Originally Posted by mikelincs

I would make a WRITTEN complaint and send to the complaints officer, then the issue will be discussed and they HAVE to sort it out and write to you to let you know what is/has been done. The male nurse should, at the very least receive a warning, and also should be sent for 'customer care' retraining to eal with obvious anger management issues. No nurse should mistreat a patient or shout at them, and if he can't treat patients with compassion, then he has no right to be working there.

Originally Posted by cheers

When my wife was in hospital, a male nurse, who had just started his night shift came in and held my wife's hand for a long time and talked to her like she was dying. Unknown to him my wife had no intention of dying at that time. That was about 10 years ago. Come to think about it, he may have got his patients mixed up? Normally when nurses come on shift they are very busy going around checking their patients and waking them up to give them sleeping pills. This is in the US.

Originally Posted by aries

The NHS is a bit of a mixed bag, but there are too many issues I could relate since I returned 13 months ago, so I will just quote from recent times.

I'm writing this in a hospital bed, this being my third day. I felt unwell last week with dizziness, and when Saturday night became a feverish nightmare, and I saw that my blood pressure was unusually low (I have a monitor), I phoned the out-of-hours service for advice. Two doctors came, and after an examination they called for an ambulance.

Blood tests and an x-ray showed a serious lung infection, doctors believing it to be the same one as in October when I was in hospital for a week. I am in a room by myself and receiving good medical care, but yesterday an aggressive male nurse came in, and because of his nasty attitude, I asked him to leave. He then began to loudly say I was rude (a typical response when those in the wrong wish to lay blame on someone else), and when I denied his allegation, he became louder and said he had a witness. Another male nurse was in the room, and he seemed stunned by what was happening. I eventually got the aggressive one out with him constantly yelling that I was rude, and I told the other one and a female nurse that I wished to speak with the ward manager.

She discussed the matter with the male nurses first, the quiet one not taking sides and saying it was a clash of personalities. I have never experienced an aggressive macho male nurse before, but if he thought I would cower before him he was sadly mistaken. Apparently he was told never to tell patients they are rude because it sets up a confrontation. If he wants to know what rude is, he should take a spell in A & E on a Saturday night, not confront an ill 74 year old who needs care without hassle. Some years ago in Australia I was told by
someone in the system, that it is usual for health employees when they are in the wrong, to attack and try to mentally knock their opponent down. I guess it is the same here, but I'm the wrong one to take on.

And for the past year I've been trying to see a cardiologist. Eighteen months ago in Australia I was advised by my cardiologist that I need to see one in England as soon as possible to get into the system, my dual chamber pacemaker and cardiac condition being passports into the system. However despite two referrals from GPs nothing has eventuated. My pacemaker was checked andthe technician saying she will arrange for me to see a certain doctor who was named, and all I had to do was wait for an appointment letter. After 3 or 4 weeks nothing came, so I phoned the hospital. Cardiology had never heard of me, and had no record of a pacemaker check. I was then told that a referral lasts for only 2 weeks, and I should go back to my GP. A referral was arranged, and in due course an appointment to go to the hospital was arranged for 19th December. However when a young doctor in this ward followed up 10 hours ago, she told me it was a follow-up from my previous visit, not to see a cardiologist. I was told that I needed another referral from a GP, the third!

It was all beyond the young doctor, so she left me to stew about the incompetence of the system. I looked on my iPad for someone to phone in the hospital, and after I explained the circumstances and that I was a patient in the hospital, I was told that someone in Cardiology would call back this week. Bizarrely I was again told that there was no record of me, yet I had contacted my hospital's cardiology department in Australia for details of my case, and I passed it onto the hospital here.

Has the NHS become too big to be competent?

Originally Posted by dunroving

During my recent hospital stay, we didn't see the night shift nurses until they had been on shift for about 3 hours. They turned the radio on loud and sat around the table in the main nurse area. I know they spent about an hour catching up on patient notes, etc., but I always felt they should have then popped their heads into every room just to ask how things were going. It wouldn't have taken more than 10 minutes.

Must say the day shift were a lot more attentive and professional than the night shift. One of the night shift nurses forgot to take my blood pressure in the evening and woke me up at 2 a.m. to take it ...

Generally, it seemd to be close to midnight that they'd come around for the end of the day medication administration, etc. Considering most of the patients in hip/knee replacement are older, I'd think something lke 9 or 10 p.m. would be a much more appropriate "bedtime" round.

Originally Posted by aries

Checking my blood pressure is the bane of my life. Nurses generally check me during the night, on one night in Australia every 2 hours. Last night a nurse said she would come about 2.30 in the morning, so I said that I've had some bad nights, and if she saw I was asleep, to leave it. I was asleep!

I've seen a lung specialist this afternoon, and apparently I have pneumonia and pleurisy, and will not be discharged until at least the weekend. With rail travel to Lncoln being too strenuous with a couple of changes, it looks as if I shall spend Christmas alone.

Originally Posted by aries

I've seen a lung specialist this afternoon, and apparently I have pneumonia and pleurisy, and will not be discharged until at least the weekend. With rail travel to Lncoln being too strenuous with a couple of changes, it looks as if I shall spend Christmas alone.

Originally Posted by cheers

That may be a good thing.
How is everything going in your flat? Did you get the mold taken care of?

Cheers

Originally Posted by aries

Eventually my bedroom was painted, recarpeted and a new wardobe fitted, so hopefully damp doesn't come through the resurfaced floor and create more mould. It put me in hospital for a week in October.

I've also just had the mould-ridden bathroom gutted and converted into a modern shower room, but as yet I haven't had time to wash my hair there, I became ill and was whisked into hospital.

All in all 2012 has not been kind for my return to England.

Instead of staying with relatives in inconvenient locations and being stressed, I should have rented a studio flat in London for 6 months, and given myself time, convenience and the freedom to search for somewhere to live within 50 miles of the Capital. This is a lesson for others to learn.

Originally Posted by aries

After waiting an hour for the nurse to come back to me, she has now said the pharmacy is closed!!