Hospital treatment for the public

Had to go to North Tees hospital last night.
We shouldnt have bothered, dont ever get hurt in the Stockton on tees area, cos North tees A&E staff just are not interested in people needed their help.

Stood around talking, whilst the waiting room is filling up, telling people with swollen eyes and what looked like two bites on the eye that they shouldnt have bothered A&E at 9pm at night.

I'm really sorry for the health workers that do try but the staff at North tees need fired, they are incapable of diagnosing injuries correctly etc.

This isnt the first time I ave had toruble there, When I was beaten up theycouldnt tell if my cheek bone was broken, Made me wait 4 days without pain killers until I could get to another hospital where they took one look and told me my nose and cheek bone were badly broken.

A family friend had her grandson there 3 times before it was realised he had a broken arm that needed pins inserted! Diagnosed on 3rd visit by a trip to Xray!!!!

Wbhen I was inviolved i a car crash as the innocent driver, I was given attitudee and told to "stop being so stupid go home and restcif you dont feel well" The passenger in my car was rushed to surgery for extreme nerve damage, I'd smashed my head through the side window of the car and was cut ti bits, no treatment nothing. I was even told by one doctor that I should have been driving more carefully.!!!!!!

Grrrr makes me mad, They dont deserve their jobs!

[zovat]

Originally Posted by timewarrior2001

Grrrr makes me mad, They dont deserve their jobs!

Ok - I'm not going to go into one one this, however.....

Statements like that do make my blood boil.....

Ok - It sounds like the A&E staff have failed you on a couple of occasions, however to make a statement along those lines does seem a little off.

The staff who work in A&E (and indeed any hospital department) have all achieved a level of medical knowledge, and ability in order to get the job.
They are poorly paid, and get a lot of stick from their "customers".

You mention people with black eyes and bites - these do not sound like major injuries, and are most likely (making a HUGE assumption on no basis of knowledge) caused by a fight between people who have been drinking.
I have shadowed people in the A&E dept of a hospital, and I can state that it took all of my reserves of patience not to slap a few of the punters silly myself after the way they behaved towards other members of staff and other, often more urgent patients. I could not do it as a full time job.

There may well be issues with some of the staff at that particular hospital, but if they do not have the equipment (i.e. no working X-Ray) they will have to make assumptions based on symptoms that can quite often be misleading.
My wife was diagnosed with IBS by our GP whilst I was in the Gulf, only on my return, and after a visit to A&E in extreme pain, did they diagnose a large ovarian cyst - had we left it to our GP, she may well have lost an ovary - possible even ended up with a hystorectomy....

Whilst I cannot comment directly on the issues you had with your local hospital, always remember there may be more going on behind the scenes than is visible on the stage....

Just my 2c - sorry if it seems I am having a dig - I am not, just defending a profession that is (IMO) severely undervalued and un-justifyably maligned.

Originally Posted by zovat

My wife was diagnosed with IBS by our GP whilst I was in the Gulf, only on my return, and after a visit to A&E in extreme pain, did they diagnose a large ovarian cyst - had we left it to our GP, she may well have lost an ovary - possible even ended up with a hystorectomy....

Naturally, being a personal issue I do not expect an answer to this rhetorical question, but it forces me to wonder what steps the doctor actually took in diagnosing your wife, thankfully she got the correct diagnosis in time.

In a similar situation, my mother had a partially dislocated hip (don`t ask me how it can be "partially" dislocated, nor how you could walk on it, but that was the correct final diagnosis). My mother's GP at the time was basically telling her to not make such a fuss and deal with it with painkillers, something that wasn`t going to get her anywhere. In the end she changed GPs and the new one got the correct diagnosis almost immediately. I have been in a similar situation, one GP didn`t want to know about a knee injury and attempted to fob me off with anti-inflammatories, the second GP immediately identified the problem, one that anti-inflammatories wouldn`t have a hope in hell of dealing with.

There are many fine people working in the public health services, but there are certainly a fair number who do not appear to give a damn.

[Salu]

Not all doctors are trained to the same degree in every area. Also, each doctor will have their own areas of interest and disinterest.

I have worked in A&E for many years and teach doctors regularly.


My other point is to advise anyone to try not to get injured/ill at the beginning of Feb or August as the level of care from the doctors will not be as good as other times of the year.

Can anyone work out why? I'll post in a while...

[zovat]

Originally Posted by dr wadd

Naturally, being a personal issue I do not expect an answer to this rhetorical question, but it forces me to wonder what steps the doctor actually took in diagnosing your wife, thankfully she got the correct diagnosis in time.

Although I was away at the time, I understand that the diagnosis was done by phone - with no physical inspection taking place.

I am not a doctor, but even I listened to her description of the symptoms and was not convinced that the diagnosis was correct.
But all I knew at first was that she had been diagnosed with IBS, she just dropped it into conversation whilst I was away ....

Originally Posted by dr wadd

There are many fine people working in the public health services, but there are certainly a fair number who do not appear to give a damn.

unfortunately that is all too true

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by Salu

Not all doctors are trained to the same degree in every area. Also, each doctor will have their own areas of interest and disinterest.

I have worked in A&E for many years and teach doctors regularly.


My other point is to advise anyone to try not to get injured/ill at the beginning of Feb or August as the level of care from the doctors will not be as good as other times of the year.

Can anyone work out why? I'll post in a while...

'Cos thats when the new ones get rotated in?

[Salu]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

'Cos thats when the new ones get rotated in?

Spot on.

Most of them have never dealt with soft tissue injuries. They will be fine in diagnosing an acute abdomen or even a heart attack but fractures and other injuries they learn on the job.

Should have been there, there was people in serious states that were not being looked after, they all complained.

As hard as they may have studied it does not give them the right to carry on chatting and having a laugh when people are there needing their help.

I mentioned it purely because it does not take from 9pm till 4am to decide to give someone some anti histamine tablets. I know they were not busy as only one ambulance came in, during the time we were there and they guy walked in requiring stitches to a head wound. (oh yeah he complained too).

It was purely bad service and if I did that to a customer in my job I would be sacked.

Same should apply across the board, the fact they train and deal with people all the time should not make them uncaring and give them the right to take the ****

[paulyoung666]

i can only speak from my own experience but when i went to a&e at north tees after having my leg crushed at work the treatment i recieved was nothing short of superb , good and bad in everything i reckon