NHS crisis at Christmas an inside view.
Just before Christmas I had the unfortunate pleasure of being an inpatient at Lincoln County Hospital with a chest infection. I am a 50 year old disabled, non-ambulant person with an underling muscle wasting disease. This time my stay was due to a chest infection that my muscles just couldn’t help shift.
The service I received from everyone from the ambulance service to the staff on the wards was amazing. I did write back and congratulate the ward I was on. It was mostly staffed by new young nurses, who were dedicated and enthusiastic really cared. The only hiccup with my stay was delays in A&E, which with a bit of proper management I’m sure can be improved.
The ward I was on initially and the one I eventually got moved to was mostly filled with elderly patients, with what I would consider in my inexperienced unprofessional view related to winter bugs.
The only issue I perceived was on discharge. I saw at least five people on my ward who came and where deemed medically fit to go home, but due to not having anyone caring for the person, they were moved to another ward whilst they were waiting for Adult Social Care to try and arrange care for them.
I myself was medically able to go home on Christmas Eve, though not 100%, thankfully my family and carers who I employ through Direct Payments raleighed around to agree to get me home. I was told that if I didn’t have the care sorted it would have taken at least another four days to try and arrange it for me.
Now that’s one ward, Lincoln County has at a quick count about 30 wards. I’m told by a nurse that it costs about £300 for a bed per night. So do the maths, no wonder our NHS is struggling.
Now having been in Lincoln County a number of times, I see good and bad practise regularly. I dread going in as past experiences have left me disappointed. However after this visit I do believe things are improving and there is much still to celebrate.
So what to do about the issues?
Social care needs to move away from the typical Local Authority Thinking of a nine - five service. It needs to be considered like our other essential services be generally available 24/7. If hospital are seeing patients all day everyday if our Social services aren’t we are always going to have back logs.
In our county because I am told the two growth industries for employment are engineering and care. Yet I see nothing from the authority promoting care work as a career choice. It’s always considered underpaid unskilled work. If that’s how it is perceived people will never see it as a career choice, yet experience in this area I know leads to better social workers, nurses, and improved management chances in the care industry. I have a friend who started as a unskilled care worker 10 years ago, who now has a six figure salary in the same industry. It must be seen as a starting point to a career and promoted as such.
I do have other ideas, too which have come about primarily due to being in hospital, and talking to hospital and social work staff. I’ve always believed if you want to know how to improve things ask at the coal face. The problem I see is that, senior managers always think they know better. Usually they’ve been away from the frontline for too long and are so policy orientated they don’t see what needs to be done. Listen to your staff, don’t tell them what to do, they know better than you do. Your job is to ensure they are happy and support them and give them or get them the tools that will enable them to get on with it.
The service I received from everyone from the ambulance service to the staff on the wards was amazing. I did write back and congratulate the ward I was on. It was mostly staffed by new young nurses, who were dedicated and enthusiastic really cared. The only hiccup with my stay was delays in A&E, which with a bit of proper management I’m sure can be improved.
The ward I was on initially and the one I eventually got moved to was mostly filled with elderly patients, with what I would consider in my inexperienced unprofessional view related to winter bugs.
The only issue I perceived was on discharge. I saw at least five people on my ward who came and where deemed medically fit to go home, but due to not having anyone caring for the person, they were moved to another ward whilst they were waiting for Adult Social Care to try and arrange care for them.
I myself was medically able to go home on Christmas Eve, though not 100%, thankfully my family and carers who I employ through Direct Payments raleighed around to agree to get me home. I was told that if I didn’t have the care sorted it would have taken at least another four days to try and arrange it for me.
Now that’s one ward, Lincoln County has at a quick count about 30 wards. I’m told by a nurse that it costs about £300 for a bed per night. So do the maths, no wonder our NHS is struggling.
Now having been in Lincoln County a number of times, I see good and bad practise regularly. I dread going in as past experiences have left me disappointed. However after this visit I do believe things are improving and there is much still to celebrate.
So what to do about the issues?
Social care needs to move away from the typical Local Authority Thinking of a nine - five service. It needs to be considered like our other essential services be generally available 24/7. If hospital are seeing patients all day everyday if our Social services aren’t we are always going to have back logs.
In our county because I am told the two growth industries for employment are engineering and care. Yet I see nothing from the authority promoting care work as a career choice. It’s always considered underpaid unskilled work. If that’s how it is perceived people will never see it as a career choice, yet experience in this area I know leads to better social workers, nurses, and improved management chances in the care industry. I have a friend who started as a unskilled care worker 10 years ago, who now has a six figure salary in the same industry. It must be seen as a starting point to a career and promoted as such.
I do have other ideas, too which have come about primarily due to being in hospital, and talking to hospital and social work staff. I’ve always believed if you want to know how to improve things ask at the coal face. The problem I see is that, senior managers always think they know better. Usually they’ve been away from the frontline for too long and are so policy orientated they don’t see what needs to be done. Listen to your staff, don’t tell them what to do, they know better than you do. Your job is to ensure they are happy and support them and give them or get them the tools that will enable them to get on with it.
We really do need a seamless service between Social care and the NHS, if one fails the other will naturally struggle. The Care Act allows for this to happen and actually recommends and promotes it. Unfortunately the necessity of this joined up thinking hasn’t reached the minds of those who make the decisions. Until it does I’m afraid we will continue with these issues.
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