What's your hospital service like?

[carolyorkie2010]

Just wondered what the hospital service is like near you? We have a hospital about 3 miles away, the next is 20 miles away, and I have just recieved an appt to go to one that is 46 miles away, late afternoon. Now, as we don't have a car, it makes it a long day out, means getting buses, a train and taxis, so expensive too. Our local hospital is modern, but they seem to do very little there; they did close some wards and transfer the work to the hospital 20 miles away. How do other towns fare? My brother lives in a town down south and he has to travel about 30 miles to hospital as the local one seems to be the same as here. It does make me cross that they run the local hospitals down, especially when seaside towns quite often have an ageing population, as here. Not everyone has their own transport.

[guardpig]

Now I live in a City about a twisty mile from the largest hospital for many a mile and 3 miles from the other one.  They do pretty near everything to varying standards.  We do offer the use of our drive and lifts to hozzie's front door to our friends.  Some take us up on it and some even stay to lunch or tea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

However a few years back the totty heads called the govt(think it was blairs lot but this lot would probably do the same) came up with the idea of "care inthe community".  Oh yeah GREAT except that meant outsourcing useful depts to other places than the hospital.  So son's drop in diabetic clinic went from being a walk away to a 30 or 60 minute round trip - hmm why bother, his achey hand appointment was a 60+ minute round trip and, OH has twice had to cross town in the rush hour for clinic appointments in places with no parking when the main depts are 5 minutes walk up the road!.  Apparently it is to help the community reach the clinics easier - now that I agree with but my ideal community clinic is the hospital so why can't I be served too?

Mind you when son needed physio we got immediate appointments and at times to suit because everybody else wanted to go to  the outlying clinics:-)

[*elphaba*]

I have to sing the praises of the Mid Essex NHS.   I've experienced nothing but quality treatment so far......including two visits to A&E in the last 10 days!  (Mr elph badly sprained his ankle, and Smallest got nibbled by a pug)  Actually, the only quibble I have is that the GP surgery sent us to A&E with the very minor dog bite that only needed prophylactic antibiotics - the duty doctor was fairly incredulous - but then it WAS the nurses lunchtime and we popped in without appointment so  that probably had more to do with it than policy.

Double check that you are being sent to a distance hospital because the service you need isn't offered at your local one, as it may just be that you can have a sooner appointment at the further away one.  If so, and its not urgent you can say that location is more important to you than speed.    Being sent around the country is a downside of treatment targets - you are sent where there is the next available appointment to keep their waiting list figures looking healthy.

[stroppy*cow]

I suppose it depends on what criteria you use to judge.

We live about 5 miles away from a new modern hospital that does most things. At clinic times, and at ward visiting times parking is both difficult and expensive. If you go before 6am or after 9pm there is plenty of free parking. Loads of "20 minute parking slots" - the only problem is that it takes me 15 minutes to get myself and the wheelchair out of the car. Also I haven't met a wheelchair user who can manage to use the pay machines for parking.

I find A&E to be fantastic, but I am very frequent flyer, with at least 1 visit there every week. The staff all know me well and are absolutely brilliant. I never wait more than a few minutes and I am usually seen by the most senior doctor.

If you need any sort of semi specialist nursing care, then you are going to do an awful lot of waiting, as there are few trained staff. There were days when my dressing could not be changed as there wasn't a member of staff on the ward who knew how to do it. They also don't take kindly to you knowing anything about your condition or the treatment that you need. I asked for a replacement canister for my pump, I heard them arguing amongst themselves for 40 minutes about what to do, then 4 of them came in with the replacement. I had it changed before any of them had worked out how to open the packet! I have waited over an hour just for a drip to be disconnected after it had finished, as there was no-one trained to flush my I.V. line.

Disability awareness is appalling, and wheelchair access is poor. For instance, once I had provided my own commode over the toilet, I could use the toilet independently, but there was no way that I could wash AND DRY my hands afterwards. They were forever moving my table, my wheelchair, even my bed, and would then leave them where I had no hope of reaching them. The call button was frequently left out of reach.

On the other hand, cost does not seem to be a factor.

[the-ginger-ninja]

Our local hospital is 5 mins drive away, late husband spent 5 months in ICU and the nursing staff were lovely. No complaints at all from me.

He was moved to the Renal unit, 1/2 hr up the motorway on a good day up to 2 hours when it clogs up. He was there 3 montths, I hated it, he hated it, I only got to speak to a Dr when he was transfered to their ICU with a second dose of C Diff caught in their dirty ward. 

That conversation was 12 hours before he died, the Dr stood there and told me he was recovering and they were trying to get him home for Christmas. He had no idea I was even in the room with him but I was treated like an idiot.  I went home angry, picked the kids up from SIL, as soon as I walked through the door the same Dr was on the phone ' I think you should come in, he is having trouble breathing and we don't want to put him back on the ventilator' 

Given the choice between where I would be treated, I would crawl my way to one rather than be treated at the second.

[ilove2patch]

WE get given a list of hospitals to choose from. Some have shorter waiting lists than others.

[bitsnknots]

We have two local hospitals.  One is four miles away in one direction and the other is four miles in another direction.  St Helens hospital has most of the clinics and one ward whereas, the other one, Whiston has all the wards and a few clinics.  Both hospitals are clean but some of the staff leave a lot to be desired.  Both hospitals cover almost everything.

[rose2008-2008]

Waiting times in A&E at our local hospital are quite bad. Fortunately i have not had to go too many times to that department. Clinics are sometimes bit long waiting times too. I know Maidstone hospital has been in the news lately so im not impressed about that. I think they need to step up their game and a lot of other hospitals. We put our lives in their hands so to speak and we need to feel confident we are going to be looked after should we have to go there. mmm this thread could go on for a while on this subject. 

[merc1_clocks]

Because, out of choice, I live in such a rural place...even if an ambulance got to me, going at full pelt, I would be at least 45 minutes from the nearest hospital...I know, cause it's happened

I'm lucky in any ways, being a nurse, there isn't much that would throw me, & hopefully I could do enough till a hospital was reached...but there are many who live in the 'outback ' & they manage, but it is a real bind trying to get to clinics, GP etc.

[chickengrandma-2008]

We can almost see our hospital from our house, it's about 3 miles away.  I think some of the departments are moving to Norwich and Cambridge and places so that those are places that specialise in certain illnesses.  Parking is a nightmare but thankfully I haven't had a lot to do with it.

[carolyorkie2010]

I contacted the hospital today to ask why I cant have the test done at either of the hospitals that are nearer; they said this hopsital is the only one that does this test in this region (East Yorks) 

[vamo48]

Our local hospital is excellent, OH had an appointment there yesterday and was seen ten minutes early, everyone has always been friendly, efficient and helpful. We can see it from our back windows, it's only a ten minute walk (unless you're in severe pain!)

[*pixachu*]

I haven't lived here long, but my son has had some orthodontics treatment at a hospital 25 minutes drive away. The staff there were great but for some reason we were there a long time. So I am hoping that was just a minor blip as soon he will have braces and the adjustments will be done there... He is being seen by the senior consultant there who is also the director of services, so I feel he is in good hands.

The nearest hospital is about a mile away, and the locals rave about it. I don't read league tables but apparantly this one is near the top. My son had an appt there last week and we were in and out in 45 munutes. He was seen on time and then had a blood test. So I was quite impressed 🙂

The only complaint I have is that we did not see the actual consultant, just someone on their team whose grasp of English wasn't great. Just received a copy of the letter sent to our gp about the appt - it states my son was dianosed with peanut allergy two years ago. At least the gp will know from our chat/his records that he was diagnosed 5 yrs ago.

So many things seem to go wrong in hospitals... 😞 and I hope changes will be implemented soon.

Last year when I had an ambulance crew waiting to take me to hospital when I had anaphylaxis, they gave me the choice of two nearby hospitals - both 20 minutes away. They recommended Stafford, as it was not a 24hr unit and they had checked and it was quieter there than the other one. Perhaps in my woozy state I did not think about it properley - but I chose to go to Stafford and the service was excellent.