Bill was admitted to the local general hospital on Saturday, no beds available at cancer hospital (Christies) after not eating or drinking for 48 hours. He is admitted to a ward where, there are eight beds occupied with older men, 6 with varying infections, 1 with cancer of the spine and one empty. Bill went for is 12th r/t yesterday from the general hospital to Christies, about 100 miles round trip. Met up with him in the r/t suite and he was in a mess. Still no beds at Christies so I decide he needs a bed here we go privately – not quite as easy as it sounds, eventually get him booked into private bed. Young man from reception hands me a bill for £1835 in advance, yeh ok, I will remortgage my house if necessary, says I must pay this now, well, would you believe I don’t have that much cash on me, never carry a cheque book but do have about 6 credit cards and two direct debit cards, I ask if I can pay by credit card and he tells me that would be difficult cause I would have to go there (?) and sign and blah blah. Sorry, I can order a Chinese take away over the phone with a credit card???. Ok, he tells me it will do tomorrow. Get a call at 3.10 pm from Bill, can hardly speak, tells me I have to be there with either cash or cheque by 4pm or else. The drive can take anything between 45 min and 2 hours depending on the time of day. I quell the steam coming out of my ears and ring the reception desk ask to speak to this young man, who tells me unless I am there before 4pm, they will have to take action, WHAT!! So what are your going to do, throw him out? He tells me he will have to go in a NHS bed. Oh! He should be so lucky; there are no NHS beds!! I ask for the number of the accounts department, ring them, they take credit card details. Job Done. I try to ring back all reception numbers engaged. I am outraged, how dare they. So ring the manager of private services repeat the story, she apologises profusely, I tell her I need some assurance that someone will go and assure my very sick husband that everything is ok, paid up and he will not be kicked out!!

Go to see Bill, ask very calmly did, er anyone, er, tell you everything was ok on the payment front and he tells me no, he hasn’t seen anyone. I do question this because he does seem to forget things, however, see the staff nurse who had admitted him, express my concern, she takes me to see her superior who apologises and tells me the gentleman in question is very young, ohwww, she also tells me it was the chemo nurse I had spoken to earlier, who, was going to see Bill, then something distracted her and then she went off duty. Double whamy then. Bill says don’t make a fuss!!!!!


Sorry for the rant

Hi Angiebaby
Rant away.
Take five slow, deep breaths in through the nose, out through the mouth, followed by ten slow, long Ohm's and then a soothing slug of brandy.
Hope you're able to relax a bit now that Bill is settled and closer to home. Thinking of you both.
Deborah

Hi Angie,

You have nothing to apologise for, shades of the future here. This Government has (notwithstanding you being held to ransom to a private bed) initiated a "market system" in our beloved NHS.

There are individual members of Nursing Staff who will still be vocationally minded and distraught by what they have to work in.

You are doing what you have to for Bill and its not easy - for the "system" sees only targets and costs the patients are patently superfluous. Staff are probably trying to do their best with what they have got to play with and it is our politicians that need to be brought to account for this disgraceful apology for a National Health Service which we must suffer. I would send a copy of your post to your local MP today!!!!!!

My last hospital admission was in 1995 before an incomptenet New Labour Administration was unleashed on an unsuspecting populace, I would hate to need the type of care Bill requires today. It is a different culture where "care" and "service" are no longer fundmental component parts of the NHS. Soon with the turnover of Staff the new cost culture will be brainwashed into them too and it will become a job and not a vocation, God help us all!!!!
DWR

Hi Angie,

I sympathise entirely. We went through an awful experience with the NHS when Robert was admitted into hospital on a General SURGICAL ward November last year. You might like to read my previous posts on it.

I hope Bill starts to feel better soon before you get your house re-possessed!

Take care.

Lorraine

Awfull treatment and customer service

Saying that during my Rt i was ammitted 4 times and only once on the onconolgy ward

I was on the heart ward and my wife had to complain to get a doctor to see me at all

Regards
Dave and Sue

Absolutely atrocious treatment Angie!
As if Bill needs anymore to worry about!!
If people don't kick up then nothing will ever be put right will it?
How is he doing now?
I'm relieved something was done about it within 48 hours.Keep your tough head on girl!

Angie,

That's outrageous! It's appalling that there isn't a bed when Bill really needs it and to be treated badly by the staff who run the private side of things is unacceptable. After paying through the nose they should be treating you like royalty. I've had some treatments at the BUPA hospital over and the service was always excellent. It's difficult to know whether to escalate your complaints or not. If you get the staff who are looking after Bill into trouble it could affect how well they look after him (even if this is subconcious). However when you are paying for private treatment you expect to be treated with respect.

Dear Angie,
I find this completely crazy as I always imagined your country to be one who cared about their citizens. I know this seems out of place here but now when I think back I am glad I never went to Spain for my treatment and had the same in India. 1835 pounds sterling in advance is totally insanity and it puts one under so mauch pressure and anxiety. I am really feeling bad for all that both Bill and you are going through. I wish I could do something but knowing my shortcomings - I can only wish you both the very very best.
With lots of love,
Ananth

Angie as you know Rob discharged himself not once but three times from an NHS General surgery unit for the very reason that they had absolutely no idea how to deal with cancer patients.The easy option is to shove them in a corner and forget them.

This new culture of graduate nurses has spawned a whole generation of highly educated arrogant young staff nurses who have absolutely no idea how to communicate or deal with patients and see the most basic nursing care to be way beneath their overinflated view of themselves.

Rob is in a charity funded hospice that is not part of the NHS. They have 20 beds and it costs them £350.00 a day to treat each single patient.A total cost if 2.3 million a year and for me it is like taking a step back in time to my nursing days.Cancer nurse specialists give loving and dedicated care to all their patients and their families.They all share the work and no task is too much trouble.The word angels must surely have been invented for them and i thank god evey day for them and this wonderful place where rob will end his days.
Angie i have been in your shoes and it sucks.

love liz

Thanks everybody. I really don't know what I would do without you all. If I hadn't had this site, I would not have been prepared for what was to come and it would have come as such a shock. In all the booklets we have been given it says ‘you may experience some discomfort in the throat’ I really don’t know if I could have coped. It is only today that we have been told that things will get worse than they are now. I knew that from what I have learned here but I am not going to say, Bill you're feeling bad now but don’t worry, cause you're going to feel a hell of a lot worse very soon. So I am thankful the doc’s has told him because he was thinking that the antibiotics would kick in and he will be ok. Poor man, he is so poorly. I can only hope that it is going to be worth it.

I went to the hospital today and went to get a coffee, which meant I passed reception where the offending gentleman was. Now, I really would have expected him to follow me into the day room and apologise. No, nothing. Drank the coffee, waited another half hour before leaving Bill's room on the pretext of taking the cup away. Approached the desk, I said I am surprised to see you still here, he said 'oh yes they have asked me to work late today', that was not quite what I meant. So, would you believe there was a slight altercation - but- you would have been proud of me, I kept my cool and when he said he didn't go to Bill's room and say anything. I raised my hand and said 'I will be taking this further' and walked off.

The thing is, at the moment I dare not take things further because I want Bill to be well cared for, I don’t want there to be any repercussions on him, also, he is denying all knowledge so it is my word againt his. What do you think I should do?

I wonder if the consultants read this?

Hi Angie, I have just got round to reading your post< I feel sad and very angry at what your husband went through just to get a bed.
Why was he put in a ward with others with infections when we are told we are at high risk of infections after having R/T as our immune systems are low?
You had to pay for a bed at Christes that is appaling.
I would have gone straight to the top and NOT paid for anything but would have got the local paper to send a reporter.
Then to demand payment in that way I am so digusted at the way hyou was treated it makes me slo angry and I feel for you and your Husband.
I went to my local Hospital thw Whittington in London and had a biopsy which they said it was clear in a manner of go away your wasting our time!
Two weeks later while on hols to get over the scare I got lumps in my neck came home and after many hours of my mate phoning people I got to MaxFax where I knew straight away it was Cancer.
As everything wa very quick from then on to me having my operation I forgot all about the Whittingtons "mistake" it was a long time after I remembered what had happened at the Whittington and I was inno fit state to complain about what had happened.
I am still angry about it but what can you do/

I wish you both welll and do keep posting or your husbands progress

Paul

when rob was diagnosed six months after first seeing the dentist and flagging his ulcer on his tongue i was furious.i went straight to the dentist and told him i was starting an official complaint against him,and to be honest his dimissive attitude followed by his denial of any wrong doing,made me so wild that i went ahead and followed the matter up.The General Dental Council are now dealing with the complaint,and are taking it to a medical committee in september.
The moral of this story Angie is if you dont complain this young pup will do the same to others,so see the hospital administrator and make you complaint official.Failing that do what Paul says and take it to the press.

Everyone's consistantly telling me i should formally complain about my G.P's constant misdiagnosis. My Lymph gland spread was bought to their attention over a year before i was finally diagnosed. But, i just don't want the grief and stress of going through it with them. I admire anyone who has the stregnth and courage to do something about it!

My poor mother was so ill the week before last, through not eating and drinking and having sickness and diarrhoea, that they admitted her to the private suite of the local Infirmary. Having said that, apart from giving her fluids, they didn't do much else right,

They refitted her naso gastric feeding tube and left the wire thingy inside it !! My mum took it out herself just before her next dose of RT !

She then stayed at Cookridge hospital where she gets the RT and they were supposed to be feeding her - they didn't switch the machine on until my mother noticed it 6 HOURS LATER when she hadn't been fed for about 48hrs !

It makes you wonder, doesn't it.

winnie i am so sorry to hear about your problems with cookridge.It is the nearest cancer hospital to my house(about 6 miles)and i have always been led to believe it is the best in the area.Rob would have been reffered there if we had moved back.