Two steps forward ...

It's nineteen minutes past midnight, and I'm writing a blog entry. There's a reason: two days after her eye op, Viv and I find ourselves in the middle of an unpleasant experience, and it's not made better by NHS bureacracy. 

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We all hear that the NHS is under great strain. That there are few empty beds. So why isn't there more focus on getting patients to the right hospital for their treatment?

The reason I'm up now, writing this, is that Viv had a bad seizure earlier in the evening. It started when we were lying in bed, watching TV, with familiar sounds, the smacking of her lips. It was then followed by her struggling to speak when I asked her whether she was alright; I then followed my standard routine when this happened, of finding some honey and giving her a quarter of a teaspoon: every time we have faced this problem in the last three years - perhaps thirty or so - this would bring her round within seconds. This time it didn't. 

She improved slightly after a few minutes; we relaxed, and got ready to settle down for the night. We were watching Deutschland '89, I was attempting to follow the german speech. After a few minutes Viv starting speaking, somewhat incoherently: 'That's right! Yes! No!', rather as if she was dreaming, but her eyes were wide open. This continued for fifteen minutes; I tried to ask her questions requiring a non yes-or-no answer, and it was clear she understood me, but that she simply couldn't say words other than 'yes' or 'no'.

I wondered what to do. Viv hates hospitals, but if there is a problem with her brain - stroke or something - it's important it gets seen quickly. She has a shunt inside her skull, if it has gone haywire that might cause funny symptoms. I hadn't made up my mind what to do when she more or less made it up for me: she did something she hadn't done for three years (since the shunt was put in), she turned her head to the right and, still seemingly conscious (eyes open and responding a little), started to shake and go into a more serious stage of seizure. This I took as my cue to dial 999, and within a few minutes we had four paramedics in our bedroom, trying to stabilise her. This took perhaps fifteen minutes, they had to get a needle into her arm and give her some diazepam - not easy on a patient who is convulsing.

'She's going to have to go to hospital', they told me. I told them about her shunt, and that she'd have to be at Addenbrooke's to have it checked; it is also the case that she shouldn't have a head MRI scan anywhere other than Addenbrooke's.

'We'll have to take her to Bedford, it's the local hospital'. That, I know, would not be a good idea, and Viv and I have already said that we're not prepared to be treated there (being well into our case for misdiagnosis there of Viv's hydrocephalus, the reason she needed the shunt). I asked about Addenbrooke's, but that wasn't possible, so then queried about the Lister, at Stevenage, and one of the crews agreed to take her there - she is known to the neuro consultant there, and they know about her shunt. 

The diazepam took effect and Viv soon came round, although did not recover any ability to speak. She did manage to walk, aided, through to the ensuite to use the loo, and walk downstairs, again aided, and into the ambulance. 

The problem for me is this: she's going to the LIster. They may well want an MRI scan, or may decide that her shunt needs to be checked. Either of those needs to be done at Addenbrooke's.

Addenbrookes is 23.4 miles away. The Lister is, admittedly, a little over half that, and Bedford closer still, so for cases that don't have any reason to go to a specific hospital it makes sense for an ambulance to take patients to a nearby unit, but, in Viv's case, there's every chance she'll be stuck in the Lister for a few days while doctors work out what to do (I could tell them, but, under coronavirus regs, am not allowed to go there to assist), and then arrange transport for her to Addenbrookes, which will require more ambulance staff, and only then can she have her shunt checked.

It should be a turn-up-and-go type of check; we have the option of phoning a nurse at Addenbrookes whenever we have a concern. It should take no more than a quarter of an hour.

In this case Viv will probably be using an NHS bed for a number of days before it gets checked, all because of NHS processes and one hospital not allowing patients - even those it is responsible for - to be admitted to it's A&E.

In all this bureacracy, does anyone care about the patient? Or the staff?

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It gets worse. I've just phoned the Lister, she is there, awaiting a CT scan. They hadn't been told about her VP shunt. Also, the twenty seconds of blurb about coronavirus on the recorded message said that they do not accept visitors with patients EXCEPT CARERS. 

Why haven't the ambulance staff been told that?