A visit to A&E - some thoughts

[bluehillside Retd.]

So I had to go to A&E today (jaw pain and fairly dramatic swelling after a dental procedure last week). The first nurse I saw took a few notes and had a quick look, and told me to go straight to the next station where I’d be booked in to see the triage nurse. She then left her desk to follow me there, waited for me to be booked in then took my notes personally to the maxillary facial ward to find a specialist. We waited for no more than ten minutes before the MaxFac doctor appeared and called me in (we didn’t even need the triage nurse) and I was taken immediately into an examination booth space with a curtain round it where he asked me questions, examined me, told me I could have an X-ray but there’d be no point because he already knew what was wrong and prescribed various drugs. Two minutes later a nurse appeared to take me to a station where they put in a line and filled me with stuff, and gave me more to take in tablet form in the coming week. Total time from arrival to departure: maybe two hours tops.

Some thoughts:

The service I received was unbelievably good. I might have expected them to be short-staffed on a Sunday but if they were it didn’t tell one bit. The whole episode was quite exceptional in terms of its efficiency. When it’s good the NHS is world class, and the thought of the tory fuckwits getting in again and flogging off as much as they can get away with fills me with horror.

Everyone I encountered was exceptionally kind and warm. The MaxFac specialist who saw me reappeared when the drugs were being administered to check that I was ok, and stayed for a while to answer any questions. The nurses too were just a delight – given the strain the system is under especially I thought this was quite something. And yet we live in a society that remunerates these people who do such good at a fraction of the level of so many who provide comparatively little added value to society as a whole.

So far as I could tell no-one except the initial nurse who saw me first was obviously a Brit. The specialist was Armenian, the two nurses who dealt with the drugs were Italian and Spanish and several of the other nurses there clearly didn’t have English as their first language. This is what immigration means in practice – qualified, valuable, delightful people who have upped sticks to come from their own countries (that doubtless need their skills every bit as much as we do, and who most likely paid to train them too) making this country a better place to live. And yet the Brexit disaster was heavily sold on “controlling immigration” as if immigration was some kind of bogey man to be feared rather than to be thankful for on bended knee.

Anyway, just some thoughts I thought I’d post here.

[SusanDoris]

Having had to visit A&E a few times this year, I definitely agree with your complimentary comments.  I think I am optimistic about the continued excellence and reliability of the NHS after the election but am not as sure as I'd like to be.

[Roses]

Lucky you BHS. I have had to visit A&E a few times in the last year or two, once on my own account, but usually with my husband and his problems. The waiting time is horrendous, you are fortunate if you were seen within 8 hours.

However, I should add that when we were seen the care was excellent.

[Aruntraveller]

Not optimistic at all I'm afraid Susan.

I worked in it for many years and all, I repeat ALL of my former colleagues are dispirited and depressed about the direction of travel under this govt and the likely future govt. They (and I) do not believe that the current hard right conservative government cares at all about the NHS except as a means of generating capital for their friends in the private sector.

[Nearly Sane]

From the BBC's live update thread:


A few minutes ago we brought you a Conservative candidate's reaction to the photo in the Yorkshire Evening Post of a four-year-old boy, with suspected pneumonia, sleeping on a hospital floor because there weren't enough beds.

Now the PM himself has spoken out about it - but only after trying to dodge the question several times.

ITV's Joe Pike was doing the questioning and as this clip of the exchange shows, Mr Johnson takes his phone away from him when he tries to show him the picture.

Eventually, though, Mr Johnson does respond, taking the phone back out of his pocket and looking at it.

"It's a terrible terrible photo, and I apologise obviously to the family," Mr Johnson says.

[Robbie]

I think BJ's reaction was odd but suppose I'd have to know him to understand and have been there. I probably would still think it odd and uncaring.

Bluehillside, it's good that your experience in A&E was so positive but, I have to add, I've known others who have been seen as an emergency by the Oral Surgeons and they've all had quick treatment. They are not inundated with emergency cases like other specialties and there is almost always someone on call.

It's not the same for other types of cases I'm afraid.

[Walter]

Genuine question ;
Is arriving at A&E on a 999 ambulance call out classed as a visit to A&E ?

[Robbie]

I suppose it is but usually a more acute condition than if someone arrives by car or on foot.
I spent all evening and all night waiting to be seen and eventually admitted in April after being taken to A&E, eventually felt better but was given medication that made me worse than when I arrived. A flipping nightmare, never again if I can avoid it.

[Walter]

I suppose it is but usually a more acute condition than if someone arrives by car or on foot.
I spent all evening and all night waiting to be seen and eventually admitted in April after being taken to A&E, eventually felt better but was given medication that made me worse than when I arrived. A flipping nightmare, never again if I can avoid it.

sounds to me you didn't need to go in the first place Robbie 😷

[Harrowby Hall]

I think BJ's reaction was odd ...   

I have watched over the past few days. What I see is disturbingly similar to what I see with Donald Trump. Johnson seems to find it difficult to make cogent unscripted utterances, although he does not appear to contradict himself, like Trump. He snatched the interviewing journalist's phone from him and pocketed it - problems with self-control? He could have been accused of theft!

My suspicion is that Dominic Cummings is more important in this campaign than we think

[Walter]

Robbie ,
I apologise . I misread your post 😘

[bluehillside Retd.]

Thanks for the replies so far. Be nice to think that pocketing the journo's 'phone rather than look at the picture will be the incompetent fuckwit's bacon sandwich moment but I don't suppose his fan boy press will treat it the way they did for Ed Milliband, even though today it was so much worse.

Incidentally, if you want to see what Corbyn should be saying about the tory legacy here's Jonathan Pie on blistering form:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjUWX6S8iYU

[Nearly Sane]

Voting for Johnson supports the deaths from the the welfare policies we have had.

[Robbie]

sounds to me you didn't need to go in the first place Robbie 😷

That is exactly what I thought and said at the time, it wasn't my choice to go I can assure you and like I said, I wouldn't again! Problem was I had an accident and husband felt I needed to be checked out. Took me a heck of a lot longer to recover after being discharged from hospital than it would had I just stayed home and laid down for a bit. I'd have been OK the next day.I can't get over the drugs I was given, so unnecessary.

Robbie ,
I apologise . I misread your post 😘

I don't know where but not to worry.

[Robbie]

Not optimistic at all I'm afraid Susan.

I worked in it for many years and all, I repeat ALL of my former colleagues are dispirited and depressed about the direction of travel under this govt and the likely future govt. They (and I) do not believe that the current hard right conservative government cares at all about the NHS except as a means of generating capital for their friends in the private sector.

I'm sure you're right Trent, my medical relations feel same, quite demoralised.

Voting for Johnson supports the deaths from the the welfare policies we have had.

Yes.

[SusanDoris]

It would be interesting, and probably helpful, if someone here would suggest which party to vote forwith regard to the NHS. However, no-one should vote on that subject alone and I, for one, shall vote for my local - mostly good - Conservative MP.
I utterly disagreed though with his leave the EU opinions.
It wouldn't matter if I did not, he will get in with a large majority.
I am absolutely not voting for Johnson, I think he's an idiot.

[Nearly Sane]

It would be interesting, and probably helpful, if someone here would suggest which party to vote forwith regard to the NHS. However, no-one should vote on that subject alone and I, for one, shall vote for my local - mostly good - Conservative MP.
I utterly disagreed though with his leave the EU opinions.
It wouldn't matter if I did not, he will get in with a large majority.
I am absolutely not voting for Johnson, I think he's an idiot.

  Johnson doesn't care about your caveat. He thanks you for your vote and will spaff it up the wall.

[SusanDoris]

  Johnson doesn't care about your caveat. He thanks you for your vote and will spaff it up the wall.

Maybe, but which party do you think would actually serve the country well and have any chance of getting a majority and fulfilling its fantasy promises.

[Nearly Sane]

Maybe, but which party do you think would actually serve the country well and have any chance of getting a majority and fulfilling its fantasy promises.

Chose Boris, chose lies, chose islamophobia, chose thuggery, chose racism, chose incompetence on Nazanin Zaghari, chose.selling the NHS

[SusanDoris]

Chose Boris, chose lies, chose islamophobia, chose thuggery, chose racism, chose incompetence on Nazanin Zaghari, chose.selling the NHS

that's just a rant against ; where's a promotion for. I'm not, on principle,  going to not vote

[Stranger]

It would be interesting, and probably helpful, if someone here would suggest which party to vote forwith regard to the NHS. However, no-one should vote on that subject alone and I, for one, shall vote for my local - mostly good - Conservative MP.

Voting Tory is voting for the rich and privileged, against ordinary people, and is a kick in the teeth for anybody needing any help from the state. It's a vote against honesty in politics and for a narcissistic, self-serving, serial barefaced liar who cares about nothing but himself.

As Frankie Boyle put it, "I won’t be voting Tory on Thursday, for much the same reasons that I won’t be spending the day kicking children and pensioners into traffic."

[Nearly Sane]

that's just a rant against ; where's a promotion for. I'm not, on principle,  going to not vote

Doesn't matter. If that is your vote, you vote for that.

[Stranger]

that's just a rant against ; where's a promotion for. I'm not, on principle,  going to not vote

I've never been able to vote for a party I actually wholly support, it's always a question of voting against the worst. Our undemocratic voting system means that most of us are disenfranchised anyway - the election will (as always) be decided in marginal constituencies.

To vote against the worst: Remain United

[Gordon]

Maybe, but which party do you think would actually serve the country well and have any chance of getting a majority and fulfilling its fantasy promises.

If there are competing fantasy promises then I'd go for the set that isn't being advanced by a cowardly self-served mendacious PM and his troop of incompetent fuckwits peddling an agenda that has as its core the outright lies of Brexit: in other words, anyone other than the despicable Tories, since voting for them only encourages them.   

[SusanDoris]

All these negative rants are useless and get nobody anywhere.  How about coming up with the two least worst and saying how they would be better.

As for equating me, in a sweeping generalisation,  with the party liked least, well, that is of course a wrong idea. I was going to say 'unfair', but that would be a feeble and silly response.

I have known my local MP for many years. He is a decent man.