H is for Hospitals

This post is a day late I am afraid and the reason is – partly – we had yet another hospital trip yesterday.  Admittedly the rest of the day was spent visiting my parents and grandma as I have to take the chance when the schools are closed and I am not working to fit visits in.

I have had both good and bad experiences with hospital, my first memory of a hospital visit was going to see my dad after he had a burst stomach ulcer, all I really remember of that was the huge tube coming out of his belly.

The next was to visit my grandad shortly before he passed away, I remember how tiny he looked in the expanse of white that was the bed.

The next visit was to casualty after slicing part of my thumb off chopping tomatoes, and the doctor telling me I had cut the nerve endings off so I shouldn’t be complaining it hurt.

The next visit was my longest stay with me as a patient, the emergency caesarian that brought my daughter into the world 7 weeks prem.

A week later and after a few setbacks for both of us we headed home and I did not see the inside of a hospital until…

Since Jacks birth in 2008 both he and I have been no strangers to hospitals, he has fought meningitis plus had an operation to remove is adanoids, constant visits to ENT, Paediatricians, Orthoptists, Speech Therapists and Physiotherapists.  For me two spinal operations plus on going Physiotherapy.

Then more recently as you know my dad has had a two month stay in hospital, I have seen almost every department going over the years fr one reason or another and while most doctors and nurses do an amazing job, there are some whose bed side manners leave much to be desired.  Doctors and nurses who make the patient feel stupid for bothering them and are clearly in the wrong job.  The NHS is far from perfect but from friends experiences better than systems in some other countries but there do need to be changes.

Why are our Facebook walls full of children needing to raise money to be treated abroad? Why in terms of medical research are we so far behind other countries?  I know that we have increases of population and people are living longer therefore using more resources but we have to start making changes and looking at long term solutions rather than short term savings.  Things like Umbilical Cord Donation (don’t worry am not giving the full lecture here) is ruled out as too expensive, but how much is a child’s life worth? Taking emotion out of it and put in from a financial view point the cost of a child’s life is actually extremely valuable, not only does saving a life negate expensive pallitive care in the final weeks or months but also consider the life time of potential that child has. No one knows what that child could grow up to be, a doctor, a scientist, and Olympian, they could inspire millions or just work in a shop, paying taxes and contributing to keep our country afloat.

Yes we are on the verge of ending up with an aged population with a too-small workforce to support them and the reason is we are letting too many of our children die to save a few pounds now.