John Prescott writes:
This week I saw how much the NHS is struggling.
A few years ago my daughter-in-law Roz lost her bowel after an aggressive form of colitis, an inflammation of the colon.
She leads a normal life now and has raised two wonderful grandchildren but she is susceptible to infections which can leave her very weak.
Last week Roz returned from Ireland with her kids feeling ill.
She thought it was a bug. When I saw her on the Saturday, though, she looked like death.
Her face was gaunt, she looked shattered and was occasionally being sick.
The doctor gave her a quick check, said she did have a bug and told her not to eat for two days.
By Sunday night Roz was in a bad way.
She was shaking and was sick 20 times that day.
My son David thought it was more than a bug so he called NHS 111 at around 7pm and talked them through the symptoms.
An on-call GP called him back and recommended calling 999 for an ambulance.
Although they live in the countryside now, having lived in a city for 20 years they assumed getting an ambulance to their home would be fairly easy.
But after completing another phone assessment with 999, they were told by East Midlands Ambulance Service it wasn’t an emergency.
They were told that because of shortages at the weekend and increased demand, an ambulance would not be sent.
David explained they couldn’t take Roz by car as she wasn’t fit to travel in the front seat for 16 miles to the nearest big hospital, Lincoln County.
And there was no one to look after their sleeping kids, Ava Grace and Evan.
They tried NHS 111 again to see if they could get 999 to send an ambulance.
They promised a nurse would call back but by the time she did two hours later, Roz was asleep from exhaustion and nausea.
The nurse was amazed East Midlands Ambulance Service hadn’t sent an ambulance.
On Monday morning they tried again. They called their local GP and eventually got seen.
The doctor then called an ambulance straight away and it eventually arrived – 20 hours after they first asked for it.
She was taken to Lincoln County on Monday afternoon where she finally had a blood test. It wasn’t a bug – it was a serious kidney infection.
It took Roz two days of undue stress and pain to find out what was wrong with her and the medical treatment she needed.
They don’t blame the ambulance service.
The real blame lies at the feet of a government that has under-invested in the NHS, cut social budgets and increased waiting times in A&E and GP surgeries.
According to Unison, a paramedic now leaves East Midlands Ambulance Service every eight days and the numbers of days they take off because of stress is 6,325 – twice as many as in 2010.
They face working up to 15-hour days as it takes much longer to transfer patients to hospital because of a shortage of beds and an under-pressure A&E department.
Whether it’s the police or the NHS, rural areas face huge problems getting the service they deserve.
Recruiting and retaining staff – paramedics, doctors or nurses – has always been difficult in the country.
So as my son David has said, I hope whichever party finds itself running the NHS after May 7 urgently looks to fairly rebalance health provision across town and country.
Otherwise more people like Roz will suffer undue stress and suffering.
This week I saw how much the NHS is struggling.
A few years ago my daughter-in-law Roz lost her bowel after an aggressive form of colitis, an inflammation of the colon.
She leads a normal life now and has raised two wonderful grandchildren but she is susceptible to infections which can leave her very weak.
Last week Roz returned from Ireland with her kids feeling ill.
She thought it was a bug. When I saw her on the Saturday, though, she looked like death.
Her face was gaunt, she looked shattered and was occasionally being sick.
The doctor gave her a quick check, said she did have a bug and told her not to eat for two days.
By Sunday night Roz was in a bad way.
She was shaking and was sick 20 times that day.
My son David thought it was more than a bug so he called NHS 111 at around 7pm and talked them through the symptoms.
An on-call GP called him back and recommended calling 999 for an ambulance.
Although they live in the countryside now, having lived in a city for 20 years they assumed getting an ambulance to their home would be fairly easy.
But after completing another phone assessment with 999, they were told by East Midlands Ambulance Service it wasn’t an emergency.
They were told that because of shortages at the weekend and increased demand, an ambulance would not be sent.
David explained they couldn’t take Roz by car as she wasn’t fit to travel in the front seat for 16 miles to the nearest big hospital, Lincoln County.
And there was no one to look after their sleeping kids, Ava Grace and Evan.
They tried NHS 111 again to see if they could get 999 to send an ambulance.
They promised a nurse would call back but by the time she did two hours later, Roz was asleep from exhaustion and nausea.
The nurse was amazed East Midlands Ambulance Service hadn’t sent an ambulance.
On Monday morning they tried again. They called their local GP and eventually got seen.
The doctor then called an ambulance straight away and it eventually arrived – 20 hours after they first asked for it.
She was taken to Lincoln County on Monday afternoon where she finally had a blood test. It wasn’t a bug – it was a serious kidney infection.
It took Roz two days of undue stress and pain to find out what was wrong with her and the medical treatment she needed.
They don’t blame the ambulance service.
The real blame lies at the feet of a government that has under-invested in the NHS, cut social budgets and increased waiting times in A&E and GP surgeries.
According to Unison, a paramedic now leaves East Midlands Ambulance Service every eight days and the numbers of days they take off because of stress is 6,325 – twice as many as in 2010.
They face working up to 15-hour days as it takes much longer to transfer patients to hospital because of a shortage of beds and an under-pressure A&E department.
Whether it’s the police or the NHS, rural areas face huge problems getting the service they deserve.
Recruiting and retaining staff – paramedics, doctors or nurses – has always been difficult in the country.
So as my son David has said, I hope whichever party finds itself running the NHS after May 7 urgently looks to fairly rebalance health provision across town and country.
Otherwise more people like Roz will suffer undue stress and suffering.
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