NHSE (National Health Service Executive) has instructed GPs to avoid hospital admissions for patients this winter.

So why avoid hospitals?

 Labour commissioned the eminent surgeon, Lord Darzi, to report on the state of the NHS.

Sadly, his conclusion  – after 140+ pages – is that the service is “crumbling”.

Then reported how the NHS overal is in a dire state. 

  So it is no surprise the NHSE is advising doctors to avoid sending patients to hospital this winter.

I heartily endorse Darzi’s recommendations.  Recent experiences in NHS hospitals after bad falls;  with month-long stays in hospital to recover, left me in worse shape than I went in.  And I managed to pick up some nasty hospital infections whilst an in-patient.

I required good nursing, but thanks to the dumbing-down of nurse training, those who looked after me in hospital left me in a bad state. Blind from a hospital infection,  I was confined to bed, with no physiotherapy, except for one day when an Agency Nurse said “we need to get you up and walking”.  She had gone by the next day, and the nursing graduates were too grand to follow old-fashioned care and help me walk. So I went back to stagnating in bed.

Hospitals can be dangerous places today.  However, there are schemes afoot to help us get home to be nursed there, and the Darzi report will hopefully give them impetus. It can’t come too soon for me!

• Home will probably be cleaner, with no hospital infections lurking

• Your medication won’t get lost

• You will be given a phone number to call if you need a doctor – so no waiting for the doctor to appear at your bedside

• Home-cooked food will be more nutritious

• And almost certainly you will be happier

So what might be on offer?  It will vary according to where you live, but here are some examples of what is happening around the country : –

Hospital @ Home

 My local Hospital, the John Radcliffe in Oxford, has a brilliant Hospital @ Home Service, which I came across one night in their A & E.  After hours of being shuffled around in the subterranean basement, I was told that I was to be admitted into a ward.  I had had enough by then, and dug my heels in, saying I wanted to go home.

Suddenly, things started to happen.  I was seen by a new doctor, who listened to me, asked many new questions, and finally said that I qualified for their Hospital @ Home Service, and would be sent home. Hurrah!

The Ambulance crew taking me home were helpful, offering to make me a cup of tea and checking I had water by my bedside when they arrived home with me.  They left me, and I settled in thankful to be home.

But any thoughts of this being a cushy alternative were soon blasted away.  Promptly at 9 am next morning the doorbell rang;  two very efficient nurses armed with all sorts of equipment had arrived to assess me.  Which they did for the next 90 minutes;  I am sure I was given every possible test, but they were finally satisfied and went away.

But they were never more than a phone call away, and I found I could phone up with any small query and get help.  Others came to see me, and the whole experience was slick, efficient, comforting and very patient-focussed.

And I am sure I recovered more quickly than I would have in hospital. :-

NURSING AT HOME

If you are in hospital, but want to go home, have you considered employing a private Nurse?  There are agencies all over the UK who supply these staff;  from Health Care Assistants up to highly specialised nurses.

I found a brilliant one when I picked up a leaflet in my local Pharmacy.  The Pharmacist said they were excellent. so I popped the leaflet into my handbag.  When  I ended up in hospital the next week, I gave them a call.

An Assessor came to visit and asked me all sorts of questions from “how do you like to be addressed?”  to questions about my medical history.   I had ended up in hospital, having eye drops every hour, 24 hours a day.  When this was changed to daytime only, I asked the Sister if I could go home if I employed a professional Nurse – and after questioning me she agreed.

As soon as I came home, Sally arrived.  One look at me and she said “you look malnourished” and suggested a boiled egg – which was just what I had been craving.

She came in for 8 hours every day, did lots of little chores as well as dispensing my eye drops, and the service cost £200 a day.  The Agency said next time I could probably have an HCA, which would be cheaper.

Sally had time to teach me how to administer the eye drops, and although she had been booked for a week, left after 4 days.  Thanks to her help I felt completely competent to administer the drops, but I did miss her.

Making your home smell nice

You want to stay in a welcoming environment at home, but using antiseptic wipes etc. might leave a “sterile” smell.

I love old-fashioned Pot Pourri and always have some in the flat., to counter any antiseptic smells.   Currently, I buy this online from the centuries-old Italian Pharmacy, Santa Maria Novella.

So many visitors, from my eleven-year-old nephew to Ambulance Paramedics, comment on how nice my flat smells.

Last time I had a fall, the Paramedics who came to the flat immediately remarked “It smells nice in here”, and we spent a happy five minutes talking about Pot Pourri.

https://uk.smnovella.com/

WILL AVOIDING HOSPITAL WORK?

So far, everyone I have talked to has been very positive about whichever service they have used.  Perhaps Lord Darzi’s report might be just the wake-up call needed that will improve services and set up an efficient local force to increase the number of staff working as District Nurses., and support workers in the Community.   

But it will need impetus from Patients.  As I discovered twice recently, I needed to dig my toes in and refuse to b e hspitalised, before I got enough support for someone to orgaise the relevant services to enable me to recover at home