General Chat

As someone who has no close family and is a bit of a recluse. I hope, after I read this in the Daily Mail this morning, that I do not have to go into hospital if this idea is adopted. Brings back memories of what Thatcher tried to do following the 1983 Griffiths Report which suggested that the NHS should be run like a supermarket :-(

"Families should take on the role of nurses by helping to feed and wash patients to ease pressure on busy hospital staff, a new report has said.

As well as basic nursing duties, relatives should also be on hand to help patients to the toilet, it was claimed.

The report, created by think-tank 2020health, says such duties should be mandatory in the same way as jury service".

James, the thought of ending my days in hospital worry me too, even tho I have a son who lives not far away.

How are families supposed to be there all the time, when the patient needs the loo and such, as well as every meal time. Many of them wouldn't be able to take time off work to be carers in hospital and many live miles away from their loved ones as well.

I hope you can stay fit and healthy so you don't need the help suggested. Do you not have anyone you trust to deal with anything should you become ill, i.e. paperwork or bringing you in clean pjs and whatever else you might need? It might be an idea if so, to contact Age Concern and ask what you could do to get some help should it be needed. There are people who volunteer as Befrienders and they might have someone on their books who you could relate to and allow a visit even if only once a month or something, just so they get to know you and your ways and where you would leave relevant documentation etc.

Best of luck

Lizx

But what about the people who refuse to help their spouse. What could they possibly do to them?

Purple **^*Sparkly*^** Diamond,

Thanks for your response, I am a very private person and prefer being on my own, I have a very close friend who comes to see me at least once a month, and the warden of my sheltered housing scheme is very helpful and he has copies of all my relevant papers and who to contact if anything happens.

I just don't take kindly to strangers and I actually enjoy being on my own ;-)

Thanks again for your suggestions, much appreciated <3

James

When I was nursing it was always the responsibility of the Seniour nurse or Sister to give each person on duty their work for the day. It worked very well. Sadly this started to change in about the 1980s. And new protocol was introduced along with the way that records were kept, computers became the more important week by week and everyone was made aware of the increase of court cases etc.....

Next came degrees, wonderful re having a Degree as those of our friends who went to Uni had....but very little knowledge about how to Care!

When we came to live in Spain we found that the hospitals work very differently and have an excellent service , well there always a few who will find fault but in the 10 years I have lived her I have only known one genuine reason for complaint.

The nursing is excellent, the doctors are very well trained and talk to the patients and their family. However......if there is a family member near bye they bring in the food , help their relation to eat, drink, wash and dress. And in the time I have been here I know of just a few who thought this was wrong..most felt that this means that they know what is happening. Now if there is not a family member or friend available then trained volunteers and or the Nuns will come to help.

At the moment we have a close friend who has been seriously I'll wih Cancer, he and his wife cannot praise the hospital and staff enough. He went to a doctor after his wife nagging him to do so, same day admitted to Hospital, two days later stated surgery, many days in special care, several more ops, wife has many friends who take her place whilst she can do other things and her husband is on his way to recovery faster than anyone expected......

Befrienders have already been mentioned and they also are excellent, and why would someone refuse to help a relative or good friend...???

James, you have already had some very good advice re how to find who could help and it might be prudent to investigate where you can discuses how the volunteers can help.

Bridget, who will be thinking of you all and hope you remain well

I totally understand where you are coming from, James! BC XX

Maybe there is a difference between helping because they want to and it is maybe usual (i.e. Spain), and helping because you are told to and have to do it like jury service. Resentful help may be no help at all.

Oh and there are only OH and myself in this area, no relatives or real friends live near us.

It will never happen.

OH has helped me with showering, washing hair and walking me up and down wards for physio in the past but that's about it.

We have to fight for visiting outside the normal times as it is. Nurses are not going to want family cluttering up wards and bathrooms and interferring with their regime.

What happens during ward rounds, no visitors are allowed (in theory) because of privacy concerns. I had one consultant who decided to talk with me during visiting hours in the afternoon and he asked the staff nurse to clear my 6 bedded ward of all visitors whilst he spoke with me.

What about the increased risk of infection? Will family clean the bathroom after they have used it? Will every single one use hand sanitiser? Will they be putting their coats on beds? Sit on beds due to the limited amount of room allocated to each patient? Know how to use a bed pan and how to deal with it it the sluice room? List is endless.

Just my initial thoughts I am sure there are many more GR peeps could add.

Sue

How about the other ward patients who won't get any sleep during the day due to the increased noise? Not being able to wander around without embarassment cos their drip line drags up their nightie?

If they really want to improve the NHS and patient care they should bring back "MATRONS" and get rid of the numerous layers of bureaucracy that replaced them, it would save a fortune and go a long way restoring the NHS to its former glory as it is not bureaucrats who save lives it is doctors and nurse.

All governments over the past 30 years are to blame for the state of this country, especially Thatcher, she started this internal market strategy nonsense, not just in the NHS, but throughout what used to be called essential services, such as energy, communications, water, and railways, to name a few. As a result of this ideology the rich have got richer and the ordinary working people have paid for tem to do that.

Just my opinion, but these strategies had only one aim and that was to create opportunities, for a better phrase, their cronies and backers, coincidence that David Cameron was a Special Advisor in the Thatcher years and that William Hague once commented "we are all Thatcher's children", maybe Thatcherism has a new name Cameronism, there again I am often called an old cynic ;-)

I have no allegiance to any political party as they are all tarred with the same brush, so my view on the myth that Thatcher saved the UK economy, is that it was not her but North Sea Oil revenues, and credit for that is down to the foresight of the Energy Secretary in the mid 1970's - Tony Benn, without these revenues Thatcher's government would have been sunk.

Over my life I have never had much respect for any politicians, however I knew John Smith the Labour Party Leader who died from a heart attack in 1994. I had a lot of respect for him both as a man and as a politician and I often wonder how much better life in this country would be today had he lived and became Prime Minister.

Was that a party Political rant or just dislike of Margaret Thatcher? no matter what you say She has more backbone than any of the Male PM,s previous or after her.She had to clear up the mess left by Labour and Cameron has to try and do the same (But he has,nt got the guts to do it) The NHS. is Top Heavy with Beaurocrats installed by B-Liar and Brown, get rid of them and put people in charge who have actually been senior nurses or Doctors,Not Accountants then meybe things will get better,till then its a postcode lottery.**M**.

Oh I agree with you about John Smith, he ws the only hope for the UK at the time.

Matrons, yes agree with that too (as do many others).

Every government has a share in the responsbiity of the decline of NHS standards. Each has privatised individual parts within the whole and fractured it. Cleaning and catering and the enormous waste in procurement to name just 3.

None were as bad as Brown, He has saddled the NHS. for years to come with debt with his private initiatve programe,where they are contracted for everything rent electrics and all things conected to them, to the people who built them and there,s no way out of the system signed up to.

Oh Merlin. We all know that the Conservative Party can do no wrong in your eyes, but they have made mistakes.

In my opinion nothing will change all the time people vote for a Party & NOT the best person standing for election in their area.

I agree that our NHS needs some radical changes to make it better, but it needs to be thought out carefully.
The best people to maintain medical equipment are those who fully understand how they work & are able to get spare parts quickly, obviously these are the companies that build them. (You would not think of taking your Rolls Royce to a back street mechanic)

Merlin,

A party Political rant No, at my age I am past caring about politics, as I said these days they are all tarred with the same brush and anyway as they say we are all in it together ;-)

A dislike of Thatcher "YES" as in 1987 and 1988 I had to travel and spend several hours every day visiting my seriously ill mother in hospital to ensure her basic needs were taken care off, why, because of the cut backs imposed by Thatcher's wonderful Internal Market there were not enough staff on wards to wash and feed feed patients - now where did I read something similar to that today.

The state of the NHS wasn't improved by Brown for sure, but it was Thatcher who got it in that mess and her cronies who grew rich out of it.

Bureaucrats running the NHS "like it was a busiess" dated from Thatcher's day and the empire building inside the NHS began then.

Why anyone could still worship that awful woman is beyond me. Cameron has already demonstrated that he's useless so I won't hold my breath while he sorts it out.

Thatcher, spit, I can summon up some sympathy for her current state of health...but not much, given that she didn't give a tupenny damn about anyone else's when she was in power.

However, this is not a political thread I don't believe...it is a thread addressing what we all fear for our inevitable old age...I say inevitable, but I don't intend to be here to suffer the indignities and inadequacies of hospital care when I am old. Been there, seen it, not staying for it!

Our local hospitals ask for vollies to go on the wards at meal times to help less able patients to eat their meals
When my OH was in last time meals were put in front of elderly, sometimes out of reach and meals were left untouched. I saw it happen.
I thought about offering to be a volly but cant afford the extortionate parking fees. I will do everything possible to keep me and mine out oh hospital.
I totally agree with James and bring back Matrons.

guinevere, i agree with what you say. the rot started long ago with maggie, she caused so much hardship for many. she will be unable to rememeber, we will never forget she broke up familys and communities big style.cameron hasnt a clue what hes doing to the country. the cuts are to severe, in the long term i cant see much change. things will get a lot worse, the n.h.s. will be gone in a few years.