What’s the point in the NHS?

Indeed, although while the French system is to some extent insurance-based, the Spanish one is pretty much a carbon copy of the NHS/private split in the UK. French people who are used to their system covering everything turn up on holiday, get ill, go to the first clinic they see, get a large bill, and are then surprised that their EHIC won't cover it (because it gives you the same deal as local people, not the same deal as you get at home, so they should have gone to the public clinic).

But your overall point is well taken. There are 40+ different healthcare systems in Europe, and the NHS/Spanish model is the outlier. It annoys me when legitimate criticism of the NHS is turned into a binary "Well, it's that or the US system".

Yep.

Some ligament injuries (for example a ACL tear) DO require management, and it is possible that sort of injury is what your Mum had, but most soft tissue ankle injuries do not.

The (likely highly experienced) nurse you saw could likely identify the ligament involved from the location of the pain on palpation and the swelling, and knows the best management for it. More contemporary research shows the importance of movement and use of ankles in soft tissue injuries. If you give crutches someone is likely to delay or minimise movement of it which reduces blood flow, leading to an increase in healing time and a higher likelihood of complications like DVTs or poor healing. It sounds like you received the most up to date evidence based advice :)

In relation to physio - an Emergency or Urgent Care centre can simply not carry physiotherapy advice for every injury they come across - that would be madness. They can refer to physio - but would typically only do so for someone unable to self refer because then the individual can identify how they’d like to be contacted etc. A simple soft tissue ankle injury would require quite simple movements and exercises and googling or chat GPT would get you those much quicker than waiting for a referral (which will prioritise patients that needed in person appointments- which your type of injury doesn’t). If you want NHS physio, self refer. If you want in person physio quickly, make a private appointment.

I have no way of knowing how your injury compares to what your Mum had, but it sounds like you’ve received appropriate management.

As an aside about the difference over time, I have been an ED nurse for a little over 8 years now. When I started out a day when we had 300 patients through the dept (in 24hrs) was a big big day. Now we routinely see over 500. That’s a HUGE increase in 8 years and the budget has not increased in line.

This sadly. I think the NHS is brilliant, but years of neglect and it’s now on its knees.

I was going to say, my son sees both NHS physio and private physio and the only major difference is that he sees the private physio more often.

So many NHS physio appointments and it's never been just a set of exercises to do at home with my son.

yabu this is a very common injury. You have been checked that you don’t need a cast or surgery - that is the point of the NHS. You just need time for your body to heal.
Scanning your ankle and a support are not going to make it better quicker.
it takes about 3 months for ankle to heal.
Physio exercises are on chat GPT, physios don’t have secret special exercises for ankle injuries.

You’ve sprained your ankle. It’s not serious so get over it. You know what to do.

Its never even occurred to me to seek professional help for a sprain. I can understand needing to check it wasn't broken, which they did. I geniunely think most people would at that point be relieved and go home.

Same. 20 years ago, multiple visits for turn ligaments. Think I got an X-ray one of the times, never got crutches or support bandages or anything.

Did the same abroad with private care. Paid 1000s for the scan, the crutches and someone to wrap my foot. The result was the same. Rest up. Ice and elevate. It sucks but sometimes there's nothing you can do, and limited care for sprains definitely isn't a new thing with the NHS

I didn’t…

It's not the doctors fault that the care available is limited though. It IS the fault of multiple governments' deliberate defunding, mismanagement and outsourcing to private companies.

Private treatment is often also substandard. I know for a fact that a lot of my colleagues started in private practice fresh out of their degree and received no additional training or supervision. Most of them have left within three months as they didn't feel safe in this scenario and went for NHS jobs to get hands on experience.
A relative had a hip replacement at Priory. He was discharged home without an OT assessment on a Saturday with no medical staff. They didn't even assess of he could get into a car. He spent three days in a hospital and I'm all that time not once he was supported with showering or changing clothes. They also failed to ask about the home environment. Physio watched him negotiate two steps and said he was good to go. Out only bathroom was on the second floor. He could not lower himself onto the toilet as there was a toilet raiser in the hospital and nobody once suggested we may need the same. This would not have happened had he had his surgery in a state hospital. I know that because I used to work on surgical wards.

I sprained my ankle severely in May. Black and blue and double in size by evening. Minor injuries turned me away that night. They saw me in the morning. It was xrayed, no break. Told to stay active, given a photocopied physio shert, told it would be better in six weeks, told to buy a tubigrip and sent home.

Six weeks of home physio and keeping active later it was stiff and very painful certainly not healed so I went private through my husband’s work.

The surgeon referred me to physio and mri. Mri showed bone bruising on tibia and talus. Three ligaments torn, one severely.

He said it should have been immobilised. I got a boot on amazon. I saw immediate improvement with the physio. Total healing tjme from injury was three months.

I gained four pounds of fat while it healed butI am now fully active again.

There are no quick solutions. Nature needs time to heal.

What's the point of this post? I genuinely don't respect people that bitch about the NHS, sorry 😂
Yes, it's not perfect and yes, it has lots of flaws, but it's free (a point of access) healthcare. You just said yourself that you were x-rayed and then seen by a medical professional so what else do you actually want them to do?
People in this country are actually so privileged to have relatively easy access to healthcare that they forget that it's a LUXURY, and there a lots of other countries that don't have this same thing.

• I woke up in 2017 with an ovarian tumour the size of a melon. They operated on me and removed the tumour. That's what the NHS is for.

• My baby nephew was born today after having to give my SIL a c-section. That's what the NHS is for.

• My dad went out for a swim one evening and whilst there, he suffered a cardiac arrest. He drowned, and was clinically dead for several minutes. The NHS nursed him back to life, back to health, and he is alive and well today because of it.

How long have you got?

That's what the NHS is for 👌

It's had more and more money which NHS employees waste.

My experience was the opposite. Private physio not much use. A few yrs later for different injury, really good NHS physio. First appointment 45 mins, then 30 min appointments. Approx one per month for about 6 months, then onto 'opt in' which meant I wouldn't be given another appointment unless I requested one within a defined time period. Discharged if nothing heard from me. I didn't need to have another appointment after the opt in was at an end. During my appointments I was monitored and a schedule developed for the next phase. I was observed doing the exercises, had them fine tuned and had my progress measured.

@younknow I had a colonoscopy a while back, it was swiftly scheduled and carried out. I can’t fault the care I received and happily the analysis concluded no further treatment was necessary. My partner is scheduled for a lumpectomy and this will happen shortly.

There is lots right with the NHS but it’s definitely not perfect especially when treatment varies according to postcode but demographics also play into this.

I’m sorry you had a miserable experience. However, we do not need to switch to an insurance model, where people have to choose between keeping the family home or cancer treatment.

The vast, vast majority of people are not net contributors to the NHS, meaning you won’t ever get close to paying in anything like you eventually ‘use’ so on that basis alone, We get something very valuable.

What did you want a scan for? You had an xray which showed it wasn't broken. You were told it's torn ligaments. A scan wouldn't have told you any different. Use Google to find out how to look after torn ligaments.

The treatment is still the same as for sprain - PRICE and then review once acute pain subsided whether any follow up is needed. Which, I am sure OP was advised to contact her GP in a few weeks and self-refer for community physio.

When we used to sprain ankles as kids my mum would wrap it in a cold water bandage presumably to reduce the swelling - never needed anything else. I’d just google it to find out what to do. You probably need to rest it till the swelling goes down then gently exercise it

My bowel perforated 8 years ago. They saved my life too.
I have ongoing treatment for diabetes.
My kidney was removed, due to cancer - treatment ongoing.
Loads of other exciting stuff.
NHS are amazing.

Twice I have fallen and broken my left wrist, the most recent last year, the care I had was brilliant apart from the wait. I was so impressed at the care and compassion I experienced that I actually wrote an email to PALS to pass on to staff. I always say the NHS is mostly brilliant once you are in the system, I'm sorry this was obviously not the case here, please write to PALS and complain, for yourself and future patients

You have sprained your ankle. That is it, just a sprain, not a break. You don't need an x-ray. If you want to go on the list for physio then self refer, by the time you get an appointment your ankle will be better. The gold plated crutches are on their way to you as we speak.

In the next couple of weeks my 4 year old son is going to have life saving heart surgery. That is the point of the NHS.

You have a sprained ankle. It needs to rest and heal. What were you expecting exactly? If you don’t like it then go private.

Yes I understand that sometimes its regular visits that's needed. Obviously it's dependent on the actual problem and treatment plan needed. Sometimes it is just home exercises that are required though.