One fall and knockout service from NHS
Last night, pedalling home in the dark on a relatively deserted street, two pedestrians suddenly ran out from behind a lorry on my left straight into my path. I was right on top of them and in attempting to avoid them was thrown off my bike.
They seemed OK, if surprised, and I seemed OK, if fed up. I did what I have done before when unexpectedly disconnected from my steed. I remounted the bike and made for home.
We went out to a long-planned family supper with friends, but by around 10pm I thought I should get checked, as the handle-bars seemed to have bruised my ribs in the fall.
I drove to casualty at London’s University College Hospital and within 30 seconds of entering and disclosing the bike fall, I was attended by a nurse. Within 70 seconds I was on a trolley.
Fortunately the casualty traffic on a Wednesday night was light. Within three minutes I was being seen by a confident, knowledgeable Dutch/American doctor.
She and the nurses told me that they have an absolute protocol at UCH that if anyone is thrown from a bicycle they are immediately prioritized. Blood tests were done; my heart rate plugged into a monitor; my chest X-rayed. All within the first 20 minutes of my arrival.
Needless to say, the journalist in me went into overdrive. I have hardly ever had to attend a hospital.
In assorted moments of pulse taking and the rest, I quizzed the staff. The doctor had been working in the unit for two years, the nurses, all full-time staff, had worked in the unit for periods of three and four years other than one who had recently transferred from the Oxford John Radcliffe Hospital.
The team, the system, the environment, all worked as a completely integrated machine with an extraordinary additional element of humanity. Nothing was too much trouble.
Now UCH is a modern state-of-the-art unit. But it was living proof positive that there remains in the NHS, the greatest free health care at the sharp end of the system, anywhere in world.
Three hours and 18 minutes after I arrived, I left and drove home. I had only stayed that long for belt and braces observation and blood results.
This morning I awoke in my own bed, feeling calm and reassured that I was happy, and in one piece. I also awoke mindful that I had sampled the best of the best…and aware that I must be a little more alert to the possibility of pedestrians running out from behind trucks.
Follow Jon on Twitter: @jonsnowC4
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There are 26 comments on this post
Hope your bruised ribs are OK .
Delighted OK, Jon. A friend, thrown from his bike by pedestrians in similar circumstances, wasn’t as lucky as you. Took many months to recover from injuries. I was thrown off in car-free Oxford St years ago by peds coming out of a shop, looking left and walking straight in front of me – they were from Spain. Came off again recently trying to avoid a motorist in largely pedestrianised area. Discovered later that the ‘Give Way’ sign on road from where she was coming at me had been removed – officially! NB a few emails later to borough highways boss/ward councillors and signage reinstated.
Back to you, though, and UCH: have tweeted the hospital’s ‘absolute protocol’ in prioritizing cyclists thrown from bikes – it’s my local!
But on the day that Andrew Lansley warns PFI schemes are ‘taking NHS trusts to brink of financial collapse’ http://gu.com/p/324f9/tw
it’s worth pointing out that UCH is a PFI-hospital with annual rent of an eye-watering £30m a year. Earlier this month the Commons Public Accounts Committee had this to say:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/sep/04/pfi-private-finance-initiative
NB: PFI, like the Right to Buy, was a Tory idea implemented by Labour.
I have a great deal of respect for the NHS sraff as well. I have had to rely on them extensively in my youth, having been involved in a near fatal car accident as a pedestrian. I was comatosed for 3 months with multiple limb fractures. I was treated with dignty and respect.
The constant political bitching over NHS funding and services by the Tories, who want to privatise it, and the Labour party, who don’t, is a major source of contention with me.
Well first of all, it’s great to know you are ok and that you had the sense to go get checked. As people get older and stubborn they are usually reluctant to seek medical checks yet, we all become more vulnerable with age.
It’s a delight to hear your experience seemed positive and, I don’t want to pee wee on your bonfire but, might there have been some aspect of selective service to a celebrity here?
In Halifax, if you contemplated going to the A&E (Accident & Emergency) you should book ahead like you would a hotel and, check there any vacancies within the next week! This place, like most northern places, are shocking. An ordinary night sees droves of tattoo covered, mouthy or, zombie-like people off their faces on Stella and drugs, covered in blood, with Pit Bulls Dogs and Pimps in tow…and that’s just the women! All seeking a place to sleep for the night.. in the waiting room!
Ok, perhaps a slight exaggeration but, you get the picture;)
The morale of staff in these medical establishments couldn’t be lower. The service and dedication they sometimes give, as a result, is poor to say the least. Who can blame ‘em. Cuts, cuts, cuts, pay freezes, pay cuts, pension cuts & staff cuts.
Try that without a famous name- You wouldn’t recognise it!
Perfect day for you to interview Andrew ‘Who can I frighten about the NHS and divert attention from my dreadful plans’ Lansley and ask him why, if he feels PFI was so disastrous, he wants to put even more of the NHS into the hands of private suppliers.
Glad you are OK. You would have thought by now people would have realised it is dangerous to step into the road from behind a large vehicle.
Andrew Lansley will probably see that as carelessness brought on by the complacency of knowing NHS treatment is free.
Love your final para, Sam!
To those who think Jon’s well-known face a factor in his treatment – yes, of course. But the ‘absolute prioritising’ of cycle-accident patients has been widely tweeted, so UCH now has reputation to uphold.
I understand that the Queen Mother got good treatment too!
I did not. My mother and father did not. And we all waited for hours to be seen.
With the resources that have been thrown at the NHS, even they must have some success.
I was in the PFI business and I can’t tell you how many times I told Civil Servants and Ministers not to transfer the risk to the private sector but simply to purchase our managerial skills.
The treasury in the shape of Brown Balls and co saw a way to con the electorate with the mantra “it’s off our balance sheet”. The really expensive debt did not show up in the accounts. But it was not only there, it was much bigger than it needed to be because the Government can always borrow at a much cheaper rate than the private sector.
So, Sam, do not blame the private sector for PFI. ‘Sir Humphrey’ always ‘fielded’ junior, ignorant officials to deal with matters that they knew nothing about. No wonder we are in a mess!
Sam’s not blaming private sector for PFI, Moonbeach, rather the politicians – in this case Lansley – as you’re rightly doing yourself.
Once again for the record: the disasterous PFI, like housing RTB (right to buy) a Tory idea implemented by (New) Labour. Our politicians are all in it together.
Extending the cycling/health aspect of Jon’s post, this link ‘Cyclists inhale double the soot’ http://bbc.in/oZ0wMX makes sobering reading (didn’t quite understand the last sentence, though).
Moonbeach
Most of the financial resources that get thrown at the NHS are gobbled up in needless administration and bureaucatic hodge-podge.
What they need to do to reform the NHS so that the money is spent where it is needed is to get rid of all the management that do not interact with patients on a personal level, about 80% of the management sit in offices so that they have no possible way of contaminating their hands by looking at a patient. Bring back the Matrons and Ward Sisters to “manage” the wards from the top down, these are where the resourses are mainly needed. Allow the doctors to organise the level of care that the patients need and have a hospital manager that is charge of the Hospital site and buildings and not the allocation of beds and resources.
The extra funding will be mainly for specialist units but the wards will be managed by the resources that it requires at that time, not what they are expecting to be doing in 18 months time.
I only wish my Mother and Uncle had recieved that kind of care when they had their separate accidents in Southampton! My Uncle, injured in an industrial accident was refused Xrays, 10 months later after complications and a LOT of pain they finally relented and found several free-moving breaks in his legs, jaw and hips.
My Mother tripped up and fell on her elbows. She and my Father went to A&E and had to refuse to leave before the XRays were done, finding several fractures in her arms.
I am heartened to hear of your experience and kudos to those who gave you it!
Jon,
A nice piece. And a perfect illustration of why the NHS must never be privatised by the Tories and LibDems. We all know where that will lead, to American-style hospitals searching an unconscious casualty for credit cards and bankrupting patients to pay their bills.
It is a British creation of which we should be proud – and grateful to the great Nye Bevan for his determination to create it in the face of Tory opposition and hatred. Such a Socialist concept could never even occur to those politicians who lie and hide their true intentions for our health service.
As today’s PFI news illustrates, neocon politicians have already made deep inroads into the NHS in search of ripoff profits. Meanwhile, the Tories continue their salami approach, which is to gradually slice off different elements of the NHS until they achieve their wet dream of complete privatisation.
They daren’t openly put that proposition to the British electorate because they know what the answer would be. Instead, they simply lie. We can expect nothing better from either them or the LibDems, but New Labour’s betrayal and refusal to reverse this corruption is just as bad.
So cherish the NHS while you still can.
Jon, sorry to hear of your mishap.Glad you are ok , and presumably the steed too.
I am also pleased you were well cared for by the NHS and am sure they do a stirling job in most cases.
I have no real axe to grind ,for the NHS saved my son’s life,but i have many elderly friends who complain of a lack of compassion towards the more aged of our community.
That is not to say there is not an expensive bureaucracy and over manning in the Chieftain stakes
Our wonderful NHS. For how much longer?
sadly, i beg to differ to the journalist, because it’s London, central London. If you could call this ‘the greatest free health care at the sharp end of the system, anywhere in world,’ you simply haven’t seen a lot outside UK. After seeing a GP for palpitation, it’s been over 2 weeks since my GP told me to be referred to a consultant. I haven’t heard from anyone (either my GP or a consultant) ever since. It’s UCL hospital that could be one of the best in the world, but simply not ‘NHS’, never.
Variation in NHS service levels are inevitable in my view; time and place, but also human nature being what it is (you’re a celebrity Jon surely you’re used to the VIP treatment?). The day after I suffered a similar injury I was given anti-inflammatory or some such pills once the doctor and I agreed I was still breathing. But, the service was more than adequate nonetheless and was given with kindness. Here’s hoping the Coalition’s attempt to utilise the banking crisis to usher in NHS privatisation ultimately proves fruitless.
I whole heartedly agree with you. I’m a 51 year old lady with epilepsy. Throughout my life I’ve been in contact with various elements of the NHS, be-it for bumps, bruises and stitches, to breaks, burns and surgery – not to mention my Neurology. I have always been treated with absolute care and dedication to my cause. All I can say is Hurrah to the NHS and all involved in it – they are my/our network!
The cynic in me believes you were identified as a television personality and treated accordingly.
This public/private argument is beginning to look a bit bogus: Labour privatised the NHS when it built and refurbished all those hospitals on the PFI. Now, just like the bankrupt state, the NHS will be spending all its cash paying interest – interest it will still be paying when all the shiny new equipment is out-dated, the paint has flaked away and medical wages have been frozen for a decade.
I wonder whether any of you watched Melvyn Bragg last week talking about the inception of the NHS and its ethos. There was also a shot of the older type of nurse and how they were trained with a sense of public responsibility.This is how I was trained and it is difficult to detach oneself from the mindset which founded our great institution.We were bombarded with theory and exams in between working long shifts for3-4 years , only to start again when we qualified and it has gone on for forty odd years. There is a lot of wealth in the NHS which is not necessariy about money.
The NHS was ‘privatised’ when it was first established, by allowing all your local GPs to become private sub-contractors not employees, and so it remains today.
Individual or group GPs operate private companies (or ‘parterships’) which charge the NHS for the local services they provide. They make a ‘profit’ from this revenue, which is then shared out amongst the principals. That is privatisation, ‘making profit out of the NHS’.
So next time anyone starts getting emotional about ‘firms profiting form the NHS’, just remember that your friendly local GP has been doing that for over 60 years, and his/her ‘trade union’ will fiercely resist any change in that license to print money.
If any party genuinely believed in a fully public-service NHS, they would terminate all those contracts and employ the GPs directly. But none have the courage to do that, so let’s not be hypocritial about NHS privatisation – it’s always been there and always will be.
Yes Mudplugger and BUPA paralleled the NHS By setting up their Private initiative the same year.
The question is not about the money wholly , it is about the ethos of those it is going to serve and the expertise which is being drained off from the NHS denying our establishment this expertise and replacing it with something lacking the whole package of care.
AS a NURSE we trained in every aspect of medicine, surgery, paediatrics , obstetrics, gynaecology , dietetics, public health, elderly care, physiotherapy,ethics, psychiatry etc allbut in a non specialised way and have an understanding of the whole person in context to society We we see a consultant they are specialist in their field and we are all very grateful for that , but and big but there is more to the NHS than this.
I’m with you, Margaret. I’m a great supporter of the NHS – possible the greatest social achievement of any post-war government. Providing all necessary healthcare, free at the point of delivery – amazing.
The problem is when it becomes either wrapped up in political rhetoric or used as a political football. It should be nothing to do with politics, it’s about making our poorly people better.
Way down the ladder in the NHS are vast swathes of dedicated folk, whose main aim is to provide caring medical services to those in need of them. From one step up the ladder, however, is the start of a self-aggrandising cult which aims to extract the most while doing the least – trouble is, these people are also the ones who marshall the defences against any improvement processes from which they will not personally gain.
If the ‘threat’ of introducing more private competition helps to emasculate these ‘passengers’ and enhance the quality and value of services, then bring it on.
Privatisation is not the answer. If a child in injured in an accident at scholl or in the park, resulting in a broken limb, it would bankrupt the average family of today to pay for private care.
We pay NATIONAL INSURANCE on our wages in order to get the free health care that we recieve today. If all healthcare was private the NI that we pay would take about 1/3 of our wages! On a basic income of NMW, that would severly cripple the lowest earners to buy sustaianable groceries and be able to lead a healthy life.
I used to work for an NHS trust. I would strongly disagree with the comments that celebrity had anything to do with his treatment. I knew these people and how hard they work, and continue to do so.
However there are things drastically going wrong. Money has been wasted, the cream and much of the milk drunk by fatcat executive & quango bodies, and time wasted by drunks and imbeciles who phone an ambo for a chipped nail or a taxi service…
I’ve found in the NHS that the specialist teams are seriously professional in their duty of care.
But those who fill in the gaps between these specialists are mostly winging it.
When my sister and also a friend were ill, if some of the nurses who dealt with them and spoke to us were secretly filmed then (in my opinion anyway) they would have been sacked.
As a nurse I can confirm that anyone who has been knocked of their bicycle would be triaged and prioritised due to the risk of serious head injury. National guidelines would ensure this happens whether you are a celebrity or in London or Leeds, indeed any A&E department.
Triage and prioritisation is difficult and sadly means that there are bound to be unhappy patients who have to wait but they should rest assured should they ever have a risk of a serious head injury they too would get the same treatment as Jon.