Frustration!

Brassedoff

Sorry for blowing off steam. Worked all up for the first of six operations, plus asking for some feedback on whether I can get an alternative choice or ask for a guarantee of where I should be on the new revised list?

I was told i needed yet another "urgent" operation on the first week of December. I went to a hospital in Birmingham on Tuesday for it, the "urgent" operation. I will not name it, but its a £432bn PFI project named after the Queen.

Anyway, there at 6am, as in the pre-admitting screening carried out the week before I was told my op would start at 07:30! Eventually called in to the side room to have all the questions I was asked the week before asked again. Then back in the room full of the United Nations of patients, just a bit annoyed that it really looked and definitely sounded like I was in either Eastern Europe or the Indian Sub-continent.

Why am I annoyed? Yes, the chestnut about NHS Tourists who needed hospital supplied interpreters, clearly they are from the indigenous population. I am hating myself for it, but as I type the words of the admitting clerk who was explaining just why instead of the great clean brand new hospital, I was to be hospitalised in the 150 year old building that "tries" not to be mixed sex but sometime cannot happen. All because as she puts it, the load from outside. This ward is a room that is 40 metres x 40 metres square with 32 beds. I was in bed 28 (eventually). The noise in the ward was unbearable. She told me the ward has been brought back into use because as soon as a bed becomes available, it's full. She said, we get people out, change the sheets and move the next person in. I asked about the clean down I have had to wait or in other units only to be told there's no time.

Another issue I had, the disabled toilet was in the main corridor, through the double security doors from the ward to the main corridor. A distance of around 60 metres. The shared shower room had no disabled adjustments and was mixed between male and female wards (female ward is a mirror of the male ward). After she surgery, there was no chance of being able to mobilise.

Then at 9:00am the Anaesthetist calls me in, "we're waiting for a bed" (again) I hear.

Allowed to move from wheelchair to an examination table that would allow me to get off my coccyx and a bit of sleep. I pass out.

Then at 2pm I get told I have a bed, yippee! Then the shock, bed no. 28 in the biggest ward I have ever seen. Everything is old. It's the scene from "Carry on Matron". The bed must have been 30+ years old. The mattress was no thicker than 8 inches. It was rock hard and needed manual lifting of either the head or foot. Totally the wrong type for someone about to have major surgery on the back.

I questioned the nurse telling her that I was not happy. "Sorry, I am busy, I will get someone to speak to you" 20 minutes later, no one had came, I ask again, I get the same response. I have one eye on the clock now as I was told my operation should have taken circa 9 hours.

"Excuse me, may I speak to the ward manager". The response I received was astounding. You will need to be quiet in five minutes as its prayer time. "Prayer time?", who for me? Is it compulsory? I then watch two nurses going around telling patients and visitors to turn off their radios. (There are no TV's or those bedside entertainment systems as the ward is so old, it has none!). Then over half the ward get out of bed and with their visitors all roll out the matts and start to loudly pray. So I could not talk, yet I could only hear chanting. I am a practising Christian, broad minded and tolerant, but this would have sent many people who are not as tolerant as me over the edge.

Back to my problem, 1 hour 40 minutes I get to see a level 7 manager, the ward sister would have done! I ask why I am on what appears to be a general ward, only to be told test everyone is trained in neuro care. I said that if someone only saw occasional neuro patient, there's no way they can be as proficient as
A neuro ward nurse. The hospital has four such wards.

The hospital was in the news recently for treating a girl from Pakistan, and four patients were on Midlands today on Sunday having been flown in from Russia who had back neuro problems that cannot be sorted in Russia, the hospital trumpeted the fact that they were paying and not the British Taxpayer. I was looked at with one of those "I know better then you" look. I then turned my attention to the toilet facilities. As many in a wheelchair know and I can admit I have major incontinence issues, why should I take my tubes and bags out onto the corridor? Able bodied people use the shared (yes, shared male & female) units in the entrance corridor between the two wards. I asked where was my rights? Why do I have the humiliation of messing myself trying to make the long journey firstly, then after the operation what would be the arrangements? I was told we will work a care plan out. Yet I was the only wheelie on the ward that was 24 hour Ambulatory care.

The operation(s) I was to have was a Laminectomy to Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion from S2 to L4, autograft, some cleaning out of the mess the previous surgeon, to try and help the cauda equina had made as some of you are aware. Then my toe nails painting:rotfl:

So the bed before I went was important. The ward was kitted out with the manual Boston beds. A thin mattress for a neurosurgery patient would be totally wrong. They should have had an full electric Independence style bed with the air inflated mattress. This allows the patient who cannot get up, or end up in bed most of the time in bed not to get pressure sores. The ward managers response? "We don't really have them over here as we will end up having everyone wanting one. We can order you one, but it may be a day or so before we get it for you". This response sent me over the edge. I needed that type of bed in order to eleveiate different parts of the body. It was not a vanity issue, it was a protection issue. Having to wait a day may have caused more problems than the surgery solved!

So, in the gown, wheeled down, all forms done, three cannula's in the right arm one in the left ankle. I had pre-med drinky and by now I could have eaten any of Tesco's horse products having last eaten 18 hours before. I was marked up, shaven and all that. Then I get left in the corridor outside the theatre. There was a debate going on, then another surgeon comes up to me, introduces himself and tells me my surgeon had gone off sick and he was beng asked to perform the task.

Then the bombshell! Sorry Mr Brassedoff, but I have consulted with a colleague and we are both in agreement that as your surgery is so complicated I am not willing to perform the operation as I don't know enough about your history! I was thinking it was a wind up, they were getting their own back for my complaining, but alas, no. They cancelled the operation and off he went as quick as a flash.

I get taken back to the ward, to the bed from a carry on film (just being cantankerous). So back trots the ward manger and I ask her whats next, stay overnight, give one of the 16 Consultant Neurosurgeons the chance to look at my notes and scans, taking me down the next day (yesterday).

Nope! You can go home Mr Brassedoff, when your surgeon is back at work between the next 6-12 weeks, you will be top of his list. Astounded I hear the news asked for clarity, "so I will be the first?" "Ah", says Miss Ward Manager,"you have to understand in the next 6 weeks there's going to be a build up of other patients and if they are more urgent than yourself." At this point, the whistle started, the pressure gauge went. "What do you mean more urgent. I lay on a bed for 23 1/2 hours a day. The other half hour is doing my ablutions, and crawling from one point to another".

"We'll Mr Brassedoff, I am sorry but there's not a lot we can do, I will take your cannula's out and you can go home"


Bets on the type of cheesed off I am? I have already waited 17 weeks. I understood the max time from Consultants decision to do something and doing it was max 9 weeks? past that and you could be offered an alternative. Anyone with useful and helpful suggestions of what I can do to get this progressed? PALS can only ask the Ward managers.

I have the process of a Spinal Cord Stimulator supposedly being fitted in September. This delay may affect that and as my former PCT (Coventry & Warwickshire) would not at first pay the £10K for it. I am keen to keep this timetable now we have been fighting for it!

bigboybrother

Brassedoff wrote: »

Sorry for blowing off steam. Worked all up for the first of six operations, plus asking for some feedback on whether I can get an alternative choice or ask for a guarantee of where I should be on the new revised list?

I was told i needed yet another "urgent" operation on the first week of December. I went to a hospital in Birmingham on Tuesday for it, the "urgent" operation. I will not name it, but its a £432bn PFI project named after the Queen.

Anyway, there at 6am, as in the pre-admitting screening carried out the week before I was told my op would start at 07:30! Eventually called in to the side room to have all the questions I was asked the week before asked again. Then back in the room full of the United Nations of patients, just a bit annoyed that it really looked and definitely sounded like I was in either Eastern Europe or the Indian Sub-continent.

Why am I annoyed? Yes, the chestnut about NHS Tourists who needed hospital supplied interpreters, clearly they are from the indigenous population. I am hating myself for it, but as I type the words of the admitting clerk who was explaining just why instead of the great clean brand new hospital, I was to be hospitalised in the 150 year old building that "tries" not to be mixed sex but sometime cannot happen. All because as she puts it, the load from outside. This ward is a room that is 40 metres x 40 metres square with 32 beds. I was in bed 28 (eventually). The noise in the ward was unbearable. She told me the ward has been brought back into use because as soon as a bed becomes available, it's full. She said, we get people out, change the sheets and move the next person in. I asked about the clean down I have had to wait or in other units only to be told there's no time.

Another issue I had, the disabled toilet was in the main corridor, through the double security doors from the ward to the main corridor. A distance of around 60 metres. The shared shower room had no disabled adjustments and was mixed between male and female wards (female ward is a mirror of the male ward). After she surgery, there was no chance of being able to mobilise.

Then at 9:00am the Anaesthetist calls me in, "we're waiting for a bed" (again) I hear.

Allowed to move from wheelchair to an examination table that would allow me to get off my coccyx and a bit of sleep. I pass out.

Then at 2pm I get told I have a bed, yippee! Then the shock, bed no. 28 in the biggest ward I have ever seen. Everything is old. It's the scene from "Carry on Matron". The bed must have been 30+ years old. The mattress was no thicker than 8 inches. It was rock hard and needed manual lifting of either the head or foot. Totally the wrong type for someone about to have major surgery on the back.

I questioned the nurse telling her that I was not happy. "Sorry, I am busy, I will get someone to speak to you" 20 minutes later, no one had came, I ask again, I get the same response. I have one eye on the clock now as I was told my operation should have taken circa 9 hours.

"Excuse me, may I speak to the ward manager". The response I received was astounding. You will need to be quiet in five minutes as its prayer time. "Prayer time?", who for me? Is it compulsory? I then watch two nurses going around telling patients and visitors to turn off their radios. (There are no TV's or those bedside entertainment systems as the ward is so old, it has none!). Then over half the ward get out of bed and with their visitors all roll out the matts and start to loudly pray. So I could not talk, yet I could only hear chanting. I am a practising Christian, broad minded and tolerant, but this would have sent many people who are not as tolerant as me over the edge.

Back to my problem, 1 hour 40 minutes I get to see a level 7 manager, the ward sister would have done! I ask why I am on what appears to be a general ward, only to be told test everyone is trained in neuro care. I said that if someone only saw occasional neuro patient, there's no way they can be as proficient as
A neuro ward nurse. The hospital has four such wards.

The hospital was in the news recently for treating a girl from Pakistan, and four patients were on Midlands today on Sunday having been flown in from Russia who had back neuro problems that cannot be sorted in Russia, the hospital trumpeted the fact that they were paying and not the British Taxpayer. I was looked at with one of those "I know better then you" look. I then turned my attention to the toilet facilities. As many in a wheelchair know and I can admit I have major incontinence issues, why should I take my tubes and bags out onto the corridor? Able bodied people use the shared (yes, shared male & female) units in the entrance corridor between the two wards. I asked where was my rights? Why do I have the humiliation of messing myself trying to make the long journey firstly, then after the operation what would be the arrangements? I was told we will work a care plan out. Yet I was the only wheelie on the ward that was 24 hour Ambulatory care.

The operation(s) I was to have was a Laminectomy to Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion from S2 to L4, autograft, some cleaning out of the mess the previous surgeon, to try and help the cauda equina had made as some of you are aware. Then my toe nails painting:rotfl:

So the bed before I went was important. The ward was kitted out with the manual Boston beds. A thin mattress for a neurosurgery patient would be totally wrong. They should have had an full electric Independence style bed with the air inflated mattress. This allows the patient who cannot get up, or end up in bed most of the time in bed not to get pressure sores. The ward managers response? "We don't really have them over here as we will end up having everyone wanting one. We can order you one, but it may be a day or so before we get it for you". This response sent me over the edge. I needed that type of bed in order to eleveiate different parts of the body. It was not a vanity issue, it was a protection issue. Having to wait a day may have caused more problems than the surgery solved!

So, in the gown, wheeled down, all forms done, three cannula's in the right arm one in the left ankle. I had pre-med drinky and by now I could have eaten any of Tesco's horse products having last eaten 18 hours before. I was marked up, shaven and all that. Then I get left in the corridor outside the theatre. There was a debate going on, then another surgeon comes up to me, introduces himself and tells me my surgeon had gone off sick and he was beng asked to perform the task.

Then the bombshell! Sorry Mr Brassedoff, but I have consulted with a colleague and we are both in agreement that as your surgery is so complicated I am not willing to perform the operation as I don't know enough about your history! I was thinking it was a wind up, they were getting their own back for my complaining, but alas, no. They cancelled the operation and off he went as quick as a flash.

I get taken back to the ward, to the bed from a carry on film (just being cantankerous). So back trots the ward manger and I ask her whats next, stay overnight, give one of the 16 Consultant Neurosurgeons the chance to look at my notes and scans, taking me down the next day (yesterday).

Nope! You can go home Mr Brassedoff, when your surgeon is back at work between the next 6-12 weeks, you will be top of his list. Astounded I hear the news asked for clarity, "so I will be the first?" "Ah", says Miss Ward Manager,"you have to understand in the next 6 weeks there's going to be a build up of other patients and if they are more urgent than yourself." At this point, the whistle started, the pressure gauge went. "What do you mean more urgent. I lay on a bed for 23 1/2 hours a day. The other half hour is doing my ablutions, and crawling from one point to another".

"We'll Mr Brassedoff, I am sorry but there's not a lot we can do, I will take your cannula's out and you can go home"


Bets on the type of cheesed off I am? I have already waited 17 weeks. I understood the max time from Consultants decision to do something and doing it was max 9 weeks? past that and you could be offered an alternative. Anyone with useful and helpful suggestions of what I can do to get this progressed? PALS can only ask the Ward managers.

I have the process of a Spinal Cord Stimulator supposedly being fitted in September. This delay may affect that and as my former PCT (Coventry & Warwickshire) would not at first pay the £10K for it. I am keen to keep this timetable now we have been fighting for it!

What a story! Well all I can say is that this is the NHS of 2013!

What you experienced is nothing more and nothing less than what other patients experience in other hospitals every day.

My wife has been waiting for a bed at Kings Hospital, London since last year. She eventully was admitted on Friday 15th Feb. She was put in bed that was situate in what was at one time a store cupboard. Come Monday 18th Feb, she was told the surgeon was taking 10 days off. She was kicked out. Well since then with another two appointments made but cancelled 'no beds'.

Then we have the Liverpool Uni hospital were I went in a ward full of dossers and immigrants.

Out of 6 beds, one had a guy who was handcuffed to the bed with a PC on duty 24/7 at the doorway onto the ward, another 'disappeared' every morning only to turn up at approx 8pm drunk as a skunk! One night this guy brought a woman back and she got into bed with him with curtains closed. He constantly smoked on the ward. I complained about all of this carry on and was simply told that it is quite normal and not a lot that they could do about it.

Then in a hospital in Kent, they had run out of beds, so I was put in a wooden fabricated ex MOD ward that was something out of the 1940's. The operating theatre wasn't much better. They had the mobile unit parked in the car park and patients had to be wheeled across the car park and back in all weathers. The only thing that was missing was MOD being stamped on the side of it.

Prayers? Oh yes, St Thomas's in London does a roaring trade in supplying washing facilities at the bedside for the patient and relatives who come all prepared with prayer mats wrapped up under their arms.

NHS? I'm sure that I could find better facilities in some 3rd world country.

Parva

bigboybrother wrote: »

What a story! Well all I can say is that this is the NHS of 2013!

What you experienced is nothing more and nothing less than what other patients experience in other hospitals every day.

My wife has been waiting for a bed at Kings Hospital, London since last year. She eventully was admitted on Friday 15th Feb. She was put in bed that was situate in what was at one time a store cupboard. Come Monday 18th Feb, she was told the surgeon was taking 10 days off. She was kicked out. Well since then with another two appointments made but cancelled 'no beds'.

Then we have the Liverpool Uni hospital were I went in a ward full of dossers and immigrants.

Out of 6 beds, one had a guy who was handcuffed to the bed with a PC on duty 24/7 at the doorway onto the ward, another 'disappeared' every morning only to turn up at approx 8pm drunk as a skunk! One night this guy brought a woman back and she got into bed with him with curtains closed. He constantly smoked on the ward. I complained about all of this carry on and was simply told that it is quite normal and not a lot that they could do about it.

Then in a hospital in Kent, they had run out of beds, so I was put in a wooden fabricated ex MOD ward that was something out of the 1940's. The operating theatre wasn't much better. They had the mobile unit parked in the car park and patients had to be wheeled across the car park and back in all weathers. The only thing that was missing was MOD being stamped on the side of it.

Prayers? Oh yes, St Thomas's in London does a roaring trade in supplying washing facilities at the bedside for the patient and relatives who come all prepared with prayer mats wrapped up under their arms.

NHS? I'm sure that I could find better facilities in some 3rd world country.

Andy is back yet again. The NHS has its problems as we all know but I for one won't point a finger at it given the excellent care I have received. Little point in asking 'Andy' to stop trolling.

skintmacflint

Was very sorry to read of your experience Brassed Off. There is so much money spent on our NHS and yet in some areas it seems to be strugging.

When someone is facing surgery they don't need all the stress and worry you had just before they go into theatre.

Hope you get your operation ASAP, and all goes well next time. .

Brassedoff

skintmacflint wrote: »

Was very sorry to read of your experience Brassed Off. There is so much money spent on our NHS and yet in some areas it seems to be strugging.

When someone is facing surgery they don't need all the stress and worry you had just before they go into theatre.

Hope you get your operation ASAP, and all goes well next time. .

Thank you for your kind words. I was stressed. I was pre-opted and you are right, if it were not for my wife, I would not have known what to do.