Still Waiting

I think its fair to say that we are not exactly very happy with the hospital as it stands, I am amazed that in a developed country (supposedly) that its OK to leave a 75 year old woman in bed with a broken femur for three days and not operate to put it right. Yesterday it was nil by mouth from Midnight at 6pm they told mum they couldn't fit her in. I spoke to the nursing staff who have given me conflicting information. One said they had run out of time to operate it being Bank holiday blah blah blah. Another said that it was because of blood results that they were not happy with. If I consider all the excuses given the run out of time is the more honest. The blood results were in in the morning and she was put on the operating list , why at 6pm were they suddenly not 'right'?? She had not had any further tests during the day so I believe they said that to get us off their backs.

We had been in to visit on both visiting times and the staff said the Doctor wanted to speak to us, they have our number and we live 2 minutes from the hospital. To date we have not been able to discuss her situation with any of the doctors looking after her. In Mums drugged up state she thinks the reason the operation has been delayed is because she is not able to pay enough to have it done straight away. She told us that the Doctor said he was far too busy to operate on her. I suspect that most of that is drug talk, but no one was with her when the Doctor spoke to her so who knows what was said.

I have checked with them this morning and they say she is on the list for today, lets see if we will be having a repeat of yesterday. What is sad and upsetting is those folk in hospital who have nobody to stand up for them. Nobody to make sure that they have access to the call bell, no one to ensure that the staff actually 'care' and tend to the needs of the patients, i.e ensure basic comfort and that their worries are taken seriously. The thing is we have no choice in what care she receives, the NHS is the ONLY provider of emergency medicine. You can have private health care but emergencies leave you at the mercy of the NHS and all their under staffing and cut backs. Until you are faced with this you have no idea.

When the NHS performs, it is exceptional and does fantastic things, but I can still remember them spending a lot of time, money and expertise operating of Dad 5 years ago after his ruptured aortic aneurysm, weeks in intensive care and high dependency. Once out of those places they virtually left him to starve to death, leaving food out of his reach, serving him food when he was asleep and not aware it had been delivered. So if we hadn't been there ensuring he was looked after he would have been forgotten and all the expertise of the surgeons lost. Can  you tell I am frustrated??