BG Central Heating breakdown care

[Andy Hall]

I'll give you three examples - I don't have time to waste on researching figures.

1) On four different occasions over the last few years being offered consultant appointments between 6 and 18 months out and then having them cancelled twice two weeks beforehand because they had run out of budget. That's not acceptable handling of the patient and it is not an acceptable lead time either. In almost all cases, appointment lead time should be one month absolute maximum. I can get that with private cover, yet I also have to pay outrageous sums to support an outmoded state system. 2) Emergency facilities at at least two local hospitals inferior to several that I've seen in the 3rd world. 3) Money wasted on the wrong things. One simple example. One local hospital has construction work going on involving the use of a tower crane. There's an enormous illuminated blue sign with NHS on it. Why? Marketing? A public service organisation spends money on marketing because we don't know it's there? What a waste of money.

As a very minimum there should be a voucher system so that I can take my contributions to the state health system and spend them where I like.

Ideally, the whole thing should be shut down and operated on a 21st century basis, not an early 20th century one.

.andy

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[IMM]

The government is building hospitals like mad. The biggest medial construction phase ever. I have only had god service from the NHS. The overall figures are what matters, not individual experiences.

[PoP]

I share your thoughts on many things to do with the NHS.

However to be fair, my son had a skateboard accident nearly two years ago and broke his femur (that's the large bone between knee and pelvis for those who aren't sure.

Paramedics arrived very promptly. He was rushed under twos and blues to Reading accident admissions - they bypassed the usual wait for four hours (plus) in the waiting room and he went straight into the casualty room - reason being that if you smash your femur there's a chance that you will puncture the major artery that runs down your leg, ending up with possible death. The staff there were excellent and quite outstanding.

The consultant who looked after my son for the next 3 months in traction was absolutely brilliant too. Really good bedside manner to put my son at ease. Although he only came round once a week it was an occasion to look forward to each week because he was great at answering questions - of which I had many over the weeks.

Most of the nurses were top rate too. One or two maybe needed to improve their social skills, but I can't say I had a complaint about the quality of nursing care.

Now for the downside......

My son was put into the maternity ward at Reading hospital for the 3 months he was there. They didn't have beds anywhere else. There were 4 fracture beds in that corner of the maternity ward due to this problem. Basically I considered this to be a complete pain in the arse because in the middle of the night babies would cry out and need to be taken care of.

Things have probably improved now because of the new wing they were building 2 years ago. But regardless of that, the location of Reading hospital is the pits if you live outside of Reading - the traffic system is 3rd world and if an ambulance hits the rush hour it must cost lives in lost time.

That hospital should be relocated to somewhere with better access, maybe at the Winnersh A329M junction, or the M4/A33 junction. Burying it in the town centre may have been okay when it was originally opened, but it isn't okay now. Even the train station is a fair old walk away.

PoP

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[Andy Hall]

They should be built and maintained by the private sector.

To me, like most patients, it is my individual experience that matters to me first of all and that of my family. I do also care that others can receive good medical care, but the fact is that the state megalith does not deliver it as far as I am concerned. Waiting times are too long, the environment of most hospitals is appalling and there is huge waste on bureaucracy.

.andy

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[Andy Hall]

I completely agree and was careful not to criticise the medical staff, who are generally underpaid, not appreciated and have to work in poor conditions.

Then I look at the huge sums of money going in at the other end and wonder where it is all going.

Exactly. It is a nonsense having the hospital close to the centre of the town, surrounded by a one way system and mainly narrow roads. The comings and goings are a PITA for local residents. The other one at the other end of Reading is even worse for access. As you say, building on the landfill near M4 J11 would make far more sense.

.andy

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[IMM]

They are. Private contractors build them and invariably a raft of private companies maintain them in some way.

LOL!! Such fun.

So you may have a bad experience, so the largest employer in Europe is totally useless. What strange logic.

[IMM]

Maybe they should build better roads to it.

[Andy Hall]

I'm hardly the only one, am I.

Therein lies the main problem - the shear size.

.andy

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[Andy Hall]

Not practical.....

.andy

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[IMM]

But they are few and far between compared to how many people they treat.

Nonsense. It is split up into regions, etc.

[Dave Plowman]

Heh heh - they read out an e-mail from me, rather badly. They got two of the mics wrong - and they were only letters and numbers, so hardly difficult to read out.

[Dave Plowman]

Yes, and an honest man in politics is rare enough to worth being a friend. I'd class him rather in with Ken Livingston in some ways. The press hate politicians who are too honest.

[Dave Plowman]

You can't win with hospital positioning. Remember many who attend as outpatients and visitors will be elderly, and want it to be close to the centre with good public transport links. The average younger person would prefer an outer town 'supermarket' type site with easy parking and road access.

[Dave Plowman]

No organisation can be perfect, and the larger it is the more complaints there will be. What is more important is the percentages.

I've only personally needed hospital attention once - a dodgy back treated by physiotherapy at St George's in Tooting and I've nothing but praise. Never once had to wait more than a couple of minutes later than the appointment time over a series of a dozen or so visits. Had the same chap on every visit who was polite, friendly and informative - as well as just downright good at his job. A++

My mother developed dementia suddenly late in life and was well cared for in a NHS geriatric nursing home - for free, and for many years.

My sister-in-law's sister had MS and again was well cared for by the NHS.

[PoP]

This might help just a little:

Justin Jewitt at the top. He was (maybe still is?) paid more than the Health Minister in the Labour Government. Indeed, if memory serves me right, he was paid more than the Prime Minister!

Obviously with Milburns name just below the quality of this information is a bit out of date, but it tells you that under Labour they have no problem with paying managers from tax budgets.

PoP

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[Andy Hall]

Nonsense. If that were the case, why does the government make such a fuss about reducing waiting times to under two years? As I said, I would consider a month max. to be the acceptable limit.

It is still the largest employer in western Europe. It should be broken up into individual units and outsourced.

Individuals should have the option of whether they wish to spend their healthcare money at state run or private facilities without incurring additional cost as they do today.

.andy

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[Andy Hall]

Not to the individual.

I'm not particularly criticising the medical staff, more the notion of a megalithically run national system with huge waste and a lack of choice for the individual. It should be possible for the individual to be able to use private healthcare if they wish to supplement their state provision. At present one pays twice for that.

That's good. I've not long ago seen a relative in a similar situation in what can only be described as absolutely awful conditions with inadequate budget and facilities.

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[Andy Hall]

The area that I am thinking of has good road connections to the town centre and an improved bus service would be simple to provision.

.andy

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[Andy Hall]

So did we find out what mic. is actually used to relay the bells of the Westminster clock tower? Don't you have any BBC tech. contacts?

.andy

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[Dave Plowman]

That's fine for the reasonably well off. The poor would simply get a far worse state system, since those better off (and in better health) would be cherry picked by insurance companies.

I assume you get the same quality of water, electricity etc no matter how rich or poor you are. Why should health care be any different?