Is it that bad working for the NHS?

Andybtsn · 12 Dec 2009 at 14:47

A family member is currently in hospital so I've been visiting quite regularly. One thing I have noticed is the downright rudeness of the workers, has anyone come across this at their local NHS hospital? Asking for info is like getting blood from a stone, most just give you a blank face, others walk off to get info and never return or others just give a short, sharp answer.

I wonder if it's just bad personalities or the NHS is that bad to work for!

James J · 12 Dec 2009 at 14:50

Put in an official complaint. We did in our local PCT after my dad had a heart attack and had an angioplasty done. The care was great right upto discharge where the nurse said that he can go home and get a nice bath... which would cause the plug is his femeral artery to dislodge and he'd bleed to death, good advice! lol

mac1st3 · 12 Dec 2009 at 14:50

Guess it depends on the hospital, I've known them to be bitter and rude, but then I've found some to be fantastic and will do anything to help, luck of the draw I guess

Aman · 12 Dec 2009 at 14:52

From my experience everyone was helpful/nice when i was there.

Von Smallhausen · 12 Dec 2009 at 14:53

The NHS is understaffed and underfunded with a knock on effect on staff. It can at least be understood if not condoned.

Source ? My OH works for them at the front line.

Deific · 12 Dec 2009 at 14:55

I was in hospital all week and found the staff to be excellent, especially the nurses. The only person I thought treated me poorly was my overseeing doctor who saw me three times over a period of 4 days, for about 1 minute at a time whilst doing his ward rounds and brought a long line of student doctors in his wake. He dismissed everything I said and just gave a short sentence in response to my problems before walking away.

rotters · 12 Dec 2009 at 15:19

If a health care "professional" is rude to you, ask for their name and report them. The NHS is like all large places of work, its full of every kind of charactor. This unfortunately includes the darn right rude. I have been rude to families before but have been taken a back by my own response and in each case it was just due to lack of time to give a thorough repsonse at that time, ive apologised and luckily never had a formal complaint against me. (the 3 vivid times I remember I was dealing with near death critical situations). Ive worked for the NHS for 15 years and now work on the "front line" in a very large busy Intensive Care Unit as a senior staff nurse.

nichorob · 12 Dec 2009 at 15:34

A NHS doctor that I dealt with recently actually had a full time employed translator working with him to translate what he was saying into English! I tell no lies.

His skills as a doctor though were not to be faulted however.

Dano · 12 Dec 2009 at 16:00

Having had quite a few operations in the last five years I've had quite a lot of contact with NHS staff and in the main they have all been absolutely awesome, there have been however a few instances where I have been treated so badly that is was quite shocking.

Andybtsn · 12 Dec 2009 at 16:05

I'm not wanting to go as far as reporting anyone, I know the NHS staff are known to be overworked, underpaid etc so maybe that is why. A lot of the workers are foreign workers it seems now too which could be part of it.

Just a bit annoying when you're ringing about the health of a loved one and you can't be spoken to with a bit of respect. Nevermind!

carbon8ed · 12 Dec 2009 at 16:05

I was recently semi-rushed for an emergency operation. When it was serious NHS was spot on, they were of course not so quick to get a glass of water for the moaning ungrateful ninnie in the next bed!

10/10 from me where it counts

G-MAN2004 · 12 Dec 2009 at 16:20

Every time I have been to the hospital they have been truly helpful and really friendly. Not one problem with them.

I guess it just depends where you go.

JBuk · 12 Dec 2009 at 16:22

G-MAN2004 said:
Every time I have been to the hospital they have been truly helpful and really friendly. Not one problem with them.

yup, had one or two occasions where I thought more could have been done but generally they've been great

I guess it just depends where you go.

yer, I went to the butchers once, aftercare was terrible tbh

Orcish-Horde · 12 Dec 2009 at 17:00

Andybtsn said:
I wonder if it's just bad personalities or the NHS is that bad to work for!

I have for the better part found that they are acceptable, I don't need them to kiss my arse. I want them to help with what ever my problem is, they do that am happy. I don't think the NHS is bad to work for, anytime I have been in a hospital things alway move at a slow pace, lots of chatting or walking from A to B then back to A. I would say its down to bad personalities or bordom, the latter tends to lead to the former. It also could have been due to a member of the public being an ejitt earlyer in the day/week.

my_computer · 12 Dec 2009 at 17:18

I start working for them in January, I'll get back to you...

Robert1986 · 12 Dec 2009 at 18:01

I work for the NHS and some nurses can be rude but most are quite nice to talk to. It all depends how that person is doing on that day. Some people find it hard to smile all the time I guess.

SexyGreyFox · 12 Dec 2009 at 18:58

Believe it or not this last month I've been helping to deliver Customer Care workshops to NHS staff members and I'm gobsmacked at some of their attitudes and the evaluation feedbacks we get.
It's as though they really believe they have great Customer Care but by the end of 3 hours hopefully they realise they're not as good as they think.

We had a recent 'Listening In Action' meeting where 1500 staff members out of 7500 were invited to air their views to the Chief Executive and the number 1 problem was communication between Staff and our customers.
I stood up and said that from my own experience recently it would be nice that if a patient self diagnoses (which they often do because of the internet) then the Doctor/Consultant should explain why it isn't that problem.
At the point the bloke next to me stood up and said he was a Orthopaedic Consultant Surgeon and quite simply he didn't have time to tell people.

Let's put this in monetary terms - last Monday I was facilitating Corporate Induction at the hospital and one woman turned up 45 minutes late so I sent her back.
Within 10 minutes the poo had hit the fan because she was a Consultant and taking her out of her job for the morning to do Induction would cost £4,500 :eek:

Luckily my boss stuck up for me, said I did nothing wrong according to the policies and turning up 45 minutes late she would be classed as DNA (Did Not Attend).

Anyway, I love my job and I go out of my way to be nice.
I was late for a meeting last week with the Head of HR because a little old man asked me the way to Ward 15 because his wife had been taken in.
He walked at a snails pace and I was 10 minutes late.

I get around · 12 Dec 2009 at 19:02

Like any understaffed place, underfunded and the worked underpaid.

I'm a get in and do my job person in my line of work, unstaffed, underfunded, underpaid, I've yet to find a single customer who I could care about in the least. I don't get paid enough to care. If I had decent working conditions, working equipment and generally a bit more efficiency it might be different but I don't. The NHS is very similar, in that.
After a while if you don't give up caring you'll probably get sick from stress, you can't blame them, they've got to deal with rude idiotic patients all day who seem to think the internet is smarter than their doctor.

I got asked if I wanted to go to some customer care workshop the other day, get paid for doing it like. But I said, why should I have some condescending moron who doesn't do my job tell me i'm doing it wrong, you want good customer service. Instead of wasting money on stupid workshops you could at the very least fit screen mounting brackets to tills 22, 31 and 35 one of the numerous broken parts on tills for the years i've been working. Or maybe provide some more adjustable chairs, required by law. At the very least could I have a new clocking in card, i've been waiting for 3 months?

I've got lots of complaints over the years by demanding idiots, I don't care, if there was a complaints procude for customers i'd be in the queue indefinitely.

Why would the NHS be any different, it's a similar position isn't it.

SlyReaper · 12 Dec 2009 at 19:26

When I was in hospital for a few days, I was embarrassed because I was getting more care and attention than the guy opposite me in the ward. This poor No swearing!! was losing his mind and couldn't get out of bed for all the pain he was in. He'd spend the whole night crying in agony, and very rarely did the nurses try to help him.

By contrast, I was relatively healthy and perfectly cogent. Why were they paying more attention to me than him? The answer - I suspect - was that I was easier to deal with. Whenever I asked them why they were ignoring him, they would just say "oh he's just after attention". WELL OF COURSE HE'S AFTER ATTENTION HE'S CLEARLY IN CRIPPLING AGONY!!!

Robert1986 · 12 Dec 2009 at 19:40

SlyReaper said:
WELL OF COURSE HE'S AFTER ATTENTION HE'S CLEARLY IN CRIPPLING AGONY!!!

I've only been working in the hospital for 6 weeks but the one thing I have noticed the most is nurses ignoring patients that are in pain. Its kinda easy to spot the attention whores from the ones that are in genuine pain though. I guess the nurses have a sixth sense about this thing or something.