Do you think the care received in hospital is good?

Question

i think that the care received by patients in hospitals is very poor. The cleanliness is very poor, the personal hygiene is contributing to cross infections and the practice levels are questionable.
i have always said that you have to be very fit to survive a stay in hospital.
whilst visiting i saw the cleaner use one bucket of water to wash the bay, the next bay, the clinical room, the toilets too.
i experienced the sister change a drip with bare unwashed hands,spilling blood on the floor from this process whilst checking the needle in the arm and then moving straight onto the next patient no hand washing or gloves! during the same visit i was reading my daughters notes left on her bed and realised they were not even hers, i handed them in and got no response from the sister that this was even slightly poor practice or a breach of confidentiality. i am terrified that i will have a stay in hosp, what will i catch in there? and i am a nurse myself although not a general trained nurse

Answer 1

hi dont think its anyones fault exept the governments...the nhs was the best thing that ever happened to britain but morons in government dont put enough money into it as they want us to get so pissed off so that we end up going private like usa

Answer 2

If I were you I would report the hospital and specially the ward!!! If everything you said is true, that place should be closed!!!
To start with, the wards are cleaned constantly where I work, the water is changed specially before and after the toilets and showers. Changing the drip, we don't use gloves as there is no reason to touch the tip of the drip (so there is no cross contamination), but we HAVE to wash our hands before and after EVERY patient, I cannot understand the blood spilling (unless it was a drain or blood drip). Notes, confidentiality has to be one of the top priorities in any hospital, I would complain for lack of privacy but not for breached of confidentiality as there was none.

I live in an area where the local hospital is one of the top 10 worst hospitals in the Country, I personally travel 25 mile to work as I refuse to work or visit my local, so I fully understand what you feel about the experience; rest assure that we all are not like that, many of us do take pride in what we do and how we keep those standards.
I hope you make a complain against the ward / hospital and make people aware of the problem and maybe actions would be taken so we all can get what we expect .......... better health care for all.

Answer 3

I lived in the States, most of my life, but returned to my native Britain this year.

When I was a child, the NHS was the envy of the world.

How things change.

Medical care in the USA is about 20 years ahead of what we have here. Indigent patients get private rooms!

Psychiatric/psychological care in the States is 30-50 years ahead of what it is here. LITHIUM is the drug of choice, for people with bipolar illnesses? *boggle*

I was hospitalised for a week, with bilateral pneumonia, four months after I returned to the UK. The nursing staff on a Respiratory Ward did not know about corticosteroid psychosis. There were two women who were absolutely raving with it. This ward thing is epidemic waiting to happen -- actually, I hear the nosocomial epidemics are happening.

There is no privacy regarding patient records. This is scandalous.

If there were an outbreak of something like MRSA in a US hospital, the entire floor would be quarantined, and 'nuked' -- disinfectant gas that permeates every surface, for a week -- and all the linens and gowns would be burnt. The patients would be kept in negative-pressure rooms, so they couldn't infect corridors.

Money before health. If I should fall seriously ill, I'm going back to the USA. I cannot believe the inefficiency, incompetence, and idiocy of the 'medical' system here.

In the USA, patients are CONSUMERS, and doctors are SERVICE-PROVIDERS. Here, there is a pathetic deference toward anyone in a white coat. I want to be stinking rich, because I have many health problems, and I am afraid of the NHS.

To be fair, the nurses mostly do their best, but they are so understaffed and underpaid, and have no authority, that they really can't do their jobs. The NHS is padded with useless bureaucracy, who do nothing for medicine, and whose salaries are now justifying the closures of hospitals.

I live in a suburb of Liverpool, equidistant from the Royal Liverpool Teaching Hospital, and Whiston Hospital, which is in the Knowsley-St Helens Trust. Satan will ice-skate to work, before I allow myself to be admitted to the Royal.

Answer 4

Let's face it the health care system is in trouble. You get great care if you can afford the best hospitals and doctors. But people with little or no insurance are forced to find care in facilities that cut corners in order to make a buck.

Document exactly what you saw (Date, time, person, location, etc...), and make an appointment to talk to the Quality Assurance Representative of the hospital - this is the person that is supposed to make sure hospital procedures are followed. After speaking to the Quality Assurance Rep., if you still feel the person didn't take the allegations seriously you can either go above them and speak with the Director of the facility or even threaten to report them to the Food and Drug administration - this will let the know that you are serious.

Situations such as you described need to told in order to correct them. Good luck and if you or a family member gets sick try to go to a different facility.

Answer 5

I am a nurse and I am so sad to read things like this but unfortunatly its so very true although I do believe there are good nurses and hospitals out there.
Our health service is absolutly run into the ground and staff are worn down.Not that there is any excuse for the things you describe.
Please believe that some nurses do care and do practice old fasioned values of cleanliness and confidentiality-myself included.

Answer 6

I can't talk for the whole of the UK but I was in hospital for some time this year in Blackpool and the ward I was on was clean, I was looked after well and the staff were lovely. I really had no complaints... except maybe for the food - mmm mmm mmm retch! I think we get it better than a lot of other countries but obvioulsy there are some places were something is definitely lacking and it should be like I experienced everywhere. When that is going to change I don't know.

Answer 7

We are in the US, and gloves are de rigeur, but if they don't wash before they put them on, then germs are on the outside of the gloves of course. I think most of them actually view the gloves as a protection for THEM, not the patient...

My son just got out of hospital on Thursday, and had an incident where his IV line went completely dry because "Santa" was at the hospital, and all of the nurses were so intent on being on TV that they were fawning over him, and my son is pressing his call button four times with people saying, "OK, we'll be right there." Finally, the head of the department came by, and when we told her, she got the nurse down there, who had to change the tubing and everything because they had waited too long to change the IV liquid.

I think that was our only complaint, we thought the cleanliness was OK, and otherwise, we felt he was well taken care of. Just a little miffed at everyone ignoring him to be with "Santa"....

Answer 8

There are good hospitals and bad hospitals, good cleaners and bad cleaners. However, I think a lot of infections caused today are the result of handwashing not being so rigorously applied as it was 30 years ago when I started my nursing training. Also, we were not allowed to sit on patients' beds - because infections could also be passed on that way, and changing catheter bags always necessitated a full dressing trolley, gloves, lotions and lots and lots of handwashing!

Answer 9

Maybe it's the area you live. I recently lost both my mother and father in law in th space of three months. My father in law was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital in London. The care he received was first class. The wards were spotless, the staff helpful and although he was dying, every care was taken of him.

My mother in law was taken to The Princess Alexander Hospital in Harlow. Again, the care was faultless. At all time she was kept clean, we were kept informed and the Hospital could not be faulted in any way.

I have never had reason to doubt the NHS as being the most wonderful service a country could have.

Answer 10

I think the emergency care offered by the NHS is fantastic. It's the day to day care that's really worrying. So many OAPs go in with minor issues and come out at death's door.

The sister didn't say thank you for the notes, or express regret, as she probably thought she'd be sued! It's the kind of thing you could have plastered accross the front of the local paper.

Answer 11

The one major controlling thing about health care is money if a profit cannot be shown then the service is slimmed down so that it does.
There is no consideration given to how much are the staff worth to get a good service, and what do the patients deserve, it is about how cheap can we do it, so that a larger profit can made.