General Chat

well I just hope everyone with a grievance complains loud and long

Nothing surprises me any more, Ann. I used to respect nurses but recent experience has made me reassess that view.

Bring back the aux nurses,,,,,,they were a god send on wards and soon was quick to notice when something was wrong..........the NHS today is a total shambles,,,,glad I'm not in uniform now days.........the stories that I hear from local to national is horrendous.

It's heartrending and upsetting to read these stories, we should all get decent and dignified care in hospitals, we used to be able to trust in the nurses and doctors to do their best but these days, everything is down to funding and cost, it seems.

I have to say that on my day visit to our hospital's eye clinic recently I was treated very well, as were all the people attending for cataract ops and such. I had to be tested every hour and was there from 8am to 5pm and couldn't have been treated better, with drinks and sandwiches being provided and a friendly atmosphere so that I felt as if I was with friends for the time I spent there.

I would be very worried about being admitted to hospital these days and especially if I was in no state to speak up for myself.

Lizx

As a former nurse (who rose to the dizzy heights of Matron :-) I have read all these comments with sadness.

I started nursing in 1945 (BEFORE) the NHS and saw the differences the introduction of it made.

My own experience about 2 years ago still astonishes me !!

I suffer from Glaucoma and have Field of Vison test every 12-18 months at the local hospital

This particular time I had a slight infection in one eye - the nurse said "open your eye properly" (each eye is tested separately) I tried to explain why I could not- her reply "do'nt argue do as I say" :-0

I was the last patient and walked back to reception with her

I said to her that I was a retired nurse and did not intend to argue with her-her reply "yes but when you trained nurses were respected and it is very different now"

I really was speechless :-(

out of her own mouth - says it all really :-(

How sad for you Elizabeth..............a few nurses have respect willingly given by grateful patients and relatives, sadly the majority have no people skills at all, they are not deserving of any respect at all.

Bring back on the job training, matrons and, as Kay says, auxillary nurses.

I sometimes feel ashamed to say I worked in the NHS, where has the basic care gone????

Liz (SRN)

I believe that support workers are the old auxiliaries.Think they changed the name a few years ago when they brought out NVQs.
May be wrong,but that's how my daughter got into the health service,but all geared to theory...not care.
The cleaning,food etc all contribute to the problem since it was sourced out to private firms.
I still think that uniforms should be left in hospital and not taken home to wash at low temperatures.

my d-i-l has to take her uniform home as nursing staff have no lockers!!! as new unit and those who arrived first got the lockers - hence all the admin staff have lockers

Auxiliaries are now called HCAs = Health Care Assistants

My mother was SRN and a senior sister. She did her training during ww2 in the south of England where as well as everyday nursing they also had the extra practice of the Battle of Britain, the Blitz and D-Day. She tells me that she will never forget the long lines of ambulances waiting for the incoming ships during the summer of 1944 and the handsome sunburned men. Germans and English were treated the same side by side.

My point is that despite not having any of the modern NHS facilities and drugs ( penicillin was just rolling out in small doses ) the survival rate was surprisingly high even for serious wounds. How so ? EZ. Very close and attentive nursing together with obsessional devotion to hygiene. That seems to have gone.

fwiw my niece ( a graduate nurse never afraid of the mucky side of nursing ) has emigrated where she earns twice as much and does not have the never ending stresses of the NHS. My mother was never very keen on SENs and niece was not very keen on nursing assistants either. She believes that diagnosis for doctors, not nurses.

The root problem with the NHS is its existing monolithic structure. The organization is far too large to be properly managed or financed by anybody.

Poor health care on the ward is symptomatic of that. Two years ago my wife was in hospital for a heavy duty neck operation ( cancer ). The surgery was excellent but the post op care ( even in intensive care ) poor and I had to camp out in the hospital for nearly 2 weeks.

The British practice of "wards" with 12 patients and more dates back to Florence Nightingale and should be dropped urgently. It is degrading and promotes cross infection. Modern medicine has typically 4 people at most to a room with 1 or 2 being the norm.

It is fairly obvious that the Tories are moving to breaking up the NHS into islands of health care which may or may not be provided by the state. I don't particularly like this privatization by stealth but it at least recognizes that the status quo is not an option.

Labour - which seems to view the NHS through the eyes of Unison as a big job creating scheme - has no credible NHS policy at all beyond an "NHS tax" which would vanish in an instant while changing nothing.

Meanwhile the best option is to keep fit and out of hospital. My mother is 93 and that is certainly her approach!