Yes thats very true Hevvur - we are lucky we have got the NHS at the end of the day but I wonder for how long will we have it. I don't think the day is far off that we will have to start paying for treatment and if you can't afford it then tough. The dentists have gone down this route so who is to say that the doctors and hospitals aren't going to do the same.

I dont think it will be *too* soon!
The NHS are now implementing something...you get a choice of 3 hospitals, so you choose which one you want to go to.
The hospital will get paid per patient, so they need to be clean, keep waiting lists down, good service etc too 'attract' the patients. (I work for the NHS...got told this at a meeting).

Thankyou
I'm getting better!!
Still have to go every 6 months for checkups....once I have bveen clear for 3 years, I will just have to go once a year....this will carry on for 15 years.
Once I have been clear for around 15 years, I won't need these checkups anymore!

I can only speak good of them from personal experience. Two years ago I started an anti-biotic course, some pills that I had had many times before, but this time something strange happened to me. I won't go into detail, but my husband ended up phoning an ambulance for me, they were here within minutes (luckily!) and rushed me off to hospital where I immediately had 5 doctors around me stuffing needles and adrenalin into me, which saved my life. I had gone into anaphalactic shock, when you have 30 minutes to live if you don't get adrenalin, and I'd never heard of this before from an antibiotic, luckily they knew or I wouldn't be here now! So thank goodness for the NHS I say! I have had a bad experience recently though but it's too long winded to go into on here, I would fill the page up!

I would also like to mention 2 other occasions in which I can only praise the NHS and all staff involved.

The first was when I was unwell some 5 years ago, from diognosis to surgery was 2 months only, and was on a gynaeocology ward.

My mother underwent a whipple's op (pancreas) 2 years ago and we were told there was only a 2% survival rate, this was carried out at a London hospital, and to be fair the whole procedure was remarkable. She amazed everyone with her speedy recovery

Did anyone see the documentary on a Brighton Hospital a little while back, it featured an oap ward ?

Yes I have always found my time in hospital extremely pleasant (well as pleasant as it can be in hospital anyway) I had three babies in the maternity ward and then had to have a large ovarian cyst and my ovary removed when Daniel was just 5 weeks old. I was in for 6 days and was very well looked after but that was 15 years ago now.

The last time I was in hospital was for a lump removed from my breast and that was nearly 12 years ago and I was only in as a day case and had the operation at 3 in the afternoon and was allowed to go home for 5.30 after having some tea and toast. Although they put the wrong sort of dressing on it and it slowly bled all night long and I woke up with my nighty soaked in blood and the bed too and I felt extremely weak. The nurse who came to do the dressing the next morning sent me straight back to casualty - she was furious because they should have put a pressure dressing on and they didn't hence all the blood loss. I also felt extremely ill most of the night and felt that I couldnt get my breath properley and that there was a huge weight on my chest and I went into shock and was shaking like mad too until my mum went and asked the next door neighbour and she told her to give me plenty of sweet tea.

The only bad experiences I have known have been when my mum has been admitted and she didn't feel they looked after her properly

Yes, I did Tracy! I thought it was pretty horrendous the way they treated those old people wasn't it! Talk about take away their dignity! Mind you, I can also see it from the nurse's point of view, they have done extensive training to be a nurse and maybe some of them would not perhaps choose to care for the geriatrics and all that goes with it. Some of those oldies can be a bit cantankerous I should imagine (I work for 2 now!)but then, who can blame them, when they're in the sunset of their lives and stuck in there for the rest of their days, having to rely on people they don't even know for just about everything. Very sad isn't it!

Did anyone see the documentary on a Brighton Hospital a little while back, it featured an oap ward ?[/QUOTE]

Personall nearly all my experiences with the NHS whether it be local doctors or hospitals have been bad.

Almost 2 years ago now I broke my back and wrist in a horse riding accident and I did not get very good care from start to finish. When the Ambulance arrived as you can imagine I was in a lot of pain and was unable to move my legs, I was told that I could not be given any pain relief until I had been examined by a doctor at the hospital (why not?? isn't this what the ambulance staff are trained to do??), so for the 20 minuite drive I was without pain relief, upon arriving at the hospital it was no better I was just left at the side until someone could find me a cubicle which took ages, I asked the nurse about pain relief and she told me you have to be seen by the doctor first, I was left in the cubilcle for ages and when the doctor finally did come I had to wait for the nurse to finish asking me dozens of questions for a form before the doctor would look at me. So in total I spent about 45 mins without any pain relief before a doctor would give the go ahead.

Finally I got pain relief and was sent for my x-rays, half an hour later I was told the x-rays weren't clear and I had to go back and have them re done followed by a cat scan. I was expected to have to stay in for at least 3 weeks with the possibility of being transferred to salford for surgery.

During my time on the word I found most of the nurses to be very unhelpfull especially on the night shifts, they were to busy gossoping (you could here them giggleing all the time) to attend to people, if you pressed your buzzer you could guarntee they would hang on and finish their conversation first leaving you to wait for ages. After 7 days they fitted me with a back brace and I was told I could go home, bearing in mind I could barely walk could not do any bending or lifting only had use of one arm, was on strong medicine that made me very drousy and had a 10mth old child, my house has steep stairs and no hand rails meaning that I would not be able to so much as get to the toilet without help even if I could find someone to look after my son, I was told I would be contacted about having safety measures fitted to help me get around the house over the coming months, so I gave them my mums address as I was gonna stay with her till they had contacted me and fitted hand rails as her house was easier to get around and my mum could have taken her holidays off from work early to look after me & my lil boy as her house would have been easier for me to get around but they said I had to be at home from day 1 to qualify, so I stayed at home and my OH had to take 5 mths off work (unpaid) to look after us and did anyone ever contact us, no they did not we ended up having to get out a loan in order to live as we had no money coming in as I couldn't manage on my own.

To me that is not down to money problems but down to bad staffing.

Another thing I have had repeat problems with is having blood taken, I am extreamly frightened of needles and always let the nurses know that I do not want to see the needle as I don't like them so they can tell me when to look away. On one occasion the nurse couldn't find a vain in eather arm but instead of asking someone else to do it decided to have a stab at it anyway , 2 lots of blood turned into 6 failed attempts followed by a doctor ending up taking it out of my hands , I am now a complete nurvous wreck around needles and this has happened several times since, each time just adding to my fear. Someone plz tell me why these nurses coninue to try anyway and keep trying when it is quite clear they can't find a vain instead of asking someone else to see if they can do it especially when they know you are scared and can see that your so nurvous that they even comment on how pale you have gone and ask if you need a drink??? Its madness, my Auntie and Cousin are both nurses and both say if you can't find a vain then you should get someone who can to do it instead.

Sorry for the massive rant but it really gets to me. Fell better now I have got that off my chest.

On a good note for the NHS though when my sister had been in a very serious moterbike accident the hospital she was in was fantastic as were the nurses they were lovely, owing to my sisters condition and the prospect of her parthner not pulling through they did not hold our family to visiting hours and allowed us to come and go as we pleased. They also arranged for an ambulance to take my sister to the hospital where her OH was so that she could see him, which they didn't have to do. So its not all bad I suppose.

What you're talking about there is 'Choose and Book' Hevvur, unfortunately there are concerns about this from our point of view in that, if a hospital has a good reputation patients will choose to go there for treatment and it will be overbooked, leaving the hospitals with less than good reputations to go empty. Hopefully, it will work as they hope it will and they will get paid per patient, unfortunately we have to get the project in place and the software working first

lol

Software needs to work for medical records first lmao
The hospital I work at bought the new software before anyone got told about the 'recomended software'....so rumours fly about saying we have the wrong software, and that it is not compatible with the 'recomended software' (but it is).