I cannot believe our NHS!!

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Dreckly

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Yesterday evening, a girl on our yard had a very nasty fall from her pony whilst having a lesson in our jumping field. Not ponio's fault, but she took out a pole which got caught between her back legs and she same down. The poor rider ended up in the dirt on her face, and then pony fell back on her head.

She was wearing a properly fitted hat which did not move (saved her life!) and a good body protector. Lots of blood, nose, bit lips etc, but we called the ambulance and they took her to hospital for a check-up. She is examined and the diagnosis is cuts and bruises and mild concussion. They send her home with instructions of what to look for.

She gets up this morning with double vision - straight back to hopsital. Sees another doctor who is most concerned about original injury who orders xrays and a CT scan. Comes back she has a skull fracture and a small chip fracture in her shoulder!! Why did they not do this yesterday evening. They were told on a number of occasions that the pony had fallen on her head quite heavily!!

Sometimes I really wonder if we are all safe!!
 
Jeezz thank goodness she is ok, that is terrible. I hope that they make a complaint
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Oh dear, glad they found out though, it's not good service though is it? I know the NHS is stretched but when you're telling them a pony landed on her head.............
 
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PLEASE do not berate the NHS - if you really do believe in berrating them then get private medical insurance and go elsewhere! We are lucky to have *free* medical care in this country and whilst, yes, it is stretched and shite and causes people to swear, but we would all swear a LOT more if we had to pay everytime we needed medical assistance!

Whilst I understand the frustration, things ARE missed as doctors are human - I too cannot understand why she didn't at least get Xrayed, but they may have thought if the hat was not knackered the head would be OK, and as she had full mobility that nothing was broken. Hope she makes a swift recovery xx

PS - very unlike me to rant like that, don't take it personally please!
 
No weezy - I do not take it personally and in fact I agree with a lot of what you said - I have always been a supporter of our NHS and have received excellant treatement from them. It just shocked me greatly that being presented with a child with such injuries - with definate knowledge that the horse landed heavily on her head, she also had the start of swelling behind one ear that it did not occur to them to check. And then for a second doctor to be instantly concerned about the same injuries and order all manner of checks. It is just a shame that you cannot expect a consistant level of care. Perhaps I am being a bit niave (sp?) here but surely when presented with a nead injury a CT scan should be expected.
 
...but it's a trivial amount compared to private healthcare payments.

Over here we don't pay for our Health Service......and boy does it show!! You are very lucky to have the NHS.
 
Dreckly, knowing now that she had head swelling then yes, she absolutely should have had a CT scan! Glad you didn't take my tirade personally, its just what with both of my parents being in the hands of the NHS in the last few weeks I feel very lucky that they have access to the care without worrying about costs.
 
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If the NHS got abolished, do you think your tax would go down
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Seriously tho yes I understand that, but if you look elsewhere in the world we ARE v lucky!

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Yep... that's why every one in the world wants to use it!
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The thing is, with a skull fracture (I fractured my skull a few years ago), when the head swells the doctors generally know it is a safe injury. It's when the head doesn't swell that there is major cause for concern as the swelling occurs within the confines of the head and puts pressure on the brain.
 
Interesting thread. I got concussed last year when I fell off an overexcited TB! It was mild and I was fine but got shunted off to A & E by friends and OH. They x-rayed me despite showing no signs of anything untoward. The radiographer was really annoyed when I went through! She said the doctor was being too cautious and they were all frightened of getting sued! If I hadn't have just been whacked on the head, I would would have said I didn't want an x-ray. Damned if you do and damned if you don't I suppose.

Hope your friend is well again soon.
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If the NHS got abolished, do you think your tax would go down
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Seriously tho yes I understand that, but if you look elsewhere in the world we ARE v lucky!

[/ QUOTE ] some parts of the world, but lets not get carried away. Services in France, Germany and even Cuba (with all the difficulties in its economy) are much better. The girl could have died from lack of care in this case if the fracture had caused swelling or bleeding in the brain. I work in the NHS and believe me the public don't know the half of it. Yes we are all fallible and make mistakes with our patients, but there is also a lot of poor and sometimes negligent practice, not least that caused by economising on bugets
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And Tia my National Insurrance works out about £200 per month (over $400 US dollars).
 
Oh Weezy, I know what you mean about the care without the cost. The NHS looked after my dad for many years before the prostate cancer got him last May. I only wish we could all be sure of receiving the same level of care - but then I suppose this is inevitable when the service is broken down and provided by different trusts. Surely there should be some sort of baseline protocol within A&E for what could be potentially the more serious cases. But then as with most things, to those of us looking in from the outside it all seems so simple!!
 
Whilst I was really grateful when they fixed my dislocated elbow, I do get pissed off when they charge me NI and then futher tax for having private healthcare

Surely private healthcare should at least be tax free if nothing else, as it takes some of the pressure off the NHS!

Still I can beat original posters story - my father when stupidly backing my now 9 year old (Peer), got bucked off and was in very bad state, kept in overnight with bad concussion and broken wrist. Sent home follow day, lost a lot of memory and never quite had the same stamina

2 years later, mother looks at doctors notes and casually finds out he had a fractured skull.... well cheers for telling us then!!!!!
 
well i have duel citizanship with here and anouther european country, thier NI is actualy less then ours but guess what no MRSA in thier hospitals, careing staff who actualy give a damn, Instant treatment for conditions, no waiting lists for the majority of operations (obviously you do have them for transplants). And best of all deacent meals in hospital.

I too have horrific stories to tell about the NHS nearly Killing my mother 3 times. In the end we went abroad and the problem was solved in 2 weeks and the doctors there were absolutely horrified to see that the problem had been left so long, they would have operated a year before then if she had been in thier system rather then ours and mum was still on the NHS waiting list for an operation with at least a 6 month wait when they saw her.
 
Why should private healthcare be tax free??? It's your choice to have private healthcare. Where are you going to go should you need emergency treatment and god forbid intensive care??

In this day and age most doctors are too scared to actually diagnose people for fear of getting it wrong and being sued. It soon looks bad on a whole hospital should one doctor get something wrong. There are always people quick to point out the bad with the nhs but are hardly ever quick to sing their praises where neccessary.


To the OP.... I hope that the girl feels better soon. I totally agree with what you are saying though, you should expect a consistent level of care from all doctors at all times. Sadly this isn't always the case. What time of the evening was it? It may wel have been that the CT scanner is only available for real emergencies after a certain time? I don't know I'm sure the first doctor had some reason for doing what he did, the second doctor may well have been over cautious as it was a second visit.

Just for the record I currently work in the private healthcare sector but I am soon to be moving to the NHS......they are paying more money
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The NHS is a wonderful thing........but at times a pile of poo!!

My sister got an infection next to her spine (pilonidal synus i think its called) last week........given antibiotics, sent home, goes to the doctors 3 more times before they send her to hospital (all this time she can hardly move, is in tears alot etc etc) When sent to hospital, it is about to burst........Han is then sent to another hospital over an hours drive away ( i don't hang around!) so she can have an operation. Our local hospital is new and will not do emergency surgery, nor children or spinal injuries or head injuries, nor does it have a maternity ward! The old hospital did all of the above. The new hospital cost millions and is basically a posh looking triage centre!! I am still trying to work out what the point in it is!!! Oh and they are currently spending millions more to make it bigger to house all the doctors that are around the town!!!

We have private health insurance and if the doctors hadn't waited until 10 at night to tell us she had to have an op, we would have gone private!

When someone is so obvioulsy in serious pain, do they leave her 2 hours before someone looks at her properly!! Then give her painkillers (tablets) when she can't even keep water down!!!!

I know the NHS is precious and is an amazing thing......but sometimes it really is shocking!!!

Sorry about the rant!! Didn;t really intend to go so much!!
 
I know the NHS is great in principle but it no longer really works, does it? Until we get rid of all the NHS tourists, and get the hospitals clean, and recruit nurses who actually have a feeling for the job, then it's not going to improve. And - while I'm ranting - it was never set up to cater for cosmetic surgery, IVF, etc. These ought always to be private. I've always said that my animals, dogs and horses (I use specialist vet for horses and general one for dogs) have much much better treatment than I've ever seen in an NHS hospital. I've seen the NHS treating my mother - it was just senility rather than a particular illness, and, apart from the general chaos and dirt, there was absolutely no respect or dignity. I've also been dragged off after horse-falls, and received piss-poor attention, and discharged myself ASAP. I'd rather go to a vet - honestly!! I could go on and on - our local A&E's peculiar triage, for example. Like - horses are elitist - bottom of the queue. Drunk drivers - no point in doing proper stitching - they'll only be back. Etc. In case anyone thinks I'm making this up, I either have it first hand, or from people who either work or have been treated there. Lots of examples. OK, I'll shut up - it's sending my blood pressure up...
 
Should senility be treated in a hospital though? Surely that begs a different question, care homes!!!!

My mother broke her leg very badly 3 weeks ago today, she spent 2 weeks in hospital and it certainly DID work for her. My father has cancer, very extreme rheumatoid arthritis and other probs and it certainly works for him.

I agree that the NHS should not pay for cosmetic surgery (except for boob reductions and burns victims, etc).

I take it you have private medical insurance now?

Where do you go for emergency care?
 
Senility shouldn't be treated in hospital, I agree, and mother did later go into a care home. But, what does it cost for the nurse NOT to yell down the length of the ward 'Have you moved your bowels yet, Mrs. X?' etc. A little respect doesn't cost. No, I don't have health insurance - too old and decrepit, but I'll have to be dragged unconscious before I go into hospital. And, in any case, emergency treatment is always NHS, so you have to go into the filthy place first, even if you transfer to private.
 
I fell off a pony aged 11, when i came round i couldn't feel my legs, went to hospital, they x rayed my back, hip and pelvis area diagnosed me with a bruised hip, a year of not being able to walk more than 100 yards, being in constant pain and unable to stand on occasions, missing a year of school, being told it was psychological and
"i should pull myself together" ( i went back to the hospital at least 15 times that year for further x rays and scans, my legs had gone blue on several occasions).
I went to see a specialist and they looked at the initial x ray that was taken on the day of the accident and noticed i had shattered my vertebrae, i still don't know how they missed it initially, i had to have a major op within a week. They were brilliant when i was properly diagnosed and the NHS have been wonderful to me in the past but the specialist told me i could have been paralysed at any time and i just wonder what would of happened if my mom hadn't have been so insistent.
 
Some of these stories are terrible and unacceptable, I'm glad that the girl who fell from her horse has had an appropriate diagnoses and I hope she's on the mend. However not all the staff are incompetant or rude. I'm working a 79 hour week this week as a junior doctor (as part of 12 days on the trot, and not including the unpaid overtime expected) - hardly ideal for making quick, appropriate desisions about patient care under pressure. We're constantly under pressure to reduce the number of investigations ordered and get paitents out of hospital asap. I've met very very few nurses who didn't care about their patients, infact I've been really pleasantly suprised after all the horror stories!

No wonder NHS staff are demorilised when they are so often critisised and so rarely praised.
 
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Should senility be treated in a hospital though? Surely that begs a different question, care homes!!!!



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Care homes cant take them because they arnt being payed enough and are shutting down at a rate of an average 30 a week. Care homes are not not paid anywhere near enough for what they do.
For our care home we will not accept council placements as we cannot make ends meet on £32 a day, thats for bed, 3 meals a day, 24 hour staff, laundry, cleaning, general bills, sometimes intimate care as well.
You pay £40 a night for a travel lodge room with no food, no laundry done, part time staff on reception they certainly dont bring you tea in your room or do intimate care.
We have on several occasions seriously concidered closing our 2 care homes down and converting them into holiday flats and hotels, it would pay better better and be far less hassle, were also in a prime location for a hotel. At least with ia hotel it would only be 2 inspections a year possibly 3 (environmental health and the fire inspections, possibly your star rating inspections) for care homes, well we had 8 per home last year, each inspection at a care home requires around 300 pages of forms to be filled in by the staff and the manager. And when we wanted to put a new manager in place as our old manager wanted to retire the registration proccess required a £1000 fee and a 600 page form and document that had to be filled in.
Both our homes made a loss last year and it wasnt through extravigant spending either, it was through trying to give each resident some form of dignity, respect and care and a non institutional environment. At the end of last year one home made a 70k loss and it was at this point that we had to ask is it all worth it, and quite frankly no it isnt.
 
I don't mean to offend the good ones, like yourself. I'm sure there are lots. I think the attention to budgets has cost the NHS a lot in terms of care. This is clearly not the fault of individual doctors and nurses. As I said earlier, if all the stuff that shouldn't be there, like cosmetic ops and foreign nationals, was removed, there'd be more in the budget for essentials. THe NHS can never be all things to all men. It wasn't set up to be so, and clearly can't afford to be. However, I apologise if I caused offence, Virtual. When I rant, I rant! (Though I swear it was all true.)
 
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No wonder NHS staff are demorilised when they are so often critisised and so rarely praised.

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Well said! The press and media love a good NHS cock up story, but there is never a story about the good guys and the majority that make it out of hospital treated and happy.

It is our government and society that is to blame, People simply don't take the pride in their work that they use to. Nurses have to be qualified before they can tend to the sick.....qualified doesn't make you caring. Qualified people then don't do the menial tasks such as cleaning because its "not my job" NHS needs to chuck out the managers, bring back matron and open more small district hospitals like they use to have in the years gone by.
 
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It is our government and society that is to blame, People simply don't take the pride in their work that they use to. Nurses have to be qualified before they can tend to the sick.....qualified doesn't make you caring. Qualified people then don't do the menial tasks such as cleaning because its "not my job" NHS needs to chuck out the managers, bring back matron and open more small district hospitals like they use to have in the years gone by.

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Here here, my mum is an old fashioned nurse and she is disgusted at the way things are at the moment. She lost her temper once in the middle of a hospital ward when visiting one of our residents who had had a stroke. The man hadnt been fed all day (he was diabetic) because he couldnt move his right arm to feed himself and the nurses had just plonked it in front of him and expected him to get on with feeding himself.
The staff on the wards at that hospital now know mum on sight and i can tell you now its amazing the change in the wards when she walks through the doors, suddenly everyones busy and all the jobs are being done properly.
It make you feel realy sorry for the elderly people whos relitives or contacts dont vist them and insist (rather loudly) that things get done
 
have to say though when i had a very nasty fall from a horse, i refused to get in the ambulance to the large hospital, and mum took me in the car down to a local little hospital (which is currently under threat of closure) and they couldnt do enough for me. They seemed to genuinely care there. and after 6 sets oof xrays on my neck and 4 hours with a student nurse holding my hand as i was panicy strapped to the spinal board (im claustriphobic) i was given the all clear.
They were lovely but because no real emergancies ever get sent there(ambulances never go to it) thier beautiful facilities and reacent £4million face lift are going to waste. I personaly think that this little hospital has better facilities then the main hospital half an hours drive away.
 
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