Honda-SOHC
Other Stuff => Misc / Open => Topic started by: McCabe-Thiele (Ted) on October 23, 2025, 10:20:28 AM
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Firstly thanks for the good wishes from members here as I languish on my third day in what is a effectively a partial rebranding of A&E emergency services at Derby Royal Hospital.
I contacted 111 as I was suffering with quite severe bouts of shortness of breath following little or no exertion. I wanted to avoid hospital admission as Wendy is effectively house bound following her stroke in April.
There were no face to face appointments available at my GPs surgery.
The 111 call handler understood my situation, they were concerned about my symptoms so arranged for me to visit a department that is next door to the existing A&E entrance named Urgent Care Unit (UCU). 111 had contacted UCU I had to be there within an hour.
i was triaged on arrival where I joined a queue of about a hundred patients. After a 10 hour wait I had bloods taken plus an X-ray. The X-ray showed my breathing problems were linked to fluid retention affecting my lungs. There are few beds available most patients are sat in chairs in the long corridor.
I'm waiting for a bed to become available in the Medical Assesment Unit so I can have the fluid removed. I asked if I could go home and come back in the morning, yes I could but my place in the queue would be lost so I would have to wait for another 10 or so hours.
I was finally given.a bed yesterday morning at 7.00 am.At present Wendy is self funding the 24 hour care she needs until I am discharged.
I'm on day 3 of waiting in the Urgent Care Unit as there is no bed free in the Medical Assesment Unit.
The UCU is not a ward as such so no lockers or call buttons. Last time I looked at the patient information board there were 100 patients in the UCU down by around 20 from yesterday.
What I thought was a same day fix or an overnight admission has turned into waiting for a hospital bed.
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That sounds a terrible situation Ted, words fail me, absolutely no consideration for your health or for the fact that you are your wife’s carer. I just hope you can get some treatment and help soon.
I know it’s difficult but my advice would be to not just accept this and to start being demanding about your need to be treated and back home to take care of your wife. Good luck and I will be thinking of you as I am sure everyone on the forum will be. Please keep us informed as and when you can. I am not that far away from Derby if you need anything brought to you in the hospital.
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An update I've moved to the Medical Assessment Unit so I'm hoping for some sort of treatment when the Clinicians have seen me.
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What a sad state of affairs Ted, given your current family consideration.
Certainly appears lacking in compassion at least in recognition of your commitment to support Wendy.
I wish you well, but too remote to be of any practical use though.
Hopefully it'll help to share some of this out here (as you're doing) and to know we are thinking of you.
Keep us informed as to your progress through such a sclerotic and frustrating health system.
Nigel.
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I have no words Ted to add to those already said. The NHS is absolutely on its knees although no politician will admit it or the reasons why. The NHS is being privatised by stealth.
Hang in there and I sincerely hope you get the treatment you need and you feel better and can get home to Wendy soon.
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Crikey Ted, thats all you need. Hope you are sorted soon and back with Wendy. Shout if you need anything.
I'm a massive fan of the NHS but recent experiences like yours make me despair.
Can relate a few but my father in law had been in hospital a couple of weeks until suddenly discharged on Tuesday this week. Despite numerous requests to fully reinstate his care package, he did have carers yesterday but no nurse visit to administer his insulin. Should have been one am and another pm. Zilch! Basic duty of care stuff...
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Sad news Ted, unffortunatly this is country wide, wishing you get the treatment you need soon, well don for following up though on your breathing, who nkows what could have happend if you did not take that step. best wishes
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Ted, on Wednesday of this week I was called at around 8 p.m. by the Shift Supervisor at the nearby Care Home that Mother has moved into. The Supervisor said that mother had a raised temperature, vomiting and diarrhea and had briefly passed out - she had eaten a shellfish sandwich a few hours earlier that I had collected from a local supermarket and taken in to her, for a change from the usually supplied food at the Home.
An ambulance was called, with a response time of "up to four hours". As nothing had happened nearly four hours later, the Supervisor called back to be told that they were "under pressure" however the call out would be escalated to one level below a Blue Light Run. The new response time was "up to eight hours from now"!
The ambulance finally arrived at 3:25 a.m. and the crew decided that mother did not need hospital, as she was showing signs of recovery form a presumed episode of food poisoning. The crew remarked that it was probably fortunate, as they had been waiting for the past six hours to hand a patient over at A&E.
And it's not even winter yet, when things usually get worse.
As an aside, this same week my daughter became ill whilst on holiday in Malta, coincidentally with suspected food poisoning. She tells me that an emergency clinician was immediately dispatched to her hotel (from the local Pharmacy, apparently where they are medically trained) and administered some medication. She was able to fly home to Brussels the next day. No charge was made for this service, except for the cost of the prescription.
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Really don't want to be NHS bashing. I have had absolutely superb service on a number of occasions but something seriously lacking all too regularly...
I had a fall in France knocking myself out, nice cut, loads of blood etc. Our cottage is in a small hamlet about 5 k from our local village. Within 15 minutes of raising the alarm 5 people were in attendance. Then took me to hospital about 20mins away. Straight away assessed and MRI done. Then onto a nice ward for 3 days of assessment for any bleeds internally.
The French have a great system where the "Pompiers" include both firemen, ambulance staff and paramedics operating as one unit.
Unfortunately not my only experience of the French health service and again there, excellent.
People bang on about an overloaded inefficient service here, which there is surely some truth in but I think we should all be prepared to pay a bit more as well whatever. Like alot of other critical areas in our society, some non partisan agreement with long term goals from all political parties. When you need it you need it.
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Hi Ted this all sounds appalling, I hope things are improving for you.
I am British and proud of it and our history, when working abroad in the 1990's I used to get really annoyed at my European colleagues refering to the UK as a backward little island off the coast of Europe.
However sadly I am tending to the same opinion as the UK slowly slides into being a third world country.
Dennis
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This is madness Ted, perhaps you should have dialled 999? When I was taken in with pneumonia to the Royal London Hosptial a while back things happened rather quickly.
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Yeah me too. Straight out of the ambulance and straight into a bed, seen to almost immediately and as you know they went above and beyond for me.
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I have also had some excellent treatment and care from the NHS so I don’t want to knock it, however after what Ted has experienced I think best to give these urgent care units a miss and go straight to A&E. A 3 day wait without any treatment sort of defeats the idea of urgent care.
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Had a similar bad experience with 111. Wife had a bad reaction to penicillin, doctor told her to stick with them. Phoned 111 about 2100 at night and was directed to the minor injuries unit to see a doctor. By that time I had to carry her in. Doctor came to fetch her within 5 minutes and came to the same conclusion as I had. He wrote a letter and told us to go straight to A-E as she was showing sepsis markers and it was urgent.Sat in the A+E waiting room together with all the drunks for 5 hours before being seen. Sat in a corridor for another hour before getting treatment.
Within a couple of hours of treatment she was nearly back to normal.
Regards
Dave
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I am a great supporter of the NHS having used their servces over the decades, I think my recent experience has shown how much pressure the hospitals are under.
I was discharged this evening, I return as an outpatient tommorow morning so they can issue some DOCCLA equipment to be remotely momitored at home with three visits Wed-Fri for some injections also given at home.
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Good to know you are getting some treatment now and have been able to go home, hope it all goes well and you are soon back to good health. It must be such a relief to be home so that itself should help your recovery.
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Glad you are recovering mate
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Best wishes Ted. Get well soon. 👍
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Better news Ted, get well soon
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Good to see you are home Ted. Trying not to overdo it at home must be difficult.
Phil
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Great news Ted. Glad you are home for both yourself and support of Wendy. You must both have been so worried.
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Just arrived for a scan in small NHS community hospital. Loads of parking. Brand new spotless waiting room with 30 seats. Me and 4 others waiting....
Same type of scan 3 weeks ago at the main Chesterfield Royal Hospital. 40 minutes to find a parking space. Late for appointment as a result. Scan procedure fine with slight waiting delay.
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Glad to hear you are home Ted. Take it easy, plenty of restoration content on YouTube.
Tim, yep I agree, it's pot luck these days with the NHS. When I was told to go to Moorfields eye hospital urgently by my GP I was there for five hours before being seen. However, when I was told by my GP to go for an x-ray on my shoulder I got to the hospital as a 'walk in' and when straight in. I was in and out in 15 minutes!
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Just a brief health update, although I still have fluid in my lungs due to my existing heart failure I feel I am on the mend for the first time since my overnight hospitalisation in mid July 2025.
I've been advised that it will take several months for the fluid to dissipate. After taking a new heart failure drug I've had three good days in a row without getting breathless.
I'm now feeling that I can continue with my Honda 400NA restoration in the spring.👍👍👍
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Positive news Ted, and good to hear.
Slow and steady sounds good to get you back on an even keel.
Hope Wendy is OK too.
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Nice one Ted. Great news.
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Great news, you can’t keep an old biker down, we are just too stubborn to stop doing what we love. Take it steady.
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Better news, you sound like you are on the mend, build yourself up slowly for a bit of tinkering in the spring.
Cheers
Dennis
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Positive news Ted, and good to hear.
Slow and steady sounds good to get you back on an even keel.
Hope Wendy is OK too.
Wendy is continuing to make slow progress thanks.
Today my friend Bob & I managed a transfer from wheelchair into the front seat of the car.
It involves using a short wooden special boomerang shaped plank to slide from the wheelchair onto the car seat.
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Glad to hear it Ted, keep you both safe mate
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Just a bit of an update from our house.
Wendy's speech has improved no end since she came home on the 15th August 2025.
Her Aphasia still causes problems when trying to tell me something, social speech is now really good
Still no use on her right arm, her right leg shows some improvement in the upper joints. NHS physio has ended, now on a long waiting list for Community based hospital Physio. We are in the process of filling the gap with a private Neuro Physiotherapist.
I have now recovered from my Decompensated Heart Failure having been given some extra drugs. I saw the main Cardiology Team yesterday, they tested out how I felt about a Pacemaker in 10 months time as the next phase of treatment. I feel as well as I did this time last year.
I'm planning to carry on with Superdream build in the spring.
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Excellent news Ted. Star patients!
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So glad to hear this news from your homestead Ted. Sounds like Wendy has done really well to get to where she is. Look after yourselves and behave over the festive and good health for the new year.
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You are both doing well Ted and it's all positive news👍.
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However geriatric care in York is a SoS. They can’t fill water jugs, clean toilets or even wear face masks properly. They have excellent control of single hand working with mobile phones on hand, though.
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Thats good news about both of you Ted.
A friend of mine (paramedic) who suffered similarly to Wendy, and went through the same process which although frustrating for them, shows remarkable power of reconnection within the brain. It is an incredible organ, afterall.
Best wishes to both of you.