ephemerid wrote:seeingclearly wrote:Not sure if this post from Diary of a Benefit Scrounger made it to this place, if it didn't it should have. It's a huge issue at the moment, probably worse than ever, but it would not be fair to say it is new. Women in particular may recognise this, I know I do.
Don't Worry Your Pretty Little Head. (Ok, this really has to stop)
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Sue's experience is pretty typical these days, I'm sorry to say.
Mine is this - compare and contrast, if you will.
In 1982, I was working at the Royal Masonic Hospital in London. Being staff, I got private care there for free. I had a slipped disc - back then, we didn't have MRI scans and my consultant listened to what I said I was experiencing and treated me accordingly. I had spinal traction for 4 weeks, with him asking me as we went along how things were going - he was perfectly prepared to change his plan for treatment if it wasn't working.
In 1990, the same thing happened again, and I was treated in my local hospital. I was staff there, too; as was the husband, who was well-known around the hospital. The treatment prescribed was not what I thought was was appropriate (spinal fusion) so I asked for, and got, intensive physio while I waited for MRI. This subsequently showed I have spinal stenosis and am thus prone to slipped discs.
Spinal fusion was risky at the best of times, and not appropriate for me at that point. The consultant agreed, and we worked out a rehab with the physios that worked.
In 2005, I had to have a major gynae op. Routine, but major. I was seen by an Advanced Nurse Practitioner who informed me what would happen with the op and the post-op care. I had a few problems with this (especially the standard morphine self-admin pump post-op which as a recovering alkie I wanted to avoid) and I also explained that due to liver damage I was likely to be less ale than most to fight infection and I wanted antibiotic cover.
All of this was supposed to be in my care plan. It wasn't. On the day, I asked the anaesthetist not to write me up for the pump, and told him exactly what analgesia I required. I woke up to find the pump in situ and Show tearing his hair out because not only had I specifically requested not to have it, the thing didn't work. I was in severe pain all night, and every time I asked for help I was told to use the pump - in desperation, I did, but the needle had "tissued" in the vein and I wasn't getting the drug at all.
It all got worse over the next few days. I was put in a room with a loo - which was leaking filthy water all over the floor. I pointed this out to the HCP who was supposed to be helping me to wash, and she chucked a load of dirty sheets out of the linen skip on it - and it stayed there for another 8 hours. I had a continuous single subcutaneous suture, which was removed by a person in a sisters' uniform with the scissors from her pocket without her washing her hands, and when I protested she said it's not a sterile procedure.
The consultant came to see me on day 3 - I said I wanted better care or I'd go home. He laughed and said this is the best there is, I know it's not brilliant, winked, and told me I could go home the next day. Next day, a staff nurse came to ask me if I wanted counselling for the loss of my womanhood, and I said I wanted some antibiotics for what looked like an incipient wound infection.
She refused to check the wound or take my temperature, and asked me when I was leaving. Fucking pronto, said I.
10 days later, after feeling ill for some time, the whole abdominal wound de-hisced, I ended up in hospital again on IV antibiotics, and the subsequent mess took 5 months and 15 courses of antibiotics to heal. I now have a neuroma in the keloid scarring, which can be very painful at times. I am also now unlikely to respond to the usual antibiotics if I get sick, which with COPD is a bit of an issue.
All of this saga is an illustration of how both nursing and medical staff simply do not listen. My GP here is fantastic, and she beleives in the idea of the expert patient - that filters down to the practice nurses who run the chronic illness clinics I attend, and by going to those we can nip problems in the bud and I don't need consultant involvement. My GP only refers to consultants if she and her team can't deal with something themselves or if she needs an opinion for a definitive diagnosis. Same applies to mental health issues, and if you need a talking therapy you usually get an appointment within 6 weeks. This is NHS Wales, mind.
Sue is quite right about this - apart from the pain and distress, unnecessary remedial treatment and care, and sheer emotional trauma of not being believed and having to fight for decent care, the costs are enormous. Even if, as she says, all you care about is money, on that criterion alone this nonsense needs to stop.
- glad to see Bolton have got police involved
