Quote:
Originally Posted by jaysay
I've just been to the Royal for a check up this morning and whilst I was waiting for the ambulance to take me home I was reading the notice board 
It appears that around 60,000 hospital appointments are missed each year in East Lancashire Hospitals at a cost of £5.8 million enough to pay the wages of 270 nurses for a year
SO DO YOUR BIT
KEEP IT, OR CANCEL IT
BUT DON'T FORGET IT |
I wonder how many appointments they cancelled in that time frame, and what the cost to the economy was?
I was seen for a pre-op assesment in May. I had a letter telling me the operation would be in August. The evening before I was due in, after transport had been arranged, they cancelled the operation.
Subsequently they offered me the option to have it done in Burnley, rather than Blackburn, and it was done earlier this month.
The operation I had needs to be packed, and dressed daily, and on discharge from Burnley, I was told the district nurse would come and do it.
The first day they telephoned to say they would be there after 3pm, in the time frame I'd been given of 8.30am - 5pm. I said that was great, and I'd now be able to go and get a paper.
Because I said I was going for a paper the district nurse sister said I wasn't housebound, and therefore they wouldn't be attending, and I should see the nurse at my GP's. Fair enough.
There isn't a nurse available at my GP's on Wednesdays and at the weekend, so I was told to see a nurse at the Acorn Centre on Wednesdays, and Accy Vic's emergency outpatients at the weekend.
The first time I was due at the Acorn my mum phoned the district nurse sister, and asked if they'd pack and dress the wound, as I couldn't sit in a taxi, as I'd planned to do. She told my mum that even though I have mobility issues anyway, and struggle walking in the mornings because of Parkinson's disease, I wasn't actually housebound, so no. I took a taxi, and lay in the back. Thankfully we didn't crash.
My GP's nurse was off today, so back to the Acorn.
'I've arranged for the visiting dressing nurse to come out this weekend to you.'
'Who? You mean the district nurse?'
'No, the visiting wound dressing nurse service, part of the Primary Care Trust.'
'Great, thanks.'
You live and learn.
Perhaps the different parts of the NHS should learn too, when it comes to what patient services are available.
I've no complaints about the nursing care. They've been great. Well, all except the district nurse sister, who was a bit of a harridan in training. Her face, and people skills, could have curdled milk.
I had the same operation twice, in my last year at college, and both failed because they became infected, and even though they were dressed daily by the district nurse. With this operation costing presumably thousands of pounds, you'd have thought the aftercare would have been a bit more organised. I have to travel with a bag of equipment in case the places I've been don't have them. Luckily I'm able to tell the nurses what needs doing at each place, because there are no notes. I pity anyone old, or unable to communicate that the wound needs washing, packing, and dressing.
Overall, fantastic nursing care, but just a very disjointed NHS as a whole.
I won't now mention the terrible amount of waste witnessed at Burnley General. If it was a commercial concern it would have ceased trading years ago.