What’s the point in the NHS?

I was admitted as a consequence of visiting A&E, diagnosed with heart failure. Suffered a cardiac arrest- thankfully while in hospital as I'd probably be dead, kept in for two weeks for umpteen scans and procedures. Had a defibrillator fitted, have had a ton of follow up procedures. Am on life long medication. That's what the NHS is for.

These are the times when the NHS is great. Hit by a bus? Great. Accidentally cut your arm off with a chainsaw? Great. Burst appendix? Great.

Anything that won't kill you today if not seen to immediately? Pretty shoddy.

It's not really free though is it? That's what we pay tax for.

And frankly, NHS physio is pointless. A 5 minute examination and a set of exercises.

I used to think that was what physio was until I had private physio. THAT was worth having. I would never both with NHS physio again.

IMO free at point of use isn’t working any more

My GP surgery has a sign up about wasted appointments

I saw a physio privately yesterday. She said one of the reasons she left the NHS is that people didn’t bother with the exercises she gave them and people are much better when they’re paying

I was speaking to a paramedic at a party who says they see the same guy multiple times a day. He’s very mentally ill. They’re not allowed to not go to him.

society has changed since the 1940s. People don’t take responsibility and don’t value what they don’t pay for.

I'm not making light of the OP's lack of care. I've experienced similar in the NHS.

However, £50 for urgent care in the USA would have been maybe 25 years ago. My cousin in the US without medical insurance paid that for having their hand looked at way back then. These days, urgent care in the US these days would be nearer to $2,000-3,000. That would be without any treatment. Just to be seen.

You don’t you can see a private gp. Referral usually if you have Bupa or similar.

lovely gp receptionist got me in the same day for excruciating period pain and gp immediately did a referral for an ultrasound. I’ve Bupa so have gone private but even so that’s good service.

@younknow She then said I could refer to physio but “ChatGPT would give me a plan”

Lol.

Actually, seeing a physio can make a big difference. The physio I saw privately wasn't much good, but for a different injury I had good attention from an NHS physio. He observed me doing the exercises and fine tuned them. When one of the exercises was a bit much for me and set me back a bit, he gave me different exercises to allow me to work back up to being able to do the more ambitious exercises. I had printed sheets and online links to remind me of the exercises I'd been shown but the real value was in being monitored at my sessions.

They delivered all 4 of my babies safely. They worked on my son for an hour to get him breathing. All for free. That’s the point of the nhs and I’ll be forever grateful. Are they stretched, yes. Are they perfect, no. But we are very lucky. Some children in Gaza are having to be operated on without anaesthetic. Count your blessings.

You sound very entitled.

Are you the kind of person that usually demands paracetamol on prescription when you could go and buy it for pennies?

No they are correct, or at least partially. A sprain can mean slight stretching and minor damage to the ligament, a more significant partial tear of the ligament fibres, or a complete tear. In most cases, it’s the former.

We pay for the NHS through our taxes. It’s not “free”. I’d rather we had the same health system, as the insurance based ones in Europe.

@bafta16 - that what painkillers are for

It's very painful.

You can report the nurse to PALS, she obviously doesn’t sound like the NHS and care that you deserve. Working in it myself, I know this is the minority that work for them and not the majority. We wouldn’t survive in the UK if it wasn’t for NHS!

A sprained ankle is very painful.

This is exactly the attitude a lot of people complain about.

Yes, I would rather be hit by a bus in the UK than anywhere else in the world, but its quite cruel to suggest that life saving and emergency care is the only healthcare people in one of the largest economies in the world should feel entitled to.

Having experienced both I would not say the US system is better. You mention sprains are taken seriously in the US, you are right if you have really good health insurance. However the downside is that conditions are overtreated causing their own problems. I am an osteopath and the amount of unnecessary scans and indeed surgery for chronic pain/musculoskeletal issues that I see horrifies me and the outcomes are often worse than more conservative treatments. Moreover the costs are truly shocking, much, much more expensive than private treatment in the UK.

exactly this!

I must be quite lucky. I had hip pain after walking awkwardly for a few weeks after breaking my little toe. (I hadn’t sought medical help for that, as I knew the treatment would just be to strap it to the next toe, and I could do that myself).

I filled out the online triage at my GP surgery explaining the issue, and within 24 hours was given an appointment with the first response physiotherapist. I was given a diagnosis, based on my description of the area of pain, shown the physio exercises, and a text to download written instructions.

The pain diminished in the timescale advised, but I was invited to return directly to the physiotherapist if a complete recovery didn’t follow.

Jolly good NHS.

Our GP surgery feels like the third world compared with the teaching hospital 20 miles away. Primary care really is the Cinderella service.

The issue I have is that despite worsening outcomes, difficulties with access and sub-optimal care, we are still supposed to be grateful and to treat doctors as they are some sort of demi-Gods. It's wholly unacceptable. It also isn't new.

In other countries they charge you a huge amount for things that aren’t needed.
sprains, for the most part, are not serious and should heal on their own. The only people getting a scan for a sprain are professional sports people.

It is a postcode lottery. Sometimes even a GP surgery lottery tbh. Mine operates so much better than many other people I know even locally, the physio has come in over the last few years and I do think stuff like that probably eases up the out patient referrals to some degree.

Your husband's experience is insane. All for trying to do basics to ease the pain as much as possible but if you don't know what you're even dealing with how do you know you you won't do yourself more damage 🤯