The District Nurse Takes Control
As I said earlier my only problem was putting in the drops.
I told my GP yesterday, and saw him send a message to the District Nurses.
Today one of the organisers phoned me and an hour later she turned up and gave me an assessment.
She also put drops in my eyes and came back later to repeat the dose.
She had all the attributes one associates with District Nurses. She was professional, competence and well-turned out. The only difference from the stereotype was that she was probably younger than thirty.
She or one of her colleagues will come back tomorrow and she is trying to source a device that will enable me to do my eyes myself.
It is good to see, that with the pandemic still raging, I can get good care like that from the NHS.
The Anonymous Widower 
Well I’m pleased you got such prompt attention. I have a condition that required attention to a wound a couple of weeks ago however our Community Nurses, who are on “Black Watch” were unable to attend for five days. In the meantime my GP organised antibiotics.
Clearly the NHS functions better in some parts of the country than others.
Comment by fammorris | November 18, 2021 |
My only dealings with District Nurses in this part of London was probably thirty years ago with stories from my late wife’s mother’s friends. Not good! But now that Hackney and Dalston in particular is on the up, I suspect that hospitals and the community nursing service get a better class of nurse.
The local hospital is Homerton, which used to have a mixed reputation, but seems to be getting much better. There are certainly good signs of innovative management.
Comment by AnonW | November 18, 2021 |
Good to learn of your positive experience. Not quite sure it would be as good as that here in Somerset which seems to be a forgotten part of the U.K. being closer to France than London.
Comment by Chris Noble | November 19, 2021 |
I must say that when I lived near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, my experience of the rural health services during the death of my wife and son was excellent.
Comment by AnonW | November 19, 2021 |
Coincidently to your latest reply I just got an email from Surrey Live about midwives in Surrey protesting about their conditions of work (12 hours without a break), so I had a look around the country and it seems to be a rapidly escalating thing in a number of of areas including this link
https://www.suffolknews.co.uk/bury-st-edmunds/news/amp/we-have-no-choice-but-to-whistleblow-fearful-midwives-cat-9212618
Makes you wonder about the resilience of the system
Comment by fammorris | November 19, 2021
You were lucky, a few years ago, when I had sepsis, the actual Sepsis nurses were excellent, came daily for a 90 minute slot to do obs and give me a dose of IV antibiotic. But district nurses were not good at all, couldn’t come for 5 days to dress the wound when they sepsis nurses had finished visiting. And getting stitches taken out at a district nurses clinic is unworkable. I had stitches and was told they needed to come out on a certain day and I should I phone to make an appointment – the only appointment they could give me was over a week after that date. I sterilised the seam ripper from sewing box and removed them myself. When my the same thing happened to my daughter, I took her to the Emergency Treatment centre at local private hospital.
I glad that you were able to get good treatment.
Comment by nosnikrapzil | November 20, 2021 |