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AIBU?

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Original poster

To wish I could stop paying into the utterly broken NHS black hole

357 replies

Juanhundred · 29/08/2024 14:38

The last few years have really opened my eyes to the utter chaos of the National Health Screwers

If you've not needed them or only needed them for minor things, you honestly have no idea how bloody scary it is to be seriously ill and under the "care" of people I wouldnt usually trust to look after a dog

Every month I pay out about a weeks worth of wages in tax towards the NHS, then I pay a bit off my staggering credit card debt thats accumulated on going private when the NHS fail at life (rheumatology, gynaecology, dermatology, podiatry, basic antibiotics when my GP insisted an infected tick bite was "just allergies", the list is endless!)

I'm not rich, I earn less than 30k. Some days towards the end of the month I literally cant afford to eat what or when I want

20 years ago (when the NHS was actually the envy of the world) I had cervical cancer. Caught early by a smear test and treated in time to save my life. I was told by the consultant, "Another 6 months and your chances wouldn't have been good. Be very mindful of any changes moving forwards, and act on them immediately"
It was around the same time that Jade Goody died; she was told if she'd been seen 6 months earlier, her chances would have been infinitely better.
That brush with the Big C scared me shitless, and as per the advice given I'm super mindful of any changes and take them seriously.

Well I've probably just saved my own life this time by getting a private smear test, because despite my history and all the symptoms I am now experiencing (irregular heavy bleeding, random spotting, discharge, bleeding after intercourse, tummy and back pain), I was refused an NHS smear as I'm "not owed one" until three years after my last test, history / symptoms be damned.

The system was "reformed" in 2017. The NHS no longer do proper smear tests, just HPV tests. If you have HPV, you get a smear, if you dont, its off you go we'll see you in 3 years.

My private test showed major cell changes but HPV negative. My NHS GP surgery refused to acknowledge it or record the results on my medical record.
Luckily I'm already under an NHS gynaecologist (due to my symptoms), who initially agreed to refer me for colposcopy off the back of my private smear, but the referral was "triaged" and then rejected. My gynaecologist is just like 🤷🏻‍♀️ "You dont have HPV and around 50% cell changes rectify themselves without treatment. So yeah, bye."

50%? So 50% DONT rectify? And you think I'm betting my life on being in the lucky 50%, with my history and current symptoms? Is 50% really a good enough percentage to deny women with symptoms any further investigations? I dont think so, but apparently the NHS now does.

The NHS insists that as most (not all!) cervical cancers are caused by HPV, the women who fall into the grey area who have bad cells but no HPV are pretty rare, therefore our lives dont matter. Thats the message I'm getting.

Basically, I've just been abandoned by the NHS until I've got full-blown Big C, then maybe they might do something, if I'm lucky?

They can fuck off. I have two DDs who need their mum!

So here I am faffing around online trying to up my credit card limit so I can book myself in for a private colposcopy, and thinking to myself "If I didnt have to pay all this fucking money towards the NHS every month, I'd be able to afford this without credit!"

Sorry for the rambling ranty post I'm just stressed scared skint and at the end of my fucking tether

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
pd339 · 29/08/2024 16:11

On £30k you are a net taker not contributor as many others have pointed out.

Tworedgeraniums · 29/08/2024 16:10

Totally with you OP

DD aged 31, blood in her poo. (Lots over a 9 month period) Denied a colonoscopy multiple times by GP. We saved and she went private, found out she had a large polyps that was heading toward being cancerous.

makes my blood boil especially after Deborah James and all the media coverage.

Arrivapercy · 29/08/2024 16:08

Ive needed the nhs a LOT in the last 5 years and it has come good every time. If i lived in the US either i would owe about $500k or my daughter would be dead.

RafaistheKingofClay · 29/08/2024 16:06

StewartGriffin · 29/08/2024 15:49

Does that mean she shouldn't be able to complain about a lack of care? Can only the rich complain?

The point is that we are all paying for services that are becoming increasingly difficult to access, and for a growing number of people, we are paying twice as we are having to pay for private insurance and treatments.

Are you happy to pay for a service you cannot access in other areas of your life?

Show quote history

It doesn’t mean the OP shouldn’t be able to complain. But she has framed her complaint in terms of money and how much she pays, so posters are picking up on that.

Bestyearever2024 · 29/08/2024 16:04

I'm interested to know how you are contributing so much money to the NHS

Did you mean to say that you earn £300,000.00?

Sunglow1921 · 29/08/2024 16:04

I don’t know why people insist on being pedantic on this thread. The OP may have written the bit about tax out of frustration, it doesn’t make the way she was treated right.

Either we want the NHS to be free at the point or use or we don’t. Should they start asking people about their income when they access the NHS to determine the level of service they may receive?

MrsPatrickDempsey · 29/08/2024 16:02

I think the main problem is that it's a postcode lottery. The care should be the shame wherever you live. Our A&E and minor injuries are combined and I have had experience of them 3 times this year with family members. They were fabulous and very efficient each time. Shame it's not like that everywhere.

DadJoke · 29/08/2024 16:00

Change your GP and ask for a referral to another hospital. I don’t who you have been dealing with but smears are available to anyone who needs them, for free.

You are definitely not a net contributor to the NHS.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/cervical-screening/how-to-book/

Lou670 · 29/08/2024 15:57

Have you got your Math right? On that income you are not even close to paying 25% to the NHS. Sorry for your situation but don't post you are massively contributing to the NHS, as you are not. Taxes are just not for the NHS, are you going to stop paying them if the police upset you as well, or the school your children use for that matter?

Sunglow1921 · 29/08/2024 15:55

Peonies12 · 29/08/2024 14:39

YABU. you’d want the NHS if you had a bad car accident tomorrow. And you would have definitely got your moneys worth having two kids.

If I was in a car accident I’d want a functioning healthcare system where I can get an ambulance quickly and not risk ending up on a gurney in a&e for days on end. Also, how do you know she got her ‘money’s worth’ by having two children? Did I get my money’s worth when I ended up with ptsd after almost giving birth on my own in hospital because the midwife on duty refused to examine me or believe I was in labour?

There are good, dedicated people working in the NHS and it does save lives. But that doesn’t make up for the cases where it’s just not good enough and people end up suffering needlessly, whether it’s through systemic failures or staff who just can’t be bothered to do their job properly.

I’m sorry you’re going through this, OP. I don’t know what the solution is, but this is not good enough.

StewartGriffin · 29/08/2024 15:51

PrimoPiatti · 29/08/2024 15:48

The biggest cause of bankruptcies in the US is medical bills.

Okay, but what about Germany or Finland or the Netherlands etc etc? The options are not just what we have or the US system.

midgetastic · 29/08/2024 15:50

Since it's been shown world over that a national health scheme costs less for a given quality of care than a private system - we need a national scheme

And it's been shown that there is a strong link between how much people pay and the quality of care

And it's been shown that the UK is very tight with health spending

And since it's clear we want better care we need to pay more ... not as much as people in private schemes , but more as a nation

Simple

But with years and years of tories running the nhs to the ground it will take time foro fix

The toties, who would rather a profit making private system - profit out of your pocket if you can afford it and naff all healthcare if you can't

StewartGriffin · 29/08/2024 15:49

Floralsofa · 29/08/2024 15:45

I'd be surprised if you were a net contributor given your income.

Does that mean she shouldn't be able to complain about a lack of care? Can only the rich complain?

The point is that we are all paying for services that are becoming increasingly difficult to access, and for a growing number of people, we are paying twice as we are having to pay for private insurance and treatments.

Are you happy to pay for a service you cannot access in other areas of your life?

PrimoPiatti · 29/08/2024 15:48

The biggest cause of bankruptcies in the US is medical bills.

Emmanuelll · 29/08/2024 15:48

Prawncow · 29/08/2024 15:12

I was ill earlier this year. I had to get an emergency appointment to see my GP. It involved filling out a long form online so they could triage patients and then I was given an appointment the same morning. The GP sent me to A&E. I was again triaged and sent through to the waiting room of a treatment area within 90 minutes. I was treated straight away and admitted by the evening to continue treatment. Every single person I saw from the GP (who had never actually seen a case of what I had in person before) to the nurses, doctors and care assistants was professional and kind.

Lack of GPs to provide appointments is about funding. Long waits in A&E are about funding. Lack of hospital beds are about funding. Strict limits on the criteria for treatment and bouncing back referrals from consultants is about funding.

This is what 14 years of underfunding has done to the NHS.

Exactly. I have no idea why people can't see why the NHS is on its knees.

piccolorhinoceros · 29/08/2024 15:47

@Octavia64 No date for any operation no date for anything and she had to go private to get the type of tumor it was diagnosed.

I'm sorry to hear about your DIL and I hope she will be okay. But just to point out, this happened to my uncle in 1991. He had to go private to get a diagnosis, so it's not a new failing of the NHS.

LadyGilley · 29/08/2024 15:47

YANBU. It’s five years here inbetween smears btw.

Preo · 29/08/2024 15:47

Octavia64 · 29/08/2024 15:32

NHS is not in a good way.

My daughter in law has a brain tumor. She was fobbed off by the GP three times and was told by an A and E doctor that it was her anxiety.

It's a large tumor in her brain that is pressing on the optic nerve (so she can't see well) and on other nerves (so she is having trouble walking and can't type).

No date for any operation no date for anything and she had to go private to get the type of tumor it was diagnosed.

It's scary.

If I got cancer I'd want the nhs to diagnose and treat it not spend six months telling me it's anxiety.

So sorry your dil is going through that, myself and your dil aren’t the only women that I’ve heard of that have had cancer and been dismissed as anxious and have had to look to get a diagnosis privately. It’s not on.

Emmanuelll · 29/08/2024 15:46

YABU - you should be angry with the Tory government. They destroyed our previously good NHS.

Floralsofa · 29/08/2024 15:45

I'd be surprised if you were a net contributor given your income.

StewartGriffin · 29/08/2024 15:44

"I'm so sorry you're having to wrangle this. The NHS screening going from cell changes to HPV is an absolute fucking joke."

@VotesForWomen and it's something they don't talk about so a lot of women do not even know about this policy change and there are plenty (myself included) who do not need ongoing smear tests from the NHS as I will remain HPV negative. I don't need a HPV screening, I would like a cervical cancer screening which is no longer offered by the NHS if you are HPV negative.

StewartGriffin · 29/08/2024 15:40

"Either we have a state funded healthcare system or we don't."

@TheSnootiestFox I completely agree with you here. Either we have a working NHS and welfare system that we are all paying an exorbitant amount for through our taxes, or we ditch and it's every person for themselves and our taxes go down accordingly.

Other countries manage one or the other of those quite successfully, and it only seems to be the UK and the US that struggles with it. We are currently getting the worst of both worlds: taxed to the hilt for a failing system that is nigh on impossible to access. Coming from someone who spent 14 hours in A&E earlier on this week...

Carriemac · 29/08/2024 15:34

An average tax payer on 30 k uses more from the NHS than they contribute

Octavia64 · 29/08/2024 15:32

NHS is not in a good way.

My daughter in law has a brain tumor. She was fobbed off by the GP three times and was told by an A and E doctor that it was her anxiety.

It's a large tumor in her brain that is pressing on the optic nerve (so she can't see well) and on other nerves (so she is having trouble walking and can't type).

No date for any operation no date for anything and she had to go private to get the type of tumor it was diagnosed.

It's scary.

If I got cancer I'd want the nhs to diagnose and treat it not spend six months telling me it's anxiety.

Prawncow · 29/08/2024 15:26

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-public-spending-was-calculated-in-your-tax-summary/how-public-spending-was-calculated-in-your-tax-summary

https://www.reed.co.uk/tax-calculator/30000-annually

So 19.8% of the £5,029 pa someone pays in tax (from a £30k salary) goes on health. That is £995.74 a year which divided by 12 = £83 a month.