What are the NHS hospitals like where you live? (UK)

[Analysisandparalysis]

I had an absolutely awful experience being admitted into hospital in 2023. Was sent by my GP to A&E for suspected appendicitis, which turned out to be diverticulitis - an infected ‘pocket’ in my bowel. It took almost 48hr for me to given a bed, and those 48hr were hellish. No sleep, sat on various chairs, in various rooms filled with people in the same boat. Many with mental health issues or neurodiversity, who were suffering terribly due to the terribly cramped conditions and lack of support staff.

Once I was on a ward, I at least had a bed and curtain for dignity. But the sheer lack of staffing and any continuity of care was truly shocking. I observed so many elderly people just being left without any support. Those of us who were mobile were doing basic care for them as best we could. At one point, an older lady had been left with a cannula hanging out of her arm, with blood and medicine pouring out and we couldn’t find one nurse across a bank of 8 wards.

I dread the thought of this happening ever again. Is this just the state of my local big hospital (south coast England) or is the whole NHS hospital network totally screwed!?

its incredibly difficult to judge our a and e is too small for hospital so always looks rammed
I’ve had more good experiences than bad
think it’s look of the draw on how busy been literally in and out a few times with my dad other times sat for hours

Thanks for reply:)

That sounds like how it used to be around hwre, pre Covid. But it seems a lot worse now.

Its such a lottery!

Nov 2022 my experience was

(Disclaimer. I'm a nurse in the nhs)

I was having issues with a red swollen elbow. Visited GP on wed. Who told me it was bursitis!

By Friday my elbow was so big and redness was swelling. However I was on shift, we were short staffed I was taking care of two patients who should be one to one nursing.

So I took myself off to A&E the sat morning, in my work scrubs. I was in an out in twenty mins and had a box of antibiotics thrown at me with a line drawn around the redness.

By sat evening the redness has spread significantly, my temp was raised so I took myself back off to A&E where a doctor rudely told me to give the antibiotics a chance to work and drew another line around to.

Sunday morning. My mum couldn't get hold of me so came to my house to find me in a hell of a state, she took me back to A&E and (rightly or wrongly) told the triage nurse that I was a nurse and something needed to be done as I suspected sepsis.

I had bloods taken finally, My CRP (infection marker) was over 400. It should be less than 5. I was then hooked up to IV fluids and IV antibiotics, but no beds available so I spent 18 hours on a chair in a corridor.

It's still an ongoing issue and I've been waiting 18 months now for a nerve conduction test on my elbow because it often swells, I can't feel my hand and the pain is awful, it does affect my work daily. My consultation was Jan 2023 when I was put on a list for a nerve conduction test...

Mostly poor experiences.

OH has had cancer for five years and the oncology department is a shambles. They book him appointments for blood tests and treatments on wrong dates (they have to be on particular dates, i.e. blood test 3 days before treatment), but they'll send the blood test appointment for two weeks before or the week after! The chemo drugs have to be collected from the hospital pharmacy which is another fiasco - they're never ready on the right day - again, a week too early or a week too late, and then often they've been picked and bagged but the pharmacy haven't had the authorisation "ping" from oncology, so they can't actually hand them over, and of course, the person authorising doesn't work in the hospital - they're either at a different hospital or working from home, so if they don't answer the phone, OH has to come home empty handed. Like I say, it's all a shambles.

I used to go for hearing aids. Another shambles. Took six months of numerous appointments (many cancelled) just to get my first pair of hearing aids. Then had to go back several times because they'd not been set up correctly.

The same hospital also killed my FIL due to mis diagnoses over several months where he was languishing on a ward with a succession of different doctors turning up and seemingly all ordering the same tests/scans/x-rays that had been done previously on a kind of weird carousel which was just fobbing off and hoping the next doctor coming along would actually know what was wrong! By the time someone had actually worked it out (and it WAS something simple), he was so weak he didn't survive the relatively simple operation and treatments!

I’ve been very lucky, took myself to A&E for anaphylactic shock at 3am and was looked after so well. I also had 2 weeks of IV antibiotics for an issue then a referral for 2 unrelated issues. My GP is extremely keen, to be fair, referrred my DH for an x ray and an MRI for something. I think we’re very lucky, although when my DH needed to go to A&E this year, the wait wasn’t pretty, he was dripping with sweat/in agony and there were so many people with very minor things that might have been better going to the pharmacy. Not the NHS’ fault, obviously. We’re north London commuter belt area.

Ours is a shit show. I had a complex multiple fracture and I swear I wouldn't have treated a dog the way I was treated. My DH was with me and he too couldn't believe what was going on. No care whatsoever and battle-weary staff who wouldn't even let my DH charge his phone to organise a lift to get us out of there.

We are in the SE and every hospital in the area has a rating of ‘requires improvement’ or worse , obviously there are pockets of good care but not many IME and I’ve got multiple health issues . It is not new , I had 3 hospital ( 2 different hospitals) admissions in 2016 and the care then was crap as well and my late mum had the misfortune to be admitted to 2 different hospitals in 2019 and the care was appalling . I’m an ex nurse so know what I’m looking at . I must say my GP is excellent , my sister who lives 15 miles away has a crap GP . I have used local private services and also Benenden health and received better care .

Had a great experience at my local NHS hospital minor injury unit the other day. Wait was less than an hour, and the staff were fantastic.

I've been twice to the A&E Royal United here in Bath and whilst not exactly fancy, it was ordered, clean and perfectly ok

Similar experiences as taxguru really. My 84yr old mum has Myeloma and has 4 weekly blood tests/phone consultations following which they prescribe another course of chemo that I go and collect for her. Amongst other things - they have forgotten to phone her on the correct date, I have arrived at the pharmacy to pick up the prescription to find it not there (Dr forgot to put it through!) and currently we are still waiting for the meds that she should have started last Monday, 25th Nov, as the Pharmacy has changed provider and wasn't open that weekend for me to collect the prescription. They said they would get it delivered, nothing appeared so I contacted them on Friday to be told that she now needed another blood test before they could prescribe, despite the fact she had one on 18th Nov ready for her consultation on 22nd!!

They sent a district nurse to take blood yesterday so we are now waiting for the results of that before they will prescribe the next round. So that will be 2 weeks of chemo missed.

Its a complete shambles, not a month has gone by recently without me having to contact them because something had not happened as it should. And don't get me started on contacting them, you can't get through to either the Haematlogy department or the pharmacy on the phone and the voicemail is full so you can't leave a message.

Our hospital has also just declared a critical incident in A&E following increased pressures on the department.

Our local hospital is constantly in crisis mode, declaring "critical incidents" every week. On average between 10-25 ambulances queuing outside A&E every day. Dh works there, he absolutely despairs....

Same with OH. Even worse at the start of the covid lockdowns. He was due to start a course of chemo infusions, but they phoned to cancel on the morning it was due to start and said they're phone back to re-arrange. Weeks went past. Nothing heard. Then after a couple of months, he started phoning them, but it always went to answerphone, he left a few messages over a few weeks, but no replies. Eventually we went to the hospital itself to ask at the oncology reception, only to find it closed. We went to the general office to ask about it only to be told it had been relocated to a different hospital across the county boundary - the entire oncology department. No one had bothered telling the patients and phone messages were just languishing on the old answerphone in a closed down department. Once we knew where they'd moved to, he phoned them and they couldn't understand how he'd "fallen through the cracks" and things started moving again once they'd remembered he exists! Trouble was all the tests, scans, x-rays etc were out of date so he had to have them all again before they'd start the chemo, which put him back about six months before his chemo started after the original start date! As I say, a complete shambles. And that's not for a cut toe, it's life saving chemotherapy for cancer patient!

A disgrace. two NHS hospitals in our area - I was appalled by the treatment a dying friend experienced in one, and by the way another treated my DH (an employee of that hospital) after he collapsed at work. I hear from people employed at both hospitals that both are full of bullies, and slackers. How did this ever happen. My DH was so proud to work for the NHS that he used to wear an NHS jacket. Now he's covered up the logo with a badge

Up until having my children I worked for the nhs (nurse).

I have very little faith in it, sadly.

Nhs is full of slackers now.
It seems they are willing to accept mediocre care fro staff just to keep the numbers up.
Those of us that do care and go above and beyond for our patients in the last years of their lives are so disheartened and moral is so low.
We've seen inadequate care, patients at risk, unwilling to actually listen when trying to help them( new in job), I could go on and on.
Eg.....Multiple complaints made from staff, physios, doctors and relatives. Staff member called to disciplinary meetings, no change to attitude or work ethic, allowed to carry on doing absolutely bare minimum and less. Complaints kept coming, more meetings, still no change. About 8 month later said person was moved to another ward., not sacked because they won't do the job they are employed to do, just moved the problem on.

This is the NHS now, full of people just wanting to turn up and take a wage.

My friend with bone cancer sat for 12 hours with a broken pelvis before any help was given at all. I was with her. She was old school brave, but speechless with pain.

Actually pretty good here for the most part.

Both my pregnancies were well managed, my sections were efficient and sensitivity handled. Postnatal was quiet so there was ample support. The first time there was one other lady in my bay of 4, the second time I had it to myself. They brought decent food to me and offered me lots of drinks.

Wherever we've needed the emergency department it's been pretty quick - in and out between 1-4 hours both for kids and adults.

When my relative needed a scan they were so quick we panicked assuming 2w pathway but no, they just had capacity 3 days later on a weekend.

I've had a lot of hospital involvement with one of my children and whilst there are definitely areas of frustration there are areas of excellence as well, and everything in between. When things have been BAD they've been terrifyingly efficient.

The hospital has always been clean with sufficient stuff. Saying that, most of my prolonged involvement is with children's wards which have better ratios.

Whenever I've needed a GP appointment I've got one the same day.

Against that, inaction from my GP nearly killed my child, really important test results can be slow and a relative waited a long time for a knee replacement. So still room for improvement but overall a good experience.

Peter Duffy's book "Whistle in the wind" should be essential reading for anyone interested in the modern NHS. It's about how a whistle blower was hounded out of his job for daring to complain about incompetent and lazy colleagues.

We have excellent GPs, and they spotted that DHs tonsil might be problematic. Reffered to local teaching hospital where tonsil was removed, cock up with pain relief meds, however consultant gave surgeon a bollocking in front of us when he found out! Told tonsil had been cancerous Referred to Royal Marsden for radiotherapy therapy and St Georges for dental care as radiotherapy could affect teeth. He had six weeks of daily therapy and hopefully the scans that were taken last week will show that treatment has worked. However, local hospitals dermatology department utterly useless, St Thomas's much better.

I've been unfortunate enough to have several experiences with different parts of our local hospital, including A&E twice, over the last couple of years. Fortunately, my experiences have been very good. We live equi distance between two major hospitals, about 40 - 45 mins drive to either. If we have the choice we'll always pick the smaller of the two in the hope any wait will be better. As we get older I do worry about living so far from either and if I could afford it I might move closer but they are both in quite expensive cities.
My GP service is very hit and miss and these days you rarely see an actual GP. The town has grown and the surgery, the only one serving nearly 20,000 people, unsurprisingly struggles to cope. My most recent experience with them was pretty bad and landed up with me needing to go to hospital for emergency eye care. It could probably been avoided if I'd been able to see a doctor I the first place.

Fucking hell that is outrageous!!😠🤯

A and E at my local is very very busy.

A friend whose wife has cancer spent 48 hours in an and e with an emergency situation before they found her a bed in a ward. It wasn't good.

Oh my god, I’m so sorry for your FIL, that’s shocking 😣

Our 2 closest hospitals are asking that people stay away from A&E, including the shiny new A&E that was unveiled a matter of months ago by our local MP.
I don't remember the last time I had a positive experience for either myself or my family in an NHS hospital unfortunately and I used to sit on The Board of one!!!

Oh my god, that’s just awful😢