Hospital Treatment

I have once again been an in patient at my hospital, some 12 days so saw a lot, well looked after by the consultants but the nursing staff on duty were pushed to the limit, one qualified nurse between 12 cardiac patients, it is impossible for her to do all the work that the ward required.
.
 I had a mass of fluid on my legs meaning I needed the dressings changed twice a day, but needing to have them dressed did not mean they would be, most times I sat for up to 4 hours in a pool of fluid leaking out of my legs, not a good situation to be in when you are not well.

To make things worse food, cook chill, what a shambles that is, it should be called cooked disgusting, as many of the meals were not eatable at all, I know it is not a hotel but at least the basic food should be accepted as a secondary medicine essential to patient recovery, it is not right that  families have to bring in food for patients because the food provided is so vile.

 It is very noticeable that many staff are not British, many have a real problem making themselves understood and the patient to understand them, I had one filling in my forms who could not write in English so I had to spell each word for her, and many are agency staff, the two nurses we had on a Saturday night were both agency staff neither having worked on the ward in the past, so new faces looking after some very sick people is that an acceptable situation???. The shift is 12 and a half hours long how efficient are they at the end of shift ???.

Health

I have had a really bad 10 days, I have a lot of fluid trapped in my legs and my medication is not moving it, but then I started loosing it through scratches I received on both legs, so non stop fluid, went and saw the nurse at my GP's and had both legs bandaged under pressure, problem being that in a few days my knees and thighs were filling up as it was being blocked going down to my feet, so the compression bandages were taken off, I then had large plasters and a sponge pad put on with a  tube grip bandage, this is OK for a time but the fluid finally forces its way out of the plaster and soaks the area around you, not funny, on  Monday I was given a hand full of plasters and bits and pieces and told I should do it myself, OK till this morning, well not OK really made a real mess trying to do it properly, my cardiac nurse rang and found out I was dressing the wounds myself, she went mad and contacted my GP;s nurse and it seems many words were spoken, in the end I had to go in to have them redressed and was given heaps of kit to be able to do it myself with full instructions, so finally things have resolved them selves in a way, I have to be careful as I am diabetic and have atrial fibrillation so have to be careful, infection being the main problem, the question being am I more likely to gain an infection changing that dressings at home rather than at the surgery, we shall see!!.                                                         

 

The NHS

Now I know that the election has finished, support for the NHS seems to have vanished, staffing levels the government said that we needed more nurses and doctors, so much so that many hospitals went abroad to get staff, now it seems as many trusts are overspending (not their fault I believe) so they have been told that they can only replace staff if there is a dire need for that post to be covered, if not they have to leave it vacant, so where does that leave the patient?, as usual up the creek without a paddle, mind you that seems to have been the case for years, cancelled operations and appointments we as the patient have to bear this,  lucky for them that as they are MP's they will always get far better treatment than us, so they do not have the first idea as to what a patient goes through to be treated, I have had to sit  for hours waiting to be seen, many times because they had lost my notes,  I used to take exception to all of this but age has mellowed me a little and now I just can't be bothered, sad really.

Europe

I have been watching the news about people desperately trying to get into the UK, I see that some say that we should let them in as we have plenty of jobs! pardon me! plenty of jobs if that is so why do we have unemployment?, we have thousands illegally working in the UK being put to work for penny's, by gang masters, the employer would be rubbing their hands together the cheapest labour that has been about for years, I do not understand it all, all these people, what happens to their children? would our schools manage, health care would they cope? I have to say I think not, is it fair that these people should claim asylum here not in the country of arrival, most I have seen are young men, speaking just a little English, I have no idea as to what education they have but they do not seem to have what we would call a proper education, I don't know I would leave it up to you to decide.