I patiently waited for 15 minutes after putting in a 999 call for an ambulance, before calling back at 6.40am last Monday after my mum's collapse. When the operator told me "it's not unusual to have to wait this length of time during periods of high call volumes" I knew what was to come.
Luckily my mum was suffering from a UTI which often causes people to pass out and she hadn't hit her head so there was no permanent damage. Had it of been a different matter the issue could have been much more problematic as a lot can happen in the 25 minutes we waited for the ambulance to arrive.
In recent months the depression of service that the NHS offers has been a constant topic of conversation, largely due to government cuts. Statistics reveal that the number of patients waiting more than four hours for treatment in accident and emergency departments has almost doubled in the space of a year.
First of all I need to make clear that this is not an attack on any one that works in the NHS. My experiences previous to this have been of a good standard; however, my most recent NHS experience was worrying. It became apparent that the majority of staff manning the ward were trainees. Many were of an ethnic minority, which is not surprising in multicultural London but it soon became apparent there was a real issue of miscommunication and lack of clear communication. This problem came to head with an elderly patient who was a Russian woman suffering from dementia and was situated in the bed opposite my mum on the A&E OBS ward. When this lady could not efficiently communicate or be understood, she became increasingly frustrated. It became apparent why when her granddaughter arrived and realised that she had soiled herself and ended up sitting in her own faeces until it had dried. The elderly woman not only had this issue because of her dementia but also because she didn't speak fluent English, so on her granddaughters arrival she ultimately played nurse by washing and changing her grandmother but also translated for the hospital staff. It also turned out that the duty nurse who was responsible for looking after her was attending to five other patients at the time. Although in the end it was clear this patient needed extra attention due to her personal situation, this is something the nurse was unable to offer.
It's no secret that the NHS are overworked and under staffed. A&E is the first place distressed and unwell patients go to, often following an emergency call. It's not only unacceptable that following health secretary Andrew Lansley's abolition of specific targets for NHS, waiting times the figures have risen, but it's also below par when patients end up suffering as a result. In a article written for the Evening Standard, Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow said "London is the agency nursing capital of Britain. Filling hospital vacancies with agency staff is a short-term solution by short-sighted ministers that short-changes taxpayers and patients." Agency nurses can earn more than twice as much an hour working for a private agency as those doing the same job in the same hospital for the NHS, some of which are often less qualified.
A&E waiting times are not the only problem. Although it was said the government's drive to make £20bn of efficiency savings in England by 2015 should not prompt hospitals and primary care trusts to cut services provided to patients, around 242,000 patients do not get treated within the 18 weeks guaranteed in the NHS constitution. Whilst low morale and poor pay are causing many trained nurses to leave the profession or take on agency work, its been reported that the almost £800million was spent on agency doctors, nurses and consultants in 2006-07 and the cost of filling the vacancies left by nurses in London hospitals with private agency staff has continued to rise. And at whose expense?
If patients are waiting for longer than they should in A&E, for major surgery or even to get blood test results we have a problem. People admitted to hospital, for whatever should be treated with the highest level of compassion and care and dealt with as efficiently as possible, for their own mental as well as physical wellbeing. I'm sure there are many agency staff nurses who are able to and strive to deliver their required duty of care to patients but I've witnessed those who are unable and unwilling. It's even more of a measure of the greatest importance to the NHS, when agency staff are paid in abundance and NHS trained nurses are leaving because of low pay, the very pay cuts that is one of the reasons for our overstretched NHS service. Surely, the money should be going to the places where patients would benefit from it the most.
Priorities people, priorities.