Really frustrated with the NHS

The thing with this is OP is asking the GP for stronger painkillers and stronger sleeping tablets- both of which the GP is not willing to provide for very good and well known medical reasons as well as legal reasons, no solicitor is going to get involved with that.

The GP has referred OP to psychiatry, OP hasn’t attended the appointments.

The GP has arranged a telephone appointment for OP, OP is saying they might not answer because they will be asleep.

No solicitor is going to put their name to a letter with those kind of details, and even if you could find a solicitor who would the GP has a perfectly reasonable and iron clad response: we have done the referral, we have arranged a phone appointment, we are not providing strong pain killers or strong sleeping pills long term for these very clear reasons.

I understand that you are frustrated OP and there is a place for every medication, but the medications you are talking about are for short term use only for very good reasons which I don’t think you fully grasp.

Taking benzodiazepine as an example, long term use can lead to cognitive impairment, as well as motor incoordination and anterograde amnesia plus others, not to mention addiction- there is a very good reason they do not prescribe it long term.

The same goes for temazepam, long term it can cause breathing issues, can actually cause sleep problems, it can give you headaches and tremors as well as impacting your memory- plus addiction. It is not a drug that it is safe to be on long term, which is why nobody would prescribe it as such. Any doctor who did could lose their license at best or be criminally charged at worst.

Instead of £50 to see a gp spend £50 to send a
Solicitors letter to surgery stating you have been fobbed off since xxxx date and a list of everything you have requested and been fobbed off about. Send photos of your condition. You need to put in a official complaint and ask
Them who u complain to further for lack of duty of care. Then you need to do it. You need to take some responsibility for it too. Make sure you are awake for phone calls. Change surgeries if yours is too far. Ask for help from
Relatives etc.

When you say you bought it from a private doctor? Do you mean you handed the doctor money for a box of codeine tablets?

It’s sounds like your sleeping tablets are very effective if there’s such a significant risk that you’ll miss this phone call! Surely stronger ones will make life even harder?

Also for the other issues, if your GP is genuinely refusing anything other than urgent appointments then you need to call 111. They can then book you an appointment at another service, walk in centre or where we are the A&E in our local hospital now has a team of GP’s there Mon-Fri so anyone who calls 111, isn’t an A&E case and cannot be seen anywhere else gets booked in there.

OP try this for your foot, it might help you, or you can get others over the counter at the pharmacy

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002BKHBZE?ref=nb_sb_ss_w_as-reorder_k0_1_6&amp=&crid=1CY35HJZAVHWL&sprefix=mycota&th=1

You should have yearly med reviews for the antipsychotics as well, blood tests?

My GP manages those meds now. Hope you can get an appt soon.

Regarding the sleeping pills OP, you’re asking for the impossible. The NHS guidance is what matters here not opinions, and they are incredibly reluctant to prescribe them at all, but when they do it is only ever short term for 2 main reasons:

1. Your body actually gets used to them, so they do not continue to have the same impact long term, so it ends up being pointless taking them long term unless you just continued upping your intake for the rest of your life, which you can’t as that is unsafe.
2. It is very easy to become addicted to them.

You need to engage with psychiatry or other serviced, CBT for example is a common one for insomnia, to resolve those issues.

You sound over reliant and probably addicted to medication, it looks like the professionals who have had years of training recognise this. You say you haven't got the money to go to the GP across town but have the money to pay for private prescriptions and GP apps. You need to own your problems for this and not transfer it to the NHS, you would have had to miss 3 appointments before you were taken off their list.

I asked because you said you have a psychotic illness which I would have though meant you are under long-term MH care, and/or it's quite serious. I thought such people were assigned a care-coordinator - someone to help you navigate your way round the system.

I do not speak as a health professional, but as someone who had a care-coordinator.

Do you have a care-coordinator?

Don't go stating that it's so sad, you can't afford an NHS psychiatrist.

You've had one and didn't attend. And no, calling to cancel doesn't make it better- it's still repeatedly non attending an appt that could have been offered to others.

So for the same reason also don't go bleating that your antipsychotics need amending.

Make a GP appt JUST for your feet rather than leaving it to the end of what I expect is already a very lengthy amount of time you take there.

For your prescription, sign up for a service that delivers from the pharmacy, so you don’t have to trek over

There aren’t magic solutions to most things - it’s generally about learning to manage your conditions and look after yourself within any health limitations.

It may be worth looking at whether your GP has any social prescribing, they typically have more time per patient and can help you navigate things better.

Heavier duty sleeping tablets or painkillers aren’t suitable for ongoing problems. They’re a short term fix to get through a short term issue.

You need to find a way to engage with appointments if you want support. Consistently sleeping through isn’t a way to get anything useful from a service and more potent sleeping tablets won’t solve that. Sensible use of alarms and caffeine will get you awake at the time needed to get to an appointment.

A fungal foot condition will take months to r solve even once you get the right thing for it. Pharmacists are good for advice here, and signposting to next service if something isn’t working. But to know whether it is, you’ll need to give something a good couple of months of working consistently on it and following all the care instructions.

Hang on a minute - OP hasn't missed her psych appointments, she has tried to contact them to cancel / rearrange and they've not picked up the message and assumed she was just a no-show.

Do you not have any feet clinics on your high street? You could always pop in and see what they advise as they are NHS too.

Has any Dr any point said it is fungal? Many skin conditions can flare up because of stress and MH issues which you have been diagnosed with. I agree a walk in centre is probably the best place.

You need to kick your pain killer habit, do not buy drugs from the internet for starters. Codeine is highly addictive. Look painkillers mask the pain they don’t fix the problem, sometimes they are needed I’m not anti pain meds, I used to be a nurse. I needed strong pain killers last year for a medical emergency, I took them but once I could stand it I rode through the pain when it had lessened. In masking the pain it means people do things they probably shouldn’t.

When it comes to physio there is the regular list and then the urgent list. Your psychiatrist would have been good to be on side to press for assistance but you have not engaged with the service. Do you have an appropriate adult to advocate for you ? If not I would suggest you look for an advocate to assist you. If you look at Mind/ Rethinks websites they give advice on MH advocacy, charities do this free of charge and you are exactly the kind of patient who would benefit from this. You say you have been diagnosed with psychosis. That’s a serious MH issue, are you classed as a vulnerable adult at all? and have you ever had a social worker or any sort of support worker.

I think your MH condition plus pain is contributing to muddled thinking, which is perfectly understandable. please try and get an advocate.

If you miss appointments you won’t be given more as it’s a waste of their time and others could have had those appointments. I don’t get the sleep issue, why does that mean you miss appointments?

Many NHS podiatry services accept patients on a self-referral basis

and yes if you are missing appointments you will be taken off the referral list

Self help is your first recourse, so find out what is causing the fungal infection, and then get what you need to treat it. This could be done via a visit to your pharmacy first, then if they consider it beyond their remit, you need to get a GP appointment, but it’s not an emergency otherwise as you are living with it. Same with the back problem, what is causing it? You need to try and sort out the cause, then seek the best treatment.
Your problems are bigger than your feet and your back if you are under psychiatric care. You need to recognise this, go to your appointments or risk losing them. You too have responsibilities, firstly to honour your appointments, another branch of the NHS, then to try and self help as much as you can. But if things have got so bad you do need an appointment, then stand firm and make your best effort to get one, including booking one online if you can. You are in a spiral of health depression, and need to make an effort to break it however you can. Self help>pharmacy>GP. Good luck with it.