I had five hours at hospital today because my mother lost a lot of strength in her left arm overnight. The consensus is she had a minor stroke but I want to share the UK health system with you. Her doctor visited at 12 pm after a call in the morning and did the paperwork there and then. The ambulance with two kind men arrived just after 2pm, the wrapped mum in a blanket placed her in a chair carried her to the ambulance and drove her 45 miles to the regional hospital.
She was admitted to the hospital and sent down to accident and emergency as she was a stroke victim. This is where I found her arriving ten minutes later as I had to find a parking space which was not too difficult but it meant I was at the far end of the hospital. Those places are warrens even with the colour coding. She had a heart test, blood pressure taken, blood samples taken all within the hour. The doctor saw her after about two hours and requested a scan of her head. The scan was done after we had been there about four and a half hours and she was admitted to a bed in a ward to be observed overnight and to allow fresh minds to view the scans both by the night doctors who saw her and the morning doctors.
She will be driven back tomorrow. She will be fed and hydrated well. Cost to us? £6.90 for the parking. And she will come home with detailed calls to me from the doctors about how she needs to heal and how far the healing may go.
Our politicians tell me there are things wrong with this service. What? Oh wait, of course, it costs money to care for a population.