NHS experience

There's a lot about our NHS going around, including many harsh words. I wanted to write about an experience I had recently. It's the same with anything, we often see all the negative and little positive. I thought I would restore some faith in the brave men and women who work extremely hard everyday, looking after everyone and anyone who gets taken into hospital.

I've just hit my 20 week mark, half way through and to be honest I've been pretty lucky so far. I havent had too many 'awful' symptoms and have felt wonderful during my second trimester. But whilst I was in work last week, I noticed some bleeding.

I haven't had any at all during this pregnancy and, due to losing our first pregnancy back in August, I was naturally very upset and worried.

My manager was brilliant whilst I was getting angry at the fact that, because I was only 19 weeks, I couldn't call the emergency line (you have to be 20 weeks. I know, it's shitty) so had to speak to my GP. Luckily, the receptionist at my doctors got my GP to call me straight away and he then called the hospital to tell them I would be going down immediately.

When I arrived, I was asked to do a urine sample straight away so they could check for infection and then saw a junior doctor within 10 minutes who asked me questions about what had happened and performed an examination straight away.

He then said they would do a scan but they needed to wait for the registrar to come up to the ward. He arrived in about 10 minutes, in scrubs as he was due to go to theatre. He started the ultrasound when a nurse and the junior doctor came in and informed him that the patient waiting for theatre was ready to be anaesthetised.

He didn't acknowledge this but continued with the scan. The junior doctor repeated his statement to which the registrar, to my amazement, responded: "I know but if I leave for theatre this lady will be waiting and worrying for hours about her baby." The scan took only about 5 minutes and he showed and played our daughter's heartbeat as well as showing her safe in my womb. He did all the checks and then explained why I had experienced some bleeding.

I did cry in relief and still say I feel stupid but I was utterly impressed and grateful for the amazing staff and what the registrar did. These people, despite the backlash and media circus, continue to work long unsociable hours everyday, sometimes seeing and experiencing awful things. But they do it because they want to help people. The majority of NHS workers don't get paid obscene amounts. In fact they get paid less than what they deserve and below average for what they do.

I've had bad experience with hospitals don't get me wrong but it's because they are being stretched so thin. Our NHS is a treasure in our country and we need to take care of it as well as the people who work for it.