Wednesday, September 03, 2008

NHS - DON'T YOU LOVE IT?

I had a friend over for coffee today. Her mother has just been in an NHS hospital for an op - well for them to re-do an op they botched last year to be precise. Anyway she was more than surprised the day of the operation when she received a text from her old mum saying 'Getting out tomorrow, ambulance booked'. Strange, she thought - they'd told her to expect a week in hospital. She rang the hospital just to confirm, and also to ask why an ambulance had been booked rather than just having them turn up to pick her up as expected. After speaking to several nurses and doctors on her ward it transpired that the whiteboard above her bed had had her name and this message on it. The message pertained to the previous patient in the bed, who'd been sent home in an ambulance that morning before my friend's mother was moved to that bed as it was closer to the toilet! My mate then hypothesized of course - Wonder what would have happened if the message for the previous patient had been - anaesthetise and amputate left leg tomorrow.
Her poor old mum wasn't too pleased either when they explained she wasn't really getting out.

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