Thursday 26 October 2017

Ups and Downs with the NHS.

Before I write this post I want to make it clear that I love our NHS, we are extremely fortunate to have it but it is stretched to its limit and this does make it hard to provide the service that they're striving for. Although I'm not personally employed by the NHS as I'm a Practice Nurse in a GP surgery currently, I do have many memories of wards being understaffed, bed blocking and the difficulties of being a Student Nurse. It was hard to try and embrace the NHS at this time and difficult to comprehend how you can try and do your best when you're working against the odds. That being said, I am as you know very proud to be a Nurse, love my job and am very passionate about nursing. However, this post isn't about me. It isn't about my role as a Nurse nor is it about bashing the NHS. What it is about is how earlier this year I felt let down by the NHS and how I feel it could have been prevented. 


Earlier this year many of you who read my blog know my daughter Elarna was quite poorly. You can read more about this by heading over and checking out this post, our 2 months of stress. I'm not going to go into masses of detail as the post I wrote back in May explains more, but in a nutshell, we found a lump, cue worrying (naturally), we saw several Doctors (all locums I need to add) who didn't seem to know what was causing it or really know what to do. We were never issued any antibiotics or had bloods taken after the first couple of appointments which if had been may have prevented it developing further. However we will never know now if it would have helped. We were eventually referred on the NHS for a variety of scans and tests but this was not until after we'd decided to go down the private healthcare route. My husband had been paying for it so we figured we may aswell explore all avenue's. We were seen quickly going private and although we had to travel to Leicester so not exactly local things moved swiftly and we had answers and options available to us. After the advice of the private consultant we opted for surgery and it would seem that it was the best option. Between waiting for surgery we did need to be seen out of hours and I cannot fault that service. It's just the bits in between that could have been better. 

Pleased to say she is much better now!

The waiting times, lack of consistency in GP's, the delay in treatment in the first instance made for a disappointing and loss of faith with the NHS. What I can't fault however is the care we did receive when Elarna was admitted for tests and investigations on the children's assessment unit. Although the wait to be seen  on the day was ridiculous (I was there over 8 hours) the care and attention from the staff was second to none .

I wouldn't say we received awful care from the NHS, it was just inconsistent and being passed from pillar to post wasn't ideal. It would have been good if the 1st GP we'd seen had issued antibiotics, requested bloods and other tests at the time meaning things may have moved quicker than they did. It was a very stressful time for us all and I think it'll stay with me for a long time just how grateful I am for my beautiful children and the medical professionals that do work so hard to keep our healthcare ticking over, be it private or NHS. 

This is just a snapshot of what we went through with Elarna and people go through a whole lot worse than what we did. Sometimes as hard as us healthcare professionals work, sadly things don't always go to plan and things are occasionally beyond our control, such as waiting times. Sometimes you may need to take further action in the legal respect if things haven't gone as planned. There are many different ways you can do this but Your Legal Friend is a good place to start for advice and guidance. Head on over to the website for further information.

What has your experience with the NHS been like over the years?

* Collaborative content.

17 comments:

  1. I'm sorry to hear your experience of the NHS has been inconsistent. It must be very disappointing especially as you are a nurse yourself. x #ThatFridayLinky

    ReplyDelete
  2. Most of my experiences have been good tbh. I don't know what we'd do without the NHS. Thanks for linking up to #ThatFridayLinky

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thankfully, we haven't had any dealings with the NHS other than the odd emergency, but I feel really strongly that we need more investment in it so that it can work properly. It's very, very sad #ThatFridayLinky x

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm sorry that Elarna's treatment was so inconsistent but glad she's ok now. I've had some excellent care from the NHS but currently am really annoyed by poor treatment. It has taken 2 years to diagnose my hip problem and this week I was sent to a surgeon who cannot treat it. I now need to wait again to be sent to someone else. I think a lot of the nhs problems lie in paperwork and bureaucracy and if you can get past that the actual medical treatment is good. #pocolo

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am so sorry you had to go through this...
    My girls were born with heart defects which were missed until they were 7 and nearly 2 years old. There were plenty of chances for doctors and nurses to hear their hearts and the murmor the defect caused. After a freak accident staff at the Newcastle RVI discovered the defect in my youngest and when it was confirmed they checked my now teenager out unofficially and discovered the same defect in her heart too. We had to go back to our GP for a formal referral. She listened to her heart and said their was no problem. I lost all my faith in that doctor then! After a bit of ranting I got the referral and my girls both had open heart surgery. The hospitals were amazing! The GP's not so much.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Helen, I've not lived in the UK for years, so I really con't comment first hand on the NHS. I have noticed through friends experiences that once a diagnosis has been decided the NHS seem to be brilliant, it's getting the diagnosis that seems to take too long.

    Popped over from #PoCoLo

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm so sorry you went through this and this experience. It sounds awful.
    Personally, I have an inconsistent experience with the NHS. There have been times I've had a fab experience, and other times not so. Also, my Dad had cancer about 8 years ago and it was misdiagnosed. He went back 6 months later for it to be identified as cancer. Really not good at all. That said, I'll always be a champion of the NHS. We are so incredibly lucky to have the service, I just feel it's so under funded. #bloggersbest

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's a shame you were messed about so much! I think it seemed finding out what was wrong seemed to take so long. I can see why you went private! So glad she is ok now. xx #bloggersbest

    ReplyDelete
  9. I can't really fault the NHS after everything Oliver went through and the treatment and care he received. That said it wasnt faultless, mistakes were made and there wasn't always the consistency in treatment or decisions. I will never forget one doctor who we both wanted to punch after he repeatedly tried and failed to cannulate Oliver when he was tiny and caused him a lot of distress.
    As the NHS becomes under more pressure than ever it unfortunately seems there will be more chance of human error and mistakes as they are under so much stress and without loads more money being pumped into staffing I can't see how else it will cope.
    I remember reading about Elarna earlier in the year and how brave she was.
    #bloggersbest

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi,sorry to read about your mixed experiences it must be a little tougher as a nurse or that may be being judgmental. I am glad that it had a good ending though #bloggersbest

    ReplyDelete
  11. I hope you're daughter is recovering well. xx #bloggersbest

    ReplyDelete
  12. I have seen the same things from my point of view things get missed a very well written yet tactful post I like you am very proud to be an NHS trained nurse and to work for them but like every large company there are failures where there should not be its so sad because it is such a great place to work for but when things do go wrong they go really wrong #bloggerbest

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh gosh, I'm sorry for all the stress you had to deal with in getting care for your daughter. It sounds like once things got to a certain point, there was good care, but yeah, it seems like the first GP should have done a lot more! I'm glad that your daughter is doing well now though.

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

    #bloggersbest

    ReplyDelete
  14. It's hard isn't it. For all the bigs things I've needed the NHS for, childbirth, broken bones and worse they have been without out fault but sometimes I've found the little things to be lacking and one of the biggest for me is the inconsistencies between GPs, there's one at our practise I refuse to see as he always treats me like a hysterical woman, whilst the rest seem to recognise a worried mum #bloggersbest

    ReplyDelete
  15. Misery Guts is type 1 diabetic & while I would say our NHS is amazing and we're so lucky to have it I can totally relate to this post with his care over the years #bloggersbest

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thankfully I haven't had much contact with hospitals. It was quite frustrating when I was getting my allergy diagnosis and being passed between doctors but life isn't always straightforward and doctors are people too #bloggersbest

    ReplyDelete
  17. No lol but I've certainly spent some time

    ReplyDelete

I absolutely love it when someone leaves me a comment, I will always reply back when possible! You can also follow me on twitter for more beautiful chatter: @Helsy_1983