(I was about to post this on the “doctors on strike” thread, but I didn’t want it to be misconstrued as political point-scoring)

I’m more in love with the NHS than ever:

On Saturday (while the missus and me were off celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary) my 6yo daughter trapped her finger in the hinge side of a heavy door, crushing it, breaking the bone, pulling off her nail and de-gloving her finger tip. 🙁

Two off-duty NHS nurses happened to be there. They immediately sprang into action and gave up a large chunk of their afternoon to help.

She was quickly attended by an ambulance paramedic who got her drugged up and whisked off in a rapid response vehicle to the RVI, where he dealt with reception procedure so she could be quickly triaged and seen by a casualty doctor who got her x-rayed and admitted to the Children’s Ward.

We arrived in a frantic mess to find her happy and chatty (and tripping balls on morphine).

Every doctor, nurse and specialist that saw her took the time to introduce themselves, make sure she was comfortable and discuss what they were doing. Every one of them was a credit to their profession.

At 10pm the anaesthetist and plastic surgeon were still hoping to squeeze her into to surgery that night, but after dealing with the aftermath of what the local paper described as a “day of carnage” they simply didn’t have room.

Instead she was operated on first thing on Sunday morning, by the same anaesthetist and plastic surgeon.

Again we couldn’t have asked for a nicer team. As she drifted off the anaesthetist narrated the whole thing as a story about riding a rocket to space (complete with astronaut’s breathing mask and beepy rocket controls). The surgeon carefully explained everything to be done and took the time to come and see us afterwards. The nurses on the ward kept her so cheerful and comfortable that by the time she was discharged she was saying she quite likes being in hospital.

She’s back home now and we are very grateful.

Long live the NHS.

I agree….NHS rock.

It’s ace.

Glad she is doing well and that my colleagues provided you with a good service.

Yep, the NHS is awesome.

Can’t agree more.

I recently had great assistance from the NHS and also great North air ambulance, after I collapsed towards the end of a (running) race in Northumberland.
They turned me around got me into hospital and sorted out within 3 hours.
Just to add, I’d suffered a cardiac arrest and had a stent fitted at the Freeman hospital in Newcastle. I awoke in hospital with no recollection of what had happened (still don’t) but I know the people who helped, including an off duty Nurse in the race slightly behind me, saved my life. The NHS, and the dedicated staff who hold it together are awesome..

Gave me my leg back basically. Not much to add over that. Cheers guys!

Posted a link on here last week about my BIL, who is a hospital CE and an excellent bloke. We have had the most amazing care from the NHS, first as parents and more recently during the slow death of my MIL from cancer. What that experience has taught us is that the NHS is only as good as what you give it and that it takes an emergency or quite a lot of effort to get the best from the system. My neighbour moans about how useless the NHS is but when you ask him what’s wrong he just whines: “I don’t know; they won’t tell me, they just keep messing me around!” He refuses to make any effort or ask questions so is completely ignorant about his own illness and treatment.

I recently had great assistance from the NHS and also great North air ambulance, after I collapsed towards the end of a (running) race in Northumberland.

I recall that, I didn’t attend but seen it in the paper. Nice to hear you’re still doing well.

The PPCI is amazing there’s a member on here works there too.

Thanks – with all the crap the NHS gets, it’s really nice to hear positive things and be appreciated.

I recently had great assistance from the NHS and also great North air ambulance, after I collapsed towards the end of a (running) race in Northumberland.

We saw the air ambulance come in a couple of times at the RVI – could just about see the helipad from her ward window.

Like seeing the rescue choppers at a ski resort – amazing – but then sobering when it strikes you what that means for some poor sod. 🙁

Awesome isn’t it – I lose the will to live sometimes when some over-entitled ****-wit is moaning about turning up unannounced to A&E with a ingrowing toenail or something and whining it’s all shit because they had to wait 8 hours to be seen, after all they got there before the guy having a stroke or the women who was cut from her car this morning – “that’s not fair”.

I know from personal experience that when needed, they can move quickly, quicker than you can say “4 consults, 8 nurses, 2 surgeons, am Anaesthetist and a partridge in a pear tree” to the daft smashed up Mountain Biker in room 4 please.

I know that my GP surgery is actually one of the best, but still I know even shit ones that need 2 weeks notice to talk about some non-acute issue will reply with “head down, we’ll be waiting for you” if you phone up to say you’ve got a 6 month old with a blotchy rash and a bit of a fever, even if they know it’s probably just a bit of a cold.

Think your local A&E dept is a 2 hour long wait at least, try turning up with suspected meningitis.

i reckon i have had more than my moneys worth from the NHS. and all i have for them is praise.
when you spend time in hospital, you see how overworked they are. and to carry on treating and helping people in such situation, i think they are amazing.

+1 on great care from the NHS.

When my Wife gave birth last October I know it was supposedly a ‘routine’ thing but to see the way all the midwives and everyone else involved worked was truly amazing.
They were all very professional and re-assuring while at the same time being caring, considerate & friendly.
They were all very busy, but nothing was ever too much trouble.

Given that popping babies out is what they do day-in day-out, it still really seemed that every birth was special and every baby there was special.

Our daughter will be 1 soon and I am planning on popping back to the hospital with a card with a note of thanks, some piccies and a massive box of biscuits & stuff. Seems like such a small gesture when you consider what they did for us, but hopefully they’ll appreciate it.

Every time the joint on my 3rd finger of my left hand aches a little bit (particularly in damp weather), I thank the amazing people in the NHS who rushed me to hospital, sewed my finger back on and treated me for any possible infection, then subsequently provided physiotherapy etc. All those people who went through so much training, education, working inhumanely long hours, just to sort me out after a careless and avoidable accident.

Without the NHS, it’s unlikely I’d be able to feel any slight ache. Without the NHS, I wouldn’t have a finger to feel it in.

Adding a me too…

In a story with some parallels to the first one – my wee boy removed end of his ring finger in the hinge end of a heavy door at a sports centre. From the ambulance to the staff in A&E and the specialists who performed surgery on a Sunday afternoon, I can’t see how anything could have been done better. They even have a specialist fingertip reattachment unit in Aberdeen it seems (fishermen and farmers?).

Four years later you’d be hard pushed to tell which finger it was. Sense of touch is fine, fingernail has recovered and the scar is tiny. He forgets which one it was (well he was 3 or so at the time).

Only downside was when we took the bandage off a week or so after surgery. Next thing I know I’m on my back with my legs elevated. Can’t blame the NHS for that though – and they took good care of me. The sight of the bruising / mess on the tiny fingers just did me in. I’d been fine at the time – carrying him to reception, dragging his sister out of her dance class to come with us.. keeping track of the end of the finger. Adrenaline is wonderful stuff!

When i nearly lost my foot 13 years ago the staff at Wrexham Maelor Hospital were brilliant, especially the nurses

Every time I have has reason to use the NHS they have been simply fantastic.

Glad your little one is ok OP.

My mum is very old and frail and has been diagnosed with alzheimer’s, she has been in hospital twice in the last few months. I think the care she has received has been great but the work load on the staff is ridiculous.

3 nurses looking after a ward of oldies on a weekend seems crazy to me.

I can only echo Pigface’s first sentence. Great thread with happy ending.

Thanks NHS.

Sorry to spoil the love-in, but surely I am not the only one whose family has had some spectacularly shite NHS treatment? (largely as a result of being overworked, but also due to poor practise and awful infrastructure).

Maybe it’s just because I’ve been lucky enough to only see the emergency care side of it once or twice.

Currently keeping me alive every tues, thurs & saturday (Dialysis) Cant thank them enough! Great people.

The coronary care unit at the Freeman was excellent, great staff who really took the time to help, assist and care.
Plus the help I received on Alnmouth beach, and from the GNAA in getting me sorted and to the RVI (and then Freeman by road) was fantastic, but this is the level of service we get, as can be seen above by the number of posts, yet people still feel it necessary to bring it down.

It makes you appreciate the service even more when something like happened to me happens, but even more so when you’re in another country and they don’t have the healthcare service we have.

Just a big thank you to all involved, who helped save me (I was gone for 10 minutes) but a big thanks to Phil Green (if anyone knows him). He did the CPR and the defib and got me back initailly, then came to see me in his lunch break the day after to see how I was. What a guy. Hopefully I’ll be seeing him soon in person to thank him again.

Sorry to spoil the love-in, but surely I am not the only one whose family has had some spectacularly shite NHS treatment? (largely as a result of being overworked, but also due to poor practise and awful infrastructure).

Not entirely. When my dad was going through his final year-and-a-half, there was at least one spectacular failure. The office of his consultant did a terrible (read: nightmarishly bad) job of communicating – to the extent that he even missed out on care he could have received. And at one point, they didn’t even seem to be talking to the hospital.

It was an infuriating failure of both system and certain individuals, BUT… the overwhelming care of the staff involved (and there was a lot!) was superb, and I am deeply thankful to them. And that’s not even mentioning all the times that I, myself, have needed the NHS.

When I was 19 I had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I was treated by the NHS with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I can’t imagine how much that treadment would have cost were it not for the NHS but given I was a student, my dad was retired, and my mum was a nurse it would have at best resulted in an astonishing amount of debt and at worse no treatment.

Long live the NHS.

When I was 19 I had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I was treated by the NHS with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I can’t imagine how much that treadment would have cost were it not for the NHS but given I was a student, my dad was retired, and my mum was a nurse it would have at best resulted in an astonishing amount of debt and at worse no treatment.

Long live the NHS.

Me too! Well I was 21, and didn’t bother with the radiotherapy, but otherwise…

Can’t think why I didn’t bother adding that one to my post on the ‘Scared for your Life’ thread. 🙂

The NHS is exceptional in many parts, poor in others. But on the whole I can’t think of any other health system that offers the same value.

Me and my family have had fantastic treatment by the NHS. It is a wonderful thing. Thank-you for what you have done for me and mine.

Me and my family have also had poor treatment from the NHS, and ironically, it is when this has happened that you appreciate how wonderful it is, as you see what it might be like without it.

It is a mind-blowingly fantastic idea that should be funded, protected, cherished and improved for current and future generations. What could be a higher priority?

This made me think at the weekend: [Stay with it until the end]
Be careful what you take for granted

Sorry to spoil the love-in, but surely I am not the only one whose family has had some spectacularly shite NHS treatment? (largely as a result of being overworked, but also due to poor practise and awful infrastructure).

No, they’ve not always got it right in my experience with my family. Often because things weren’t text book presentation, workloads or just not acknowledging some issues. Believe it or not humans can make mistakes, it may not be acceptable but there’s always an explanation of why the mistake or the treatment wasn’t what might have been expected.

Hope your nipper’s on the mend, Graham.

retro83 – Member

Sorry to spoil the love-in, but surely I am not the only one whose family has had some spectacularly shite NHS treatment? (largely as a result of being overworked, but also due to poor practise and awful infrastructure).

Maybe it’s just because I’ve been lucky enough to only see the emergency care side of it once or twice.

My wife is a District Nurse, so I get to know ALL the various NHS failing during our nightly debreif session where I get an hour long tirade about people I’ve never met doing stuff I don’t understand in medical/Latin speak, so I have a fair idea

Inter-department communication is a real issue, it causes lots of duplication of work. I was being treated both by my GP and as an out-patient at hospital for the same thing until I fixed it, it fails just as much for people with serious conditions.

‘Bed Blocking’ goes further than just the beds – some individuals in some departments have become very good at knowing the way things work and will bend the truth, over-emphasise certain aspects of a patients condition, willing misinterpret rules to best suit them and straight out lie to either get rid of some patients or refuse to accept others, still that sort of thing has gone on in every job I’ve ever had in every industry I’ve ever worked in, the worst offenders though are the private providers – agency careworkers who claim to have visited people and fed/washed them when they haven’t leaving elderly sick people hungry sat in their own waste for hours, Carehomes who offer ‘Nursing Care’ billed at twice the cost of residential care to families and the state, then employ unskilled nurses so all the nursing care still has to be done by the NHS.

And I know of a few end-of-life patients who haven’t been told clearly enough they’re dying because too many people assumed someone else has done it.

Unions who are so effective at protecting jobs some hospitals have a dozen porters sat about, or acting as unofficial tour guides, or sleeping all on wages, but can’t afford to have the wards fully staffed and use a combination of normal staff shrinkage and purposely slow recruitment policies as a cost-saving device.

And the worst thing, the thing that winds me up the most, because I suffered it myself in the private sector – the ’emperors new clothes’ policies – my Wife used to work on a ward, a ‘super ward, as sometimes it’s called – it was the brainchild of some big wig – anyway instead of having several departments in several local hospitals, they combine them into a big one in a big hospital, sometimes a long distance from patients families, but that come second to quality of care – because it’s some big wigs baby, it has to succeed – they had a cabinet minister open it, it was in the papers and on TV, so it has to be a success and it is – on paper, but the ward is unmanageable, the ward manager now dealing 3 times as many staff can’t cope, the sheer size of the ward means nurses are walking 15+ miles a day, just to get around and a dozen other logistical problems mean quality of care is falling, not rising, managers are cracking the whip with already over-worked staff to do more, with less, quicker, so they’re leaving and it’s got a reputation so bad no one wants to work there – so it’s full of new qualified staff happy to get their first post, but leave as soon as they’ve got enough skilled signed off another ward will take them. It’s ‘too big to fail’ but will at some point.

But on balance they do a wonderful job.

Long live the NHS.

Glad you’re happy and the little one is on the mend. No one doubts the dedication of the vast majority of the vast. Other health provision systems are available however and would have been at least equally as good.

It doesn’t tell you anything about the NHS I’m afraid, I could give a whole list of similar stories from the continent. However, what it does tell you is the people you met wanted to do a good job, but I expect they’d do a good job whoever their employer.

My personal experience is that the pediatric care in the NHS is world class, we have had to use the service more than I would have liked for my one children and I have nothing but praise for them.

My GP and local doctors surgery on the other hand, couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery.

Other health provision systems are available however and would have been at least equally as good.

It doesn’t tell you anything about the NHS I’m afraid, I could give a whole list of similar stories from the continent. However, what it does tell you is the people you met wanted to do a good job, but I expect they’d do a good job whoever their employer.

Thought it wouldn’t be long before a few turned up to try and derail a thread praising the NHS.

El-bent just pointing out kids with crushed fingers get sorted out by A&E in other countries too and by staff who care deeply about their work.

For balance, my gran had really bad treatment from BUPA.

What the Southampton General staff did for me in the first 10 days after my obscure RTA on 23/12/2013 with two separate operations and care, plus the subsequent physio (as a SGH out-patient and then referring me to the Wessex Rehab Centre with free accommodation Mon-Fri) for ~5 weeks to give me a working hand again was amazing!

We’ve had great care on the NHS, especially during the birth of my daughter, when it seemed there was a motorway running through the room, full of consultants, midwives etc. She’s 17 now, and I’m reasonably convinced that she wouldn’t be the person she is but for the care we received. During my son’s birth, he was fine, but my wife wouldn’t stop bleeding. Cue a worrying couple of hours holding a newborn baby whilst his mother was in theatre.

For a little bit of balance, we’ve also had excellent care on the reciprocal French system whilst on holiday.

Thanks for the well wishes – she is largely fine. Bit sick at the moment due to the combined effects of general anaesthetic, morphine and antibiotics. She’s still bandaged up so we won’t know what is left of her fingertip for a couple of weeks yet, but the plastic surgeon gave it good odds of healing well.

Other health provision systems are available however and would have been at least equally as good.

And others would have been far far worse.

As way of a contrast, one of my daughter’s classmates broke his arm on holiday this summer whilst in Greece. He is also 6. The hospital there had to manipulate his arm and reset it without drugs as they didn’t have anything suitable available! 😯

I don’t want to derail this into politics though. There are enough threads on that. So yes, I agree, some other healthcare systems are also very good. And no healthcare system is without some faults or errors, including the NHS.

But the NHS is what we have and we shouldn’t underestimate just how good it is.

To avoid the “political element” then Graham, perhaps we could distinguish between the excellent service that most practitioners deliver and the current system or organising them. Just a thought…

Best wishes to your daughter

EDIT:

Oh, it’s Jamba. As you were. 😆

THM indeed… let’s leave that to proper research…

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/jun/mirror-mirror

I do spend too much time helping steer patients through pathways which could be better. But having worked in Canada and Australia – I saw the same and more there…