NHS rant alert

[Yokatsu]

Gah!!!

So today i was breathing a sigh if relief of having successfully got to the end one of those stupid busy weeks with stupid complex arrangements and multiple specialist hospital appointments a distance away. Then realised im out of one DS'S medicines. Had completely missed we were down to the last 2 doses. So admittedly this is my fault in the first place but its about the least bad thing that could have gone wrong this week.

Cue very Apologetic to phone call to NHS. They sent the prescription to a pharmacy that not only is quite a distance from us but has none of the medication in and is closed today!!!

2nd phone call to NHS 111. NHS direct only deal with the pharmacy in the next town to us. I live in a sizable town with a couple of big pharmacies open Sunday and a aging population. They have the prescription but can only send it to the closed pharmacy half hours drive away.

They can refer to seadoc. so now Waiting for the phone call anywhen in the next 2 hours.

So now onto at least 3 phone calls and a out of hours dr to deal with something stupidly simple be cause nhs direct can only send a prescription to one specific pharmacy not even in the same town as i live.

Sometimes I really cringe at the waste within the NHS

@Bombardier25966

Believe me if I could I would.

Because I'm on low income and will be in perpetuity because of DS' needs.

Because my son's condition is so unusual there's very few consultants with any experience. The private consultant reffered him back into the NHS!!

I pretty much have for my DD for the last year. But at some point I probably won't be able to.

Because I'm angry on they're behalf they have to go to such hassle. It just shouldn't be that hard.

@GoatYoga

will probably deal with at least half a dozen people that have run out of meds.

Perhaps you should have some empathy at what else they may be dealing with.

People should be allowed to criticise aspects of the NHS without being told that they should just be grateful and think about how much it would cost them elsewhere. I am very grateful for it - but there are huge inefficiencies, and changing some of that might allow more money to be spent where it's needed. Some of the admin is shocking, and while I know people often tend to complain only about the inconvenience to themselves, just telling them to be grateful they have anything and not actually looking at what is wrong with some of the admin is short-sighted. The chaotic experience I had trying to be seen at the eye clinic for an emergency, the hours wasted, the inability of anyone to manage to send out the right appointments, cancel others, communicate with GPs, not lose referrals, etc. meant extra appointments were needed, fewer patients could be seen, potentially serious consequences to vision could have happened, etc.

So while it seems churlish to complain about things that might just seem like minor inconveniences, something wrong with a system that can only dispatch prescriptions to a closed pharmacy etc is a symptom of inefficiencies that do need to be sorted.

So while it seems churlish to complain about things that might just seem like minor inconveniences, something wrong with a system that can only dispatch prescriptions to a closed pharmacy etc is a symptom of inefficiencies that do need to be sorted.

Yes yes yes. This 100%. I can't post how sick to death I am with dealing with a referral that took 6 months not to be done or how a doctor's misdiagnosis took 4 years fight to correct. Sending a repeat prescription to a pharmacy that is open should be easy, It should be a condition of the pharmacy being allowed to trade

People say the NHS is free, but it's not free, we pay through our NI contributions and we pay through our taxes for doctors to be trained. We also pay because while the NHS is there, being inadequate, nothing else will replace it.

The whole "be grateful" thing is a whitewash.

@Broussard

Better doesn't necessarily mean good. Should we aim at inadequate simply because its better than bad when it would be so simple to make it good?

OP sorry to hijack your post in a nurse in the NHS and we are so very lucky to have gold standard health care free at the point of delivery. It's not perfect but nothing that relies on humans is.

Myth busting - the NHS is inefficient but that's come from underfunding from successive governments!! We don't have a joined up system much as various trusts and invested millions for their own use!

Doctors pay for their own university training standard uni fees - +£60k in loans paid back once they earn £25k and believe it or not they don't earn that straight away!!

We do have a free health system we do pay for it via National Insurance and our taxes but it's not means tested ALL uk citizens qualify. Don't think for one second that if we lose the NHS you'll pay less tax and NI.

Rant over.

We do have empathy and do our very best to help - as do the staff (in my experience) at 111. People do often expect the impossible or expect things to happen much faster than they can.

Every patient who we see today for an urgent medicine supply will leave either with the medicine or with referral / signposting to someone who can help. I’m not sure we could do much better than that.

“‭It should be a condition of the pharmacy being allowed to trade” - well it isn’t. It takes time and training to provide - the fees aren’t adequate to cover the time to deliver and endless paperwork. Yes we do it, but I can understand why others don’t. It’s a pilot at the moment - not sure if it will continue after the end of September.

I've been on multiple medications for the last 25 years and have never had to call NHS Direct to get a repeat prescription. In dire circumstances where I've left a prescription request to a friday I've taken the day off work to get to my GP and beg / wait for a prescription to be raised. I find Boots helpful as they request my repeat prescriptions but even when they've failed, if I go to them they make the urgent calls to my GP on my behalf.

Sorry, but this is your fault. I'd never think to call NHS Direct. Having multiple medications isn't really a justifiable excuse.

The NHS isn't perfect but is also being deliberately underfunded and using NHS Direct for repeat prescriptions is a waste created by the public.

gold standard health care free at the point of delivery

Don't make me laugh....

Ive dealt with the NHS for too long to believe that this is a gold standard, or to believe that if you et the gold standard if you don't throw money

We can argue about lack of investment. And you might be right on that... But the inefficiencies are endemic.

NHS wouldn't do a test because admittedly expensive test was recommended by the private consultant. 4 years and 3 different consultants later they did the test and the first private consultant was right. It would have cost a hell of a lots less money and heartache to do the test in the first place.Drs Arrogance and lack of open mindedness are costing the NHS thousands.

DD "didn't meet the treatment criteria" for local services. But after a private consultant second opinion she's being treated at a national centre of excellence. Think how much more that is costing the NHS.

Many years back DS was discharged from therapy services as he didn't need it. One very expensive tribunal (income support so expensive for the government) It was ruled he needed it daily.

The NHS may be "free at the point of delivery" but only if you've got the money And grit to prove you need the service in the first place.

Im not sure how much we should be proud of that

Given that your private consultant referred you back to the NHS, you've a lot to be grateful for. Whatever condition your son suffers from clearly needs the NHS because the help / assistance he needs isn't available privately.

That sounds really stressful for you after a hard week, OP. Yes it's your mistake but you are only human and dealing with all of the hospital appointments and other stress that comes from looking after a poorly child is hard work and these things happen.
Sometimes people just need to rant. I hope you get it sorted soon.

Do you have a smartphone?

There are several medicine apps on there, which not only give you daily reminders about taking (or giving) medication, but you can set it to remind you when you're down to X number of tablets. That way you know when to put a repeat request in.

I have one called My Therapy - Meds & Pills Reminder, but others are available.

It may be worth looking into.

@kirinm
I shall aim at your level of efficiency whilst i deal with them checking out whether my son's brain is still developing and my DD upcoming prolonged hospital admission.

I shall think with shame at the waste I have caused the NHS.

Will the NHS think with shame at the waste they caused themselves AND me when they failed to cancel a consultants appointment despite me spent hours trying to track down the right department to tell them 2 months in advance that a different department was now handling the case, or all the multiple times I have had to chase down the refferals that got lost in the system or that time i had to scan and send pages of test results because they lost their copy...

@Sometimes people just need to rant

Yeah I do. For all I need the NHS the stress is also causes is a huge burden. Ive been dealing with the NHS for all of Ds's life. This week I have had enough of being polite in the face of abject inefficiency, so instead of taking it out on the poor call handler I have ranted here.

@CheeseTheDay actually that would be handy. I have a task that should reappear on my phone. My guess is I didn't reset it when the pharmacy stuffed up the last prescription. Anything that happens automatically is a good thing

I'm not going to play top trumps with you over your families medical history. My family (me included) have a significant history too and the NHS saved my brothers life after having his skull fractured and brain surgery. I'm not suggesting there aren't inefficiencies and I'm not suggesting I don't sometimes forget to request my medication but I do think your rant is over the top considering the first fault is yours.

@kirinm
Yep it's over the top. Sometimes it's just the straw that breaks the camel's back. Im actually fuming over every time if corrected the NHS doctor's and admins errors over the years. Those have cost DS years of treatment and a hell of a lot of heart ache.

I am very glad for the healthcare your family have received and hope they are still well.

I had to ring 111 a couple of Saturdays ago as my son suddenly became extremely ill in the middle of the night. We were given an appointment with the OOH at the local hospital.

I’m disabled and use crutches to get about. My DH was away with work and wasn’t due back for another 3 or so hours, so I checked the bus times and there wasn’t one but god willing I’d be able to get one back. So I paid £15 for a taxi.The surgery was at the other end of the hospital on the boundary. The OOH doctor was running really late, so we were sat waiting for an hour. When we saw him he didn’t examine my son, just listened to the symptoms and gave me a prescription. I asked for directions to the hospital pharmacy and he just said they’re closed. So I asked where the nearest pharmacy was and he told me in the next town. I explained the problem and that I couldn’t afford to pay for another taxi but he just shrugged and said it wasn’t his problem. I was told I couldn’t wait anywhere on the hospital grounds for my DH.

So I left and checked the buses and there were none. I’d also missed the last bus that would take us home. So my son and I had to start walking the 5 miles home and hoping my husband could pick us up at some point.

It had a serious impact on my health and meant that it took my son longer to recover and two extra visits to the doctors before he was well.

Should we aim at inadequate simply because its better than bad when it would be so simple to make it good?

It wouldn't be simple. It would be incredibly difficult and expensive.

I don't understand your attitude on this. Yes, there are widespread inefficiences that waste money. But today, the person wasting the money was you. It was your mistake that meant all this had to be done, but you're complaining about everyone else. Today, you are the one wasting NHS money. Which is ok, shit happens. But not really on to be moaning about it not being efficient.

ALWAYS blame the patient.

ALWAYS blame the patient.
Its an attitude im used to.

So I did get his prescription yesterday, but 111 would only prescribe enough for today. The doctor still had to prescribe the pharmacy still had to dispense, it would have been no more work to prescribe for 3 or 4 days over 1. But no they only prescribe for 1. Even The pharmicist apologised be cause she recognised it was ridiculous. It also meant she had to break a box. No idea how many requests she gets for only a partial box...

So today i had to put in another emergency prescription request to my Dr surgery because the standard request time is 2 working days.

We're now up to 6 phone calls and 2 doctor's to get a repeat prescription.

My fault yes. But an easy/common thing to get wrong, and a completely inefficient system to rectify.

It would be incredibly difficult and expensive.

Why? As far as ican see It would cost nothing. You simply send the fax to a different pharmacy. The pharmacy already deals with Seadocs fax

@UatuTheWatcher really sorry to hear your experience. A while back I spent 3 months without a car, it was an eye opener how society requires you to have mobility. Especially hospitals and doctor's.

I know it's only a small thing but at least you can request prescriptions over the phone. Mine refuse to do prescriptions over the phone which is why it's useful to join a pharmacy set up. As I said, I've always found boots pretty reliable.