Close encounters with the hospital system

This is not another whinging blog, you will be pleased, although there are criticisms but they are not aimed at the fantastic staff who work for the NHS in England.

During the past six months, and especially during the last three months, we have had very close encounters with the hospital system in England.

Consequently Walter now has a new knee, which is working fantastically, plus a revamped water system which will ensure that he will no longer have to rush off to the toilet every five minutes.   Not quite but it seemed that way. 

The new knee, which was a major operation, progressed well, with Walter doing his exercises every day, as well as going to the gym and increasing the length of walks.    All went according to plan.

The waterworks problem caused no end of difficulties.   It was not even a serious operation, just a little 'fix up' of the prostate gland.   A relatively minor operation.

So during the past six weeks we have had quite a few trips to A and E, due to bladder retention, bleeding and blocked catheters.     

Consequently we have had plenty of time to closely observe the organisation that is our health system in Great Britain.  

There is no doubt the health service here is terribly underfunded, which in turn has meant a cut in many services, reduction in available beds, and a bureaucratic procedure in A and E, which is stressful for patients, but the only way that hospitals can cope with the huge demand on the service.  Meanwhile the government is haemorrhaging millions of pounds on chasing 'a leave the European Union' dream.  But I must not get too sidetracked here.

A couple of times Walter was discharged from hospital, possibly too early, only to have to return to A and E within a few hours.    Each time he has had to go through the lengthy procedure as if he was a new patient.     In that time he was attended to by nursing staff, but the policy was that a doctor must see you before you are either admitted or discharged, and the time wait for this can often be five hours or more.   

Of course A and E is full of people who cannot get an appointment with their local doctor, or are not near an Urgent Care Centre or are having problems trying to get other medical attention.   And there is no doubt these people put pressure on the health system.  But they are desperate people too.

The wards have many elderly people in them who should be moved onto a care home, but there are no places for them.    One elderly man, with dementia, had been in Walter's ward for weeks.  He was distressed at being in hospital, and very confused, but neither his daughter or the hospital had been able to find a place for him.   As he was prone to wandering off or crying out, he needed one to one care for most of the day and night, which was a task assigned to one of the nursing assistants.   One less nursing staff member for all the other patients.  I think seeing the plight of the elderly patients was the saddest one to witness in hospital. 

We also found out that our local Doctor's surgery will have nothing to do with unblocking or changing catheters, nor will the Urgent Care Centre. 

 The only people, other than staff at A and E, are the district nurses, and in our area the system has been privatised.    The waiting time for urgent care from a district nurse is three hours, which is hopeless when a catheter is blocked.  There are cutbacks in this area of nursing care.

But we are thankful that Walter's problem was not a serious one, and this came home to us when waiting at the A and E department.

Most of all though we would like to comment on the brilliant doctors and nursing staff at our local hospital, Darenth Valley Hospital.    Even though they were often extremely busy, and short staffed, they were always absolutely professional.    Nothing was too much trouble.    They were also friendly, and smiles were readily given.    I also appreciated the fact that I could visit first thing in the morning, and stay for a while.   They never minded that I also brought coffees up to the ward for us even though it was never the official visiting hours.

A view of the our garden from the maisonette above our house.      Perfect weather too.

 Due to our house being packed up and ready to go, we are staying at Emma and Steve's mansion.   A delightful rental, set amongst trees and grass, called 'Church House'.   We love it.   

During the long weekend, when the sun shone and the temperatures rose, we visited Faversham, which is situated 10 miles from Canterbury.   It is next to the Swale, which is a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary.   It is also close to the ancient road, Watling Street, which connects Dover to London, and was used by the Romans and the Saxons.

There has been a settlement here since pre-Roman times, next to the ancient sea port on Faversham Creek.

Faversham means 'the metal-worker's village'.  It established itself as a seaport in the middle ages, and was one of the Cinque Ports.  It was an important town, and there is plenty of history to read, but too much to put into this blog.

Faversham market.

 The streets are narrow and lined with lovely old buildings

The sunshine and old buildings.   What a great mix.

 It was market day, mostly art and crafts, which gave the town a festive atmosphere.   On the street in the photograph below there were cobblestones which were not covered with tarmac.  So many of the cobblestone streets in England have tarmac on them.

Finally we are off to Holland tomorrow, two weeks later than planned.   Certainly looking forward to it.

The buyer in our chain, who has held up the completion of the sale of all houses, due to miscalculating the release of his ISA funds, is now wanting to exchange contracts and complete the sale straight afterwards.   As nothing is official we are glad we are not sitting around waiting for it.   Also he will have to wait now, as we are not back here until the 11th June.