If something unfortunate happened to you or a close relation, then would the National Health Service (NHS) be able to give you the quickest and most effective treatment available? Would your local hospital be able to provide you with 100% care and attention? I don’t like to bad-mouth any organisation but speaking from my own recent experiences I would suggest not.
The sad fact is that staff in hospitals up and down the UK are under-resourced. There just aren’t enough nurses and doctors to deal with our ever-increasing population.
Working in the public sector I know only too well what affect the impact of ‘the cuts’ is having. Everyday my colleagues and I feel the strain, work piling up and not enough hours in the day to complete it. People are stressed and demoralised, jobs are getting rushed and the quality of services is detoriating.
If like council office staff, doctors and nurses are doing the jobs of two, even three people, feeling overloaded and over-worked then I fear they will no doubt be making mistakes and neglecting those patients really in need.
At the start of the year, officials confirmed that more than 50,000 posts would be lost over the next four years across 155 hospital trusts, 126 primary care trusts, 23 ambulance trusts and 54 mental health trusts in England, as well as 15 Scottish trusts, nine Welsh trusts and six trusts in Northern Ireland.
Just this week the press have reported on how new budgets “could see the NHS forced to cut services and use less effective treatments.”
Mike Farrar, Head of the NHS Confederation, said finding £20billion savings by 2015 puts finances under more strain than ever.
He said: “I am concerned the gravity of this problem is not widely understood by patients and the public.
“There is a real risk we will sleepwalk into a financial crisis that patients will feel the full force of.”
Just recently I experienced very bad conditions at a North West hospital following the admittance of both my grandparents – each with different health problems.
On the first day my gran was made to wait six hours for a glass of water despite repeatedly buzzing for a nurse. A few days later, a very elderly lady in the next bed was ignored by staff until the point that she had no choice but to physically relieve herself in the bed – again despite ringing the bell numerous times and my gran also shouting for assistance.
That day, I later found out that only two nurses were working on the ward, which was full to capacity – responsible for the welfare and needs of more than 50 senior patients – many with lavatory issues, eating/drinking disorders and some with concerning mental problems.
Watching the nurses I could see them running around, trying to cope with several patient buzzers all going off at once. It was manic, unorganised and simply just appalling. Where were all the other staff? Two nurses could clearly not deal with the needs of dozens of needy patients all by themselves.
On the last day of my gran’s stay at the hospital she spoke of her week-long experience, describing staff as ignorant and condescending and also how her medication was always late, the doctor was never to be found and that the staff were always trying to hurry up patients, encouraging the sick to go home earlier so they could free up beds.
Following this and other similar experiences, I now have no faith in the NHS, in its current state and would not want either myself or any member of my family to be admitted to a public hospital again.
Instead, I would opt for Private Medical Insurance (PMI) joining around 12.5% of people across the UK. The type of policies available vary in cost and what they offer but there is no doubt that a wealth of benefits including immediate attention and peace of mind are on offer. You can be confident that all your eligible medical needs will be taken care of through a private hospital or clinic with consultations, diagnosis, treatment, charges for meals and aftercare all included.
You can also get home nursing, treatment at home, a private ambulance, dental cover, optical cover, complementary therapies and 24 hour access to a private healthline, enjoying no more waiting in long NHS telephone queues.
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February 4th, 2012 at 6:32 am
I AGREE TOO MANY PATIENTS SOME LEGAL SOME ILLEGAL REGULATION WOULD HELP THE MOST DESERVING