12 August 2009

Spinal tap

What do I think of NHS spine, what do you think of NHS Spine?

Drop your comments over here at doc2doc cos I've decided to have a bit of a rant (what a surprise!)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wanted to comment and whinge but by the looks of it you have to be a healthcare professional of some description - I am a first aider but I doubt that actually counts lol.

I don't really might where they keep my details what bothers me is how long it takes to get seen to in a+e I took my friend in to a+e back in January and we sat there for about an hour waiting to be seen (So by this point it was about 7:30pm) - he'd taken nearly 12 paracetamol and had to be taken in by police escort because he wouldn't come peacefully at first. We then had to wait about 2 hours for a blood test then another 2 or 3 for the results and then about an hour for the crisis team lady - all in all we left the hospital at about 3am!

The Young Mummy said...

looks like us nonhealth care professionals arent welcome so, its shit its well over budget and frankly wasnt really what was needed.

Asclepius said...

I'm only a humble student nurse but my big problem is with the concept of keeping the information secure. Although I have to admit I cant think of anything on any of my(unfortauntely fairly extensive) medical notes that I really care about being kept a secret but I am sure there are those out there who would much rather their conditions not be made public knowledge.

If I may also comment on God Rock Angels comment. Most A&E departments have a four hour breech time limit. If you are not out of the department within four hours of being signed in the department gets less funding (which has always seemed a bit backwards to me). Also with paracetamol overdose you have to wait at least two hours after ingestion(although I think the guidelines are four) before you can take the blood that shows how much of it has made its way into your bloodstream. My understanding is your friend should have been set up with IV parvolex(paracetamol antedote) while you were waiting though. The whole system is very messy when it comes to breech times and how long it takes the pathology and microbiology departments to process samples.

Anonymous said...

From a purely physical treatment point of view, paracetamol levels are fairly meaningless until four hours after the overdose was taken. There is no need to start Parvolex until the results are available, unless it's more than eight hours since the tablets were taken.

Asclepius said...

Ah its four hours :) I wasnt sure. I know they start Parvolex immediately if the overdose is staggered as the blood levels at any one time will be immediately irrelevant.