NHS is absolutely appalling and I’m paying for this

[Dumbleyellowdore]

I know it’s been done to death but I need a rant.

My DS is 12 and every time he gets even a slight cold or cough he gets a hacking cough which lasts weeks and keeps him awake all night. It is so bad he coughs in his sleep. He literally coughs 24/7 and is exhausted.

This has been going on for 18 months. He caught a cold off his sister at the beginning of the month and has been coughing ever since. He’s had to take time off school and I’m worried about his attendance.

Over the last 18 months I have done econsult after econsult and only get telephone appointments for him and the doctors say he needs a full asthma assessment. The problem is there are no appointments. We have to books months ahead (only 1 nurse does it) and typically when the appointment comes round he doesn’t have a cough. Last time the nurse said there’s no point coming unless he has the cough. Come back when he has one.

I did an econsult last week saying he has the cough please can we see the asthma nurse so she can do the tests. I had a text back with an appointment. We turned up but it was with a paramedic who said he doesn’t do asthma tests and to book with the asthma nurse! What a waste of time.

I rang the doctors and explained what had happened. Said DS has the cough and can he please see the asthma nurse. Was told next appointment in February.

What sort of broken system is this? I am so sick of being forced to pay into this system every month from my pay and I can’t even get my son the appointment he needs. It’s disgusting.

I just don’t know what to do any more. I work with doctors and they have said it sounds like DS needs an inhaler which needs to be prescribed. They have told me a GP can prescribe this and it doesn’t have to be an asthma nurse. Unfortunately the doctors I work with are not GPS so they can’t help.

After another night of none of us getting any sleep due to the constant coughing I just don’t know what to do.

”I pay for this”

not a teeny tiny microscopic patch on how much you’d pay if you had to go private or insurance type system.

yes it’s frustrating but i would take him for the asthma test anyway because kids have asthma wether they have a cough or not- they can do tests anyway or tell you if it sounds like it could be.

The pricing is exactly the same, you just don't get an itemised bill at the end, because the taxpayer picks up the tab.

I feel your pain OP - I need an appointment to see the asthma nurse and can't get one, been told to just ring back and see if we can see you in January. Never mind the fact I have asthma and need an inhaler to breath eh!

I have got a blue inhaler by doing an econsult and stressing shortness of breath and cough, each time I have received a same day appointment with a normal nurse, first time she gave me a course of steroids and second time a blue inhaler so at least it's something.

When you fill out the econsutl make shortness of breath (if he has it) a priority and ask the nurse to give you a sabuatamol inhaler to tide you over until you can see the asthma nurse.

Yes, try something like Livi. You will see a GP.

I don’t understand why they are telling you he has to have the cough for asthma testing.

I have asthma and initially I went to the GP about a persistent cough that I just couldn’t get rid of. He listened to my chest and booked me in with the asthma nurse. She did my peak flow and booked me in for spirometry, but the appointment was a way off and my cough had improved by that point. She also gave me a blue and brown inhaler and a peak flow meter straight away to see if it helped.

Phone your surgery today and book your son in for the next available appointment with the asthma nurse. Ignore them saying to only come in if he has a cough. Then phone every few days and see if any closer appointments have opened up.

I'm a practice nurse booked up almost until the end of January. As is my colleague. She retires next year, I go in three. We are both part time and don't even make up a full timer between us as we don't want more hours. We had one nurse leave after only six months recently, can't recruit. Certainly not anyone with any experience.
And people think it's just GP's that are leaving or retiring in droves. They have no idea what's coming. Primary care staffing is a timebomb on many levels.

But there isnt any GPs.

Instead they are training more PA'S and paramedics to do the job.

PALS only deal with hospitals not GP surgeries.

If you aren't getting anywhere you'll just have to change surgeries and hope the next one is better.

To be honest OP, urgent care should have given a reliever inhaler but it's all just a massive game of pass the buck now.

but if you feel up to it, you could try them again and insist they give that inhaler at least.

Do you have a walk in centre near you, op? They might be willing to prescribe inhalers

... we are so short on appointments for chronic disease, we now have pharmacists after one days online training doing our asthma reviews.
When I reminded him to complete a management plan for each patient, he hadn't any Ida what i was talking about!

The system is, as you rightly say, so broken.

The issue is over population in the UK, and half of those people (children/benefits and immigrants) do not pay into the NHS. It's going to change into a 2 tier system soon. The free basic level for those who don't pay for private cover, and a premium service for those who pay. People keep welcoming immigrants into such a small country, cannot be surprised when housing/hospitals/schools and surgeries are full with waiting lists.

I completely agree.

Why is it ok to have such low expectations.

If you are poorly, you should be able to ring your local GP surgery and get an appointment.
That is not having high expectations, that is just a normal expectation.

Same with dentists.

I'm not clear from the OP's posts where she is directing her anger?

She is right to be angry but I hope it's directed at the right place - the last 13/14 years of Tory decay - and not at the people who work for the NHS.

Time for a General Election.

My son had breathing difficulties, sucking his ribs in etc. I took him to AE and he had viral wheeze (plus covid at the time). They gave us a blue inhaler. We use it when he gets really bad during a virus. He hasn’t seen an asthma nurse as he’s under 4 but if we ever need another blue inhaler I just ring up and they send a prescription to local pharmacy.

is that a route you could try? Is his coughing bad enough for AE (eg struggling to talk due to coughing?)

The NHS is incredibly poorly managed. I gave birth recently and made a complaint about my treatment (which wasn’t even as bad as some of the horror stories I have heard). They took 4 weeks longer than they committed to reply (a total of 70 working days) and the response missed out huge chunks of what I had complained about and was incoherent and untruthful in parts. I think a 12 year old could have written something better. It needs a complete overhaul, proper funding and competent people in leadership positions.
YANBU to expect your child to receive healthcare in a timely manner.

Have you tried all the usual cough relief things? Off the shelf cough mixtures, throat lozenges, Vick vapour rub at night? Talked to a pharmacist for advise? Coughs can become habits or self perpetuating because of the constant coughing and irritation that causes.

Ask for an inhaler to try to rule out asthma, ie, if it doesn't help it's not asthma. But a 12 year old may need to be taught how to use it.

I agree with you.

But I think there is a place fir anger against the surgery itself and it’s poor management.
Asking for an appointment with the asthma nurse and getting an a with the paramedics who can’t deal with asthma issues isn’t acceptable Imo.

I mean in a case like this, in my own surgery, you would put an eConsult and you’d have an appointment with a GP or the asthma nurse within a week, probably less.
And they are working within the same system with the same constrains

I don’t think this is representative of the NHS. Change surgery. Ours is heavily oversubscribed and in the last six months, we’ve had three same day appointments after e-consults, one asthma check that we had to reschedule due to a cancelled flight and we still managed to get that within a couple of weeks and after school too.

Did you vote Tory?

This is what happens when a government has been chronically underfunding the NHS for over 10 years. Do not blame the NHS for this.

I am so sorry you are going through this. Please keep trying with the GP practice and ask for asthma services.

That sounds like a particularly bad system if you can only access what you need with the cough

We’ve been through asthma stuff but it wasn’t the same

Dd had fast supply of an inhaler, and she rarely uses it, school haven’t brought it up for ages (which is what prompted it)

For any posters blaming the Tories, I live in Wales under an Welsh Labour government. The NHS where I live is just as crap as England and Betsi Cadwaladr in North Wales is an embarrassment. The solution isn't pouring more money into a broken system it should about wholesale reforms that centralise management and invest in people and IT systems.

I live in a house full of asthmatics and this is what I would suggest, if you can throw some cash at it

• buy a peak flow monitor today from a chemist - maybe £10-15
• look at videos at how to use it properly
• start recording results several times a day
• note the results in a peak flow diary (nhs refers to one by Asthma+Lung U.K.)
• Book a private GP appointment you can show a day or twos results too (not that expensive if do online with likes of PushDoctor or Superdrug) and get prescribed a reliever (blue inhaler - salbutamol) and preventer (typically brown Clenin Modulite)
• downside is you’ll pay private prescription costs but you should then be able to take all that evidence to the GP electronically and insist it is represcribed

NHS seems coy about saying online what a peak flow should be. But if you google you’ll see various calculators. Which suggest that a boy age 12 who is 150cm should be around 350. i suspect you’ll find him coming in a lot lower.

you shouldn’t have to do all that of course. Your GP surgery sounds very poor. But if you can pay you can sort this swiftly.

I’m very excited to hear about a reliever inhaler Thankyou to all who suggested it. I will mention this in my next econsult.

The cough is always as a result of any virus or infection. So if he gets a mild cold he coughs 24/7 for days. If he gets a sore throat, same. I’ve tried every possible cough sweet/syrup/lozenge, everything. I even read on here about an amazing chinese herbal remedy for coughs and ordered it. It didn’t help. The doctors I work with say none of these things will help an asthmatic cough.

I just feel really desperate and so guilty. We live in London so obviously even harder to get an appointment when the area we live in is so heavily populated.

And no I didn’t vote Tory. But surely even those who did are still entitled to access healthcare.

When I gave birth I was so poorly stitched I had to pay thousands for a repair. The private consultant who did it said the stitching done by the NHS doctor in my hospital was about 50 years out of date, he couldn’t believe how bad it was. I put in a complaint but was just fobbed off.

Why look at the actual year-on-year spending on the NHS under the Tories when you can just blame the Tories?