News OnTheWight always welcomes a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below.
This from David Moorse, Shanklin. Ed
My mother, aged 90, has suffered repeated, unexplained collapses, the latest being last Thursday. In A&E, she was told that she would need an echocardiogram, [I was told it was ‘essential’ prior to discharge] which would take place on Friday.
On Friday it was postponed to Saturday, with a confirmed assurance that it would take place, despite it being the weekend, so she was kept in hospital.
Unnecessary bed use
It didn’t happen on Saturday and was postponed to Monday, so she was kept in over the weekend [more NHS expense and another unnecessary bed filled], it didn’t happen on Monday and she was discharged, being told it will be an ‘out patients appointment in a month or so’.
Is it really OK to cross our fingers and hope?
Really? Nobody knows if it’s a heart issue, a pacemaker, could be needed … or a neurological one, yet it’s OK to cross our fingers and hope she’s alive for when a slot can eventually be found for an echo?
Medical relations appalled
In my family, we have two senior consultant doctors, a mortuary technician, a practice nurse, a senior nursing manager in NHS England, NHS administrators, and every single one of them is appalled at their every day experience, and my mother’s experience over the last week exemplifies why.
What do you propose to do, [as the government who has broken the NHS], to fix it?
Image: Trades Union Congress under CC BY 2.0
