Wonder if this new 'choose and book' system would allow you to choose somewhere better without issue?

If an Op wasn't that urgent could I do somewhere on the south coast in August and have 2 weeks convalescence, full board, on the terrace?

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Lets be careful out there !

Sorry to hear of your experience as well Westonman. I concur with your above statement.

I made the mistake of going back into an NHS hospital ( Mt Vernon ) in 2011 for a hip replacement operation. The irony is I was offered the chance to have it done in a private hospital in Sussex, paid for by the NHS.

I chose the wrong option, and that didnt end well.

The NHS is an institution we should all be proud of, but the politicians, bean counters and layers of useless managers have contrived to reduce it to a complete and utter shambles. I have a great deal of sympathy for the front line staff who are left to pick up the pieces.

I agree with you Moley, many of the front line staff do a great job. The real culprits rarely see the light of day – and they take the largest share of the salary cake.

Common Purpose appear to have foothold in the NHS. See this NHS headed paper:
http://www.cpexposed.com/sites/default/ ... etwork.pdf

Link to Common Purpose:
http://www.commonpurpose.org.uk/

Note: David Cameron is a supporter of Common Purpose.

My wife was in Harefield recently and I have to say I was impressed with her care. And to think they wanted to close that hospital !

This is going to sound boring ....

My wife was in Harefield for a month in 2006 when she was diagnosed with VT (Ventricular Tachycardia). She was wired to a monitor 24x7 and was only allowed to go to the toilet supervised. Again supervision was poor and she often wet the floor/bed waiting.

Being almost chained to a bed for a month in a mixed ward of which she was the only woman almost broke her. After 3 weeks of asking when she was to have her first ablation and being constantly ignored or the stock 'we had an emergency in so your slot was used' she was losing it. I ended up going to PALS and funnily enough the ablation was performed a few days later after she had been visited by 2 consultants who apparently were unaware of her length of stay.

She said later that it was obvious that nurses were taking a wide path because they had no answers either.

Her problem was that what she had wasn't serious so everyone else took preference.

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Lets be careful out there !