Praise for hospital staff and the high quality of NHS care in city

Patients dying following errors in hospital and long waits for ambulances have made the headlines in recent days.

Five people died at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals during 2016 after suspected safety errors, including two at the Northern General Hospital’s A&E department following delays in diagnois and treatment. It was also revealed by Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh that a 79-year-old constituent died after waiting two hours and 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

But for every bad incident there are many positive cases that go unrecognised and thousands of staff working tirelessly to help the city’s population.

Readers have been quick to show their support for the ‘under valued’ and ‘over worked’ paramedics and health staff who work around the clock in the face of Government cuts.

Kadi Alam said: “Hospitals aren’t hotels. They are scary, crowded places full of highly skilled people who are run ragged trying to do their jobs and help people.

“Most of them are doing the job of two people, many are stressed beyond measure and every one of them is doing it with good intentions.

“No-one is out to do harm.

“At the moment the NHS is a privilege and we should be thanking our stars it is still here.”

Charley Wood said: “The poor staff work hard to save lives.

“They are over worked, short staffed, under valued and under paid.

“It’s a sad matter.”

Sarah Victoria Broadbent said: “It’s about people using services they don’t need.

“Going to A&E or calling an ambulance should be for an emergency.

“People decide on a weekend to go to A&E for silly things that can be treated by speaking to chemist etc.

“People need to think before they go and think about people who genuinely need that service. The staff are working as hard as they can and it’s not their fault the Government has cut funding and now are trying to say there isn’t a crisis.”

Brittany Horton said: “Maybe the Government should stop cutting NHS funding and encourage more people to go into the industry.

“The current staff are pushed to such extremes how can they provide perfect care 24/7?

“Cut MPs’ wages and expenses and give more where needed.”

Angela Fowler said: “No wonder mistakes are made when doctors and nurses are over worked and under paid –no recognition for all the lives they have saved.”

Michael Brough said: “Management levels are forever increasing in numbers yet shop floor workers are decreasing in numbers.”

Andrew Lambert said: “If people phoned 999 for the right reasons and visited GPs and out of hours doctors or took themselves to minor injuries units ambulances would not be tied up responding to these calls and also A&E would not be full of people with a cough.

“Think before you ring 999.”

Rachel Plant said: “Awful for the gentleman who died and his family, however, please don’t blame the ambulance service, blame our Government which is placing all emergency services under ridiculous cuts. This poor soul won’t be the last.

“All the idiots who think it’s acceptable to dial 999 for non-emergencies have also contributed to this man’s passing.”

Phoebe Lauren Pembleton said: “The NHS are not to blame in this situation.

“The Government should be putting more money into the NHS for them to provide a quicker service for people who actually need it.

“I find it shocking that people blame the NHS when they are only trying their best.

“They get no time to have a drink or something to eat or even go to the toilet – they can face 12 hours with none of this.”

Sally Hall said: “Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work it out. Making cuts to the NHS + taking in more people = disaster waiting to happen.”

Sara Longford said: “I have to say, I stayed in the Northern General Hospital for six weeks.

“I couldn’t have asked for better treatment.

“The staff were amazing. But naturally, all the good cases won’t be mentioned.”

Paul Davis said: “My mum died in there but the vast majority of staff were fantastic!

“Hope the paper prints something saying how many times the staff have got it right rather than wrong.”

Wayne Cubitt said: “Maybe if the population wasn’t booming to unprecedented levels while staffing levels stay the same or even drop we wouldn’t have this problem.

“Absolutely disgusted at the Government.”

Nevi Nevster said: “People do call for minor reasons but unfortunately we are now in a situation where ambulances are not even available for serious matters.

“This isn’t a one off incident, it is a frequent thing and until the Government change the funding it won’t change.”