The NHS. General Observations

Off work again!

I swear as I get older, I get dafter lol.

Easter weekend was going to be something to look forward to giving me three full days at home with Kevin. Due to our work leave, I was to have Friday at home and he would have Tuesday at home.

That would leave us three full days to spend together having had him work weekends since Christmas.

However both my Boomarang Kids decided it would be a good idea to come home to see us over the Easter break which left us with NO time on our own over the four days!

But...no worries. We had already made arrangements to go watch Cardiff play rugby so I had something nice to look forward to - apart from the kids...lol

However...now here comes the crunch.

Saturday morning I get up nice and early as Nathan has stayed over and Rebecca is due about 11.00 and we had planned to go and get a full English at our local cafe. I go downstairs to put the kettle on as Kevin is on the phone to his nan and slip down the last five stairs hitting four of them on the way down.

Now you'd think at my age I'd know better than to fall downstairs like a kid but clearly not! I got up, shook myself off and went to make the tea. I was a bit shaken but unhurt so just got on with the day. Rugby was calling in Cardiff with friends and then a meet up with both the kids and their respective partners in the evening.

A lovely day out was had by all but then come Sunday morning...after getting up nice and early and NOT having a hangover...I found myself in more and more pain in my coccyx area and along the top of my neck and shoulders as the day went on.

By the end of the day I could barely move.

Monday morning found me struggle to sit down at all because I couldn't get up! I had to roll onto the sofa and roll off it!

I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to sit all day at work but didn't want to have people slating me for taking more time off after the four days at Easter. Nathan and Kirsty had stayed over so I knew I'd have a lift into work on the Monday and knew that I'd be able to move about the office if I got uncomfortable.

So off I go to work like a dutiful team member.

Anyway...to cut this all short. I get into work...quick chat with the boss who sees I cannot stay in the office all day and I'm off back home.

I call the Drs on the way to see if I can get in to see a Dr and am told by the nice receptionist that I will be better going off to the local hospital for an x-ray as if the Dr sends me it could be a week before I get the results back and as it is a recent injury I will be able to get it sorted there and then.

Confident that the hospital will be able to issue me with painkillers and a sicknote - so that I don't have to get up every morning and call in sick - I set off.

Taking the bus home was excruciating. I thought Kevin would have been able to pick me up but he was stuck in the office at work so I figured that as long as I sat carefully I'd be able to make the journey ok.

I get off the bus in Barri, to get on another bus to take me up to the hospital on the top road.

I make my way gingerly to the reception in x-ray only to be told that I cannot just come up for an x-ray and need the Dr to examine me first. Walk back to the minor injuries unit, get booked in and take a seat.

By now I am almost in tears and then notice a sign that says...no duty doctors am/pm.

Hmmm...odd...no doctors on duty?

Well I get called into triage and there is a nice male nurse who politely but sadly tells me he cannot examine me and that to get an x-ray I will have to go back to my Drs for a referral up the the unit.

I leave. What more can I do?

I get outside and call the Drs. I am told there are no more appointments for the day so will have to call again tomorrow.

It is at that point I finally lose my temper.

I know it was my fault I fell down the stairs. Well actually it wasn't. There is nowhere to apportion blame for the fall. It was just one of those things - although my centre manager DID question me about the fact that I wasn't wearing slippers when I fell as if it's any of her damn business what I wear on my feet out of work!!!

I tell the receptionist in no uncertain terms that she had better find me an appointment as it was her that had previously told me to come straight to the hospital and that I now needed to come all the way BACK to the surgery in order to be examined as there were no Drs in the unit to examine patients.

She asks me why there were no Drs!!!

At that point I stood and shouted at her while in the grounds of the hospital and asked her if I was running the NHS for her? Was I the one taking responsibility for the fact that SHE gave me instructions to go to the hospital first? Was it MY fault there were no more appointments available that day? Who was going to take responsibility for the non treatment of my injury?

She told me she had managed to "find" an emergancy appointment later at 4.30. I told her that it was no good as the dept closed at 4.00.

In the end, faced with a crappy service from the NHS and the red tape of my surgery I decided to take the appointment. The alternative was to sit for four hours in the Heath Hospital which is a shit hole at the best of times and then get back to Barri in time for the appointment.

Having managed to secure myself a place in the one in, one out system at my Drs, I go home to cry in pain.

Sadly when I get to the Drs it doesn't improve as I'm kept waiting 20 mins past the "emergancy" appointment they managed to find and I'm seeing the Dr who last year diagnosed a cyst I had to have removed as a blocked hair folicle! And who commented on the fact that clearly that was why so many had come back from the hospital untreated!!!

Didn't Barry Hospital think to let local surgeries know there might be an influx of patients wanting to be seen?

Does ANYONE in the NHS actually know what is going on?

My younger sister some years back fell and landed on her coccyx and 20 years later is now having to have major corrective surgery for something that was ignored all that time ago so you can imagine her worries for me today.

I personally don't feel there is anything broken but...you never know.

So...the crux of this post is this...

In the 21st century, having gone through 10 years of investment WHY WAS THERE NO DOCTOR IN THE MINOR INJURY UNIT???

Why was I told by a receptionist NOT a Dr to go a hospital what has no fucking doctors then have to see the one Dr I don't trust???

What is wrong with this country where I have to be governed by something called the Patients Charter as though I need to have a formal agreement in place in order to receive NO service???

I pay monthly into something called the NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE.

This is supposed to enable me to received good medical attention when I need it.

It is now three days since I first started this enty and to try and get treatment for an injury to my lower back. I am now on painkillers and anti-inflammatary tablets which leave me with an upset stomach and nausea. So that's the treatment for an injury.

Just lift my arms, make me move my hands and feet and send me away with a sick note and painkillers. Honest to god a medievil quake couldn't have done any worse.

And what recourse do I have to this matter?

None really.

I can move Drs which doesn't really solve the issue. And word would get around that I've left due to a complaint I've raised.

I could complain to the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust but no one will give a hoot about the complaint. When I called them and asked for the procedure for complaining they told me to put it in writing. When I asked for an e-mail address they advised me that the Trust website wasn't secure!!

Honestly...this country is surely just so broken both morally and financially that I despair as to what to do.

Rarely do I have to deal with the NHS but over the past 18 months at my group practice I have seen several Drs who have not listened to me when I have tried to explain to them what is wrong. I have been misdiagnosed twice by the same Dr and have been sent away with so many drugs I could have set up my own cartel.

And I am only 50. So much more is yet to come in we believe the media when it comes to care of the elderly...but that is another post.

Regards

Anne