Nice People Thread Part 9 - and so it continues

Wheezy_2

Nikkster wrote: »

I'm not really very English at all

Neither am I.

Take care of yourself and get that BP down, bugslet!

On the NHS...I suppose the quality of care all depends in which PCT or NHS hospital you end up in?
I spent a couple of days in St. Peter's hospital in Chertsey early August and have nothing but praise for the quality and speed of care I got.
Even the food was decent. Got potato croquettes one day...I hadn't eaten potato croquettes for ages. They didn't come round for seconds though.

lostinrates

Wheezy wrote: »

Neither am I.

Take care of yourself and get that BP down, bugslet!

On the NHS...I suppose the quality of care all depends in which PCT or NHS hospital you end up in?
I spent a couple of days in St. Peter's hospital in Chertsey early August and have nothing but praise for the quality and speed of care I got.
Even the food was decent. Got potato croquettes one day...I hadn't eaten potato croquettes for ages. They didn't come round for seconds though.

More fundamentally, even in great or terrible PCTs there are wonderful or not so wonderful individuals.

A kind nurse rather than a matter of fact one can reassure a nervous patient more than the most proficient surgeon. So e of the best care is given by people who still feel 'vocation' more than 'career' driven.

I am full of praise for the mainly Eastern European staffed private owned run as NHs minor stuff hospital near where I used to live. Those nurses 'nurse' and I think their training or culture must emphasis the importance of getting stuff done but with care. Things aren't done with a shuffle and a 'good enough' approach. Similarly, good British nurses exist, and are warm and wonderful. Others are ...less so.

At my last practise we had a nurse practitioner (an excellent role, and something many nurses with experience could probably do). She didn't want to see me for my routine checks because it was beneath her, as she was a 'practitioner' not a 'nurse' (she asked me to make sure she was not booked for them again because of this)but my GP was more than happy to see me for them and said the np was probably right she shouldn't be seeing me if she couldn't understand why I GP had booked me with her not a nurse. These sort of political things and career wrangling a are inevitable wherever there are people but somehow seem to seep onto the 'shop floor' in a way that impacts on care lots in some hospitals.

Its not just NHs btw. I was left in my own vomit over night in a private hospital. (By a British nurse who told me off for vomiting and not pressing call button sooner. She stripped the top sheet and replace but just covered the mess up with the clean sheets, with vomit round my operation sites and drains. (Hence funky scar). The (Asian) nurse who came in the in the morning came in and I was weeping with embarrassment and she was so kind. It was the kindness that stands out, not the fact she did the job, but the fact I wasn't 'a problem'. A nurse who will hug you and change your vomity bed herself rather than just calling for lower down nurse auxiliaries, and leave you with them because its 'not her job' even though it means she has to go and wash up and change). Nurses and nurse auxiliaries, who call cleaning staff but speak to them as part of a team, not like the next rung down,..things like that, it all impacts on ward 'mood' and on how patients feel.

(Btw that vomit nurse was 'let go' I think)

silvercar

lostinrates wrote: »

There are good ones, and I relax totally with them. My gastroenterologist and I laugh like two naughty kids at school.

His big bonus is that he doesn't try and pretend he knows all the answers.

We were talking about a bit of a scar I have and I said 'what butcher stitched that' and I blushed' and said, well, its an awkward place to get to....and it bloody hurt too. (Btw, I sincerely don't recommend it, that was quite hardcore even for me)

And he was choking on his own laughter and then got too my really big scar which is also really bad at one end and said 'lost?, No, really...?' Ad I said, no.....that's one of your lot, they even had a plastics guy try and neaten that up....and then we got the giggles again and he said maybe a few years down the line when he's patched me up we should look at neaten ing it up properly but really, that doesn't bother me in the least.

You really did your own stitches???

I once removed stitches myself, thought that was stupid enough.

lostinrates

silvercar wrote: »

You really did your own stitches???

I once removed stitches myself, thought that was stupid enough.

Yes. (It was one of a bad set of choices available at the time for a minor injury that was just not minor enough to leave until I could get help. I only had to put a couple in, so its not like I stitched up a hugely lengthy wound. (Its on my thigh, i could probably get a picture (not today though!) and its not very pretty at all, but it genuinely doesn't bother me, for a vain woman my scars really don't get me down in the least) Not many people do that sort of thing, but most horse peoe have done similarly pain ful things in order to keep going. I know people who have gone round pretty major events with pretty serious injuries and not owned up because they wanted to finish or because they thought they had a chance of placing, people who have taken their teaching exams (with a compulsory riding element on strange horses, not particularly difficult, but the strange horse and stress element adds 'frisson') with broken ribs and fingers, or recent dislocations. Or more commonly, the everyday rider who has a 'normal' injury but still has to plug on days to day care of things at yard and home. The die hard among my peers are pretty darn tough. I wouldn't do a teaching exam with broken or dislocated bits, and I wouldn't dream of trying a cross country course injured, I don't have the guts to do some of those jumps UNINJURED! (NDG's eventing sister is gutsy to want to do the big jumps at the big courses). They is one jump at one course (not even a four star) I won't even watch and cannot believe its allowed. IMO that's way stupider/braver and more painful to contemplate.


Less dramatically, I've assisted with my own pets in surgery. The past too, Including a fairly horrific stitch up of a wolfhound who came of worse in an argument with a barbed wire fence.

Those butterfly steri strips are pretty great inventions. I keep meaning to get some for about the place for people I'm always amazed at what they'll do up.

zagubov

Wheezy wrote: »

Neither am I.

Take care of yourself and get that BP down, bugslet!

On the NHS...I suppose the quality of care all depends in which PCT or NHS hospital you end up in?
I spent a couple of days in St. Peter's hospital in Chertsey early August and have nothing but praise for the quality and speed of care I got.
Even the food was decent. Got potato croquettes one day...I hadn't eaten potato croquettes for ages. They didn't come round for seconds though.

Me neither!:)


Regarding that hospital, I've had relatives in there and think it's first rate.

lostinrates

Bathroom floor is down, bath panel gone in, its starting to come together.....

Plumber is going to try and come in for finishing second fix next week....

We have some pretty serious oil boiler negotiations going on....

I think things might be starting to get under control again here.....



What shall we do next.......?

Wheezy_2

silvercar wrote: »

You really did your own stitches???

Of course not. She went into the medical pod like Elisabeth Shaw did in Prometheus to remove the baby alien.

chewmylegoff

It appears delay was storm in a teacup, appointment has now been brought forward to mid October! That was surprisingly easy.

The NHS is wonderful and you don't need to pay any more tax so we can get an earlier appointment. Well done.

Doozergirl

lostinrates wrote: »

What shall we do next.......?

I know there's still time to wait, but have a bath, maybe?

Start small

Doozergirl

I've just locked myself out of the house with only my phone and a chocolate orange for company.