Addressing the elephant in the room; people abusing NHS, health and social care.

@Crispynoodle my mother was admitted from home following s stroke. She was disturbed and delusional. Drs misread the notes and thought arthritis said Alzheimer's. She deteriorated whilst in hospital to an alarming degree, physically and mentally. She received no treatment for the stroke and her rheumatoid arthritis medication was stopped. The ward had no knowledge despite being a patient in the same hospital for the last 15 years.

The hospital wanted a care home. She did not. We had POA and she was discharged home with no care package. The NHS finally agreed continuing care but she died before it was put in place. We paid for private carers but it was not enough. When the community nurse arrived to deliver end of life support she hugged me and cried. And railed about lack of care and leaving families with inadequate support.

We took mum home because she was dying in full view due to lack of support but no one cared. We couldn't stop her dying but at least we cared, shared memories and photos of when she was young, she spent time with her children and grandchildren. Not to avoid care home costs and protect inheritance. So insensitive.

Not a helpful post. Got to ask yourself why the NHS is finding it difficult to recruit. Who's going to look after you?

Would it be very controversial to say we should have a mechanism of saying this is not a sensible use of resources for the NHS to answer this complaint? I really think it's death by a thousand cuts within the NHS workforce. It takes huge amounts of time to respond to these petty complaints. If we could have a triage level of "just out of our control", it would actually save a lot of time. We could ask them to speak with their MPs at their weekend surgeries instead 😂

I do think that there’s a lot that the NHS and social care services could learn from the private sector about setting standards, commitment and individually accountability.

Almost no private provision takes patients on without being clear about the terms, whereas that seems standard within public services.

Making the expectations clear up front would also make it a more positive working environment.

I feel your frustrations OP. They echo mine as a tax payer.

I have seen what you mean. It's interesting because I rarely see this in the private sector.

This is also very frustrating for me - I triage the new referrals so am aware of how many people are desperately waiting for an unacceptable amount of time. And then I regularly have mornings where 6 out of 8 will decline or fail to turn up. We do have a strict two declines and your out policy, but if someone complains then that policy is always forgotten by management and we get the blame. Genuinely sorry you had to go private, it isn't acceptable.

I used to have to put up with endless written complaints about the wrong type of sandwich filling; we used to have ham cheese tuna egg, all made off the premises and completely out of my control, the view out of the window; onto another NHS building, how comfortable or not the arm chairs are, being offered a dessert spoon instead of a soup spoon to drink their soup, being offered breakfast too early: about 8 am, no croissant (I kid you not) only white brown toast, no fruit in the individual jam pots, the fact that they couldn’t swap peas for sweetcorn off the lunch time menu (again all prepared off site and outside of my control), insufficient variety of fruit at meal times apples, bananas and oranges were standard, the quality of the tea and coffee offered even more about the hot chocolate so I removed it, don’t get me started on those small cartons of orange for breakfast people wanted apple so were constantly complaining, or the variety of the biscuits available cheap digestive and bourbons. I could go on. In the end I resigned taking 30 + years experience in my field (still in the NHS but in a less demanding role) as I spent so much of my time replying to crappy complaints like this.

Levothyroxine and liothyronine are 2 different drugs, so you are comparing 2 different things. Example of where a drug manufacturer was inflating the price of their drugs (at bottom of page)

Also, different drugs cost different prices in different countries is not a surprise. Supermarkets have bulk buying power, but the price of food varies between even neighbouring countries.

I’m genuinely so sorry to hear that.

Also angry. It took 5 months to be seen by NHS physio for shoulder injury that has massively affected my ability to work. I’m self employed and it cost me a lot of money (I had to go private so as to not loose my only income)

You wouldn't believe the number of patients who decline my input because it isn't a convenient time (for example because they haven't finished the paper, don't like moving before 11) who then turn around and file a complaint that they weren't seen that day. It's thankless.

Your bosses were massive whimps if they were pushed into removing the sign by some random complaints- surely the point of the sign was to embarrass people?!

either that or they realised it wasn’t effective

There is a difference between patients who are discharged into a care or nursing facility to rest and recover and those who are discharged into rehabilitation settings.

One involves rest and the other involves increased physical activity.

I worked as a GP receptionist before I retired.
We used to have a sign saying how many appointments were missed.
At one point it was over 100 for a 4 week period.

Many were repeat patients who didn't turn up.
You couldn't refuse to give them an appointment as they maybe really
poorly. All you could do is tell them about missing appointments.

Sign got removed as there were too many complaints that we were trying
to embarrass everyone. There were no names or clues if it was an adult
or child or even male or female.

People need to be accountable for themselves and not waste resources.

The patient has a ^personality disorder', not considered to be a treatable mental illness.

She can't be sectioned for 'being herself'

When someone one's mental and physical needs, their behaviour and attitude are so extreme, that only one facility was prepared to take her on, Hobson's choice is all you're going to get, especially after over 500 days in a hospital bed

It's obviously ok to disagree with the op but personal comments are totally unnecessary.

I agree with you Op. Having just spent 12 weeks in hospital I was astounded by some patients behaviours. One particular highlight was a very capable lady who went home the next day (before anyone comments there is NO privacy on the wards) having a go at a nurse late at night as she had requested tea and toast 10 minutes ago. Right next to her was a lady in acute medical distress with nurses and doctors working on her. They were clearly not going to prioritise tea and toast !!!!

@Yougetmoreofwhatyoufocuson
The patent for levothyroxine expired in March 2024, which probably explains why it's much cheaper now.

And it would stop people like me with disabilities, cancers and life limiting conditions from getting the medical help that I need to stay alive. I there are times that I need weekly gp appointments that I couldn't go to if I had to pay

This is what happens when you give something of value to people for free. The majority of the people in this country do not contribute to the cost of public services. They are net takers. Until people are made to contribute to the cost of services they use, nothing will change.

Not to mention that NHS is basically a broken, money pit. It keeps getting more money from a dwindling number of people who actually contribute to just fritter it away.

I think you might be losing track of who you’re responding to/ why you’re responding to them. I didn’t say that older people are failing to take responsibility. I responded to a user who said the problems in the nhs were partly attributable to people who don’t take personal responsibility

I'm still struggling to understand how the link to the report of the woman with severe mental health issues is illustrative of the OP's point? (Edited to say I see I'm not the only one so not worth going over it, its clear its not relevant)