My hospital stay ( March 2O25)

 The privilege of being cared for in an NHS Hospital, a mint service with a hole in the middle.

 

For the last week I have been under the care of an NHS hospital as an inpatient. Due to my bad luck and/or my own negligence I fell from a great height whilst walking with a good friend and three thirty somethings from his own family to celebrate his 70th birthday,. My experience this week should give hope to  us all

 

I landed conscious and was lucky enough to be caught by a tree/shrub (the week has had its 

Humorous moments and perhaps the first was my reflection on the fact that my T Shirt had the increasingly well known ‘May the Forest be With You ‘ phrase on it)

 

My companions immediately rose to the task. Two came down to be with me whilst the others rang 999. It was agreed to send an Air Ambulance whilst a clear and categorical instruction was given that under no circumstances was I allowed to move. My head was held in position and my legs supported from below. 

 

It may have been an hour or so before the Air Ambulance arrived, including paramedics and an A&E consultant (not always sent apparently but assessed as necessary on this occasion because of my age and the likely severity of the injury). The pilot made the judgement that there was nowhere to land safely in my immediate vicinity and a landing was made some distance away. The medical team then proceeded on foot at rapid pace and soon had me safe. Mountain Rescue was called, and two crews arrived fairly rapidly, and some Police Officers too. I was then taken on a stretcher down the mountain, as comfortably and smoothly as possible ( not very ! ) and continued in an ambulance to the nearest A&E Department. Treatment has taken place there over the last seven days, delivered by a team of wonderful NHS practitioners, with a diversity of skills and backgrounds ( I have tried to talk to as many of them as possible ) working together for the benefit of humankind. No doubt there are tensions and personality disputes, as there are in any workplace, but I have never been in any doubt that there has been a shared commitment to delivering the best possible medical and personal care in extremely challenging circumstances. 

 

Miraculously I am expected to make a full recovery. I have effectively been medically discharged  My wounds have been stitched and my pelvis will mend itself. I can go home as soon as the physios think it is safe for me to do so ( stairs, toilets etc) Hopefully this will be sometime in the next few days. Medical staff, in answer to my question, confirmed that ideally I would be initially discharged to a community hospital facility to continue recuperation. Apparently there is such a unit in my area but demand is such that there is unlikely to be a place for me. In any event I am pleased that the physios have the final say regarding my discharge and appear to be more than capable of standing up to the hospital managers who, understandably, are wanting my bed.

 

I have refrained from naming the individuals responsible or even the name of the hospital. There is no reason to suppose that hospitals across the NHS aren’t delivering equally outstanding care. It is a collective provision, delivered by staff members working together, contributing what they can and remunerated accordingly, although no doubt not entirely fairly.

 

Anyone who knows anyone in my family will not be surprised to learn that they have all stepped up to the plate, providing love and support and making changes to their already busy lives in terms of work and childcare etc. Thanks and love to them all.

 

I am sure my care could have been even better and at least one mistake was made, involving an ambulance  booking for an appointment which didn’t exist. But I am sure anyone working in or being cared for in an NHS Hospital is surprised that there aren’t more, given the enormity of the challenges faced and the paucity of the resources available. My consultant explained the nature of my pelvic injury using the analogy of a polo mint. Like ‘The mint with the hole in it ‘ the pelvis breaks in to more than two pieces  when broken. I think the polo mint analogy has wider application . The NHS is a mint service with a big hole in the middle of it, financial and political. It is up to all of us to demand that this hole be fixed, for our own benefit and that of future generations. We wouldn’t want to be without it as we face up to growing numbers of emergencies, local, national and international, not least the accelerating Global , Climate and Ecological Emergency which threatens us all.

 

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