A mixed Christmas

Christmas got off to a good start, no one wanted to get up too early, I got up and put the Turkey in and Beth got up with me and helped me to do the veg. Carl had been out Christmas eve and didn't really feel too grand so he got up around 10. We were expecting Mum and Dad around and Tom went to get Laura. As it turned out Mum and Dad were both unwell with funny tummys so they decided to stay at home.The roads and paths are terrible solid ice now. We haven't had any snow for a week but its still terrible underfoot and very dangerous.

Beth was thrilled with her gifts particularly the panda hat which she had been lusting after all year.

Boxing day got off to a terrible start, I got a call from Dad to say that Mum had fallen in their lobby and had hurt herself. I got around there pronto and it was quite obvious to me that this time she had done something serious. she could not move her left leg and was in agony. I called the ambulance and they arrived and gave her morphine and gas and air. The next problem was how to get her out of the confined space with a little discomfort as possible. It took 4 of us plus drugs and a slidy sheet thing to get her out of the lobby. Once at the hospital they upped her morphine and took her to Xray. The staff suspected she had broken her hip but as it turns out she had broken her femur a bit lower than her hip and he leg was out of shape.

Then the problems started, the hospital was standing room only with no seats anywhere, all the bays were full and the staff decided that they were beyond capacity and started to shunt people out to the doctors out of hours unit. Mum was moved to the clinical decision unit. There we waited for three hours while they tried to find a porter to take her to the ward. Turns out there were only three porters on duty and they were trying to shuffle people around from one ward to another to free up bed spaces.

Mum is still in agony and they are unable to operate on her until tomorrow at the earliest as they do not have enough staff due to the holiday. Unbelievable, this is the thin end of the wedge the credit crunch hitting the NHS. I wonder if this is going to be the norm from now on, perhaps I need to call the papers and ask them what they think about the lack of facilities ? I just hope they get it done tomorrow.