No you should say something, it's the only way people will realise how bad it really is in the NHS these days.

I've recently left my job as I felt it was getting dangerous and I was starting to make mistakes (the ratio was 16 patients to 1 nurse!). I recently filled in an incident report form about a junior doctor who ignored my persistant bleeps about one of my patients that had a urine output of 0 (renal failure basically). You know what they sent me back? Ideas on how I could better nurse the patient!!!! Eh? I bleeped the doc who should've come right away and it's my fault she didn't?

Anyway, that's another story. Good luck with your complaint. Out of interest, did your Mam have any medications on her discharge note?

How many is the norm on a night shift, last time I was in there were 3, though one was doing paper work and one was a snotty cow.

Ah hun if only you knew what it was really like! I regularly worked a 14 hour shift with 2 20 minute breaks, no standing around for me, or anyone else for that matter! The only time there are 7 nurses on our ward is during handover and even then it's not for long as the morning staff make a desperate scrabble for the door 1 hour after they should've actually finished!
2 nurses & 1 aux for nights, unless we get one taken off the ward which leaves 1 & 1 for 32 patients!

Ah the joys of paperwork, think I must spend at least 30% of my time doing paperwork and the snotty cow was probably a relative of mine! There's a snotty nurse on every ward unfortunately!

Now I didnt say that.

I would complain, but put it in writing, that way you will be calmer and can get it right. It will also be very cathartic to do.

I have every sympathy for the nursing staff, and that is why we try and keep all our oldies out of hospital with the help of our community Matron. I hear some horror stories about what can happen unfortunately.... and have many friends who are nurses and tearing their hair out that their jobs aren't what they once were.

Hence why I love my job and will not become a nurse!

Good lifestyle choice there!

But we do know what it has been like on the ocassions we have been in hospital !! and I stand by what I originally said. MANY times I've been for myself or others, there have been far too many Drs/Nurses standing around chatting, when I have been waiting for soemthing to be done or waiting for them to bring something !!

I'm not saying it's in all hospitals, but having it in the 2 hospitals I've attended is bad enough !!

I fully agree with Malady's post. We DO know what it is like through personal experience. In this instance , an elderly lady with suspected gastrointestinal bleeding was kept waiting for TWELVE AND A HALF HOURS , and then discharged without medication . G.I. bleeding can be fatal so why was this lady not treated as a priority ? Was she left lying on a trolley in a corridor for hours ?, as we all know hospitals are bad for that , it is in the news often enough. What if she had died ? Wouldn't it have mattered as she was old anyway (88 years old) ? Sorry but this should not have happened full stop. What about my own circumstances in December ? I'd had no food or water for 3 days as I couldn't keep anything down. This also meant that the max dose of strong painkillers were not able to work either. 3-30am until 10am was a Seven and a half hour wait before my doctor came to the house the first time. I had to call her in again and she was back an hour later. Then I had a 4 hour wait for an ambulance , which took 1 hour to get to the hospital. Then a 2 hour wait to be seen , followed by another 2 hour wait to be given a few tablets. In total , from 6pm on Christmas day until 10pm on Friday 28th Dec , 76 hours, I had had no food , no water and no pain relief , yet the staff at the hospital were hanging around in the corridors chatting ! Ok , one or two of the nurses in the area were attending to patients , but the rest of them were chatting. There were plenty of them around too , but only a couple of them were actually doing their jobs. That's not acceptable. We wouldn't allow our dogs to be treated that way so why should it be any different for human patients ? ( sorry Emma , I'm not having a go at you personally , just the NHS generally sucks when it comes to the care of patients.)

I think it is disgraceful, yes. But sadly its not an isolated incident, I have heard of many the same.

As for the nurses in hospital chatting away - my experience too when I had my stay in hospital 2 years ago. I was temporarily found a bed on the old dears ward, the care they received was dreadful. It took a cleaner to feed the old (very infirm) lady next to me, because the nurses were too busy talking in the day room. I said something, only to be told it wasn't their job!

I've always been a fervent supporter of the NHS, so it pains me that this was my experience.

Yes there were medications on her discharge note which they had dated Thursday 20th 2 days before discharging her. The A&E had only one bed pan holder so Mum had to wait and wet herself which upset her because she prides herself on being clean. I will not be blaming the A&E Staff they were marvellous and take the flack from everywhere else. I will mention the bed pan incident and why isn't there more than one. We are now going to wait to see what the Hospital has to say about her in Norfolk where my Brother who lives has had to admit her there because of the pain in her back and chest, which I was told on Friday she would not be discharged till it was sorted.
I hope to stop it happening to someone else but I doubt it will.
Edited to add the same can be said of Teachers too much paperwork hence why my Husband left 9 years ago to get out of the classroom he is still in education but from a different perspective.
the Goverment are to blame imo so the health secretary may also be getting a letter.