AIBU to be frustrated by NHS delays and inefficiency?

Some things are stupid. It's a 4 year wait for a child/teen autism assessment here, and if (as happened to my eldest) they decided that it would be worth doing an ADHD assessment based on observations made at the autism assessment, it'd be another 4 years' wait. But the NHS here has run out of capacity to do any adult autism assessments, which means in practice that you get referred to private assessor through Right to Choose (at the NHS's expense) and can get an assessment in 3 months.

I think it's important that adults are able to be assessed, but it's clear that children have a far higher need because early diagnosis means that supports can be put in place that reduce the burden on the public purse of not having appropriate adjustments made.

We also had a funny one when we moved area. My son had been at the allergy clinic in our old area but we did not think it was necessary any more. His GP had originally prescribed an Epipen and referred him to the allergy clinic. The clinic said that without the GP having done that, he wouldn't have met the criteria for the allergy clinic and definitely didn't meet the criteria for an epipen, but because he had one, he had to be monitored every 6 months. When we moved, we contacted the new allergy clinic to say we didn't think he still needed to be seen. They then called us to an initial appointment at the clinic. This was not actually to discuss treatment, but was a triage appointment designed to reduce the official waiting lists. The only point of the appointment was to make certain that the allergy clinic really was the right place for my son to be seen. Given that the only info they had about him was that we thought he shouldn't be seen there (or anywhere else), this was nuts.

Edit for typos

My friend just had her first baby in Mumbai. They paid privately and had a 5 star experience. What they paid is far less than we all pay in tax for the NHS (at approx £3500 per person).

We need to start focusing on how much it is costing and what we’re getting for our money. It’s not good enough.

The NHS is an inefficient shitstorm. It has been for years, no matter how much money is chucked at it. 🤷‍♀️

But, unless you can afford to pay privately it has be endured.

YANBU, I’ve had to wait up to 2 weeks for a GP appt or longer for a medication review. Currently on a waiting list for fertility and I’ve been waiting 5 months so far. Considering time isn’t on my side with such issue, its completely ridiculous.

IKR?
It's peanuts... doesn't go anywhere near funding those procedures and interventions she's had FFS

It says each year- less than £2k 🙈

£480 per month? or per year?

Then there is the fact that some areas have problems recruiting consultants in certain specialities or geographical areas.

Geriatrics isn't a popular speciality.

In North Wales they can recruit staff around the Wrexham area easily but not further West because of the requirement to speak Welsh.

In my experience no-one wants to work in Lincolnshire, especially Grimsby.

I could say more but I think you see what I mean...

Some of the best consultants in the world, absolutely. I work with plenty of them and they are equally frustrated at the current level of patient suffering due to lengthy waiting lists. All they want to do is get on with their job and they can’t!

It’s no coincidence that many of them now have their own families insured.. Unless you’re critically ill then the NHS cannot be relied on for timely care anymore. Even then, standards have certainly slipped.

Wanting quality health care within a reasonable timeframe is not unreasonable or entitled. This attitude that we Brits should be grateful for any old rubbish from the NHS as it’s free at point of use is a massive part of the problem.

This is true. My friend is returning to India to birth her first child. She told me she had been praying daily that she had a straight forward vaginal birth as a complicated c- section delivery would be terribly costly in the private sector but she was scared to go to the government hospitals available in her region.

GPs are Independant contractors to the NHS. If your GP is running an inefficient service it is to do with how they are choosing to provide that service.

At my GPs, they have enough staff, and run an excellent phone triage service. You can get an appointment the same day you ring, without an 8:30 am scramble.

Very good & envied?
Go and speak to Americans Indians and the many who think the NHS offers some of the best consultants and care in the world.

British people can act so entitled, it's bewildering!

The NHS is broken.
It needs root and branch reform, but every time anyone mentions this, people throw their toys out of the cot.

Everyone fears what Reform would do with/to the NHS if they ever got voted in.
I fear what will happen to all of us if nothing happens and the NHS continues as it is.

Sadly your entire NI contributions over the past 4 years would not even touch what it would cost for weight loss surgery, never mind the 4 surgeries that haven’t helped you plus the multiple appointments you’ve had being pushed from pillar to post.

We all think we already pay enough in. But we don’t. Not nearly enough for the service we have come to expect. We live longer therefore there’s a lot more folk to serve- that all costs money. Money that most of us do not have in abundance nor do we want to part with it.

It’s shit and not fit for purpose right now
Really? So you've seen a GP, a consultant, had 4 surgeries to try to help you and you think it's shit?

Doctors are not wizards that can do miracles. Sometimes it does come down to having to try different things before sorting out the problem. You are now going to get a hysterectomy that should sort it out. And you think it's shit when you've paid less than £2,000 in NI which of course doesn't cover the NHS only. This hardly covered one surgery, let alone all 5 you'll receive.

If course it's shit to be in pain and feeling helpless. It doesn't mean the system that is trying to help you is shit and not fit for purpose.

Very good & envied? From my recent experience, I think not! DD had to wait an entire year on major spinal surgery at the age of 17. Incredibly damaging both mentally & physically as she rapidly deteriorated in that timeframe. The worst part is that this was considered quick.. I met parents on the ward with children who had been waiting 5 years!! Thank god we are now insured - cannot rely on the NHS to get things done in a timely manner anymore. It’s either pay or suffer for many people.

Without a major restructure no amount of money or NI increases are going to ‘fix’ the NHS. The system is just broken
Well obviously, but the money required to make it a slick system is much above what any government can afford.

Thankfully, we still have a very good, highly recognised and envied system in the meantime.

Just one example of one reason:
There are only one consultant providing the service you've been referred to. That's because it's a smallish hospital or trust and the number of referrals couldn't justify employing another consultant.

The consultant has gone off sick. One week. It's then 2. Not worth the time taken to find an agency one. Then the hospital receives a fit note for 3 months. This time, the hospital start the process to get an agency. Agency consultants are very expensive so there is a process for it to be approved.

That consultant is young, or old, or not very good, so they see half the patient the other one saw. They then go in holiday for 1 month, approved before. The 3 months come to an end, and the consultant is off for another 3 months, or put in for retirement or given their notice... Need to recruit another one...

Before you know it, what was a 6 weeks wait is now 1 year.

This is only one of many reasons for long waits. Way above the comprehension of the average patient.

Maybe if we weren't giving free treatment to so many refugees, asylum seekers (including refused asylum seekers) illegal immigrants and others who have never contributed to the system we might be able to cope better ?

I have paid over £480 as one person in NI contributions each year for the last 4 years. For the last 3 years I have been bleeding none stop, in horrific pain (period pain) and have terrible mood swings and truly awful hormonal imbalances. After repeatedly getting stonewalled and a load of crap from my Gynae, I’m still struggling daily. I’ve lost work because of it, I’m seriously poorly and NO ONE GIVES A SHIT!
I’ve had 4 operations that were supposed to help. They did jack shit but made me loose a week of clients each time and left me feeling utterly awful.
I keep getting pushed from pillar to post - I’ve been begging for weight loss intervention, but I cannot access it. I cannot have baratric surgery to loose weight. As soon as I’ve had a fucking hysterectomy I would be able to stop taking the tablets that are making me fat: no wonder the system is failing. It’s shit and not fit for purpose right now.

Without a major restructure no amount of money or NI increases are going to ‘fix’ the NHS. The system is just broken.

Sorry OP but if you have to question this, you are a bit naïve.

Unless you are prepared to pay much much more than you currently do with your NI, assuming you are, you won't get any system much better.

Few social healthcare systems in the world offer what you seem to think should be the norm.

What a lot of people don’t realise is that “the NHS” is actually a large number of individual organisations, who each have their own finances, staff, software, buildings etc - so it’s not always easy for these organisations to coordinate.

As a HCP, my days are far busier working in the private sector compared to the 20 years I spent working in the NHS. Staff who make the change are often really quite shocked as they think that private is going to be more relaxed - it’s the total opposite and there are consequences when expectations aren’t reached. We have elective operating lists running 7 days per week from 7am-10pm. None of this 8-4, couldn’t possibly work on a Sunday unless it’s a dire emergency rubbish.

I was at the end of my tether on a waiting list
work nearly sacked me through capability, I couldn’t cope with the pain, kept ending up in a&e and the wait from the MDT meeting to operation was 5 months
then everyone else’s operations got cancelled as mine took a full day instead of the planned 3hrs