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Wait at clinic like Third World service
Monday 25th August 2008, 9:36AM BST.
I feel compelled to write regarding the treatment my wife received recently while attending the ophthalmology outpatient clinic at Russells Hall Hospital.
She had an appointment for 2.30pm and we arrived ten minutes early. We ended up leaving the hospital after 6pm, three and a half hours later.
One would assume it to be common decency to be advised of the length of delay in maintaining appointments, when you arrive at the reception desk. At least one would have a choice, to stay, to go, to remove your car if necessary, avoiding extortionate costs, or to inform family members of your pending delay, bearing in mind we are not talking minutes here, but hours.
Once you are trapped in the waiting area, which is a considerable distance away from the refreshment area, there is still no advice given regarding the delay time to expect. At the least if you were told you could get refreshments without fear of losing your place.
When the delay time and the sequence of patients being seen were questioned, we were told that the patients with more serious condition had priority. This beggars belief – do they not know this information when the appointments are being sent out?
On the day we were being treated like cattle, there were three people dealing with the patients, one qualified consultant and two junior trainees, who constantly called to the consultant for advice, taking him away from his patients, which therefore caused the major part of the delay.
When we spoke to other people suffering the same plight we were told it is common practice for the eye clinic to be running two hours late.
Well it’s about time this common practice came to a halt. Stop giving people appointment times that have no chance of being kept within a reasonable time. Make the appointments according to the staff available and be more informative about what is going on.
By the way, it was noticed that as soon as it was 5pm the juniors and other nursing staff had their coats on to go home.
Please get this problem sorted for the sake of the NHS. And give people the service they deserve, not the treatment expected in a Third World country.
Geoff Gutteridge, Knarsdale Close, Brierley Hill.
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Sorry, you do not know what a third world clinic is like. Let me explain:
You would arrive before sun up to join the queue,wait the whole day, if lucky you might get some attention but probably not, if not repeat as above tomorrow.
Think yourselves lucky!
Just returned from Africa after many years – qualified to comment.
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Yes, more serious cases have priority. However, many of them won’t have been known about at the time your appointment was booked.
A time for your delay won’t necessarily be a time for someone else’s delay. So if they put one hour delay on a board but delay you two hours, or just 20 minutes, is that somehow better?
I don’t know about you, but if having two juniors asking the experienced person for advice is somehow a bad thing then you need to have a junior treat you instead, without advice.
Delays happen – its extremely hard to guess how much time any one patient is going to take up. Perhaps if they saw less people in a day but you had to wait an additional month or two for an appointment would be better for you?
Expect delays, expect that some will be worse off than you so need to be shoehorned into urgent appointments and just hope you never have to need help that quickly.
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Sorry but i have to agree with the other comments. Thats the NHS service we have. They do their best under the circumstances and are forced to work under crappy conditions with inexperienced so-called managers who havn’t got a clue about medicine ,and only care about the numbers. It’s a dredful thing if you are ill and hav to wait to be seen but third world treatment it AINT MATEY.In a third world country you’d be blind now hoping some eye surgeon from this country would treat you and restore your eye sight for free, so think up when you make comments about our NHS it’s as good as it gets, and yes, it is frustrating sometimes but we have all been there.
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For heavens sake Frenchwolf and Martin, let the man express his opinion without you two comparing his experience to something else! He’s not in Africa – he’s in Dudley! Its his opinion, he was there and he is very gallently supporting his wife! The fact is Russells Hall (across the board) wastes time and money hand over fist, if they managed the place better, and the consultants took notice of you in the first instant they would know how much time they needed to allocate for your next visit, and cattle is the correct word I can assure you, I spent months going to Russells Hall last year and it was vile, there’s a perma 2 hour delay in most departments, so its nothing new, it is however, bad time management and planning. Those that work pay into the system that supports the National Health Service, why should we put up with a lesser service? MRSA, C-Dif, dirty hospitals – as I said – bad time management and planning…
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Helena, its not just those who work that pay into the system that supports the NHS.
Everyone who pays any kind of tax does. Its all basically one big pot from which the government pays out some for the NHS.
Yes, that hospital, like many, wastes money. They could be more efficient but could they also meet government targets at the same time?
Or should no preference be given to anyone except for their appointment time, regardless of circumstances? And long appointments even if not needed?
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Poster 5,
with respect, you really are confused aren’t you.
The place is in chaos, and as Helena so eloquently reminded us, Geoff is entitled (at the moment) to voice his opinion, formed it appears, after his unfortunate yet sadly typical experience.
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Well the hospitals are not efficient and they dont meet government targets now lol Fancy having a ‘government target’ for cleaning a hospital? CLEAN is the first thing you EXPECT in a hospital – you shouldnt need the government wasting yet more money to make sure its clean! Why do hospitals still give the same appointment times to 4 or five people? What is the point of 5 people turning up at 2 o’clock when only one person can be seen at that time? Why not 5 or 10 mins apart? Why dont we have appointments running till 9pm at night? That would be very convienient for working people and I bet many would be happy to take a late appointment, and it would cut waiting lists. You said Martin ‘Or should no preference be given etc’ sounds like your trying to back me into a corner with the ‘either or’ choice. So I will say it again, the hospitals have a big problem with time management and planning – if the people in charge, that gets paid a vast amount of money to ensure the smooth running of the hospital can not make it run smooth – they should get some people that can! And while some folks insist on saying ‘ah well they are doing their best’ nothing will change – its clearly not the best is it? So – I’ll ask again, why should we put up with a lesser service?
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Right, give Helena the job of organising the appointments at the hospital. She knows what she’s doing.
We put up with a lesser service because its what we pay for.
The USA has a far better service – operation waiting lists can be measured in hours not months, easy enough to see a doctor within a couple of hours of needing one, not days like us.
But they pay for it.
At the other end of the scale are places where doctors are days walk away, where the queue is literally out the door and where you might have to wave the flies away from an incision.
Now if only we could guarantee people to turn up for their appointment things would be even better!
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You know… At this point I’m not interested in other countires facilities – we are talking about ENGLAND, our country – well whats left of it! lol The USA has a far better service because they PAY for it – so what are we doing? WE pay for it! We have been paying for it for a long time and we are certainly paying for it now! lol
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Yes, we pay for it. A lot less than in the US.
You get what you pay for.
Individual payments don’t matter here – whether you have needed £50k treatment a year since being born or whether you’ve paid all required taxis and never seen the inside of a surgery, hospital or dentists doesn’t matter.
The NHS gets funded from central government, with a small amount of help from charities or individuals donating.
As I recall there was a time when the NHS wasn’t getting the funding it needed. Years of under-investment even. Now more is done based on the bottom line. Not a perfect way to run but somewhat better than spiralling costs.
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Helena,
I can appreciate how your skewed one sided opinion has formed. Could I ask if you have ever worked on the front line service delivery in the NHS? Imagine then if you will, having to meet the ever increasing demands of the public expectation alongside managerial pressure to meet unrealistic targets for the treatment of patients and maintain a consistanly high standard and profeessional service. I doubt very much you have had to take verbal and on occasion threats, put downs, snide comments and negative attitudes targetted at you for doing your job on a daily basis. As for the gentleman that had to wait I do feel for your plight, but might I say you still got your treatment,despite the waiting time (which I am sure is being addressed). As regads the idea of staying late for appointments, Helena your appear to have missed the point somewhat, on the day in question the service had one qualified staff and two juniors no bloody wonder it was running late, tell me how do you “magic” qualified staff from thin air!!??! it’s this kind of narrow minded whinging ingrattitude that places added pressure on the staff trying to meet the needs of people like yourself- perhaps you should apply to Russells Hall as a managerial consultant and put your “answers” for solving the NHS into practice or otherwise offer somthing constructive when you know what it is you are talking about !!!!
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Ozpat! Skewed one sided opinion? Of course, because its different to yours, mine has, according to you, become skewed and one sided… It never ceases to amaze me the amount of people that write on here to lessen someone elses experience by comparing it to something else, and then there is the personal attacks – ‘people like me’? ‘When I know what I’m talking about?’
You wrote: I doubt very much you have had to take verbal and on occasion threats, put downs, snide comments and negative attitudes targetted at you’… Well, I would say your post covered most all of that! Wouldnt you say?
My original question was – WHY should we put up with a lesser service from the NHS? Replies without the ‘personal attacks’ would be nice…
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Skewed opinion, of course you have, different opinion to mine of course you have, Personal attacks, a little defensive I have noted especially since it was your opinion(s) that are are so wide of the mark, skewed and unhelpfull that have provoked my response. Again I ask, have you had to endure abuse and pressure from all directions and the ingrattitude of of a small minority of the public on a daily basis whilst trying to provide a service, as for service I again ask you to do something about it!!! If you have an answer to the situation go and address it, but to voice an opinion (and yes it is different to mine) is not a personal attack but a reply to an opinion that appears to lack insight to the operating difficulties of the public sector health service, I would suggest then if you are not happy with the service either (a) do someting constructive about it (rather than voivcing your “opinion” for all to hear (heard it all before)) or (b) inform yourself then proffer opinion based on facts, as for lesser service lesser to what exactly, what less do people get? lets be frank here the basis of this difference of opinion is the fact that the gentleman in question had to wait longer than expected and in reality this happens , sometimes we have to wait and situations arise that mean some people will have to wait and this is unavoidable in the current situation ie, demand outstripping supply, freedom of speech and expression of opinion that differs from others would be nice also!
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Ozpat, You have made your posts a personal attack on me and then you say I’m a little defensive! Well, carry on all you like – youre still talking drivel! lol
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Helena,
It would appear that unless people agree with your opinion then they have made a personal attack??????? So in future if anyone out there has an opinion which differs from yours we all should apologize and allow you to express your opinion witout retort ( nevermind how skewed or factless they are)??? silly me, and I thought we were all adult here….. any wonder why we left the UK? freedom of speech …yeah riight LOL
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There’a nothing worse than a loud mouthed opinionated Australian
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Britain has half the number of doctors (per head of population) than Germany. British doctors get paid at least 50% more than in any other European country. So the answer is: train more doctors, and pay them less.
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G,Day christene,
Another to join the ranks of the “ill informed” I see. Firstly I have dual nationality (and frankly prefer now to be australian, I wonder why that might be?) I am English and secondly if by “loud mouthed” you mean opinion based on fact then you are definitley correct! Oh and by the way there is something worse than a “loud mouthed opinionated Australian” and I do believe I have just had the misfortune to have encountered you, well done I do believe you have just reinfoced my point , publicly! Thanx! off to the beach see ya!
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Having flown over from the USA to take my father to New Cross, can only say that I was shocked at the third world state of the place. As the doors opened the smell of stale urine hit us, very powerful smell, the toilets were even worse. We were waiting from 3pm until after 6pm, and leaving found cleaners ‘cleaning’ couldn’t smell disinfectant, couldn’t see them mopping. I can still smell the stench of stale urine to this day, and pray that neither of my parents, or family and friends have to be admitted to this hospital.
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I have been to better third world hospitals than those described. They were cleaner, had more patients to staff ratios, and much, much less funds. The diffference, patients retained their dignity, and how? management was by clinical staff not lazy beaurocrats and the medics didn’t just think with their wallets!
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THERE SIMPLY IS NOT ANYTHING GOOD TO SAY ABOUT NEW CROSS, AND I AM VERY WELL INFORMED WHEN IT COMES TO THE WAY IT IS RUN, THE PEOPLE YOU NEED TO SPEAK TO ARE THE MAJORITY OF STAFF THEY ARE FAR MORE CHEESED OFF THAN ANY OF THE PREVIOUS POSTS, ONLY THING IS YOU WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO PUBLISH A LOT OF THEIR COMMENTS.
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