Health Minister Ann Keen said recently that some NHS bodies were not "handling complaints well enough", adding the regulation system was being changed to put more emphasis on the complaints procedure. She concluded by saying that:"Hospitals and other NHS organisations will be measured on how many complaints they receive and how they deal with them, including showing what lessons they have learned and changes implemented as a result."
This year I have worked 26 years in the NHS, and I have witnessed the public's attitude towards the health care system AND its workers change drastically over the years.
Ok, most of the changes I have seen are just a reflection of how society itself has changed; ie the slow erosion of respect and courtesy .
Tonight I have been reflecting on this as we are quiet on intensive care, and in discussion with my colleagues, I remembered an occasion when as ward manager I found a visitor lying on a made up bed in my ward. The visitor was a woman in her 20s. She was watching tv, shoes on the bedspread not a care in the world.
When I asked her to get off the bed she spat out "who the fu*k are you?" in front of other visitors,staff and patients. My reply, though not filled with expletives, was equally angry and direct......and I was happy to report that the creature slouched off the ward with a bit of a flea in her ear!
That woman did not as I recall make a complaint against me, but occasional complains do surface from time to time ....I am confident that my maturity and managerial experience can field most gripes...but there remains a growing underclass in this country that feel they can expect the impossible from an increasingly desperate and over stretched health service.
I still enjoy aspects of nursing. I am still good at what I do....but
I find it a little sad that people like that woman on the made up bed...now feel that the system (ie us) owe them everything......and show no awareness that they in turn should give something back to their community.
This underclass and their destructive and selfish behaviours makes me worry so very much for the future
Bless your heart.I have such respect for the medical profession, and particularly nurses.Many nurses in my family.My sis-in-law has been doing it for 40years now! The stories we hear. Thank you for the service you perform and the care you give unselfishly to others. (I don't know how you ever get any sleep with all your projects,animals and job!!) I'm sorry for the rude people who don't appreciate your service.
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