Dear Mr Blair....
Dear Tony
When was the last time you visited an NHS hospital for emergency treatment rather than just schmoozing with hospital executives and nurses??
After a 6 day stay in Addenbrookes and a recent afternoon/evening in Basildon's MAU (that's a 'medical assessment unit'), I thought it might be time to re-iterate a few things to you.....
1) Nurses do NOT get paid enough for their job.
Honestly, it's a thankless job and I'd like to see you clean up an elderly person who has just shat himself in his chair (wearing just a hospital gown meant it could have only gone down his leg and onto the floor!). The poor fellow had pressed his nurses call bell and was trying to get attention so this didn't have to happen but it took a good 10 minutes before anyone came to his aid and unfortunately by this time it was too late. Not the most pleasant thing when you're in a bed opposite. And what about the poor chaps dignity? Is he not entitled to keep it?! Why did it take so long for someone to attend to him? They were short staffed. Why were they short staffed? Perhaps there were people off sick? Perhaps someone screwed up the rotas? Perhaps there just aren't enough people wanting to be paid such a pittance for such a tough job? This may come as a surprise to you, but hospitals can't run without nurses - who would provide all the caring & support for patients? The smiles, the encouragement, the shoulder to cry on. How would people get better without this? Obviously we need doctors too, but without the nurses in the equation there's no hope.
I admire and respect nurses/carers - I don't think I could ever do their job. All the nurses I have come in contact with are so lovely and only too willing to help in some way. Obviously there are the stories of elderly people who are mistreated, etc. but I truly believe that most nurses are so stretched in their work that unfortunately things do slip and get forgotten - they don't mean for it to happen.
2) Some UK hospitals are no better than some 3rd world hospitals.
After watching the news recently with reports from hospitals in war ridden Lebanon, it scares me to think that some of their hospitals looked in a better state than ours.
Basildon MAU could be a war zone in itself. With a lack of nursing staff, dark dingey wards, old tatty beds & bedside furniture, unironed bed linen, old curtains (with blood stains) which are hap-hazardly hooked up, making it difficult for a smooth closure around the bed, it's a wonder anyone gets better in an environment like this.
3) When is Jaime Oliver going to sort out hospital food?
It's bland, unexciting, tasteless and dull. And take my fave tea-time choice, cheese and crackers, the cheese is packaged up so tightly that even an able-handed person needs scissors to open it! Do you not want us to eat?? On a similar note, you get it served on paper plates with plastic knives and forks - is this a health & safety thing? Are we not to be trusted with the real thing? Maybe some patients aren't, but if that's the case, maybe the patients are in the wrong place, perhaps they need to be in a psychiactric unit rather than loose on the wards? Or perhaps it's to do with MRSA? In which case I would say 'learn to clean better and let's try saving the environment!'
4) MRSA - the smallest of changes save lives.
So you know about the old blood stained curtains in Basildon, well in Addenbrookes they now have a paper type curtain that can be wiped down easily and destroyed if need be (it probably has some bug free coating or something on it as well) - surely it can't be that hard to implement this in other hospitals? Why is all this taking so long? MRSA has been in the news for years. In Addenbrookes, there's posters on entering the building (from any angle) stating that all visitors should clean their hands with the disinfectant soap provided when entering. The dispensers can be found at the end of EVERY bed, on entering EVERY ward, on arrival at EVERY entrance to the hospital - there are no excuses for people not to be cleaning their hands in this stuff. In Basildon, I didn't see a single dispenser anywhere, not even in the toilets when I washed my hands, it was just regular soap. Surely this isn't a hard procedure to put into place? This one change could save a hospital's reputation, but more importantly, can save lives!
There's plenty more to say with regards to waiting times, and I'll try to keep it brief. I was in Basildon for 5 hours. I was assessed by a senior nurse quickly on arrival, I had bloods taken, observations, diabetes test, ECG and then was given a bed. I then waited about half an hour to see a doctor. She assessed me, and wanted to send me to have an x-ray. It was roughly an hour later before I asked if I could discharge myself as I had been waiting for so long. 'Well if you are able to walk by yourself down to x-ray then you might get seen quicker....' was the response. I walked round, there was no-one waiting, I had my x-ray. It's a shame the other 4 patients that were due for x-rays weren't able to walk round, they're probably still sat there now waiting for a porter to take them! I went back to my bed and waited nearly another hour before the doctor came back to me with my x-ray and blood results. This could have easily all taken place in less than 3 hours, and my bed would have been free for someone else to have been seen.... what a waste.
Yours thinking that the NHS needs more focus and attention
Nicki Hunt
(Soap box borrowed from Kevin Fraser)
When was the last time you visited an NHS hospital for emergency treatment rather than just schmoozing with hospital executives and nurses??
After a 6 day stay in Addenbrookes and a recent afternoon/evening in Basildon's MAU (that's a 'medical assessment unit'), I thought it might be time to re-iterate a few things to you.....
1) Nurses do NOT get paid enough for their job.
Honestly, it's a thankless job and I'd like to see you clean up an elderly person who has just shat himself in his chair (wearing just a hospital gown meant it could have only gone down his leg and onto the floor!). The poor fellow had pressed his nurses call bell and was trying to get attention so this didn't have to happen but it took a good 10 minutes before anyone came to his aid and unfortunately by this time it was too late. Not the most pleasant thing when you're in a bed opposite. And what about the poor chaps dignity? Is he not entitled to keep it?! Why did it take so long for someone to attend to him? They were short staffed. Why were they short staffed? Perhaps there were people off sick? Perhaps someone screwed up the rotas? Perhaps there just aren't enough people wanting to be paid such a pittance for such a tough job? This may come as a surprise to you, but hospitals can't run without nurses - who would provide all the caring & support for patients? The smiles, the encouragement, the shoulder to cry on. How would people get better without this? Obviously we need doctors too, but without the nurses in the equation there's no hope.
I admire and respect nurses/carers - I don't think I could ever do their job. All the nurses I have come in contact with are so lovely and only too willing to help in some way. Obviously there are the stories of elderly people who are mistreated, etc. but I truly believe that most nurses are so stretched in their work that unfortunately things do slip and get forgotten - they don't mean for it to happen.
2) Some UK hospitals are no better than some 3rd world hospitals.
After watching the news recently with reports from hospitals in war ridden Lebanon, it scares me to think that some of their hospitals looked in a better state than ours.
Basildon MAU could be a war zone in itself. With a lack of nursing staff, dark dingey wards, old tatty beds & bedside furniture, unironed bed linen, old curtains (with blood stains) which are hap-hazardly hooked up, making it difficult for a smooth closure around the bed, it's a wonder anyone gets better in an environment like this.
3) When is Jaime Oliver going to sort out hospital food?
It's bland, unexciting, tasteless and dull. And take my fave tea-time choice, cheese and crackers, the cheese is packaged up so tightly that even an able-handed person needs scissors to open it! Do you not want us to eat?? On a similar note, you get it served on paper plates with plastic knives and forks - is this a health & safety thing? Are we not to be trusted with the real thing? Maybe some patients aren't, but if that's the case, maybe the patients are in the wrong place, perhaps they need to be in a psychiactric unit rather than loose on the wards? Or perhaps it's to do with MRSA? In which case I would say 'learn to clean better and let's try saving the environment!'
4) MRSA - the smallest of changes save lives.
So you know about the old blood stained curtains in Basildon, well in Addenbrookes they now have a paper type curtain that can be wiped down easily and destroyed if need be (it probably has some bug free coating or something on it as well) - surely it can't be that hard to implement this in other hospitals? Why is all this taking so long? MRSA has been in the news for years. In Addenbrookes, there's posters on entering the building (from any angle) stating that all visitors should clean their hands with the disinfectant soap provided when entering. The dispensers can be found at the end of EVERY bed, on entering EVERY ward, on arrival at EVERY entrance to the hospital - there are no excuses for people not to be cleaning their hands in this stuff. In Basildon, I didn't see a single dispenser anywhere, not even in the toilets when I washed my hands, it was just regular soap. Surely this isn't a hard procedure to put into place? This one change could save a hospital's reputation, but more importantly, can save lives!
There's plenty more to say with regards to waiting times, and I'll try to keep it brief. I was in Basildon for 5 hours. I was assessed by a senior nurse quickly on arrival, I had bloods taken, observations, diabetes test, ECG and then was given a bed. I then waited about half an hour to see a doctor. She assessed me, and wanted to send me to have an x-ray. It was roughly an hour later before I asked if I could discharge myself as I had been waiting for so long. 'Well if you are able to walk by yourself down to x-ray then you might get seen quicker....' was the response. I walked round, there was no-one waiting, I had my x-ray. It's a shame the other 4 patients that were due for x-rays weren't able to walk round, they're probably still sat there now waiting for a porter to take them! I went back to my bed and waited nearly another hour before the doctor came back to me with my x-ray and blood results. This could have easily all taken place in less than 3 hours, and my bed would have been free for someone else to have been seen.... what a waste.
Yours thinking that the NHS needs more focus and attention
Nicki Hunt
(Soap box borrowed from Kevin Fraser)
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10:31 am
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