That’s terrible, and of course a terrible thing for him.
There’s always the suspicion, too, that if he’d been seen sooner the story might have been different.
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As I said in my last post. Why are surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy waiting lists affected by Covid? As far as I know, none of those are applied to Covid patients.
I’ve just been discussing this with a friend. I’ve heard that there are now more non-clinical staff in the NHS than clinical staff. So is it a health service or a bureaucracy?
I was told the hospitals are only allowed a certain number in the buildings. I think they just don’t have enough doctors and nurses. They have massive backlogs to clear as well as many people sick from lockdown, covid related problems etc. Many medics didn’t have a break all last year and part of this year. They are burnt out no doubt. There seem to be many new inexperienced people holding the fort.
Don’t worry, I’m sure that they will be replaced by bots in the next few years. Then people will be complaining that they wish they could speak to a real human being when they book an appointment etc.
I think we are already complainng about that if the receptionists at my surgery are anything to go by. 
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If it makes you feel any better I don’t think they are paid very much and they have a very difficult job. But yes I know what you mean
How much you are paid has absolutely no bearing on how you do your job, it may well be difficult especially at this time but you are dealing for the most part people who are ill, some possibly seriously so a robotic attitude is not really acceptable.
But most post was lighthearted and not supposed to be taken seriously, the receptionists at my surgery are a good bunch generally speaking.
People who go to the GP sometimes fail to treat the reception staff as humans so they have to develop a shell to cope with being treated as nothing. I used to be guilty of this myself but have found being nice to them works wonders. It’s a very difficult job from what I have seen of them. The trouble is that being nice is not easy if you are not feeling well. So they are dealing with a constant flow of people who are grumpy because they are unwell. On top of that lots of bureaucracy, pressure to get everything right and low pay.
There’s no doubt JBR, if he had been seen sooner at least he would have had a chance.
Hi
It is a postcode lottery.
Locally it is terrible.
The last time I had to go in, not long ago, 14 Ambulances in the queue outside.
The 84 year old lady who came into CCU had been on a trolley in a corridor overnight.
My girlfriend was telling me yesterday how someone with a suspected heart attack was told an ambulance would not be there to take him to hospital for 13 hours.
The NHS is not fit for purpose, it has some great front line staff but they are let down badly by their management and incompetent bureaucrats
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I’m not convinced by that.
Shuffling papers takes quite a bit of innovative thinking. Someone, somewhere must have decided that if Person A completes Form B, there must be a way for that single action to create Forms C, D and E. Then other people will be obliged to fill in each of those forms, each of which will then create three further forms to be completed by even more Paper Shufflers…
and so on!
So if there isn’t enough room for them in the building, what will the surgeons, radiotherapists and chemotherapists, etc., do all day?
These specialists should be allowed to continue their work whilst Covid patients are seen by others. Weren’t these Nightingale hospitals set up for that very reason, to take in Covid patients to release other hospitals to continue the work they were doing previously and which now has had to stop because there is no longer enough room for it?
I had heard before that Shropshire HA in particular has been criticised for being inefficient and badly organised.
Why is it worse than most other places? I can only assume that the Trust is poorly managed.
I also remember reading something about the powers that be declaring that they were going to do something about it. Is it still as bad as it was?
The Nightingale hospital were an expensive con on the public as they were never going to have the staff to man them in any meaningful way.
The government spent billions one way or another during the pandemic but wasted billions also.
The Nightingale hospitals.
PPE, hundreds of millions was spent on PPE that they could not use and that is apart from all the fast tracked dodgy deals.
Track and Trace which Johnson repeatedly said would world beating has probably cost nearly 40 billion pounds.
Not a hope in hell of anyone being held responsible of course.
Yes indeed. Once again, the government making a mess of things and, in the process, costing the country £millions in wasted resources.
Actually it is billions.
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I tend to agree but it was yet another situation where the government (and any government would have faced the same problems) couldn’t win no matter what they did.
They’re castigated for putting the Nightingales in place but if they had filled with those needing treatment they would be pilloried for not having enough staff or not having enough equipment or for allowing so many people to get ill.
Looking at things in hindsight allows plenty of scope for complaining.
Nothing whatsoever to do with hindsight the health secretary was told that there would not be the staff for the Nightingale hospitals before the first was ever built but he chose to ignore the Royal College of Nursing and go ahead any as the government wanted to be seen to be doing something.
The Louisa Jordan hospital in Scotland did not admit a single patient.