My numerous past experiences with the Welsh NHS has shown me it's a shambles, chaos might be better. Indeed a word that adequately describes it has still to be found... at least one I could use in polite company.
This week I had a fresh experience, that has confirmed that a dead pigeon could do a better job of organising casualty than whoever runs it now.
At 6.30 pm my mother fell over again, hurting her hip and sustaining a head injury (she's 88 years old and on blood thinners and disabled). She pressed her lifeline button and an ambulance was called, my brother was on scene (from some distance away) by about 6.45, I arrived about 7.15 after waiting for a taxi (I was out) the Ambulance service arrived quickly at about 9,30 pm... 3 hours for a disabled 88 year old with a head injury and possible hip or pelvic fracture (way too long)
Still 3 hours isn't bad for an ambulance... except it wasn't an ambulance, it was a Saint John ambulance man in his car, a first aider really. My medical training is way more advanced than his. Still to be fair he did a decent job of checking her out, he was thorough and did all the checks he could without the gear an ambulance would have had, things like a hear monitor for an elderly patient with a pacemaker... (I'd already dont most of the important checks long before he arrived)
By now it's about 10.20pm, getting on for 4 hours after a head injurly for a lady on blood thinners, this is an important detail, your much more likely to suffer a bleed on the brain if your on thinners. Thats a life threatening condition that needs urgent and fast treatment. I can get an ambulance he say, but it'll be tomorrow morning by the time it comes.
So an 88 year old disabled lady with a possible pelvic fracture, a possible bleed on the brain and a dodgy hip is sent rushing to hospital in a ... taxi, well rushing isn't the right word, he took his time, mind with a wheelchair in the back this was probably the right call.
On arriving at casualty at Morriston hospital I did the hand over, the notes included the St Johns written comments on a possible bleed to the brain and I also stated this on handover and told them about the blood thinners, this should have set off alarm bells, it didn't!
After seeing a nursh my Mum was sent to xray where they xrayed her hip, no brain scan no doctor . At about 03.30 am we saw a doctor for the first time, it's now 6 hours after a fall and head injury and a possible bleed to the brain. This response it just way too long. Casualty itself is chaos, nurses are to busy on their phones texting if and when you can find one.
The doctor asks for the brain scan but as the nurse didn't order one all she has is a hip xray, this shows a pelvic fracture, and of course a taxi ride and 4 hours in a wheelchair haven't helped. She orders a brain scan, better late than never, at about 05.15 the doctor passes by and asked how the scan went, we tell her it's not happened yet, and she goes off to get it sorted.
About 06.45am my mother finally has a brain scan, 12 hours or so after the fall. Frankly if she had a bleed on the brain she's be either dead or serious by now, a totally unacceptable and unprofessional delay for so-called heathcare system. The brain scan should have the first thing done, not the last.
The lack of proper ambulances was easy to explain, they are all outside the hospital with patients sitting in them because Morriston has no beds for the casualties, this means no ambulanes for those dying on the floor. What a total disgrace the Welsh NHS trust is!
No beds available? Why? during the covid panic my local area was able to provide "pop up" hospitals (actually old factories) with 1.340 beds available, yet there wasn't 8 available for a huge hospital to empty ambulances and get them bad on the road.
What happened to the beds? Later the next day we waited in a huge empty room with a few chairs in it, an empty ward really, 20 beds would have gone in there no bother. Honestly this lot couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery! Average waiting time in canualty on a Sunday night, 19 hours.
To add insult to real injury, the tv's on the wall of the crammed waiting room kept showing videos telling people how important it is too see a doctor quickly if your injured, and "time counts" the first 3 hours are vital, yet it was 6 hours before we saw a doctor. Maybe time to take the adverts down, oh and get some comfey chairs, 19 bloody hours on a shit chair makes even the patients carers a bloody casualty.
A photo showing some of the 8 ambulances and 3 paramedic cars that spent most of the night outside Morriston hospital.. God know whey the paramedic cars were there, they dont carry patients.
The Welsh health minister should hang his head with shame at this joking shambles that passes itself off as a caring health service. Better still quit and let someone else do a proper job of running it!
