Worst New Year's Eves Ever

[Huguenot]

I had a pretty good shot at this one for this year...

Sleepless night on the 30th with pain in my darkest bowels, doctor's at 8.30am on the 31st, hospital by 11am, in the operating theatre under general anaesthetic by 2pm, pole-axed wearing a nappy as midnight struck.

Oh, how we laughed.... ;-)

Beat that if you can!

[TillieTrotter]

Poor old you Hugo. Thats what you get for deserting us! At least it can only get better. Hope you're up and running soon. Have a good one Old Chap.:)-D

[mockney piers]

What?!?!? Oh my god, are you okay?

[mockney piers]

"Hope you're up and running soon"

Having just spoken to him you might want to consider rephrasing that.

All thinks considered he sounded remarkably perky!!

[Jah Lush]

I've spent a couple of New Year's Eves in hospital (two years in a row, '86 and '87) with a nasty bout of acute pancreatitus. Not very pleasant. Incredibly painful, nil by mouth and not enough pethedine. Lying in a hospital bed in agony is no fun.

All in all over a period of six years I had eight attacks of the dreaded pancreatitus, the last being in 1993. But, New Year's Eve in hospital was certainly the most depressing.

Get well soon Huguenot.

[georgia]

Yes get well soon

[LostThePlot]

Huguenot Wrote:

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> I had a pretty good shot at this one for this

> year...

Mine beats yours, I had operate on some bloke. Turns out he said to his friend, "you can stick your 'eating carrots to stay healthy' new years resolution..." Which it transpires he did....

;-)

E

[Ant]

Ouch! Hope you get well soon.

My worst new year ever was spent listlessly hoovering a foreign hotel while my colleagues partied around me. I quit the job very soon after.

[Keef]

Hope you feel better soon Huguenot!

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

I thought this thread was just about being bored at home or something like that. Sounds really horrible. Are you in the UK or Singapore? Are you feeling any better yet? Hope so x x

[Keef]

Lucky you are in Singapore really, can't imagine you getting such swift attention here!

[dulwichmum]

OHMYGOD! Mr Huguenot - did you have a pilonidal sinus or a bowel obstruction? I am simply fascinated now...

[Michael Palaeologus]

Hope you get better soon!!!!

Makes my rather disappoiting new years eve in Berlin seem paltry.

[dulwichmum]

Lovely Michael - you are sooo damn cosmopolitan! Did you bring us back any gifties?

[Michael Palaeologus]

Um, where's that Quiet Room gone?

[buggie]

Keef Wrote:

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> Lucky you are in Singapore really, can't imagine

> you getting such swift attention here!

working in a&e I have seen peeps "getting attention" that quickly... if someone needs surgery that quickly they get it.

[Huguenot]

Many thanks for your kind words! :) Apparently there is nothing further wrong with me that a few more days in panty-liners won't cure... ;-) I'm developing a kind of guilty thrill from it all.

I've been fortunate that I've never had to have surgery in Blighty, but the services over here were first-class. The doctor saw me in less than 10 minutes, and everything went smoothly from there.

The Hospital felt like a cross between a five star hotel and a pretty efficient engineering business. The whole place was built for scale, the operating theatre was one of a rank of about 10-15 identikit jobbies in glass and steel. The staff were charming and efficient (and not verging on brusque in the way that efficiency is often misinterpreted in the UK).

Interestingly though, the tuna sandwich was still crap, but I'll put that down to cultural differences ;-)

And hey, I'm still smiling...

*shows gap-toothed wonky grimace*

[Michael Palaeologus]

Ah, the Huguenot gap toothed wonky grimace - it is good to hear that things at the other end have not ,changed.

[annaj]

Huguenot, you don't know me from Adam, but that sounds rotten and I hope you feel better soon.

Now, Keef, sorry but I'm going to have to join buggie in defending the NHS.

Firstly, the NHS works with limited resources and so has to prioritise. There are occasional mistakes, but on the whole people who need urgent attention get and people who don't wait. In A&E priority 1 patients are greeted at the door and seen immediately, but a twisted ankle might have to wait a few hours.

Secondly, I'm sure the facilities are better in Singapore, but that is because you pay for them. Even in a subsidised, public hospital the patient pays and the more you can afford, the better the facilities (private room costs more than 8 bedded room). The NHS is still free at point of contact to everyone and everyone receives the same standard of care regardless of wealth or status. Yes, the system is struggling and may not last that much longer, but I for one am extremely proud of the principle.

Finally, I'm sure the staff in Singapore were charming, but they probably don't tolerate the same level of abuse that we do in the UK. In the last few months alone I have been spat at, hit, scratched, had equipment thrown at me and, most memorably been called an "ugly bitch cunt" (and I'm really not that ugly!) by people I have been trying to treat. I'm not saying that excuses staff being rude, I personally think there's no excuse for rudeness try to treat people politely whateve the circumstances, but I can see why people become abrupt and jaded.

I'm sorry to go off on such a rant, reactions like Keef's and the constant criticism that we face in the NHS are so demoralising and depressing and if the people working for the NHS don't defend it no-one will.

PS. By the way, I typed "ugly bitch c**t" in full, but the forum automatically censored it. So, Mr Admin thinks that's a word you should all be protected from, but I had it screamed at me while trying to do my job.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Annaj, I think you are extremely pretty and more importantly a caring and passionate person who does a damn difficult job. You have my thanks and praise. I too think that the NHS at critical level provides a brilliant service (although there are aspects I am sure we can all have a pop at).

[georgia]

Hear hear annaj!

[Jah Lush]

Annaj, good on you. Having had experience of being a patient in the past myself and with my late father more recently, I have nothing but praise for the NHS and all of it's staff. And, can I just say that you are a paragon of loveliness.

[bignumber5]

First of all - huguenot, hope you feel better soon.

Keef Wrote:

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> Lucky you are in Singapore really, can't imagine

> you getting such swift attention here!

Sorry Keef, but throw-away remarks about the NHS will be taken quite seriously by those of us who work on it's front line.

The NHS starts with the core critical services and works outwards. Having nob-all wrong with you may mean a wait, but critical care such as huguenots surgery are dealt with quickly and efficiently by some of the best trained medical staff in the world. Lightening speed service across the board is not possible without the cash injection that an entirely public sector service will never receive - Singapore, on the other hand, gets about 75% of its healthcare funded by the private sector. (http://www.moh.gov.sg/mohcorp/hcfinancing.aspx?id=104)

Like Annaj, I've been working in A&E for a good few years, and I've been verbally abused on (at the very least) a weekly basis, assaulted 3 or 4 times, threatened and generally hollered at from bollocks to sundown. Whilst the assaults and personal threats are the more extreme situations, the general abuse comes from the supposedly more polite "us" aspect of the them-and-us social divide that ED sits on. "I've been waiting for f*ucking ages and you're doing nothing you c*nt, what's your full name, I'm going to complain, I'm going to sue..." etc etc. And I'd like to think that I remain pretty cheerful considering.

I worked in New Zealand for a while and over there people would rock up to A&E and have a chat with me about what the trouble was and did I think they were ok to wait to see their doctor at the end of the week, despite the fact that GP appointments cost over there. I was not shouted at or abused in any way durng the 6 months that I was there.

So what can we learn from these 2 systems?

1) privately funded healthcare improves the experience for those that can afford it but makes healthcare a purchase rather than a right that even the poorest person can access. Call me a whinging wooley liberal but I seem to remember deciding that the less privilaged socially and economically have just as much right to healthcare and probably greater need. And unfortunately, that means an overworked system must prioritise.

2) responsible service use. Rocking up to A&E because it's your right and government targets about A&E waiting times etc etc and you think you'll probably need an x-ray etc etc rather than waiting to see a GP puts needless pressure on an already stretched service.

If you need urgent attention here, you get it. The rest of this is politics.

[Brendan]

All very good points and I agree with you about the benefits of state funded healthcare. The only problem I would point out is that I have not yet seen an NHS GP who was able to tell me anything more than I learnt in primary school biology.

[spadetownboy]

maybe they pitch it a level that they think you will be able to comprehend.