Sid Bonkers said:
GraceK said:
The patient is not to blame for NHS mis-management or overwork. The NHS is to blame for it's own mistakes.
Ultimately the NHS is managed by the government so the last few governments must bear the blame for the state that the NHS is in today, and I would not single out any particular political party here as they have all been guilty of neglecting the NHS for so long.
If less was spent fighting other countries wars it would go a long way towards funding the NHS we all want IMHO.
I'm with you on that one Sid, but also those in the top tiers of the NHS need to take a good long look at how they're managing their budgets, how they're cutting costs in all the wrong places, how they're lowering staff morale by treating people like disposable commodities instead of human beings, while they're openly spending fortunes on things like several 60foot Christmas trees fully lit and plonked in hospital grounds. I'm by no means against a bit of festive fun, but not if it's at the expense of jobs and hygiene health and safety of employees who have to work in parts of hospitals that are
not in the public eye and which are absolutely filthy.
Admin departments go short of the very basic supplies necessary for people to do their job healthily and safely and efficiently - and if you complain, shoulders are shrugged.
I once had to wait
three months for the stores to provide a tiny battery for my Consultant's dictaphone machine. The hope was, no doubt, that he would buy his own.
I've had to tell doctors that they need to hurry up and dictate their clinic letters but at the same time tell them they can't have a dictaphone machine and will have to wait until someone else has finished using one of the 3 machines supplied for use by 12 doctors.
It's common for the back offices in hospitals to
never be cleaned or dusted or to have their carpets hoovered or cleaned some secretaries don't even have a waste bin, they have to share with 3 or more other secretaries.
Office equipment is often cheap and shoddy and in one hospital I got so sick of asking for the tools with which to do my job, that I went out and bought my own
lime green stapler, hole punch, folders, headphones, and plastic containers to hold the casenotes I was using so that I didn't have to store them on the dirty floor. At one hospital I refused to use the keyboard I was given because it had the remains of what looked like more than a few months worth of lunches stuck between it's keys. Eeewww no thanks.
Computer screens and desks are thick with dust to levels which don't accumulate in weeks but in
YEARS and the battery hens (secretaries) don't have time or inclination to clean their own work stations because management won't provide the means to do so. That's how I've caught several infections and had a severe asthma attack which turned into pneumonia requiring emergency hospitalisation and it's also why I was suddenly 'no longer required' when my employer discovered I'd taken ill at my desk.
Ceiling tiles are missing above the heads of employees, dust and dirt and even rain showering down and God knows what else comes down to play at night when the lights are out.
Staff rooms with microwaves, sinks, cupboards etc are just as filthy as the office space and are definitely not places you'd want to eat your lunch unless you wanted to catch C-dif or MRSA.
If you like working in complete and utter filth - become an NHS medical secretary.
Then go for a walk along the Executive Corridor and start comparing and thinking. :think: