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

I have seen from myself what waste NHS are doing.

Yet unable to replace a light in a stairwell at Leicester Royal Infirmary. It’s been like that since November. Only go to that part of the LRI every 10 weeks. As it’s at the bottom with a light shaft window, it makes it very dark and dangerous. As a person with difficulty going downstairs due to visual difficulties i refuse to use them but wait ages for a lift

I disagree to a large extent, I have mid stage Parkinson’s at 62, yes it impacts me daily, my gp is great, get to see him when I need to.
Very good Parkinson’s nurse, which I see every 6 months, and can email if needed, I’ve had a fall last year, on right knee no real damage tho painful.
Had bone scans, referral to falls team, minor bunion, now insoles, ( which took ages) injection for bone strength.
Yes I’ve paid for some stuff, had trouble with my eyes , needed a prism in glasses, nhs lost my referral, and ended up paying to see eye clinic to get temporary stick on prism, ( before that paid to see 2 private opticians, who couldn’t diagnosis), which didn’t help with the falls.
Next week paying for nuero physio as progressive symptoms affecting my gait, nhs will take too long, which would cause further damage.
Everyone nhs has been great, and doing what they can, I get frustrated that nuero stuff, MS, MND, Parkinson’s, don’t get the attention they should , despite the rugby player Rob Burrows doing so much .
Realistically the main focus is on cancer, obesity and diabetes……..the rest of don’t seem so much

Difference is they have choice and flexibility of appointment times and different doctors. Not the put up and shut up mentality of nhs staff!

@Jumpingthruhoops not sure what pie chart you are on about, but here are the actual figures.

My oh has had cancer for six years and his experiences are awful. No named contacts so whenever he has a problem, he has to end up phoning different people, most just fob him off elsewhere. His monthly drugs are never ready by the date his monthly treatments are supposed to start. Appointments are cancelled last minute. They make blood test appointments for the wrong date. It’s utterly shambolic. This is all after the gps took 3 years and multiple appointments before they took him seriously. He also has to pay for private mri scans every year because the nhs don’t have “open” scanners which he needs - he can’t tolerate nearly an hour in the tube for full spine scans he needs.

I have T2 diabetes and basically ignored by the gp surgery from year to year. They do the blood test and then just ping a satisfactory by text. It’s impossible to speak to a diabetic nurse, they have none, they don’t have a gp specialising in diabetes anymore. When first diagnosed in 1997, I got two blood tests per year, 2 diabetic nurse appointments per year, the gp surgery had a gp with diabetes specialism you could get an appointment with. Now the gp surgery just take the funding and do bugger all. Despite saying blood sugars are satisfactory, they’re not as they’re too high for the drugs I’m on and it’s taken nearly a year of being passed from pillar to post to get a dialogue with anyone more than a receptionist to get the medication reviewed.

So how I laugh when I saw you say the main focus is on cancer and diabetes. It really isn’t. In 2010 my healthy father in law died of cancer after waiting 2 years for the operation due to continual farting around by the NHS- moving him between hospitals to reset the waiting list time, changing treatment plan to reset the waiting list time. Planned surgeries cancelled several times at the last minute and being rearranged a few weeks later only to be cancelled again.

Its all a farce, especially the envy of the world nonsense.

I paid for my own insurance obviously, it was actually part of my visa conditions and job offer that I had it in place before I went. And your last point is exactly why the NHS is in the mess it's in!

sorry you had that kind of experience.
I too went through the same thing 20 years ago as you and again was informed it would likely have turned cancerous had I left it any longer.
In the last 12 months I too had bleeding after intercourse, spotting between periods etc.

I asked to book in with practice nurse (not Gp as the GP’s in my practice do not undertake smears and it’s the practice nurses
so no point requesting GP appointment).

I had a smear and she referred me straight back to gynae. I was seen and had an colposcopy.

All was well, due to having two previous colposcopies, the cells on the inside of the cervix were growing on the outside but I was also informed it could potentially be peri menopause. Bleeding now stopped

What's your plan for when you retire? Wondering the same thing for myself.

The callousness of this sentence, repeated several times on this thread is why the OP is right in her own way. You need to be a millionaire tax contributor to have a valid opinion on the sainted NHS?

We use it quarterly for my child's secondary care needs and can't fault it.

I worked in the NHS until I retired, and its never been "underfunded", just mismanaged. I hope Wes Streeting is allowed to reform it, needs it desperately. I live in Wales (NHS run by Labour) and wouldn't dream of going on a waiting list for an op, I'd be dead first. My savings will be going on any NHS treatment I might need.

10 years ago, my DM broke her hip aged 63. She was classed too young to have a full hip replacement.

So she had hip pinned, pin removed and about 2 years later, hip replacement.

If she had her hip replacement surgery as soon as she broke it, that would saved NHS two operations, plus staying at hospital, post surgery stuff like physio.

I also believe that the DM's walking style and the stresses of having one hip operated on three times in 2 years caused her other hip to be replaced.

Of course not, but OP is using vastly exaggerated figures (she pays 4.6% of her salary into national insurance, not 25%).

But if those cells are removed/resolve, can there be further cell damage years down the line without another positive HPV test?

What I mean is that in the UK HCPs perform a smear but if HPV negative they don't look at the cells. Your use of 'gyno' makes me think you're in the US. There are much less invasive ways of testing for HPV, a urine test for example, so women are put through an invasive test for potentially no reason. As you say, cell abnormalities are not necessarily linked to HPV, so there will be women who go for smears and have abnormal cells but are HPV negative and therefore are missed. I guess you also have visual examination of cervix.

@tamade I am not any kind of medic

Evidently

That’s shit, I had a bleed after sex and the Drs were pretty good with investigating it although I didn’t have a smear as it was about a year since my previous one, I had swabs/ultrasound/blood test and they found a polyp which was whipped out within 6 months (polyps are rarely cancerous but I still wanted it out).
nhs is very hit and miss - I have private healthcare too - but still use nhs for ongoing issues or anything I don’t deem time sensitive.
Your taxes don’t just go in the nhs you know!

You are right OP. We've just paid out £10,000 for a private op (massive knee injury) and further treatment for one of my kids.

The process of going through the NHS from turning up in A&E whereby they refused to scan to finally seeing a consultant 7 months later who said he had no idea when they could operate because lists were so long has been utterly soul destroying. We've paid for a private MRI, operation and physio.

I never thought I'd say this in my lifetime but I would be very happy to move to an insurance model like they have in France.

No there shouldn’t. Some people
just dip into private as and when they desperately need it and can’t afford private insurance.

We are a family of 5. No way could we afford insurance. Overall the NHS has been great( I can see a GP on the day I ring if I’m not fussy who and can see somebody specific within 2 weeks), other care in all sorts of fields has been fantastic and what you would expect from the NHS. MH provision and ND diagnostics not so great. Have recently had to be pay for a private psych for my son and private therapy. We’ll probably wait for 5 years for his HS ND diagnosis as NHS is better and can’t afford £3k. Don’t think the rich who can afford private insurance should get tax breaks when we can’t but still have to pay private at times.

Personally I’d just like descent nhs funding and better organisation. The previous government failed on both.

who was it that refused you a smear based on your symptoms as it’s a red flag so you are entitled to a smear? who did you speak to?

Did you pursue this with the practice? Have you spoken with the practice manager?
The difficulty here is that you had a private smear sent to a private lab.

The NHS is absolutely broken but your taxes you pay fund not only the NHS but social care, police, fire, education etc so on £30k a year you will have already got out what you put into the NHS with treatment for cervical cancer, and having 2 children. Absolutely not digging you out on your salary as mine is similar but this isn't a great argument.

I do wholeheartedly agree though that the system is broken and we are failing patients.

I work in the NHS. It's worse than people realise.
I've been off for 6 months because I couldn't get an MRI and therefore diagnosis. I'm dying to get back to work, I hate being off sick.
My hips have disintegrated and I need a spinal op which will be a other 2 to 3 years. I'll be treating patients on my walking frame or a wheelchair because I'm determined to get back to work, I can't afford not to. I live alone and being isolated at home makes me mentally ill.
I can sit to do my job but it won't be easy and I'll be in constant pain. If I could have my operation tomorrow I'd have years of good life left. As it is I'll just deteriorate. Such a waste of a highly specialised staff member.

That's a clinical decision , hip pinning is often better than total hip replacement for stability of fracture depending on the type. It's an evidence based decision by a highly qualified orthopaedic /surgeon .

Sometimes NHS send patients to private hospitals. How much does that cost them? Probably more than a person paying for the surgery etc themselves. I had my gallbladder removed at Nuffield. Only reason I went to Nuffield was when my GP did a choose and book for seeing a consultant, there were no appointments at the two NHS hospitals and another at a smaller hospital which I couldn't do as had a one off event to attend in London. Had the surgery and recovered about 2 weeks before the event in London!

Have enough cash to either pay for insurance or pay ad-hoc as needed!

Obviously we still need to use the NHS sometimes but if you have the option to pay privately, it's a great comfort.

Getting cancer doesn't mean losing your house, but with the state of the NHS as it is it can mean unnecessarily losing your life because it takes so bloody long to get someone to stop fobbing you off and actually get diagnosed (Once you are then it's fantastic)