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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 22, 2011 18:37:16 GMT
Thanks Kerouac... How kind...
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Post by Kimby on Apr 7, 2012 19:44:33 GMT
Well..my OH was in surgery for 3 hours yesterday having a massive-rotator-cuff-repair op...all went well and he's now home. Strapped up and behaving like a naughty two year old...he wants to carry on as normal (is it a man thing?) but can't.... The operation went so well that they strapped him up and allowed him home last night. After a very difficult night where niether of us got any sleep he's just dropped off on the recliner chair...so I daren't move in case I wake him up.... As one who has just been informed that my sore shoulder is indeed a torn rotator cuff, I'm curious to know how your OH's recovery and rehabilitation has gone. I'm hoping to avoid surgery, but if that isn't possible, I'd like to be as informed as possible about the ordeal. Thanks, cheery!
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Post by mossie on Oct 10, 2012 14:54:37 GMT
I missed this thread earlier, but would now like to shove in my tuppence worth. I have extensive arms length experience of the NHS owing to my wife. She had medical problems throughout the 55 years of our marriage, I would often wake up to her her complaining and think to myself "I wonder what todays illness is". In general the medical care is excellent, once the bureaucratic hurdles have been overcome. But the bureaucracy has become more and more overbearing and inefficient. When my wife contracted MRSA we were told she had got it before coming into hospital. As it is a hospital generated problem I was furious and wrote to the minister of health. I accused the management in general of being either incapable or unwilling to manage, I got an anodyne answer from a nameless civil servant in Milton Keynes, saying that Mr Blair took an interest, but nothing could be done In her last stay I complained that it had taken them over a week to arrange for her to be transferred to a nursing home. I was told when she left that she had been in for two weeks longer than necessary, because the necessary committee could not be gathered together to sort out the paperwork. Enough said. The bureaucracy and obvious gross waste of money is a complete shambles and a national scandal, which our high and mighty rich politicians cannot, or will not, see. Excuse the rant, I feel very strongly. Sorry.
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Post by htmb on Oct 10, 2012 15:32:33 GMT
Rant anytime, mossie. Dealing with the frustrations of life is tough enough, but even harder when it has to do with illness and medical care.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 10, 2012 17:21:59 GMT
Several months ago my aged father, who is suffering from knee troubles due to being in the coal mines for too many years and also early dementia, decided to drive to his local town to try and sort out a bureaucratic problem with his bank (and don't start me on Banks). Anyway, after parking his car he fell over and a kind soul phoned for an ambulance whereupon he ended up at the local hospital. He was in pain, in shock and confused so they decided to keep him in overnight. The next day a neighbour contacted me and my brother in Spain (neighbour had reported him missing and the Police found him in the hospital) as regards the situation.
To cut a long story short as they say, I contacted the hospital and having your father in tears on the phone saying he just wants to go home and being refused by the system (called being 'Sectioned' by the Mental Health Act) brings to me a feeling of powerless rage. I immediately began to book a flight to the UK only to be phoned by my brother to say he was at that moment on his way to the airport having had the same conversation. Fortunately there are a hell of a lot more flights from Malaga than from Amman and he could hop on one within a couple of hours.
The point of this tale is the hoops my brother had to go through, hoops held not by the doctors who weren't happy but willing to release him, but by the bureaucrats, to get him out. It took all day and half the next night and at one point my brother was going to run the gauntlet with the risk of being forcefully stopped. Lions led by donkeys applies to the NHS as well.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 10, 2012 17:39:02 GMT
And I'd love to peruse an organisational chart of the NHS to see not only how many people work in each position but how many positions are pure bureaucrats/civil servants.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2012 18:22:16 GMT
I hope I never have to find out how that would go in France. I am the "person of reference" regarding my mother, but it was decided that it was not necessary to go through the whole official process of making me her legal guardian (this requires a judge and all sorts of stuff). If ever a major decision has to be made, I don't have the slightest idea if they will accept my authority.
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Post by auntieannie on Oct 10, 2012 18:47:04 GMT
Friendly advice for Kerouac: look into this without delay... make sure you have all the rights to make any decision concerning your mother and her money if she has any left.
You don't need to report back, but make sure everything is sorted soon.
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Post by htmb on Oct 10, 2012 20:51:32 GMT
Fifteen months after my mother died my father finally filled out and signed all the paperwork giving me complete control over health decisions, as well as his finances, if he were unable to care for himself. Though my father was still in his sixties, he was in very poor health due to numerous maladies. Two days later, the day the signed documents arrived in the mailbox at my home, my father had a massive stroke. Since doctors were concerned he was in a diabetic coma he was put on life support before I got there. When later it was found that the stroke was so massive and involved that there was no brain function, and no chance of any cognitive function returning, it was left totally up to me to authorize removal of the ventilator keeping his body oxygenated and his heart beating. It was never my father's wish to be kept on useless life support, but if he had not completed the paperwork giving me authorization I'm not sure what would have happened. It's very possible it would have taken a court order from a judge to allow removal of the respirator. My family and I were very happy with my father's care as well as the advice of his physicians, but having the signed documents made all the difference when it came to decision making, I am sure.
(And, of course, I'm talking about American health care. I have had no personal experience with health care outside the U.S.)
Mark, I am very sorry your father had such a traumatic experience, but how fortunate he was to have his sons come to his rescue.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 25, 2019 19:39:54 GMT
Don't know where to put this...but it is NHS related.
Over the past 3 years or so a volunteer charity group called 'Blood Bikes' have been serving the local hospitals out of hours. If there is an emergency sample needed to be sent to Bristol or Leeds, or if there is an urgent need for special units of blood (for example babies and children under 16 on ECMO* have specific requirements for very fresh blood products) then the volunteers charge in on their motorbikes fetching and carrying. It's a popular charity, and the staff in blood bank are very grateful. It saves the hospitals a fortune in extra deliveries from Leeds (we used to have a blood transfusion centre in Sheffield but that was closed in 2016...government cuts).
The conservative government have served notice in this charitable, voluntary, efficient service and awarded the CONTRACT to a private company instead. Nobody knew about it until there was a memo from the chief executive...even the bosses are upset. There is of course lots of speculation about politicians making deals.
* Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation = like a heart-lung machine without the heart bypass part...used to oxygenate the blood and rest the lungs of folk in respiratory failure. Patients require significant transfusion support.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 25, 2019 22:04:39 GMT
Good grief! Why doesn't the government go ahead and privately contract with a service that will go around to your homes and plant their boots on your necks?!
That is really outrageous.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 26, 2019 0:28:43 GMT
While I bless our version of the NHS, there are bureaucratic idiocies. Though remember that those also exist in countries with no public health care service. Here in Québec, we now have what are called "super nurses" (channel superwoman imagery). They provide primary care and are entitled to prescribe medication and perform many frontline interventions. But here in Québec, a physician is also paid to "supervise" them, though these super-nurses (nurse practitioners) have not only their nursing certificate but also a master's degree and a specified clinical experience. This is not only patronising, it wastes a lot of money.
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