Bad hospital or no hospital? Either is bad for anxiety.

Bear in mind that, for the forthcoming blog, I write in the context of someone who has health anxiety.  I've written a couple of blogs on this in the past (have a gander at my NEW LOOK SITE!!!), but basically, I have the ability to make any seemingly minor health issue or pain expand and distort out of all proportion.  One minute I have a slight shoulder ache, the next I'm two seconds away from a heart attack. 

For those of you who keep a close eye on the news, you'll have seen it dominated recently by reports into Stafford Hospital.  I live in Stafford, and needless to say that this is my nearest hospital.  The next nearest is either Wolverhampton or Stoke, the travelling distance to which could be the difference between life and death. 

I'll let you peruse the BBC website for more information, but basically, there have been chronic failures at the hospital resulting in a horrendous number of unnecessary deaths.  Whilst it seems that standards have improved in the last couple of years, it is still somewhat worrying that such goings-on in terms of a lack of basic healthcare and horrific lack of compassion from nurses can occur. 

I'm in no doubt that Stafford is not the only case of what is a much wider scandal, but it has been made an example of in light of the particularly horrendous statistics that basically show that the hospital has been more of a killer than any illness that put you in there in the first place.

The A&E has already closed at night (from 10pm until 8am) and is still shut despite original plans to have it reopened.  This means that if you require a visit to A&E at night, then one must find a way to get to Wolves or Stoke.  There are now threats that key services will be closed and the hospital downgraded, to the point whereby a protest march has been organised and will be taking place this weekend on 20th April. 

So it summary, it's in a mess.  I said earlier that it's not as bad as it was a few years ago, but you still hear mixed stories and even a couple of people I know have told me that they or their relatives have had bad experiences in the hospital within the last year.  Others, on the other hand, have nothing but praise for the hospital.  Either way, there appears to be a general consensus that Stafford needs to keep it's hospital and it's key services.

As a sufferer of health anxiety, and indeed someone who has experienced hundreds of panic attacks, it has always been comforting to know that the hospital is there, in case it ever got so bad that I felt it was necessary to go there.  Fortunately it has never come to this, but taking the hospital away from Stafford could well exacerbate an anxiety attack.  Why?  Because, when you are having an anxiety attack, one tends to grasp onto every small crumb of comfort they can to try and make them feel better - having good emergency healthcare not far away is one of them.  Travelling four miles to Stafford Hospital whilst having an anxiety attack would be bad enough, but 20 miles to Wolves or Stoke could make a year's difference in terms of fully recovering.

So having a hospital nearby, could be, at least in part, helpful for alleviating panic attacks.  On the other hand, being administered to a hospital that is poorly run could be worse than travelling 20 miles to a better one.  As I said, Stafford has been proven to have shocking healthcare standards.  This has included the basics such as cleanliness and carer competence.  If I went to a hospital with poor standards like this, this would probably make me worse. 

Pardon my generalising, but how many nurses would understand anxiety as a health problem anyway, let alone know what to do and show any compassion to a sufferer?  This shouldn't be the conclusion I jump to and it may be an incorrect wrong, but this is the impression I get from the experience I've had and from what I hear portrayed.

Secondly, my health anxiety would spiral through the roof if I went into hospital.  If I was admitted for suffering a severe panic attack, entering into a dirty, unkempt hospital would make it worse, not better.  "What if I contract c.diff (or equivalent)?" 

Moreover, being surrounded by people with actual physical health problems wouldn't help none either, although I appreciate this is somewhat unavoidable!

Two of the most important things you need when suffering from an anxiety attack are (1) comfortable surroundings filled with understanding and compassion and (2) a clean, safe environment.  Stafford Hospital, and probably many others, simply don't offer this.

Having such a poor hospital can also exacerbate health anxiety and OCD.  The last thing I want to do is get ill enough to have to go to hospital.  I don't want to break any limbs or accidentally run into a lamppost and give myself concussion.  Anything to stop you going into hospital and getting mis-treated. So what do you do?  Avoid doing anything that could cause illness or injury... thus potentially increasing 'handwashing-type' OCD and your sensitivity towards any minor pain you may get and fear that it may turn into something that would mean you going into hospital. 

There's a wider issue here - how on earth have we got to this?  When did healthcare become anything but care?

From an anxiety and wider mental health perspective though, it is paramount that we are confident in our healthcare and support, for this is key to ensuring we feel safe and protected if the worse should happen.  It must have to be something severe to administer oneself to A&E before seeing a doctor, but I'm sure it does happen.  Someone's first panic attack for example - a scary experience, and if it's a particularly bad one, you may think that it's a heart attack or equivalent. 

Naturally, the top concern is for those people who need longer-term hospital care, and for those with serious physical illnesses.  But the consequences for an anxiety sufferer of having no or a poor quality hospital cannot be good, and being exposed to the Stafford scandal doesn't fill me with glee in the future either. 

It just shows how even more important the work of Anxiety UK and Mind (and others) is, if people feel (rightly or wrongly) that they can't put the trust of their mental healthcare into the hands of the NHS.

Best wishes
Al