Well being an NHS employee i guess im obliged to stick up for them, but yes i agree the full system is all wrong, its not patient orientated at all, and there are so many cuts due to financial problems throughout the NHS the care being delivered is of really bad quality, and as both an employee and a receiver of care, there are many aspects i find totally appalling, especially within maternity services.
The majority of problems comes from NHS trusts that are unable to retain their staff, due to budget cutting, and the level of care received and given is insufficient to the needs of the patient.
Im getting made redundant in january when in 29wks pregnant as there have been ongoing problems retaining staff and basically my PCT cant afford to keep me employed, and the staff that they do use to cover when there are vacancies due to sickness etc are agency staff, which means that theyre paying a higher level of wages etc, losing money in the long run. Mind you though they are actually having to give me my payrise, a redundancy payment and full maternity pay when im not even gonna be employed by them.
IMHO the best thing that could happen is us having to get medical insurance to enable everyone to get a much higher level of healthcare.
My ante-natal classes on the NHS are brilliant though (I dont think you liked yours?) - all the mid-wives are fantastic and really reassuring. I'm not learning that much (because myself and OH always read up loads, that's just us lol), but I like the opportunity to meet other mums to be in our area, and it's nice to be able to air any fears concerns we have. The midwives answer loads of questions and are very honest about all the problems and worries of pregnancy - plus they're really keen to get all the blokes attending the classes involved. Also, for some reason when I turned up to my 20 week scan (which I had a week later as I was on holiday) it had been canceled (there was some confusion over exactly which tests we wanted) but they fitted us in there and then which was great of them, plus they gave me extra pictures! I studied forensics and human skeletal anatomy, so I was very excited to see all the bits on the scan, especially the spine which we got a picture of lol.
