The NHS: Dumpster Fire That No-One Has the Will to Tackle.

I've had yet another "interface" with the NHS over the past week. Not for myself, but for my 90-year-old Mother.

The "interface" was not a good experience. Yet more evidence of incompetence and lack of care.

One evening before Christmas she was admitted to the hospital with Pneumonia. Notwithstanding she was in A&E on a trolley for 8 hours before being seen by a doctor She was on oxygen overnight and also had two courses of IV antibiotics. 

She was discharged the next day, in the afternoon. I have yet to confirm this, but I suspect she was discharged with no regard to if the antibiotics had worked or her oxygen levels had improved. 

I say this, because that evening she collapsed whilst in her flat. Luckily she is in a block where there are support workers. She doesn't have any support at the moment (this will have to change) and onl;y by luck one of the carers called in to see how she was after her trip to hospital. 

Cue another call out of an ambulance and another trip to A&E. This time a 13 hour wait to be put in MAU again, where she was being assessed the previous day. 

This time, her stay is going to be a prolonged one because when she fell, she fractured her pubic bone. 

We suspect she may have had low oxygen levels and been unsteady enough due to this to fall.

Way to go, NHS. You just transformed what should have been a three day stay into a 6-8 week stay in hospital. All because you were too incompetent to check my mother's stats to confirm she was fit enough to go home.

As it is, this second stay in hospital has outlined even more incompetence. She is now on an Orthopedic ward. Yet the nurses on that ward do not know how to handle a patient with a broken pubic bone. Some of them have stated they have never heard of a fractured pubic bone before. 

Now, given the fact they hadn't had much experience in the care of a patient with such a fracture, you'd think someone in a senior position would discuss the nature of the injury and any special requirements. Bu no. Instead, nurses we pulling my mother's legs apart while trying to move her. Just the very thing designed to cause the most pain. Rather than the correct way, which is to move both legs together and cause the least amount of pain. 

The other incident was a young Doctor coming up to my mother and stating glibly "well, I think you can come off the oxygen now". Luckily my ex Sister-In-Law was with my mother at the time. She quickly retorted "So has the Pneumonia suddenly cured itself?" "Have you checked her sats to make sure she can come off oxygen?". To which he made some comment, faffed about with my mother's notes and promptly disappeared. 

Then later a nurse turned up (we assume by order of the embarrassed doctor) to remove the oxygen from my mother. To which my ex S-I-L let her know what had just happened with the doctor and to cover herself, the nurse may want to check my mother's sats before doing anything. 

Obviously, my mother's sats were depressed even with oxygen, so the nurse didn't withdraw the oxygen support, thankfully. 

But yet again another example of poor care. That doctor may have seen a dozen similar examples like my mother. But each patient is an individual and should be treated individually. I don't care how many 90-year-old ladies you've seen this year, there is going to be one that requires oxygen for longer than normal because she also has the added complication of having pneumonia. 

In other words, read the notes you fucking lazy quack.

These are the people the NHS needs to weed out. The incompetents, the people that have attracted complaints. The NHS needs to stop protecting incompetent staff. The NHS unions likewise.

These are the people causing the NHS to spend money settling lawsuits. And yes, I'm going to be looking into the circumstances surrounding the discharge of my mother before her fall.