NHS hospital alternatives

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Gucci

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 28, 2007
Messages
1,951
Location
London
Car
Jaguar XF 3.0 Ultimate Black
So this calm evening was abruptly ended by my 16 month old son splitting his forehead on the back doors. Poor little soldier. Anyway, down to A&E to get him patched up. Now I have to say, the doctors were fantastic, and the in/out time of 2 hours wasn't too bad.

BUT, it's not the cleanest and we were surrounded by some proper characters while we waited. It got me wondering if there is a private alternative. My work give me BUPA cover, but that's not emergency stuff is it?

Is there an A&E alternative to NHS hospitals?
 
Probably not. 2 hours was good though. Its not nice when one has to mix with the riff raff though.:)
 
bupa no good at all for a & e, theyre more for planned (ie appointmented) stuff. Bloody overpriced now and restrictive on what they will pay as well :(
 
Having had course to visit to NHS hospitals as a vistor recently I was surprised at the contrasting cleanliness standards.

In one hospital there was never a mention of hand sanitisation and we had to search for the facilities to do this. The four-bed room was left uncleaned for four days, even though there had been spillages.

In the other hospital the issue was of paramount importance in that it wasn't possible to enter a ward without "scrubbing up". The washing facilities were opposite the ward admin desk and there was a member of staff at the entrance to ensure all were clean. Wards, bed frames etc, all cleaned daily, sometimes in the early hours whilst patients slept.

The days of the Sister/Matron galvanising staff into 100% performances have sadly gone..

We'd be goosed without the NHS though. A lot of us wouldn't have made it to adulthood without Britains best ever idea.
 
Last edited:
Not saying anything about my home town of Southampton but the general had to remove the hand sanitiser dispensers by the main entrance due to the local tramps sneeking in and drinking it!
 
2 hours is incredibly good for NHS A&E... I've spent upwards of 8-12 hours with broken legs, motorbike accidents and broken fingers...

I haven't found an alternative, but if it's during the day I tend to go straight to the "specialist" that my GP would normally recommend. His secretary then calls AXA to handle the paperwork, and the specialist gets the xrays and casts done in the hospital he works at...

It's a bit hit and miss really..
M.
 
More hit than miss then??????? :)

Just once a year... I've been in A&E once a year since I was... 3-4 years old... I've gotten used to it :)

Had to be flown out of a country once (medevac) as their A&E essentially said "uhmmm... badly broken arm... amputate?"
 
2 hours through A&E is pretty good. The only times I have been admitted straightaway are when I had my stroke and when I had gallstones, the chest pain part giving them concern. I think the conditions generally while waiting are not ever delightful - on one occasion when a sebaceous cyst burst on a Saturday evening (brilliant) I was seen by a Doctor of chinese origin who had just been racially abused by the drunken scum that filled the place so he was steaming. Can't blame him really, however his bedside manner left much to be desired.

However, I would be very very careful of private options, and I have used private medicine a lot. Trauma care is a real NHS specialism, and no private clinic will ever have the experience of the consultants within a leading hospital, and pediatric care is also something I would think twice about.

Having spent way too much time in hospitals over the last five years, something happily now ended, my advice would always be - trauma and emergencies, NHS, chronic care, private. In the former you have considerable excellence and kit, plus the waiting times are relatively short, in the latter, you don't have that long time before appointments and they will sort you out rapidly.
 
A 2 hour wait for a minor accident (I guess they glued the cut closed) isnt too bad. I rarely fall sick (fingers crossed) and the one time I was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, I was attended to quite swiftly.

The NHS is fantastic and I cant understand why many people complain about the service. I do understand no service is perfect and there is always scope for improvement but the staff of the NHS already do a fantastic job as it is.

In my opinion majority of the cases at A&E are not really emergencies. I am guilty of wasting their time at the A&E as well. I once took my baby to A&E because the baby wasnt eating. I was honestly worried cause the baby wouldnt eat any food but it obviously wasnt a case worth going to A&E for given that the doctor spent less than 5 minutes with us.

I guess they prioritise their work and will see to the most severe of cases first which may explain why some people have to wait for 8 hours before being seen although I think 8 hours may be an exaggeration.

My boy once split is forehead on a drawer handle and I called the ambulance cause there was blood everywhere. By the time they arrived, nature had taken its course and the bleeding had stopped. I didnt even have to go to the hospital, the guy in the fast response car just called one of the local clinics/ hospital and asked if they would put a little glue in for a little boy with a cut on his forehead, they obliged and I drove him to the clinic/ hospital and we were out in less than an hour.

Now, that is first class service and it was free! :thumb:

My missus recently had a baby and just as it has been the case the few other times I have been in the hospital, I always find it surreal walking out of the hospital without as much as putting a penny down. I just always get this feeling someone is going to stop me just before I reach the exit and ask me to settle my bill.

You dont know what you've got till its gone.
 
Last edited:
I agree ...

Broken arms / legs , while painful are rarely life threatening , so they sit there while the doctors deal with people who need them more.

I'd rather sit there while they brought a person back from the brink to be honest . You may grizzle a bit at the time , but once you saw sense you'd be quiet and dare i say it , even a little bit sheepish.
 
Whilst I have private healthcare as part of my employment package, I would make the observation that in general private healthcare provider's priority is profit. This is why they are completely uninterested in things like A&E which cost a fortune to provide and are brilliant at dealing with major procedures which offer a much greater profit opportunity. The NHS can be a bit of a lottery regarding waiting times and, apallingly, standards of cleanliness but there is a real problem for society as a whole if we rely solely on the NHS for the expensive treatments and private healthcare providers for the profitable stuff. If you want to see where that ends up just look at the Royal Mail :(
 
Thanks for the replies. Yes they glued his wound very neatly and kept him amused while they did it. The doctors are superb there and deserve much more respect. If only money was pumped into their surroundings in keeping the place cleaner and perhaps have separate waiting areas for those with below average IQ :thumb: :)
 
Thanks for the replies. Yes they glued his wound very neatly and kept him amused while they did it. The doctors are superb there and deserve much more respect. If only money was pumped into their surroundings in keeping the place cleaner

Part of the problem with the way we deal with the NHS is that the doctors and nurses get the plaudits. There is a great ethos - but the pedestal on which they are put also makes it difficult to manage.

If you throw money at the NHS it doesn't reach the patients. It reaches the staff. The curse of the public sector.

The organisation of some hospitals is lamentable. Cleanliness is variable.

In general the food is a travesty. This to my mind represents the nub of the problem. It should be simple to improve. Doubling the average cost of a meal is a drop in the ocean. But it's seen as too expensive. Meanwhile the previous government threw billions extra at the service without getting value for money.

and perhaps have separate waiting areas for those with below average IQ :thumb: :)

The NHS is a tremendous socio-economic leveller.
 
the curse of the public sector maybe, but the food and the cleaning part of the NHS have been privatised.
 
the curse of the public sector maybe, but the food and the cleaning part of the NHS have been privatised.

It's nothing to do with [ possible profanity omitted] privatisation. :mad:

I you have a cleaner vist your house and they don't keep your house clean it's either because they're no good - so you fire them because if you don't you're mismanaging he contract. Or you have underspec'ed the job - so you mismanaged the contract.

The food is mismanaged. There is no apparent impetus to fix it by the management.

If food was a major cost in patient treatment then the argument is that you save costs. To my knowledge it's it's a very small cost in the scheme of things but it causes a huge amount of misery. The costs that are allowed for food appear to be at the heart of the problem.

My comment when Brown announced spending increases for the NHS back in the late nineties was that the patients would see little of it and that the unions, BMA, and other interest groups would be figuring how to get their paws on it.

Sure enough ....
 
surely they have to share the responsibility for the poor food and the cleaning standards
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom