In praise of the NHS

suzeesu2000

Just lately there has been nothing but negativity regarding the NHS.

Yesterday I found myself in need of their emergency help and cannot praise any one of them highly enough.

From the first responder, to the ambulance crew, to the lovely nurse on A&E, to the junior doctor, to the girls in x-ray, every one of them was lovely. The staff made me feel I was in safe hands and that they knew what they were doing.

I had been, like a lot of people I suspect, quite frightened af having to go into hospital, especially at night, due to the multitude of horror stories in the press.

To all the IOW St. Marys staff who looked after me - and my wonderful husband who never left my side, a VERY big thank you. I shall be writing a letter of thanks to the hospital.

paddyrg

We are so, so lucky to have the NHS. Anyone who doubts that, might I suggest living in a developing nation for a few months and needing medical assistance - free at point of use, expert healthcare, available to all, not refusing to help you until you find insurance documents, not demanding £000's cash deposits, clean, warm, dry, comfortable, responsible. It's amazing, and amazing value.

Chrissec

totally agree.....can't fault 99.9% of the staff,they do a fantastic job considering the government does all it can to balls it up!

dodger1

The only part of the NHS that I can criticize is the care of the elderly while in hospital, it's woefully bad. Everything else I've seen is absolutely fine.

kingfisherblue

Another supporter of the NHS here - my son was born with four life threatening conditions. His first surgery, to save his life, was at nine hours old. Six weeks later, we were blue lighted in the middle of the night because he was ill - the oxygen level in his blood had dropped to 42%, normally it is 98-100%.

Over the last fifteen years, my son has been seen regularly and treated positively and with respect, despite the fact that he has disabilities and will never live independently. He will always need the support of this fantastic organisation.

More recently, my younger son has also needed treatment via A&E, resulting in a short hospital stay. He is now also under Alder Hey, like my older son, but with a different consultant for a condition unrelated to those of his brother.

When the NHS was first set up, medicine wasn't as advanced as it is now. there were no transplants, little in the way of successful cancer treatment, no IVF, etc. Now, although it has its problems, it copes with all those and more. Yes, there are times when mistakes are made, or financial constraints seem unfair, but my personal experience of the NHS is very positive for the most part. The occasions when mistakes have been made are far fewer than the successful operations, regular appointments, reassuring staff, essential medications, etc.

OP, I hope that you are fully recovered from whatever caused you to need the NHS in an emergency. Take care x

Tiddlywinks

If only 4 doctors, various GP and consultant appointments and other healthcare interventions had been as good... they would have spotted the brain tumour that killed my mother just over three weeks from her being told she had nothing to worry about.

I'm glad you had a good experience BUT some of us still have cause for concern.

Equaliser123

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

If only 4 doctors, various GP and consultant appointments and other healthcare interventions had been as good... they would have spotted the brain tumour that killed my mother just over three weeks from her being told she had nothing to worry about.

I'm glad you had a good experience BUT some of us still have cause for concern.

Completely agree. Only as good as your experiences.

Excellent and world class at its best and woeful at its worst.

And it seems to be getting worse. Much worse. My experiences together with those I know who work there including a consultant oncologist, and a nurse with 30 years experience.

kelfen

I have to praise them, even if I was sat in A+E for 5 and a half hours and not given a wheelchair until half an hour before being seen, when my knee had seized into position and my foot went numb.

HOWEVER, I cannot fault the doctor who took the time and patience to listen to what was wrong, be very careful when touching and explain to me what has actually happened to my knee. Or the lovely nurse who sorted my splint and crutches. Or the X-Ray lady who tried her damndest not to hurt my knee any more.

Or the fact that patient transport is free and I get to travel in relative comfort to a bus which would cause more unnecessary stress.
I just hope the fracture clinic listen to what I and the A+E Doc tell them

Diabolical_Rem

I'm a big fan of the NHS. When it mattered, they came through and rose to the occasion. When I needed surgery, they were nice, the surgeon was nice, the tests weren't painful... Everything went smoothly. My surgeon even kept in touch with me for several months afterwards to make sure everything was okay.

There are problems with the NHS, too, but as said before, it is light years beyond developing nations and better than the United States. Having a bill of maybe 80 pounds is much better than needing to pay over $1000 in the US.

Valli

A couple of weeks ago (a Wednesday) I had a cold - the day after I started with the cold I had breathing difficulties.
Call to docs; seen as an emergency patient in surgery (my mum drove me there) - they gave me a nebuliser to borrow; saw me again the next day (Friday) and then again the following Tuesday (Monday was a Bank Holiday). Over the period I was prescribed steroids and anti-bs.

But I could not fault my docs - the care; the follow up was excellent.

And its not the first time I have felt they have gone over-and-above for me and my family.

GwylimT

I have never had a bad experience with the NHS, my partner who is disabled has been treated wonderfully, I have always been treated wonderfully. At the moment our baby is very ill and so far is yet to leave hospital, in the next few months he is flying to America to have an operation as the surgeon has been identified as the best person to carry it out, our LHA has paid for all of it, they have even helped arrange the flights.

As until recently we lived in rural Wales we had a long drive to see him at Birmingham, we had to move as we couldn't manage the way we were and until we found a new home the hospital found somewhere for us to stay and used some of their families charity fund to help us with the rent.

While we are going to the States to have this problem fixed, in the States it would be impossible to gain health insurance for him and so unless we were incredibly wealthy he wouldn't be receiving the level of care my son does, and certainly wouldn't be able to access life saving surgery.