Does anyone have any idea how to get NHS staff to do their jobs properly? I was on a ward yesterday where everything was running brilliantly. Today however I've been moved and it's a total fucking nightmare. I am scripted morphine every 2 hours for the pain I'm in, but twice today it has taken them over 4 hours to bring it. They also keep randomly forgetting to give me my antibiotics, even when I remind them and they know full well its to treat sepsis 8( I know it's not a staffing issue because they have 1 nurse and 1 orderly to 3 patients on this ward, and everytime I go out they are just sat on the front desk talking about trivial bullshit. These must be the nurses who made my mums job a nightmare... People like this just pile their work on to other peoples shoulders. When I worked as a medical secretary I was managing, and actually having to, do 3-4 peoples work, and even then I was finished by lunch time. Do these jobs just act as a magnet for the incompetent and lazy or what? /rant
you shouldn't have to put up with that shit if it's happening, and I know this does happen because I've seen it myself.
When it's happened to my sister, she just sits there and takes it (which enrages me when I find out about it afterwards), because it's fucking hard to get the courage to kick off in an effective way if youre shy, or if youre just so depressed or in pain or whatever, with the whole situation of you being in hospital in the first place
my advice would be to physically write down the times they bring your meds, and press your call nurse buzzer when theyve gone 10 minutes past the time you shouldve got your next ones. sometimes there's other issues relating to lateness, but if yours is 100% about laziness of staff, then explain to them that youre in pain, and theyre late, and you need them. ask them for a reason why it's late. ask them who the sister is on shift and ask them what's the formal procedure on how to pursue complaining about, or rectifying the situation.
if your GF is with you, get her to go out to the nurses station and kick up and ask what the problem is and tell them it's unacceptable and both you and her always ask the nurses for timescales, ie if they say 'soon', ask them at approx what time, and then record it, and present that to the sister.
if youre absolutely desperate right NOW and aren't up to doing the whole nitpicky stuff, then just buzz and rebuzz and demand you get your pain meds immediately. this can sometimes cause relationship issues between you and them later, but if youre desperate it's possibly best not to give a fuck about that atm. and ask to see the sister on shift
oh, and ALWAYS ALWAYS tell the DRs about you not getting them on time when you see them on rounds 9am/1pm/5pm visits etc, or whatever they have you on. must forward feedback about it to them later. I know that doesnt help you know tho.
I know I give positive rave reviews about Jimmys a lot, but thats based on an overall opinion of 20+ years of my sisters treatment.
they regularly fuck up with her meds quite a bit, especially on being discharged, and can have us waiting around needlessly for 5 hrs before I can take her home
good luck
[edit] .. hmn, youre on morphine? very very surprised they havent given you a controllable drip of some sort to self medicate [with obvious limitations], thats what I normally see happening. every 2 hours is possibly not the norm? as its normally every 4 or 6 in the usual med & obs runs to my knowledge, or a self controlled drip .. not that should make any fucking difference.
[edit x 2] 11.30pm - 12am is shift change and the 2 have to pass on patient shift info between each other before they can leave. maybe thats the current issue, combined with the problem of 2 hr meds ... not excusing, just trying to reason what the prob is
