Graciously Revisited!

Graciously Revisited.

On February 17 I wrote the piece entitled ‘Grace Under Fire’. So if you wondering what the title relates to then click across to http://simonduringer.com/latest-news/room-42/grace-under-fire/

Let’s just say 2014 has been challenging so far and in the last 48 hours I managed to see quite a few people who I remember and several more that remember me…. But it wasn’t all good!

During the last 48 hours… 20.30 hours I think on BBC 1 there was a fairly damming account of the state of our NHS (National Health Service for my overseas friends)….I saw the adverts but couldn’t watch it as surprise, surprise, somebody from the staff turned the telly off. But the facts were already known to us huddled in the room as we had been there a while! A very, very long while… But here’s the link!

Well, let’s see where it started…. Rather ill I headed off to A & E (Accident and Emergency – Sorry if that is suck eggs stuff!) A little bit of difficulty in walking. In fact, I regret to say I probably could have given Oliver Reed or Georgie Best a run for their money.

Now, I’m not a medical man, although very nearly CPR to one of bosses in the works car park one day back along. But I am an operations man of some 17 or so years. A Silver commander and a leader… You learn a little bit in that time i.e. How to organise things and people, how to endear yourself to those around you; from cleaners to ministers. What the purposes of good processes are for. How to make money work for the greater good and not to further the greed of fat cats.

In the NHS it’s all gone so wrong!

In May there was a procession to keep the hospital open. By the way I love the NHS and would have joined in had it not been for another wonderful event ‘What’s your Story Chorley?’ so I was in the main library conference room giving a presentation to book lovers and would be self-publishers.

But what’s the truth?

I arrived at A & E at around 20.00 hrs (Sunday)

At around 00.15 hrs (Monday) I was first seen and was told there were no beds

I sat in an A & E cubicle for let’s say 6 hours (Exact individual times seem fairly irrelevant, the final one is the biggy!)

Fairly groggy and very tired, I was sent up to MAU (Medical Assessment Unit) is that what 06.15 hrs or so… ermmm to sit in another chair? Oh, by the way I don’t blame staff for this….

Well, junior staff anyway, (Staff Nurses, Nurses, Porters, Security etc) they’re great!

There I was shuffled in to a room… No beds… I’m not a good sleeper and in this time, I met some great people. Funny how that always happens!

Some had only been there for ECG’s… I’ve had a few of those in my time. They take around 5 minutes to complete. X-Rays – not much longer. Others were much more seriously afflicted, requiring blood transfusions and the like…. It was like a circus. The funny thing is that in the face of diversity people are drawn to each other and we sat uncomfortably chatting…. We’d all been there for around 12 hours or more.

I finally saw a very helpful man, nurse etc that I knew from days of old…. He’s an everything – Porter, helper, cleaner, coffee maker, pacifier, God knows what else and I asked if we could eat or at least have a coffee and as soon as he could, he obliged… Dude you should run that place… Well, actually you probably do!

We were all seen piecemeal by fools and stallers and we ended up ‘picnicking’, for there is no better word for it, huddled in our uncomfortable chairs in a corner of an ever filling room swapping food… Still no beds! It’s funny there no beds since they’ve been shutting wards whilst at the same time building an entire new wing…

After some time, I realised I’d been sitting in a chair for some 24 hours. I was told by the manager I had not…. OHHHH…. She meant in the MAU, not the entire hospital…. Must be a departmental target! I went for the only cigarette I had… snuck out surreptitiously almost fell up the stairs on the way back, but was quite happy to have survived this long! I was sicker now than when I arrived…as were many others. Those who weren’t were just irate!

Having been in the same clothes for some 36 hours and having waited over 24 hours, one also wonders if people were noticing the honk of my sweaty feet… Can’t have been nice. But one doesn’t go to hospital with full wallets, changes of clothes, food and drink and/or to pay the exorbitant prices of watching television, buying reading materials…. In fact I didn’t even have my phone!

At hour 25, bearing in mind I hadn’t slept for at least a day or two, I was being moved to a ward… I said my goodbyes to these new friends/acquaintances and was hauled off by a very nice porter. It is always the low paid employees that are the best and most friendly… Less targets to achieve, yet probably the busiest!

He took me into a ward where all the beds seemed/were empty….

It’s not the beds being empty that scarred me, but if I’d had my phone I’d have called every one of my new acquaintances to inform them the beds were all empty…. It’s the management, the finances… The lack of good process. Dare I say the incompetence of some higher beings (Pah, higher my arse….the fools!) Sorry did I say management, I meant miss-management and I don’t mean the general staff.

I was told by three… THREE advisors to go home and get drunk. Only one English doctor talked sense to me and he was little older than my eldest son! Good on you buddy…

Of course the highlight were two people… One, who I swear has the profile of George third (judging by the coins anyway!) and two, in the morning Grace was there chirpy as ever…

How the hell do these people put up with the pressures and targets which clearly must be ridiculous!

SAVE THE NHS GIVE THEM THE TOOLS TO DO WHAT THEY’RE THERE FOR. TO HELP PEOPLE. BECAUSE THEY BEAR THE BRUNT OF THIS FIASCO!

Simon Duringer is an award winning blogger, interviewer and author. He is the presenter of the Chorley 102.8 FM Arts and Lifestyle Show and Treasurer of The Lancashire Authors Association. His books can be found on Amazon by clicking any of the following icons…