Some bits of the NHS work really well.

[StarttoFinish]

I waited 3 weeks for a telephone GP consultation about a suspect mole. Obviously GP couldn't see it over the phone, she asked for photos, which I sent, but she still felt she hadn't seen it clearly enough, I needed a face to face appointment. Fine but another 3 week wait.

Once I did eventually see her she referred me to dermatology. I got an appointment within 2 weeks and have had all my moles, not just the suspect one checked. No reason for concern, phew.

So that's all brilliant, the system works once you're in it. However, presumably, the appointment came through so quickly because it could have been urgent. Wait targets have been met, but it took 6 weeks to get to the point where a referral was made!.

I disagree. If you’d had cancer, it would have been festering for 6 weeks plus the wait time for an op. Whilst we have thousands of excellent NHS staff, this isn’t acceptable. We’ve been conditioned to think it is. Rather like someone who’s been starving in a war zone thinking that one meal per day is fabulous.

Waiting 6 weeks to be referred on the two week wait pathway is really bad.

Does it hell!

My GP referred me to Dermatology under the urgent 2 week rule for a suspicious mole. A week later I got a letter in the post asking me to call them for an appointment. Whereupon I was told there was a 8-10 week wait for 2 week cancer referrals. And that's at four hospitals across the Trust.

I paid privately £400, had the mole excised and this morning was informed it is malignant melanoma. Thankfully only 0.4mm so they got it early and I should be ok.

The private clinic are open at weekends now because they are picking up so many patients waiting on the NHS. Fucking Covid..!

I am glad you don’t have cancer op and really think that this is what has contributed to you feeling happy with the NHS. It’s broken.

Fuck me. You waited a total of 8 weeks to see a specialist.

Lucky it wasn't anything that could have killed you in that time (a lot of things may well have)!

If you're happy with this type of service, then I feel sorry for you.

Yes, this was why I said some bits work well. Once I was in the system it worked well, but I agree it's appalling that it tool six weeks to get in front of the GP for her to refer me.

That was my point really.

My referral was similarly quick when I had some post menopausal bleeding. Seen very quickly in Gynae, scan done, procedure done, all clear given. All done within about 3 weeks. It is presumably because of the two week cancer pathway.

@StarttoFinish

Yes, this was why I said some bits work well. Once I was in the system it worked well, but I agree it's appalling that it tool six weeks to get in front of the GP for her to refer me.

That was my point really.

And my point was that our local wait time is 10 weeks even after the gp has referred you. So it's entirely dependent on your location.

Dh's mole was sorted quickly during covid. Telephone gp appointment on the day of calling, sent photos, gp called back, next working day face to face appointment. Consultant in under 2 weeks who removed it there and then. Spot on.

And on the other hand.....
DM has a life-limiting respiratory condition.
Taken to A&E around 1pm yesterday. I spent a total of over three hours trying to find out what was happening.
Apparently 'there are no staff to answer the phones' in the area of the emergency department she was in.
I totally understand that nursing staff need to be able to get on with their job, but that's crazy when only the affected person can go to A&E in most circumstances.

@mineofuselessinformation I hear you. There should be enough staff to answer the phone to make sure you are updated.

I wish I could describe the level of understaffing in the NHS at the moment. It's not that there's just not enough staff to answer the phone, there's not enough staff to function!

I've just finished my 3 long days, yesterday we were so busy we didn't get around to discharging a single woman, on a postnatal ward where most women and babies are well and desperate to get home. We just had too much to do.

I did 16,600 steps in 13 hours and didn't have time to get a break, I literally didn't stop, all day. My women missed their IV's, they went without their pain relief and call bells went unanswered, all because I couldn't get around fast enough. There are just too many women and babies, and not enough midwives.

Can you imagine training and working so hard and being so passionate about providing care and support to women, to go home knowing that 16 of them (and their babies equalling 32 patients) didn't even get the bare minimum from you? It's sad and it's demoralising. I got home and cried.

Last week we were so stressed and busy one of my toughest colleagues had an anxiety attack on the ward, I felt like I could have joined her. She couldn't catch her breath but carried on regardless.

You can imagine when we're not even getting the bare minimum done, how far down the priority list answering phone calls requesting updates is. As awful as that sounds.

@ripplestitchblank oh no that is awful! I was literally just about to comment that maternity is working well - I had an amazing experience with maternity services with my baby just born. As if covid never happened, better in fact both pre baby with shorter waiting times for appointments and after without all the visitors annoying everybody on the ward. I must write a letter to the staff in the hospital to thank them.

I told my GP about a mole last summer and was referred to a clinic. Told the wait would be two weeks. Never heard back.

@ripplestitchblank, I totality understand where you are coming from, but on a thread meant to highlight the positives of NHS service,this isn't cutting it, is it?
I am so not getting at you, so please believe me (dsis is a very senior member of staff overseas)
When you can't go in to visit easily, there really should be someone there at the end of the phone, don't you think?

I think the point is that it's a curate's egg. Parts of it are very good. But like an egg, a few bad bad bits can render the whole thing practically worthless. Where OP lives, a specialist will quickly and expertly examine and deal with your dodgy moles. But when you're waiting months to get to that point, it could be too late.

During covid I wanted a routine gp appt. Gp phoned me same day (I love my surgery they are v good) . I showed her photos of a burn that wasn't healing well, she phoned me back several times the same afternoon and booked me into the appropriate hospital clinic who saw me the next morning, follow up appointment four days later and I didn't need to go back. Fully functioning clinic during lockdown. Very efficient. I agree some parts work well.

Um the dermatology clinic in my hospital has been privatised.

I agree. My DC suffered a fracture a couple of months ago and the treatment has been excellent in A&E and at the follow-up clinic and physiotherapist. There was one time we were delayed due to a shortage of radiologists but otherwise we have been in and out quickly every time.

However, I can quite imagine that there is a huge variance between services, and probably by location too.

I think that is diabolical. I have just had back surgery in Australia.

I booked my own consultant there was an 8 day wait. I then had a telehealth appt with the GP so she could send the referral. Saw the surgeon on Thursday had imaging the same day. Operated on on Friday morning. Home Saturday morning.

Seeing what my parents and son are going through with regards treatment on the NHS (Scotland & Wales), I don't think there is a single bit of the NHS working well.

@BastardMonkfish congratulations on the birth of your baby! That's wonderful I'm glad you had a great experience. Definitely write the letter, it will mean so much to them.

@mineofuselessinformation I agree with you, read my first paragraph.

@aiwblam

I disagree. If you’d had cancer, it would have been festering for 6 weeks plus the wait time for an op. Whilst we have thousands of excellent NHS staff, this isn’t acceptable. We’ve been conditioned to think it is. Rather like someone who’s been starving in a war zone thinking that one meal per day is fabulous.

Took my boss 48 hours from her message on the GP app to be booked in for a double mastectomy and reconstruction the following week.

Fortunate boss. My mum waited 6 weeks for her mastectomy (before Covid). And when they did it, the hospital had no bed for her so she spent the night being pushed from recovery to pre op, at which point I took her home and looked after her in my home. Then, 5 years later when she thought the cancer had spread (last December) she asked the Gp about the lump elsewhere. GP said probably nothing but will refer on as mum was worried. Had biopsy in February. Covid then meant nobody was allowed to call our GP to get results. In July the GP called and said sorry your results were lost, your cancer has spread and isn’t curable. So no I will not accept anyone telling me the NHS isn’t broken. My parents in law have both died recently and my FIL’s dying wish was to sue the hospital for the circumstances around MIL’s death. Died of cancer that should have been diagnosed a year or two before it was. Passed from GP to consultant after consultant, all who said “not my area”. Each time a new wait. In horrific pain the whole time. Died curled up in agony.

Accepting it’s broken is the first step to fixing it.

It doesn't really matter if some bits work OK when most of it doesn't work at all.