I took my father to the Accident and Emergency department, after being referred there by his Doctor after he collapsed at the local Tescos. We arrived there at 4.45pm with 3 other people in the waiting room and a sign to say the delay was 3 hours.
Earlier during the previous morning when he collapsed at the supermarket, I was phoned by my mother and hurried there to help.The paramedics pulled him roughly from the chair he was sitting in, laughing and joking with the Tesco staff while they manhandled him into their own trolley, without saying a word or acknowledging him at all. As I followed them to the ambulance, they eventually spoke to me and asked whether I was a relative or not. "Wait outside the ambulance!" they said and banged the doors shut. I watched through the window to see how much more roughly they would behave and then I spotted that they had left the keys to the ambulance in the passenger door. So much for discipline and doing things properly! I took the keys and put them in my pocket before someone took them!The door was opened and I was told they cant find anything wrong with him. I then pointed out that his younger son was also a paramedic and upon that there was then a sudden rush of concern that he was okay and should they take him to hospital etc.!! I then returned the ambulance keys to one of them and he sheepishly took them without any thanks. They then drove off and I took my father home. I wonder how many old people are treated in such a disrespectful way by these supposed caring part of the community and repected Paramedics! And how many die needlessly by such callous treatment by such pompous and self important attitudes. I am NOT saying that ALL of them are like that.....but I know know that a lot of them are.No wonder so many of them are attacked.
After a wait of 2 hours, we were eventually called to enter past the doors to the treatment areas, whereupon a fairly jovial and pleasant nurse took some blood off him and did various electrical tests. We were then ushered into another section where upon entering, I thought I was in a battle zone in Iraq or somewhere like it! The corridors and aisles were littered with trolley-beds with people lying on them, some in pain and others on drips,some with oxygen masks. Mostly were old people but there were a few young ones too.
We were told to sit down and wait till we were called. One old man was screaming and shouting every 5 or 10 minutes with abuse but was clearly harmless and suffering from some mental problem, probably tourettes.
I did notice that there were an enormous amount of green uniformed people with 'Ambulance' written on their backs, milling about , laughing, joking and generally standing about.(paramedics again!)
There was a very self important Staff Nurse who ignored us completely while she flirted with someone on the phone for over 10 minutes, very full of herself and with enough make up on to cover at least a dozen hippos.She was very obvious the kingpin as she swirled as though she was on a stage as she cavorted and made eyes at the 5 doctors who were standing around laughing and joking. Gee! What a mess! 3 of the doctors then disappeared and I asked a nurse outside the ward where they were going...." Oh they dont stay long on the accident wards! Too busy for em. They go on the wards instead!" The remaining 2 doctors took their time in seeing patients stopping numerous times to have a chat and a cup of tea.
There was a nurse struggling with a trolley bed, a Lorraine Coxon, who seemed to be the only one actually doing something on this side of the ward, I helped her push it and bloody hell was it heavy!
2 hours later a nurse came along and said get your father in the night things as he is staying the night! So I asked why as no one had seen him yet and was told that the doctors are too busy to see him and that maybe in the morning they could manage to get to him!! I discharged him and took him home as I am sure if I had left him there, it would have been the last time I saw of him.

NHS: Too many chiefs and not enough indians! Too much management and not enough workers.

Here is a letter from a ward nurse sent to me from another hospital not too far away from Stafford. listen to what she has to say:

"Well, I don't know where to start! I go to work these days with a feeling of dread. Sometimes I'm optimistic and go full of enthusiasm, ready for the night ahead, prepared to tackle anything, but those nights are getting fewer and further between. Even then, by the time I've taken report the enthusiasm has disappeared and I'm off to face a hectic night, with high dependency patients and very little help!

This job is not what I signed up to do, not what I trained for and just when I think things can't get any worse they do! The main reason I've no time for patient care these days is because of the enormous load of paperwork which is now forced upon us. This amount of paperwork is largely to cover ourselves and our employers from being sued by the very patients we were always trying to care for.

We have a saying: If you don't document it, then you didn't do it and you didn't say it.

Now I don't mean patients shouldn't make complaints, not at all. It's just that it's all become such a vicious circle. We're short staffed throughout the NHS, patients have to wait for care, they get cross and complain. This means paperwork, whilst we're doing the paperwork we can't be doing the caring, this leads to more complaints and so it goes on. Of course before the paperwork comes the verbal complaint, but it all has to be documented afterwards, and sometimes we can be talking with a patient or relative for hours! This would be fine if we had enough staff to continue with the care, but we don't.

It's come to such a sad state of affairs. Let me give you some examples:

1. A few weeks ago I went onto the ward to begin my nightshift. For 25 patients, we began the shift with 1 trained nurse and 2 support workers. We should have at least 2 trained nurses on every shift. The Nurse Practitioners finally managed to find me another trained nurse from another ward to cover the shift with me, but took away one of my support workers. Already a pair of hands down. The shift was very busy, I never had time for a break, that's 10 hours solid working, working through my break which is unpaid. This is common, it happens all the time. By the time morning came, I was worn out. My ward manager came on in the morning and I explained what a night I'd had. As I handed over I had to report to her that 2 of my patients were lying in wet beds and that I just couldn't get to change them and make them comfortable. They had been lying in those same wet beds for at least an hour, and I was really distressed to have to hand that over. All she said to me was...did you manage to get all the Care Plans done? When I answered, no, her response was "Why not"?? I was really angry at this! No one gives a damn about the patients lying in wet beds any more! All the management care about is if the paperwork and legal documentation is done!

2. During another busy night I received a phone call from the Bed Manager to ask if I had any patients who were definitely going home the following day. I had one. At this she told me that I'd then have to accept a patient on a trolley overnight, to be parked up somewhere on the ward! I was livid! There wasn't enough staff to care for the patients in the beds, never mind to give me an extra one! I asked if I'd get any extra staff to help with this, and of course the answer was "no, there aren't any" This is all beside the fact that patient dignity would have been virtually non-existent! Apparently this is a new policy to make beds in the Medical Assessment unit which is always jam-packed. We just don't have the resources to deal with this, and we're expected to cope when staffing levels are dangerously low! The ones left to do the work are all exhausted, physically AND mentally! At the beginning of each shift and usually at the end to, I could honestly just sit and cry! But then, at the end of each shift I'm usually trying to finish off the paperwork so I can go home, which never happens on time. Again UNPAID!

It's not just me. I constantly see nurses still on the ward way after their shift officially eneded. They've been there for hours with no break and are still trying to finish their work before they go home. Some even come in early on their shift, again unpaid, to try and get a head start.

Meanwhile patients are suffering. I'm constantly giving out medication at midnight which should have been given at 10pm. Sometimes having to wake them. It's not because I'm having a laugh or some fun somewhere, it's because I have to prioritise my time and only have one pair of hands. I'm expected to do the impossible! Well, this is a real nightmare. Like I said, we used to have 2 or 3 domestics to each ward. They were always the same ones, so knew what needed to be done, and knew what had been cleaned recently and what hadn't. The Domestic services were then privatised, so now we get one domestic covering at least 2 wards. We nurses are expected to find time to clean. With the workload we have, it's just impossible and so standards have dropped. Now we have MRSA which is costing the NHS far more than paying the Domestics did, and it's now costing LIVES too! "

Private enterprise profits again at the expense of everyone else in the country! Profit is not a dirty word but it is when it harms and kills people! There are Consultants swanning round the wards with trainee nurses fawning over them, doing absolutely bugger all and demanding extortionate amounts of money for doing what they were trained to do at the expense of the NHS.

No wonder the NHS is in a mess! No discipline and no experienced guidance!

A word of thanks to the Tesco staff at Heath Hayes, Staffordshire, for their kindness and caring and quick thinking in helping my father. Especially Steph Hall-Williams Customer Service Supervisor and Check out Operator, Louise McHugh . THANKS!!!! xxxx