Things that should work but don't

[Day]

3 hours ago, Tamworthram said:

I have been at the hospital for 9 hours with my daughter over the last two days (for booked appointments I might add, not A&E).

On Thursday she was told she needed an injection. We could either wait “a few hours” (it was already 5pm) for the pharmacy to make it up or, they’d order it and we could come back in the morning when it would be ready and waiting. Of course we chose the latter.

Needless to say, it wasn’t ready and we had to wait another 3 hours. Even when they said it was ready and they were sending a porter to collect it it still took another 40 minutes to arrive. It must be a damn long walk from the ward to the pharmacy.

Regarding A&E, I know as you say lack of rooms is a problem but so is lack of staff. I was there (Sutton Coldfield, not Derby) recently with my father in law. There was one nurse having to keep an eye on three different bays at once. And yet, in the ward where my daughter was (don’t forget, booked appointments only) there were three nurses doing not much at all. On Thursday I heard one of them say to another “we don’t have any scans booked for tomorrow. What are we going to do?” I guess it’s not as simple as it sounds but you’d think the department could “lend” a nurse to A&E (and recall her if things suddenly got busy). She might not have the specialist knowledge to do a great deal in A&E but she could have helped keep an eye on patients (in my scenario) and cleaned up the vomit etc (in your example).

I’m not blaming the nurses (except the one that it would seem failed to order the injection from the pharmacy).

 

For a city, it’s an incredibly small “pit stop” area for patients coming in my ambulance, clearly unfit for purpose. It’s the first time I’ve visited this one having only been to London Road site, and yeah, shocking really.

We left at 6.30am as it could be hours until she was moved to a ward, thankfully it was only an hour longer and moved to a room, but on the way out, yet again patient’s lined up on beds in corridors and open areas.

[Day]

1 hour ago, 1of4 said:

I have nothing but admiration and praise for our overused and abused NHS. I had great care and treatment, when I went to the A&E department after suffering a mini stroke on Thursday.

I'm currently sat in the Stroke Ward awaiting further tests. You could have nipped up here and had a chat about the state of the NHS. 

The staff have been great to be honest, just a shortage of them and bay areas to treat patients. 

Hope everything goes alright for you and have a speedy recovery!

[Wolfie20]

On 01/06/2024 at 13:31, mozza said:

'Peel here' tags on packs of bacon.

That drives me up the wall.

[Ram-Alf]

Celebrations 😁 thinking you've won a Bronze only to find out that while celebrating the Lady in Blue passed you on the line

👌

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

On 02/06/2024 at 11:10, Hans Datdo-Dishes said:

Suppositories. For all the good they do you, you might as well stick them up your @**e.

[Gaspode]

8 hours ago, Tamworthram said:

I have been at the hospital for 9 hours with my daughter over the last two days (for booked appointments I might add, not A&E).

On Thursday she was told she needed an injection. We could either wait “a few hours” (it was already 5pm) for the pharmacy to make it up or, they’d order it and we could come back in the morning when it would be ready and waiting. Of course we chose the latter.

Needless to say, it wasn’t ready and we had to wait another 3 hours. Even when they said it was ready and they were sending a porter to collect it it still took another 40 minutes to arrive. It must be a damn long walk from the ward to the pharmacy.

Regarding A&E, I know as you say lack of rooms is a problem but so is lack of staff. I was there (Sutton Coldfield, not Derby) recently with my father in law. There was one nurse having to keep an eye on three different bays at once. And yet, in the ward where my daughter was (don’t forget, booked appointments only) there were three nurses doing not much at all. On Thursday I heard one of them say to another “we don’t have any scans booked for tomorrow. What are we going to do?” I guess it’s not as simple as it sounds but you’d think the department could “lend” a nurse to A&E (and recall her if things suddenly got busy). She might not have the specialist knowledge to do a great deal in A&E but she could have helped keep an eye on patients (in my scenario) and cleaned up the vomit etc (in your example).

I’m not blaming the nurses (except the one that it would seem failed to order the injection from the pharmacy).

 

The pharmacy at the Royal is an absolute disgrace - frequently making people wait for hours (including nurses!). Last time I was there, I saw an old couple absolutely distraught because they'd had to wait so long and were worried how much their car parking was going to cost. And the worst part of it is that it's a closed shop - if you're prescribed medicines by someone at the Royal, you HAVE to take your prescription to their in-house pharmacy - evene if it's something straightforward such as pain relief.....

I've also experienced similar to yourself when going for a blood test - 6 bays availabe to use, a queue of 20+ people in the corridor and yet only two nurses taking blood while another 3 stood around chatting about what had happened on Eastenders.....

There are some wonderful people in the NHS and the one-on-one care is frequently excellent, but the administrative side is horrendous. It's severly broken, but as soon as anyone dares criticise, they get shouted down by the 'wonderful NHS' fanboys and girls and acused of wanting to privatise it....