Rant

I can't believe it. Them. First thing is that my time in Southampton hospital went as well and quickly as possible. Second, the massive rant I wrote about my time and thoughts there yesterday avo and evening on my phone got deleted, by me. Easily done with a text but cocking annoying.

If you think you've been spared though, I'm afraid not. I'm going to rant again.

Apart from the pain relief problem and traditional wait my experience of Southampton was very good. I went down to surgery at 11am Friday and came round in recovery at 1500ish. The op had gone very well apparently. My leg and particularly my hip were very sore... amazing to have a leg though.

Was taken from recovery to a different ward to the one I'd spent the night in, where I spent a couple of hours. Due to bed shortages it was currently a mixed ward, which they shouldn't really have. Everyone was sound, met Deborah who was in for suspected appendicitis and had had it out. Unfortunatley it was fine and they're still investigating, fingers crossed they can sort her soon... (Deb sorted the charger for me, borrowing it from another inmate, as mine seems to not work in hospitals)

After a few hours I was moved up the corridor a couple of bays to my third and final bed location. My fellow inmates included a young guy who had broken his leg in Novemeber but kept getting infection complications. The guy with the burst disks who'd been waiting nearly two weeks for a scan and/or to loose the use of his legs, he looked like he was a sergeant major but was very kind and helpful to his ward mates. And a couple of older chaps, one of whom didn't seem to eat or sleep, was in very good spirits and didn't seem to need crutches.

It seems most of them were waiting for secondary infections to clear but, astonishingly, I wasn't really there long enough to find out any more. After the op and no extra pain relief the first night I didn't really wake or move the first day. Manged to get to the bathroom the second morning. then rested. Steve and Lib visited Sunday. Had my wounds checked, mobilised and had brace fitted Monday am and then was back at Greenhill by three!

The driver was fast and good and Dave the tech was good company. We drove down the esplanade, which is always nice. I guess you could possibly get away with just driving on down to the road in an ambliance..?

I've ranted solidly for a range of reasons since getting back I'm afraid. I think Swa's glad to get to prison.

But yeah, all in all a brilliantly short stint in hospital and I've got some good new ideas. I told everyone involved about the blog and the fact I was blogging my experiences live from my mobile, which may have altered things a bit and, thinking back I guess I was often probing, interviewing and absorbing, though a lot more can be done. Oooer.

The nhs is amazing and has a lot of amazing staff. My recent opportunity, since the Adjustment, to live with the nhs for 2 months, after being amazingly well put back together and looked after by them, and then have regular contact with the nhs, it's users and affilliates, has opened my eyes a lot. I've spoken to lots of different people on both sides of the thin red line and what patients and front line staff alike feel is impatience, anger, frustration and despair. All because of the massive system all the good people are plugged into and ground down by. Why?

The staff I meet and deal with are generally really sound, caring and effective people. It's the system, budgets, regianisation, league tables, no/bad PR and the rest that bring out the bad bits of the nhs. I'm sure if all the people involved made an effort to honsestly and frankly disuss it all it could be sorted into something truly amazing and can't believe this isn't happening yet.

Just talked to the marketing PA at spirigel, who have the national contract for hand sterilisation. Very helpful if slightly bewildered by me and a dodgy line(phone) but got a contact for the people who market them. (or built website?) I really want a web address on their bottles... Not this one, at a guess

Spoke to someone at network design and marketing who was very helpful and gave me a lot of his time. He has a story about an experience with the nhs I hope he's going to share and is going to put me in touch of someone in PR, hopefully...

In the very best case scenario I thought I could be home (Greenhill, for now) by Monday lunch time but I was expecting to be there possibly to the end of the week, despite their desparation for beds...

The nurses were very overworked but all were fine, I didn't experience any snappiness, though other patients said there were good and bad eggs, just like anywhere I guess. One day was awful, the day I asked to see a doctor about pain relief, a nurse asked repeatedly on my behalf over 7 hours for the doctor to see me. They never came. Apparently this same doctor spent the whole of the day shift making excuses and not turning up where they were needed. There are many tasks nurse are not allowed to do, if the doctor won't come and do them it's the nurses who get the blame and patients who suffer and/or can't be discharged.

I don't know why this doctor allegedly did this, or how they get away with it but it resulted in a lot of angry patients and frustrated nurses. Patients obviously don't understand the intricate, arcane workings of the nhs, and are often not at their sharpest and do tend to blame the nurses. The nurses patiently explain but it's a nightmare for all concerned, no wonder tempers get frayed... In this case the night shift doctor had to spend all night catching up with what hadn't been done in the day, plus what needed doing that night. A lot of the time it's things like this that delay people going home, pissing them off and wasting precious beds.

They could help their PR a bit though... Unless you've been in hospital as lot or work or know someone who works for the NHS, you're not going to know, believe, or want to believe how things work.

A classic example. My final resting place bed wise was a bay from which I could see and hear all went on at the nursing station. I often overheard converations, sometimes about me, this is what helped get me home so quick in the end.

Anyway, at the moment I don't sleep brilliantly due to the pain and don't sleep well in hospital anyway. I woke up yesterday morning in pain and asked for oromorph. I was told there was only three of them on and the nurse qualified to dish out medicine wouldn't have time. Sorry but no, I could try again later. I could see four nurses due to start the next shift joking and laughing at the nurses station. They weren't on yet and couldn't do anything until things had been formally handed over, apparently.

Whatever,

I'm in pain and have just been told there is no one available to help, of course it's going to look bad. That's bad PR.

So I'm ranting about it. And I'm often talking to patients, nurses, ambulance drivers, doctors etc and they all have something to say and often agree. I think as many people as possible should all blog their experiences, views and ideas in one place myhealth-sw which is agressivley marketed and always in the media, so views really make a difference.

If you can't or don't want to start your own blog please ad your news and views as comments to the relevent blogs post, or email it to me to post, or visit us on facebook or whatever. Please always try and get the myhealth+region.blogspot.url and link to and from www.blogverse.com.

That's surely enough for now. There's more to say but my brains melting.