Should NHS staff get prioritised treatment by the NHS

[mids2019]

Should NHS staff get prioritised treatment by the NHS.

The logic is that by facilitating recovery of NHS staff as a priority you actually make the whole system more efficient by reducing absence levels. To some extent this already happens with staff being allowed access to cancelled public appointments and there has been a hidden culture of serving or retired medical staff moving a little up the waiting list as a recognition of their service (but like a staff discount in retail I guess)

is this a good idea and should the NHS be more open about it?

You can't compare healthcare to getting a staff discount in retail!!!!!! Joe Bloggs getting 10% off his sainsbury's shopping does not mean i have to wait longer for my shopping.

Josie Bloggs getting advanced up the list for an MRI does impact me.

NHS care should be given according to clinical need. You could have essentially a more in depth occupational health service that provides more basic care to get NHS staff back in work, but they shouldnt jump the waiting list for operations e.g. a GP for hospital staff

NHS staff members also do not jump waiting lists for operations/appointments. If your best mates with someone in ENT and have say an ear infection you might be able to get some informal advise but you wouldn't get treatment over anyone else.

Yes of course

I work in an early pregnancy assessment unit, and the number of staff that come into the unit with the expectation of being seen there and then is unbelievable!
We are not a walk in centre and have an appointment system,with allocated slots with the sonographer and the nursing staff just like the rest of the hospital.

It would be like me going to go the dermatology department and saying 'I have a fungal toenail infection, will you have a look at it?'

It just doesn't happen.

Does in abortion care. And it does in maternity. I follow a mum blogger on Instagram who works for the NHS, she said her colleagues happily scanned her if she was worried in early pregnancy

My local mental health trust bumps you up the list if you're an NHS employee.

Absolutely not.

Me neither

I think it does happen, but it’s down the the discretion of the department, my manager called the MRI department we work with and got me an MRI in a week (was a cancellation). Their logic is if I get treated sooner I won’t be off sick and patients won’t have appointments cancelled, so makes sense to me. One staff member being treated faster can prevent many many patients having their appointments/procedures delayed or cancelled, it’s the lesser of two evils.

Absolutely not

I get it. However, some departments do squash people in.

I worked in a hospital until recently and had regular botox injections in my mouth under ENT. My consultant would often tag me onto the end of one of his clinics to get me seen. It prevented me taking up a slot in another clinic that another patient could have and he was happy to run over a short time to get my injection done.

Not saying it should happen, but when some departments do things like that, I can see why staff in that department may think staff in other departments will also do it.

Well it doesn’t happen in the trust I work for.

And nor should it.

Ask just to clarify I didn't jump waiting lists getting my injections. I had a first attendance and follow up like everyone would to get diagnosed. Injections are then three monthly and instead of getting an appt through he would tell me which clinic to come down to when it was due to finish. You also need to be around people after it for a bit and it meant I could go back to my desk and have lunch without taking a chunk of time out of my working day or going to one of their Saturday clinics (which was when my first appt and follow up were, so I was going to work on a non work day!).

Quite often clinics overrun or they squash extra urgent ones in that have cropped up. Tagging on me as a nice easy case was a better use of time than allocating me a proper follow up slot in a clinic profile.

Of course not. Clinical need, not occupation.

"Absolutely not"

Yes, absolutely. Just like all the other pps who've said the same. I'll bet there are many departments where it does happen and many where it doesn't and this thread is demonstrating that.

The sheer arrogance of those posters claiming to know what goes on in every corner of the nhs because they've worked there a few years 🤣

This is a disgrace.

Are we back to the key worker crap from 2 years ago? Have we not learnt that we all need each other and prioritising a small group doesn’t have overall benefit?

@Kinneddar you took the words out of my mouth.
@Tontostitis what a vile sentiment

Been in NHS recieving units almost a decade and this is generally not a thing. I have seen it once with the chief exec which was really awkward and they were absolutely mortified with the whole thing (wasnt really well enough to stop it at the time) and made it sure it wouldn't happen again. I guess NHS staff know how the system works more than people not within the NHS, so I would only call the GP if my kids really needed an appointment but I have never not got a GP appointment...I guess we know the right things to say.

But as far as waits in emergency care its an absolute no no. I've had staff assaulted on shift by patients or with acute chest pain waiting 8 hours in ED for assessment during a shift. I've done 2 x 6 hour waits in the last week to get my DS abx because he didn't meet the algorithm for 111 and just had to go to ED, I was in my uniform one of them because was just finished a shift and did not change our wait. An above poster said staff showed up in EPU expecting scans but when I (SN) and my friend (med reg) recently had miscarriages we followed the proper channels and were given over a week wait for the surgical management, there was definitely no slotting in.

@DrMarciaFieldstone it started during covid and was still a thing in January 2022. They were seeing huge numbers of NHS staff getting onto waiting lists and many were signed off sick. I was told it was an attempt at protecting workforce numbers. But it didn't sit well with me.

Definitely at more senior level when my parents were NHS, though I guess most senior managers would just go private these days.

I'm a Hospital consultant and yes HCPs sometimes do get preferential treatment. There is still a bit of an old boys network. I've colleagues who wouldn't think twice about phoning the A&E consultant, if they or a relative were on the way in - even with v minor issues.

It's not always in the patient's best interest either. In an attempt to speed things along, corners can be cut.

I haven't seen it , but back in the day if it was something like a Physiotherapy appointment then we did get quicker referalls , mainly to get us back to work.

When I needed surgery myself it took about six months from diagnosis to surgery . I was cancelled twice and though I never pulled the "I work for the NHS " card , I did say I had pre-booked recovery time and if it was cancelled (again_) I had to re-jig my rota,

I work for the NHS and our trust has a policy to 'fast track' staff waiting for treatment if they are currently on sick leave due to their condition. For example if someone awaiting surgery for joint replacement has been unable to work for weeks due to pain their manager can request this via occupational health. All above board and in line
with HR policy.

Yes, absolutely it should happen. For clinical staff.
Not for admin staff and not for friends and relatives.