I've been in hospital in four different areas of the country and I have NEVER had a negative experience from any of them. I have had minor ops, very major ops where I ended up on Life Support and only had a 50/50 chance of surviving, but NEVER has there been malpractice, neglect, misuse of drugs or anything else untoward. I was on Life Support for three days, before they returned me to the normal ward, but they were wonderful and without their care I wouldn't even be here today. Yes, there are a very few bad hospitals, and maybe every fewer bad medics, but on the whole they are very good, conscientious and couldn't do more for you if they tried. You have NOTHING to worry about at all, unless you are one of the very very unlucky ones, and I don't expect that you are. The food isn't always very good, but it hasn't been that bad most of the time either, and without this countries NHS services I would have died about 24 years ago, so have no worried my friend, as they are very good and will look after you very well.
There's always exceptions to every rule, but being a Senior Nurse in the NHS, i have to say compared to some countries, even having an NHS is a luxury. I've heard a lot of horror stories - I've witnessed some horror stories too - But i'm still of the belief that a lot of abuse that takes place isn't intentional. No one ever enters Nursing to neglect patients or to abuse them. A lot of the problems are caused by the fact there's way too many demands being placed on too few staff. The nursing field is short staffed at the moment because the majority of staff that leave, just aren't being replaced, so a greater pressure falls on the remaining staff. A lot of hospitals have to rely heavily on agency use just to get through. Whilst for me and my colleagues, patient care always comes first and second, and everything else is a distant third, there's always tasks the powers that be deem important we don't get a chance to get around to, we get our knuckles rapped for later.. Balancing patient care with the other tasks and demands being placed on us is tough going, and finding that happy medium is next to impossible.
Mom was in the hospital, was in pretty good shape, but was sent to a nursing home so that she could finish recovering and then go home. She was back in the hospital four days later in a near coma because they screwed up her medications. She was in ICU for two weeks, in a regular room for another, before finally being let out of the zoo. She would have died in the nursing home IF she hadn't been discovered by my aunt, a retired nurse's assistant, who called 911 on her cell phone. On her way out, several patients begged for her help--they thought she was a nurse by the way she took charge. AND....she got ahold of the prescriptions that they were giving to my mom. Good Lord. There were 22 of them, I looked them all up online. She was prescribed three different pills for one symptom...and two of them were NOT to be taken with each other, under any circumstance! They would and did "fight" each other, causing a bad reaction. When we showed her doctor what Mom had been given as medications--he did a double take and took off in a hurry. Later that day, that list had been reduced to 10 pills, with no conflicting drugs at all.
All I can say is, try to keep track of you pills. She started out with only a few, but every doctor she saw added onto the pile, apparently never looking at what she was already taking. As for us: we never thought of this happening. We thought that her pill list followed her along on her record. If we had only thought, maybe Mom could have avoided some of the medical mayhem.
My wife was in hospital with a number of complications caused by advanced crohns and was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer,funny how a whole team of doctors missed the fact that the medication she was taking was actually the cause of her illness with regards to the crohns,took 6 weeks of various treatments before a new doctor from a hospice actually realised what was wrong with her,then it took a few days to get her well enough to come home..Whilst she was in hospital I saw some terrible things,one lady was given an insulin injection twice in 20 minutes which made her very ill,my wife was discharged from hospital on one occasion with pneumonia,on another occasion she had to phone me at home late one night begging for help because the staff were ignoring her buzzer,she was in agony and had been for over 3 hours,elderly patients who couldn't feed themselves just left to go hungry,patients discharged only to be re admitted a couple of days later because they weren't well enough to be sent home in the first place...The NHS is a disgrace but it's not the staff who are to blame it's the powers that be
I hate hospitals with a passion. I would rather die at home than go to a hospital, and have the staff verbally abuse me..like they have done, when I needed surgery. I was told it was all in my head for 8 years, before they finally did the right tests and found out what my problem was. I suffered severely for 8 years. When they discovered it wasn't in my head, they NEVER apologized. I don't trust Doctors, I have plenty of reasons not to trust hospitals. I have a fear (that has turned into a severe phobia) of hospitals. I was having gallbladder attacks for 8 years..I had surgery in 2011.
Not where I live
I've had surgery twice in the last year, and have nothing but praise for all the staff
The stories you read are a small proportion of the total hospital provision ,so you'll be fine
If they really were that bad dont you think they would get shut down ? I have stayed in an NHS hospital before and it was okay nothing special, I would rather stay in hospital and get my ankle sorted rather than be paranoid that I am gonna get abused ...
Well yeah....I went into the hospital had a tumor cut out with a radical hysterectomy - only 22 hrs - in and out it cost me $60,000. Not even one full day in the hospital. No insurance so that is my cost.
Yes I dreaded going in.....
That's what I was going to say. The Telegraph have been going mad about it! I wouldnt worry if I were you. It's rare.
im in england, im 35 and have been in hospital before for an operation on my ankle.. i was in hospital 2 days.....today i dread going into hospital for a stay ? with stories of patient neglect, hospital malpractice...really bad stories the make my blood curdle.
is anyone else fearful at this juncture in time, of going into hospital for a stay ? considering all the scare stories around now ?
