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This should be renamed "Ask Cath: Diagnose me".

 

My son has had the tummy bug going around. Hit him really hard. After two days of near constant puking he ended up in hospital on a drip because he was so dehydrated. We kept trying to feed him little sips of water but nothing was staying down. A blood test suggested he had a low hemoglobin count, which had us frightened for a bit but clinical examinations suggested otherwise and we were later discharged. After 4 days of misery he eventually has turned the corner and is now keeping solid food down.

 

I've got to say the nurses and doctors were great but the NHS forces them to concentrate far too much on procedure and form filling. It's like they want to tell you something but they can't until their backs are covered and boxes have been ticked. They've been forced to treat patients as numbers, not human beings.

 

I think what the Tories are trying to do to the NHS is a disgrace but there's no doubt to me that talented medical staff, just like teachers, are bring constrained from doing their jobs properly because of a legacy of bureaucratic nonsense.

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Cath, I'd be interested in your experiences on that score as a nurse working in an nhs hospital. Is the amount of paper work and procedure frustrating and does it hamper you doing your job as well as you'd like?

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Cath, I'd be interested in your experiences on that score as a nurse working in an nhs hospital. Is the amount of paper work and procedure frustrating and does it hamper you doing your job as well as you'd like?

Yes, absolutely. The amount of paperwork has increased massively in the 15yrs I've been qualified and it's even worse on the wards. It's computer data that takes time for us in theatre aswell. I have to input the time that every patient is sent for, arrives, goes into anaesthetic room, starts anaesthetic, completes anaesthetic, goes into theatre, start of operation, end of operation, leaves theatre, enters recovery, is ready for discharge and is finally discharged to the ward. The purpose of this being to "see where time is being wasted" We also have to scan every piece of equipment we use - from the drugs, tubes, drips, oxygen to syringes and needles. Sometimes during the day there'll be 12 patients on a 9-5 operating list and we have to do that for each one. Whilst I'm doing that I can't physically be in theatre with my patient.

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This should be renamed "Ask Cath: Diagnose me".

 

My son has had the tummy bug going around. Hit him really hard. After two days of near constant puking he ended up in hospital on a drip because he was so dehydrated. We kept trying to feed him little sips of water but nothing was staying down. A blood test suggested he had a low hemoglobin count, which had us frightened for a bit but clinical examinations suggested otherwise and we were later discharged. After 4 days of misery he eventually has turned the corner and is now keeping solid food down.

 

I've got to say the nurses and doctors were great but the NHS forces them to concentrate far too much on procedure and form filling. It's like they want to tell you something but they can't until their backs are covered and boxes have been ticked. They've been forced to treat patients as numbers, not human beings.

 

I think what the Tories are trying to do to the NHS is a disgrace but there's no doubt to me that talented medical staff, just like teachers, are bring constrained from doing their jobs properly because of a legacy of bureaucratic nonsense.

Hope your young'un is past the worst of it. My youngest was bad the other day but at least it only lasted the the early hours and throughout that day.

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DG - Are they treating or further investigating the bairn's low Hb? Glad to hear he's doing much better.

 

Oh and any of us grown-us who dare to whinge about any minor ailment at the moment should read Stephen Sutton's story and man the fuck up.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/stephen-sutton-teenage-cancersufferers-condition-improves-after-coughing-up-tumour-as-benedict-cumberbatch-backs-campaign-9294260.html

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no, they said that we only need follow it up with our GP, as long as he makes a recovery, which he seems to be.

 

the hospital couldn't discharge us quickly enough. they were saying they might have to admit us overnight, but that there weren't enough beds available so we'd have to go to a different hospital somewhere in north london. the nurse advised us on the side to be discharged then come back an hour later as a new patient and we'd get a bed again if needed. luckily it didn't come to that and being on the drop sorted him out.

 

the most annoying thing, other than every new doctor coming in asking exactly the same questions as the previous one, then filling in the same forms time and time again, was the after-care.

 

the nurse that had been dealing with us was great and said to call if we had any questions, which we did. later that night, we tried calling again, but the night staff had started and refused to answer a very simple question without us bringing the boy back to a&e to be re-assessed. they said to call nhs direct, which we did. only to spend half an hour answering all kinds of random questions so he could be 'assessed' before answering my question, again all they could advise us was to go back to a&e if we were worried.

 

basically, all we wanted to know was whether we could try to re-hydrate him just with water, as that was all he was keeping down. they discharged us saying we had to get 5ml of diorlite down his neck every 5 minutes until he'd consumed 200ml before we let him sleep for the night. so after failing to get a straight answer from the hospital night staff or nhs direct, we woke the pour soul up at nidnight and schleped him back to the hospital (after being there all day) only for them to tell us in 5 minutes what they could have told us over the phone.

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I know the NHS is under immense pressure at the moment but much of that sounds frankly ridiculous. Yes there are policies and protocols to follow, but if an anxious parent rings up with a simple question (having already been treated at the hospital earlier) then the staff should use their professional knowledge and a bit of common sense and advise the parent appropriately.

 

Fluid is fluid. If he needed more than simple water then they should have kept him in for IV colliods. It's a shame that was your experience. Knowing both the A&E and paediatric staff at our place, I'd like to think it would have been dealt with in a more approachable manner given that ultimately it means dragging a bairn to and from hospital in the middle of the night.

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I know the NHS is under immense pressure at the moment but much of that sounds frankly ridiculous. Yes there are policies and protocols to follow, but if an anxious parent rings up with a simple question (having already been treated at the hospital earlier) then the staff should use their professional knowledge and a bit of common sense and advise the parent appropriately.

 

Fluid is fluid. If he needed more than simple water then they should have kept him in for IV colliods. It's a shame that was your experience. Knowing both the A&E and paediatric staff at our place, I'd like to think it would have been dealt with in a more approachable manner given that ultimately it means dragging a bairn to and from hospital in the middle of the night.

 

yup, that's what i thought. i was pretty sure water would do the job, but the wife was panicking and wanted telling by a medical professional. unbelievable really that they couldn't do that over the phone.

 

the other thing we noted was the doctor wanted my boy to have 600 ml of the rehydration solution stuff in him before we left. they pumped in 400 ml through the drop and discharged us saying we had to force the other 200 ml down his neck that night. an impossible task given he couldn't keep anything down except water.

 

i suspect the doctor wanted us to stay so they could feed him the extra 200ml via the drop but they were under pressure because of the lack of beds and they didn't want to send us to north london either. we didn't particularly fancy that either, frankly, after 12 hours in an a&e bed.

 

anyway, he's much brighter today so all's well that ends well.

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