Having recently spent 2 very long waits for my wife to be treated in A & E I have formed an opinion of the service received by the disabled and seriously ill in our hospitals-and it’s not nice.

The whole system seems to be set up to get as many in and out as quickly as possible to meet or beat targets.

Even though my wife was unconcious -with no responses to anything, we were left unattended for hours while people with sore fingers, drunks with police escorts , druggies and such were treated quickly.
It took 7 hours for my wife to be admited and any treatment started-the attitude seemed to be-” she’s not going anywhere she can wait”
If I’d not been there her catheter would have by-passed twice as I twice had to ask for her bag to be emptied!

Arriving on a ward the attitude of the staff was so obviously ” Oh no, this looks like some work”.

And why is it that though youv’e seen your caree naked from all angles they insist you wait outside the curtain while they transfer the patient from trolley to bed.?? Well I’m a cynical old bugger, and I think it’s because they handle them roughly, so I refused to leave and stayed to watch them.

After one night on the ward and only showing slight improvement the doctor wanted to send her home and continue the antibiotics there. I refused that and told them I would tell them when she was back to normal and fit for a return home, to which the doctor replied ” she will never be normal”— a remark that warrented a bit of the violence they often complain about??
Now I have to take some bottles of my wife’s feed, and the giving sets, because they have nothing that will fit her peg to feed her! I am also spending most of the day there to make sure she is cared for and they don’t take revenge on her because I have refused their wishes.

To me the NHS shows a complete lack of care for anybody who has reached the stage of not being able to do anything for themselves. Even in naming things like ” walk in centre” is an insult to people who can’t walk.

Social care is no better, most councils are now only offering services to people with critical care needs. They have proved time and again that they are incapable of providing such care, only being able to provide the ” are you ok, do you want a cup of tea” type of care.
With all the Government and media Hype convincing the public that all benefit claiments are scroungers, there will be no pressure for improvement, much better for everybody normal if we, abnormals, just go away and die!