Don't EVER get sick

[scumdog]

Face it peeps - NZ is a 3rd world country (that is also over-regulated)

[RantyDave]

Face it peeps - NZ is a 3rd world country

Worse than that, man. It's a 3rd world country full of people that think it's really rich (and it's just them that's broke). News flash: it's damn near everybody

Dave

[Manxman]

Has anyone considered emailing this thread to the new Minister of Health?

Plenty of eye popping examples of incompetence and bureaucracy to get his teeth into.

[Paul in NZ]

OK - I'm home @ 9:30pm...

The GP / local nurse were fabulous and squeezed us in, total exam, ranf the surgical registrar, wrote a letter addressed to this person and detailed everything, called him back and told him we were on our way, didn't ask for any $$, brought us into and out of the practise out the back so Vicki didn't have to walk too far. Coastal Medical - Jan and Julie - YOU GUYS ARE A CREDIT to the profession...

Raced into town - triage nurse didn't even look at the letter - I had to open it and she then asked all the same questions when the info was all docummented for her including Vickis medical history... I guess she was pissed we buggered off the night before to see our GP... Dunno - at least she was nicer about the whole thing... They are all nice people in a shitty situation I reckon...

So we wait... With everyone else and ED is now in code RED.... Oue co operation is appreciated....

And we wait... At least this time we didn't get the crazy rubbish bag man sitting next to Vicki leering at her and there were less kiddies.

The letter eventually worked and we are admitted to the inner sanctom - where we wait (we are now so tired we have just given up and meekly wait) - we luck out and get a room (of sorts) while many old ladies are stuck in halls (later I go for a walk and find people stuck in corridors all over the show)

We get examined - the letter has disappeared (sorry - not in your file )

Answer the same questions to 4 different people.

6:30 she gets morphine

7:30, Vicki has a CT scan.

8:30 I go home while I can still drive to get my night time insulin.

9:30 Vicki calls - yes it's confirmed, appencitis and she is having an op in the morning (hopefully) - yes she is still in ED in a exam room as there are 12 people waiting for admission and beds and there ARE no beds - or staff.

The staff do their best.

12 people waiting - sorry - they won't get beds and are stuck in ED all night meaning others can't get in.

Contractors (Transfield) filled many of the ED car parks.

Half the staff in ED resigned this month - our first nurse was one of them.

David the DR was great but it was his first day and he didn't know how anything worked...

Storm the nurse was wonderful - but she looked very tired.

EVERY person I said - 'busy day eh' too said 'eh - its like this everyday'

Not a good day but now we know what we are dealing with - for 2 hours today it was possibly something much worse...

Chirst I'm tired....

[Fatjim]

Mate, that is so bad. People in charge, and I mean the suits at the top, should be named and shamed. I bet if they worked in a brewery and organised a pissup everyone would be sober and thirsty at the end of the night.

[Paul in NZ]

Mate, that is so bad. People in charge, and I mean the suits at the top, should be named and shamed. I bet if they worked in a brewery and organised a pissup everyone would be sober and thirsty at the end of the night.

I bet transfield don't park in their spaces either...

Its pretty shocking down there - imagine if there was a civil defence problem - you would be fucked. I have not described all we went through or saw today because its raw and most folks are doing their best but christ, what a mess....

DON'T get sick

[madmal64]

Great to get an update Paul. I have been checking this thread alot today waiting for the progress report.
Hope Vicki gets the treament we all deserve quickly tomorrow.
All the best & you look after yourself too!

[jrandom]

I have a holy horror of the NZ public health system.

We have excellent private A&E clinics and hospitals. I cannot imagine why anyone in this country who is not destitute would choose to exist without medical insurance.

My ex-wife was diagnosed today with three melanomas. Her surgery is scheduled for ten days from now.

If I hadn't continued paying Sovereign the premiums for her health insurance policy after our divorce, based on the prescient notion that I might need her in one piece to look after the kids, I strongly suspect that her diagnosis today would have been the first step of a process that'd simply see her die on a waiting list for one reason or another before they left primary school.

When I binned and smashed my hand up last year, I went to a White Cross A&E clinic. For $50, they shot me up with painkillers immediately, X-rayed me and transferred me to Middlemore by ambulance, where I was wheeled into a treatment room straight past a couple of dozen poor bastards who'd been waiting for god knows how long to be checked out for free.

If I'd gone straight to the public A&E, I could have been sitting in that room in agony for hours.

My best wishes to Vicki, Paul, I hope everything works out OK.

[chanceyy]

OMG Paul, I know the health system is in tatters but that is shocking

hope that all goes well for Vicki's op and she makes a speedy recovery

[Brett]

Shit Paul, that is really crap. Hope by this time tomorrow everything has played out ok.

The DHB's in part have a bit to answer for, and CERTAINLY the previous government has had a LOT to answer for in regards to their stubborness and refusal to accept the vast backward slide of the NZ health system.

The Dr's do their absolute best, many worked faaaar beyond what is safe, reasonable and fair. They are between a rock and a hard place. They are legally only supposed to work a certain number of hours per shift, per week etc. however due to poor planning and lack of staff, pretty much all of them work well past such limits and are thus putting their necks on the line should anything go wrong. You can be sure, it iwll be their heads that roll if anything goes wrong as the govt looks to put blame away from them. I understand this, because I have read my wifes employment contract. When you take a standard (Public Sector) Dr's salary and break it down to an hourly wage, you can be looking at between $20 & $25 per hour. No wonder few people see the study and work worth the end result. But they do it out of some misguided sense of duty.

The end result is that upstanding, tax paying citizens are treated like shit when they most need care.

[SARGE]

I am sorry you have had such a bad time but there are factors to consider, and no I am not trying to defend the hospitals system, globally there is a shortage of qualified nurses so staffing numbers are lower than desired in any hospital, **snip**

[B]You think you get frustrated spare a thought for those who work in those professions, they do give a dam but their hands are tied by the systems in place,**snip**. This is the attitude that make medical professionals give up and drive taxi's.

maybe if we stopped paying idiot sports stars, pop stars and politicians huge undeserved salaries and put that money into Nurses, Teachers and cops.. our world would be a better place..

[Bloody Mad Woman (BMW)]

Good luck for a speedy recovery Vicki. Paul, I was not surprised to read about your experiences with A&E - I witnessed it first hand with my own experience. I got to A&E at 12 noon. God knows what time I got thru the inner sanctum, had a CT Scan then was left at reception in a bed - like many others. The Dr I had had been on duty since mid-day he told me - and he was giving me a lumbar puncture at 2.30am - a flamin 9cm needle in my spine and I'm thinking crikey mate your tiredness levels - I'm not sure I want you to do it. Finally I got to a ward at 5am - got kicked out at 12 noon, put in a lazyboy chair in the waiting room and a blanket thrown over me. Finally got an MRI at 5.30pm - the "released me on leave" at 7pm cos they had no beds (neurology dept) and I was to report back at 8am - where upon I had to sit in the waiting room again. Dr came and advised me in front of visitors that they had found something on the scan but they wanted to check exactly what it was - would be back to me in an hour - 2 hours later I threatened to walk out - I was in physical pain and could not stay awake. Finally the Dr came and in a loud voice asked for a private room. Gave me my diagnosis like he was talking about the weather, told me to go have lunch and be back for a neuro surgeon's appt at 1.30pm. I was dazed, walked out and lit a cigarette to which some arsewipe said "Do you realise you are not suppose to smoke here". My reply was Tell someone who gives a fk - if that is all you have to worry about you are lucky.

I don't have private insurance - can't afford it. However the relief of knowing what is wrong is good.
Sad to think alot of pain could have been avoided for Vicki had we a decent health system.

[Brian d marge]

oh dear butter post this in a quiet voice ...

When I visited NZ , a couple of years a go , I popped into a health centre to get some work done , not to bad , 70 dollars for the Xray was a bit steep..

Just had my WOF here in Japan , complete check up , blood , XRays , poked and prodded , for an hour ( not a complete , as I didnt get a ct scan nor on the tread mill) . but 2000 yen

teeth wisdom removal , 10 000 yen total , per tooth , FILLINGS , 500yen , some sort of fancy glue ..

We do pay a insurance of I think 13000 a month , not sure ,,,but that cover 75 %

Mind you dont give birth on a weekend ,,,that will cost u a bit , our second child cost 150 000 up front of which we get 70 % back in 5 months

THE WORST I have ever seen was London hospital , I clipped a car as a DR and finished off the days work , struggling to walk , so popped over to London Hospital ,,,got there at three in the afternoon , got home at TEN in the evening ,,, with broken toes ( crush injury of the right foot ) ..2 asprin and an Icepack .. ( strapping it would have been nice )

Me I am getting all my work done here !!!!

Stephen

[Storm]

Thats crappy news paul, hope your wonderful wife is a bit better off now.

[Paul in NZ]

Call from the nurse at 1:30am

Appendix confirmed (well duh) Vicki having op this morning assuming no more road crashes so will go into ward last night. We are in! I guess we were lucky she was so sick - first present 10pm monday night - into a ward 1:30am wed, god knows what it would be like if you were harder to diagnose.

As always, gratefull that we lie in a time and place where this is not fatal but also wondering why this has to be so damn difficult and inefficient? Not everyone that turns up at A & E is a freeloader, many have nowhere else to go. GP's practises are closed in many cases and often our more special citizens don't have the resources to come up with alternatives. There is nowhere else - medical insurance won't cover acute cases (I checked), there is one option and one option only, your local DHB. Travelling to the Hutt oe palmy would have resulted in an ambulance trip back to wellie.. You have no options...

Saddest of all was the many many elderly arriving in ambulanes and then laying in coridors - not very dignified and not something to look forwards to.

Pretty grim stuff.... Ultimately its up to us - but I don't think this is acceptable practise..