Bed Blocking – Contentious Subject

Yeah agreed on god knows why anyone would ever want to stay in a hospital a minute longer than required

+1. I was in a very nice hospital recently and was very well taken care of, and was very grateful – but couldn’t wait to go home. I mean, hospitals are full of sick people (and, less facetiously, a bigger infection risk than even my hovel).

I’m sympathetic to the hospitals seeming to keep people hanging around unnecessarily, though. You’re just one patient in a big (overstressed?) machine, there’s a routine to everything, everyone’s running about between 5 different jobs, and sometimes you just have to go with the flow even if it doesn’t suit you.

(Thank you all healthcare workers – even managers and administrators without whom no-one else would be able to do anything. I don’t want a nurse practitioner ordering bin bags or arranging PAT testing or producing trial balances…)

Brief case/mitigation for the defence, having been a hospital pharmacist for many years

I don’t doubt your experience, nor that there is a massive demand most of the time.

But for the majority of  discharges just send the scrip directly to the local pharmacy for later pickup. Gets the bed back and saves the pharmacy capacity for those who really need it.

It doesn’t seem that complex a solution but the NHS does seem to run on a massive teetering bureaucracy.

(Wife a lifer in the NHS)

BIL is still in – infection found but not on antibiotics until yesterday (not sure why). We’re keeping out of it, as MrsF suggested that if the docs thought he was fit enough they’d send him home to vacate the bed for someone more poorly.  She got a sharp response and said they (BIL and SIL) aren’t medical people and don’t fully understand but they think there are other ‘things going on’.  It’s a load of bollix as both are educated people – I think SIL doesn’t really want to care for BIL as he’s a ‘needy person’. I’d be looking at my notes, asking questions, then googling it.

When I was in with a broken spine, the doctors said had I had any medical training, I said no, but I do alot of sport (cycling) and I’ve injured myself quite a bit, so a bit of research into these issues helps understand what’s going on.

As for ‘how did I break my spine’ – got knocked off my bike commuting to work. Still riding, still commuting !

I could write a short novel about the shenanigans of the other patients whilst I was in there. Some incredibly rude people, some very sad tales, and some utter bonkers shoot going on (like lighting a fag in the ward, whilst connected to oxygen) – yep. the Nursing Assistant had to ‘put the patient out’ as she’d set herself on fire.

A week on and he’s still there. Infection still present and the Consultants have supposed to have been operating this week, one delay for additional scans, and another delayed yesterday.

Me, I’d view it as either they were being cautious – i.e. it’s risky operating when there is an infection present and a scan may show more, and yesterday’s postponement, well someone else needed seeing more.

He’s still going for a paper and going out for a vape. Apparently he’s only just ‘calmed down’ from yesterday’s postponement – very angry. SIL sees it as a testing of a patents resilience. They’ve already been complaining to PALS for the last two weeks. They really sound ‘entitled’. We’re treading carefully, being supportive as SIL has a nasty temper.

Doesn’t sound like a pleasant patient to deal with. He delights in telling us how ‘cutting’ he can be to customers in his shop when they ask stupid questions, so I no doubt he’s giving the medical staff a hard time. If he was urgent, they’d have operated – this is what I always think !

I’ve just said to my wife I’m not going as I’m not one for mincing my words, having spent 7 weeks in hospital and I know and understand how hard it is for staff.

The simple fact is he’s not an urgent case, he has poor health (ticker), surgeons need to be careful with him, and, more importantly, there are far more very poorly people in hospital, and sometimes, like every hour, there are emergencies.

It was just a gall bladder op!
The day after I had mine removed I was pruning apple trees (although MrsSB was pretty angry about this)!

He needed to free the bed up for someone who actually needed it.

This all sounds a lot more complicated than a simple Op and discharge.

I dont think any hospital in the country isnt 2 to 4 times a day reviewing its beds and looking at who is medically fit for discharge. Clearly medically this person wasnt fit for discharge and as others have said, he may not have had the care at home to safely discharge.

It is however proven that if you are medically fit for discharge, then your normal place of residence is the best place to help you recover. The longer you stay in a hospital bed the more you decompensate. Yes being in a hospital bed is bad for your health

He want’s out now fortunately, but now needs some infection ‘draining’. We suspect that infection was ‘there’ before the gall bladder was removed, but it’s now turned into how ‘bad’ the hospital are.