What are your experiences of care for your loved ones in hospitals here?

The quality of care under the UK NHS system is high. Quality of care is also about more than the latest machinery or the waiting lists, it's how the medical and administrative staff treat you and your family during time of illness or emergency.

Look, a little example. When I was on the ward waiting to go down and have my tonsilectomy there was an elderly man who'd just had a cataract removed as a day patient. His wife was with him and the pair of them were about to head back to Wexford, a considerable journey by bus from Dublin, about 2 and a half hours. The nurse insisted on making tea and toast for them before they left, even though the ward was very busy and it was the nice way she did it 'Michael love, you'll have a cup of tea now before you go, you and Mrs Murphy. Will you have toast or do you prefer bread and butter?' 'I like a bit of toast' the old fellow replied :) 'Grand so, I'll see to that for you now'. On the contrary Mr Atch wasn't even offered a glass of water in the seven hours he spent in the spzital even though they told him that he was dehydrated - the mind boggles. I wasn't allowed to be with him so I couldn't look after him and get him some water. In Ireland he was allowed to stay with me the whole day from 8.30am until 9.30 that night.

Regarding free medicines, I know you don't have the patience to read and take in much information but here is a link about free medicines under the NHS. You don't have to be a certain age. That's just one of the groups who are entitled.

nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/free-nhs-prescriptions


Generic medicines in the developed world are of the same quality as branded ones. You can check it out online if you want to. There has been plenty of research carried out into this topic over the years. Personally I would much rather see my national health service shoppping sensibly and not spending a fortune on branded goods. The money they save can be better spent elsewhere in improving other aspects of the service.

Oh I don't know about that now. The Polish government were in cahoots with them (lovely word that, cahoots) and what about trying to send Polish Jews to Madagascar :D

Go on, admit it, you would have loved a few colonies :))

So I take it the waiting lists are quite long like the system in Canada?
amp.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/13/nhs-operation-waiting-lists-reach-10-year-high-at-43m-patients

"Cancer targets have been missed for the last two months, waiting lists have hit a 10-year high and the number of people waiting more than 18 weeks for planned care has gone up by more than 100,000 compared to this time last year," said Janet Davies, the Royal College of Nursing's general secretary.

independent.co.uk/news/health/nhs-waiting-lists-gps-hospitals-pain-surgeons-health-uk-a8444456.html

Hope the nurses stuff a few Vicodin in that toast

It appears so.... ah how did I know

Thanks but id much rather be treated rude and not given toast and tea and not have to wait 3 6 12 months to see a specialist or years to get a surgery. Being nice and treated well isn't going to treat/cure a person - modern medicine, machinery and having the person come in within a reasonable time frame does - not months or years when they're barely alive. It almost sounds like the us Medicaid system where an aids patient has to have a t cell count below 300, basically be almost dead, before they're treated. Tea, toast and kind words aren't going to help such a patient...


They most certainly are not and it is a well known 'secret' within the medical community. That is a lie pharna and their lobbies push so I'm sure there's plenty of 'research' paid for by pharna companies wishing to prove their generics, just as bow tracking companies research shows it's not bad for environment or gmos are healthy and have no difference from organics - nonetheless the eu . Brand names are more refined. For some drugs it doesn't make a difference but when you're taking some drugs for cancer there is a difference. Even for benzodiazepines when you take a brand name valium or xanax you can tell its stronger than the generic. And that's an anxiety drug not treating something serious, for cancer drugs id want nothing but the best and most refined

Well, the staff generally is polite and smiling (even if you can see it almost hurts them to so it)
The staff in my hospital was nice but then didn't check my son's sugar level even though it was procedure in our cases and his clear signs of low sugar level an almost died. They came every day to say hello but then dissapeared for an hour. After birth I waited 9 hours to be transfered to the ward and 7 to be singed out. In both cases I was told 'Ve are going to do it in few minutes' so I didn't make myself comfortable and waited. Meals were awful quality like in any hospital but even that was wonderful because if you happened to fall asleep no one would think whether you had your food and you stayed hungry... I can go on...

So don't tell me how wonderful NHS is because I actually used it

Source??


Well then you'll be very happy as a public patient in Poland.


We do have those in Ireland you know, the tea and toast and repsect for the patient are a bonus.

No matter what you say, every person in the UK has access to a full range of health services on an equal basis regardless of income or social insurance record and the quality of care is generally good.

That's an assumption you're making which could be influenced by your perceptions as a Polish person because Poles are quite prone to thinking that smiles and a friendly manner are fake.


If your son almost died that's a serious case of negligence and would be actionable. I hope you're suing them?

As to the rest, you have to take a bit of responsiblity for yourself. You can't expect busy staff to notice if you've missed a meal. They probably have a policy of not waking patients who are sleeping. Did you tell them you'd missed your meal and that you were hungry? Could you walk? Sometimes, they'll let you go down to the kitchen and get something if they're too busy to bring it. Or another patient will go for you if they can get about. People in hospitals generally bring some biccies or chocolate or something to snack on.

Waiting to be transferred or signed out is just part and parcel of hospital life. We can't be too precious about ourselves.

The thing that would really concern me is the medical care you received throughout your pregnancy, during the birth and the follow-up care.

The fact that your child was neglected to the point of death is very serious. Did you see any signs that he was unwell? How did you find out that he was on the point of death?? Did they actually admit it? What kind of enquiry is taking place into this?

Some years ago a colleague from the UK needed a small surgical procedure and after consideration decided to go through with it in the UK. It went well enough but her Polish doctor was horrified at the lack of follow up care (which led to complications).

That there are serious systemic problems in the Polish healthcare system is beyond debate. What's surprising is that it works at all given the low priority it has in the government (and the tendency for the public to not want to pay for more while wanting vast amounts more care) etc etc etc.

Just copying another country's system is no answer either, it will have to develop and evolve on its own (with more money from the government which means increased healthcare withdrawals from people's pay).

(nb I'm reposting this because it's completely on topic and was mistakenly put in random by one of the mods, the final sentence is especially on topic)

Thankfully the midwife that transfered us to the ward noticed that he's still cold (something I was reporting) and decided to do blood test. Straight away he was given my milk, glucose and as much formula milk as possible and wheeled off to neonatal unit. I don't want to think what the consequences could have been if she didn't check and I fell asleep tired after birth. After that everything was fine as he only had problems because of my pregnancy diabetes.

At the same time my cousin had a kid in Polish hospital and her kid was checked every few hour precisely because she had pregnancy diabetes.

While I generally agree that one should take care of oneself yet considering hospital environment ppl may be weak, dozy etc and providing them with food (real, healthy one) would seem important to me. I missed few meals but in my

case it wasn't too bad as I had a partner to bring me something if needed but if I'm not mistaken keeping diabetics hungry is not good? However I mentioned it because of your toast story. The nurse made sure the patient is nourished for the journey (very nice of her) yet normally no one would care if you had anything to eat the whole day.

With transfer it wasn't the problem with time. If they said 'we will transfer/sign you out in the afternoon /evening it would be ok but I was told it will be done in the nearest future.

The general care during pregnancy was similar to Poland (I had comparison with my cousin) yet the birth and conditions are a different story. The access to pain killers, private room etc are something many women in Poland dream of. The vaccines are newer and better.

What UK really sucks at is access to GP, prevention and gradation of necessary action.
I once waited 3 days just to get a phone call from GP.
When at 4 months my son got a bad cough I heard from the person on the phone 'can't you self medicate the kid?' When my cousin had similar situation the doctor urged her to come if she sees anything changing as 'such small kids can develop chest infection in a sec' . In both cases the kids ended up fine yet the approach is completely different.

As to the gradation- I once wanted the doctor to look at my kid's movements as he didn't move one hand the same way he did the other and was send of to MIU and from there I was send of to emergency. No one actually looked at him. I was sure it's not a case for an emergency (physiotherapy at most) asnthere was no teauma and decided to check for health visitor. In that time he started using the other hand more.

Poland has problem with old equipment and outdated procedures, hypochondria and over prescription of beds and power mad ppl who will make your trearment a hell just becuse they can

By "because they can" you mean that people will tolerate it. Thankfully this is changing.
In the post office today a customer was complaining about the wait. The woman (who was one of two in an overworked office) told him not to be so rude and abusive.

He wasn't, and nobody supported him, so I had to step in and support him, saying that the second assistant should stop her bureaucracy, which she could do in the 2 hours after closing, and serve the public

Only in Poland. ☹️ Zero care and respect for the customer. You have to FIGHT and demand service
In the UK there is accountability. Here - not yet. A case in progress

No Doughpol. I mean that they offer a service that everyone needs at some point and for which there is a great demand.

As to your example:
-you admitted yourself that the office is overworked and the other women was working (you cannot know how urgent it was) so...did it ever cross your mind that No one else reacted because they agreed with the women and not you and that man?

N o. Downtrodden after communism and people have lost their voice. I read the situation perfectly. These "services" are bang out of order and work at their own pace.

If it had escaped your notice they are not paid properly or supported and it is a disaster. Because there are too many job creation schemes elsewhere.

Such as ZUS. Good God! It's not difficult to see! Bloody well fight people!

A huge chunk of the pl population namely those 40 and under never really experienced communism or at least not the way an adult would

But they've been raised by people who did. The communist period was a major collective trauma for Polish people and it takes decades for a population to work through that. Spain is still symbolically fighting their civil war (another major collective trauma).

Here's the kicker, it takes decades to work through collective trauma and Poland hasn't even begun to deal with the trauma of communism yet.... the relentless politicization of the period (by different sides trying to make themselves look good) has just put it off further.

Perhaps, but you can't really teach a generation on how to survive and thrive during prl. You can't really replicate that environment at best you can teach the same lessons of prl years to post prl and now eu Poland. That old commie mentality and behavior tends to mainly be exhibited by the older generations, especially those working in government offices. You can tell right away who's one of the old commie era hustlers and/or devoted party member and who isnt. You go to the urzad miejski and you'll know exactly which ones have that prl attitude. In the hospitals it can be like that too to esp amongst admin staff. Oh and at certain delis too.

What annoys me is that even though staff is clearly being d1ckz and doesn't want to do sh1t they'll still play nice and use words like prosze pana, never ty.

Yes but the toast was in an Irish hospital :)) we're much nicer than the English :D


To be honest Jaskier, Polish mothers tend to be seen by the Brits (and the Irish too) as a bit over-fussy about their kids. If a child has a cough we'd generally go along to the pharmacist (in Ireland anyway they're very helpful) and then if it doesn't clear up we'd go to the doc if necessary. The thing to watch for is their temp. If that's normal it's generally nothing much to worry about. It's not an emergency until it's an emergency if you get my drift. If you get really worried you can go to the emergency room but it's usually not necessary.

Same goes for the movements (by the way I wouldn't use that term, it's taken to mean his stools!!). When I first read it, I thought you wanted the doctor to look at your son's bowel movements - I thought, I'm not surprised he wasn't too keen, how did you get them to the surgery! With issues like that, the baby nurse as we call her in Ireland, or in your case the health visitor, is the first point of call. They really are very experienced and know when to take further action or when to wait. They're your follow up service after birth so that you're not taking up valuable appointment time at the GP service when maybe somebody has a lump in her breast or blood in his urine. Mothers worrying about their newborns and toddlers development is very common and very natural but it's usually groundless. That's why the GP service generally doesn't share your concerns and doesn't see it as a matter that needs immediate attention.

Anyway, glad the little chap is doing ok now :)