if I could have some pain relief, they told him they would get me something straight away, but another hour and a half passed before they came bk without anything. They said the doctor would see me soon as they were on the ward, another hr passed before the doc came in to see me, he sort of examined me and couldn't see what the problem was, even though he could see I was in a lot of pain.

I asked if I could have some pain relief he giggled and said " I will have to ask the computer if you can have anything, if it says no then you cant have anything" I thought he was joking but he said that they have now started asking computers when you can have pain relief, im sure this will cause all sorts of problems for patients everywhere.

I have my pain relief of morphine and mst at home and can take my oramorph every 2 hrs if I need it, so when I was in hospital it was nearly 7 hrs before I got anything I think this is really a strange way to treat patients , does anyone agree with.

[rosewine]

So sorry to hear about your bad experience. I think at the rate it is going computers will rule the world. I know they have their uses as the doctor can quickly check whether whatever he was thinking of prescribing didn't have adverse interactions with any of the drugs you were already on or would make any other illnesses worse but if they are going to ask the computer every time they examine a patient we could all become doctors over night as it is simple computer imputting.

I can imagine 7 hours without your usual pain relief combined with the dehydration must have been awful. Hope you are feeling a bit better now.x

[arniejake1 in reply to rosewine]

Thank you rosewine for your reply, they had my long list of allergies which they found amusing ( not to me it isn,t ). I have got to the point now where I don't even want to go near that hospital any more , but as it is the only one locally to us I don't have a choice. I shall just wait until I get an appointment from my surgeon hopefuly he can advise me on what to do. Thank's again, Its really good to know that we have a site like this to air our problems and that nice people like you we can talk to .X

[Calceolaria]

You know that Dr Shipman and the attendant panic in health, the media, government and the general public, has resulted in OTT regulations about morphine. If you'd had some iv earlier, they were probably doing their usual fearful, protocol driven response. It must have been a terrible experience for you.

[AmyPS]

You managed to see a doctor - my word - where I live - it's on record as I've been hospitalised four times for cellulitis - i.e. they have to intravenously get anti-biotics into me quickly. Was told there are NO doctors you might as well go home they wont be in for about 8/9 hours. I fainted in the A&E and they just asked are you able to drive home? Um NO - I have a temperature and you already have it on record it needs to be treated straight-away (same hospital for al the other occasions).

My mother waited 6 1/2 hours after the doctor rang up for an ambulance and then was in the ambulance for 2 hours parked outside the hospital, was propped up in the waiting room for a further two hours and it turned out her cancer had grown so much it had blocked her stomach and was compressed against her gall bladder. She was admitted and had two stents put in one directly through her liver to her gall bladder and the other into her stomach.

For three weeks while she was in hospital when I visited kept asking for the pain relief for her, 'yes yes'. The Consultant/Surgeon made it very clear to the nursing staff and ME she can have pain relief WHENEVER she needs it, more importantly called the nurses in and told them directly. The nurses still didn't provide it. It's one of the those small vials - instant relief.

The NHS was better 20/30 years ago to today's standard.

SORRY THAT YOU had to go through this. It just isn't fair.

[rosewine in reply to AmyPS]

Hi AmyPS

I think the treatment of your mother was absolutely ghastly I would make a complaint to the hospital and get PALS to help if you are unsure. What I say is bring the Matron's back as they ruled with a rod of iron even made the specialists jump if they didn't think they were doing the job correctly.

I know my mother in laws treatment was ghastly when she had a stroke. Admitted at 12.30 and it was 4.30 before they gave her a drip even though she was having the most terrible stomach troubles and you could see her fading in front of our eyes. The excuse was that they could not get a drip into her and needed a doctor to come.I had been made to wait in the waiting room as there was nowhere to sit as they were barrier nursing her and when I went in at 4.30 I lost it with them. Fortunately I had been to an Age Concern Forum only that week and had met the man in charge of the quality of A & E and as soon as I let them know I had met him and had his contact details people when they knew this suddenly people were coming from everywhere to see to her and the first nurse to try got a drip into her. My husband was actually the one who found her dead in her bed at the hospital with a red tray next to her with her dinner which meant she was supposed to be hand fed and it had just been left out of reach on the side. I have no family of my own except my husband and if anything happened to him I would be terrified. I was always having to fight my friends corner in hospital as she had no close relatives who visited . Yet some people say the hospital where they went were marvellous.

To be quite honest it is not only the NHS as my mother in law had poor treatment when she was in a private hospital. Sorry for the rant but I feel very strongly about these things. I used to be an advisor for the elderly for Age UK and the I could write a book about the horrific tales people came with about the treatment of their nearest and dearest.x

[AmyPS]

I wrote and put in complaints and each one was just acknowledged, I'm so disgusted by the care that was lacking. Oh and should have said they couldn't feed her and I don't mean literally - they didn't have any food for Coeliacs (Gluten intolerant). I had to bring in three meals a day for three weeks. The woman opposite my mother was 93 - they put food down in front of her but she couldn't see it and even if she could - she literally couldn't lift her hands. In three weeks she wore the same clothes.

On my mother's last admission into hospital I OFFERED TO PAY PRIVATELY AND HAVE A PRIVATE ROOM. Was told you can't. She had surgery which should have been 4/5 hours and 14 hours later came out - she went up for surgery at 8am and 10pm that night the Surgeon rang me - saying 'you must be so worried' etc he was fantastic and concerned for me 'waiting and worried'. That was fantastic, he was caring and took the time after being in theatre all those hours to ring me - that was very kind of him.

It sickens me to think people are treated like this - a piece of meat thrown into a corner - you'd get better help down at the vets.

Seriously though I did write to James Hunt, Anne Llewellyn (I think that's her name), wrote to the Complaints Department, saw a Solicitor.

Oh and don't think this was/is a little hospital unfortunately, it is the larger hospitals that provide the worse service. It's two miles from her home Cardiff Hospital. In fact I'm about to drive my mother down to Swansea Morriston Hospital - for an appointment - so we have an hours drive - her appointment is at 12.30pm today. Yep we live in Cardiff but use a hospital an hour away - which is quicker than waiting 6 to 8 hours for an ambulance, or treatment.

[Poppy_Ann]

from personal experiences i think that they spend more time doing paperwork than nursing now, they are trying to make sure no one sues them for anything but in doing it they just leave patients to fend for themselves the last time i was in due to a deep bone infection after surgery on my foot the nurse took a minimum of three goes before they managed to find a vein on one attempt it was at 8 tries then they called in someone else who did it in one go, on one attempt when they put the line in they connected up the antibiotics and then left me after less than a minute i tried calling the nurse back but got no reply in the end i was screaming at the top of my voice to get attention (i was put in a side ward on my own)as it felt like my arm was on fire it was due to they had not got the needle in correctly instead of being in my vein it was in my muscle, until this time i had always defended the NHS but until they can get more training some of the nurses should only be allowed to do things like putting a line in under the control of someone more skilled who can step in if they have to have more than 2 attempts.

[LindaP60]

That sounds absolutely ridiculous, how on earth can a computer determine who needs pain relief and when???!. If I were you I would write in a complaint about your lack of treatment on the trauma ward and the fact that doctors have to ask computers for permission to give pain relief.

[sianr]

That's completely inappropriate and yes nhs are using computers during drug rounds its to prevent errors however there is a prn (as required) and other section , sounds like this individual let the computer do the talking. Maybe you should complain 7 hours is unacceptable this is how people deteriorate symptoms take longer to settle and can interfere with treatment if not addressed as soon as possible. I do hope there will never be a repeat of this. If you do happen to be in hospital again be assertive , people who don't suffer pain have no idea how much it affects patients as a whole. Poor nursing care