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.

It’s so different I’m amazed how obstructive it is

We didn’t really need it in the end of anything and precaution felt high (and same city so not that)

Oh FFS not this again.

They can’t recruit the staff because pay is shit / Brexit sent a lot of European staff packing / there aren’t enough staff being trained in the UK. It’s noting to do with a single equality manager in a 10,000 strong team of staff.

And despite what the daily mail tells you, diversity and inclusion matters HUGELY in the NHS - have you not heard of the massive health inequality by race in the UK? Or understand that different race profiles react differently to different drugs so it’s an important element to be worked in to care?

im not denying that reform isn’t needed in the NHS but this response is nothing but knee jerk does whistle .

Oh FFS not this again.

They can’t recruit the staff because pay is shit / Brexit sent a lot of European staff packing / there aren’t enough staff being trained in the UK. It’s noting to do with a single equality manager in a 10,000 strong team of staff.

And despite what the daily mail tells you, diversity and inclusion matters HUGELY in the NHS - have you not heard of the massive health inequality by race in the UK? Or understand that different race profiles react differently to different drugs so it’s an important element to be worked in to care?

im not denying that reform isn’t needed in the NHS but this response is knee jerk dog whistle response.

For all the complaints about the NHS there are also millions of people who

• are obese or morbidly obese
• who smoke
• who don't exercise
• who drink to excess
• who eat crap
• who do all sorts of drugs
• who pitch up at A&E for all sorts of minor things that could have been treated at home or through the pharmacies

And who get shirty when the NHS has to spend £££££££££££££££s dealing with the outcomes meaning that there are less resources to go round with staff time spent treating completely preventable conditions and diseases.

Yes. Correct. You know what would incentivise people to not do these things to themselves? Make them pay. When people can see the cost of their treatment, they tend to change their ways.

@Beautiful3

My grandparents on my dad's side were immigrants here in the 50's. They've always paid their taxes and never claimed benefits. They went on to have 5 tax paying children, 3 who pay the higher tax bracket, that went on to have many tax paying children of their own (some being in the higher tax brackets also).

So before you spew your narrow minded shit all over the internet, educate yourself.

Can’t you get a private appointment with a consultant OP? That seems to be the only way to get decent treatment these days and would only cost about £350 to hopefully identify the root cause of your son’s cough.
I know the NHS should be better but we are where we are.

If the NHS was more efficient/better managed then they wouldnt waste so much cash and could pay their staff better wages. Hence less staff turnover, less training needed, less vacancies and less money spent on locuming. Its not all about cash, and labour has said there will be no extra cash to spend if they get in (across the board) ....so would be interesting to see what they suggest to fix this (they have been very vague so far)

I’m not saying it’s always perfect here. Just that it’s not the Welsh Labour bad English Tories good that the poster I was replying to seemed to want us to believe.

You want people to be made bankrupt by illness? To die because they can’t afford the treatment? Because that’s what you are suggesting there.

No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that money is an excellent motivator. If they abuse their bodies to the point of needing treatment, showing them the bill for their treatment is a surefire way that they change their ways for good.

You have my sympathy. My GP practice is impossible to get an appointment. I'm also in London. I call at 8 there are no appointments. I call 111 and either the instruct my GP to give me an appointment or send me to urgent care. I've see the urgent care doctor more in the last 2 years than my own GP as have my children.

Abuse their bodies?
What’s your cut off for that? Plus you’ve mentioned charging before. That is not a road you want to go down unless you are VERY rich.

Yes, abuse their bodies. Eating too much takeaway food instead of cooking from scratch, doing drugs, drinking too much alcohol etc. I don't have a cut off for it, if people want to trash their bodies in this way, that's their choice and they are welcome to make that choice repeatedly. A line must be drawn at some point. We either continue paying for serial abusers of an overstretched resource, which further incentivises all of the above, or, we say enough is enough and make people face the consequences and pay.

I hope anyone reading this realises that whilst health in Wales is devolved, Labour can only fund the NHS with the money given (or not) to them by the Tories. Damage limitation, if you like. We still have a Tory government calling the shots even though the Welsh Assembly is Labour. I believe it would be even worse if the Welsh Assembly was Tory too.

Would you charge everyone? Children, those on benefits, the elderly (biggest users of NHS and often the most comfortably off), or would they all be exempt as usual penalising again the poor sods left in the middle?

Op the NHS is broken, totally broken and I have every sympathy for you. However it's grossly underfunded and only a percentage of your tax / NI goes towards the NHS. Your tax also funds other public services, not just the NHS. Over a lifetime most taxpayers will benefit more from it (if only in terms of what you pay in and what you cost the system) than they pay into it. Encourage your family, friends and offspring to support the NHS by going into healthcare professional roles. Hopefully any future UK healthcare system will be better funded and better staffed.

Perhaps we address the structural barriers in society that can make life hard for some people, eg poor mental health or disability. People say its a choice as to how you treat your body but if you are suffering from poor mental health its not always about choice. Overeating or drinking for example can be a way of coping with emotional distress. Forcing this group of people to face consequences for their behaviour when it may be due to an underlying condition is likely to make their condition worse.

So if you choose to run as a hobby it’s your fault if you get an injury and you should pay for it?
If you choose to go hiking and hurt yourself?
If you choose to drive your car through an accident black spot?
There has to be a cut off. For me, it’s before the point you start judging other people.

I think there should be a hybrid system. For those who want to continue paying National Insurance or have no problem paying National Insurance and those who prefer to pay directly for their treatment. Ultimately, make National Insurance optional.

This is where insurance comes in. Insurance is based on liability and risk. In the case of cars, insurance is a legal requirement. I can see where this is going, though. You prefer a nationalised healthcare system where everyone is forced to pay into it. I don't.

National Insurance isn’t ring fenced.
Your system would make the NHs unworkable too. Maybe consider this.

@SarahShorty so those young and healthy pay less, which means the NHS will collapse.
The two stages of life when most people use the NHS most is at birth and early years, and in later life. We need people in the middle to be paying their fair share to be able to pay the costs at either end of life.

And people can go private.

I do. As would anyone with any sense.
So when I asked if you wanted people to be bankrupted by ill health or to die because they couldn’t afford treatment and you said no, you actually meant yes, right?
You can’t have it both ways.

Edit: anyone who sees it as being ‘forced’ to pay has a warped sense of worth anyway.

No, I actually meant no. If I meant yes, I would have said 'yes'.