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!?

I live in London so potentially 3 hospitals within easy reach but I tend to go to just one because they have all my notes. They are terrible, but the other two are no great shakes either. There's a saying in the hospital's catchment area: if you go in, you won't come out. Sadly this is true of DD's grandparents and two of her great grandparents. (Not my side)

I concur with some PP’s, that my GP surgery is actually very good and responsive, the e-consult service actually seems to work and you get contact back. But if there is any referral needed to an NHS consultant, you know it’ll be months to years before you see anyone. Even if you do see someone, they won’t be the consultant, more likely an underling and they will be trying to fob you off as quickly as possible. If you are ‘lucky’ and get offered any sort of treatment or operation, then it’s more years of waiting, being forgotten and chasing over and over.

My OH has been waiting over 6 months for a physio appointment. My friend over 2y for a hysterectomy, my DF over a year for a hernia operation…

I've very fortunately only visited A&E once in my adult life, the first hospital I didn't even bother going in because the queue was out the door and there were more people standing than sitting in the waiting room. 2nd hospital I was seen fairly swiftly, they wanted to admit me but I had to sleep on a chair in A&E for another 30 hours before I was found a bed. I'm in my 30s and mobile, I could deal with it but my heart was breaking for the very elderly people parked on trolleys under blinding lights for just as long. This was 2024, south of England.

Currently going through cancer treatment so I’m at the hospital about 2-3 days a week at the moment being seen across various different departments. I’m going in for my 3rd operation in 4 months next week. Last one was inpatient for 4 days after, though this will be a day surgery. Where we live is nice, but it’s rural and this hospital serves a huge and quite deprived urban and rural area. It’s not one of those ‘naice’ NHS hospitals.

Honestly, I cannot fault a single aspect of my care. Appointments happen quickly. The continuity of care has been fantastic. They all seem to meet about me even though they are in totally different departments and they will know what Dr so and so told me on Tuesday when I see them on Thursday. They ring and check up on me between appointments. They listen. They answer my questions. The consultant secretaries seem to trip over themselves to ring me back to make sure whoever else was supposed to ring was able to reach me.

The hospital stay itself was not pleasant, but only because it’s just not pleasant to have a major operation and be in hospital. I was on quite a high dependency ward and I saw a lot of quite difficult cases come by. The guy in the bed next to me had jumped off a building trying to commit suicide. A woman across from me had stabbed herself in the stomach having a psychotic episode and had to be sectioned, so police in and out dealing with her. The man on the other side across from me had had an emergency tracheotomy and was struggling to breathe and they kept having to rush and suction his airway in a panic. I was there because it was a big operation and there was a high chance I might struggle to breathe for a few days.

It wasn’t nice, but god, those nurses and HCAs are absolute legends. They were under so much pressure. Some of them tasked with things that I don’t think they felt they had sufficient training to do. They absolutely needed more boots on the ground. Literally while caring for all of us, one of them would be on the computer next to me trying to figure out the rota and the bank staff needed for the next shift because they were worried about the ratios for caring for certain patients. Yes, there needs to be more staffing.

But I’ve experienced nothing but wonderful care. They have saved my life. And I’ve been treated with nothing but kindness and good humour. I really can’t fault any bit of it, even though I’d rather not be going through it. Being quite a rural, former mining area, I do think there is a certain can do attitude here. People just get stuff done and there is a lot of pride, so I think that maybe has something to do with it too. It definitely not because we have loads of resources. I think it’s the people really.

It’s very sad :(

I work for the NHS and desperately need to find a way out
How I describe th issues are, the care has gone .
It's a corporation.
Those of us that care are being forced out

I'm in the SE and local hospitals rated good

I've had good care - maternity care and quickly seen about other issue and referred to appropriate service and seen within a few days.

GP surgery also good, always manage to get an appt same day for myself or daughter

Also work for NHS and our service waiting list isn't too bad in comparison to others

By no means perfect - such big organisation with such high demand is always going to have faults.

It's shocking the amount of people who take advantage and abuse the NHS, missing appts etc ... which boils my piss when they tend to be the ones that moan and complain. I know we pay taxes but people forget we're fortunate to have it despite its flaws and it's free...

I'm a paediatric nurse. So removed from the pressure of the adult side. It's actually ok. Although it depends how bad 'bronc season' is.

After not being in A&E for around 15 years both DH and I have been in A&E in the last 4 months. DH blue lighted as unconscious, ambulance took 15 mins, seen immediately by a Doctor, bed in A&E ward after an hour, CT scan and kept in for observations overnight, was discharged after 18 hours.

I rang 111 and was sent by out of hours GP to A&E for suspected CaudaEquine, triage quickly, waited hours for MRI and an actual Dr, was bulging discs. Saw physio 5 days after with an urgent referral. We saw the same nurse practitioner on both our visits, she was really excellent.

The problem was lack of Doctors and not nurses on both occasions. There was 1 Doctor on the night shift in a city A&E on a Friday night when I was seen.

What was evident was a lot of drug addicts, drunk people and people that had been fighting were around 20% of the patients. I know it was a Friday night in a major city but it was awful. The police turned up on six occasions with people mainly in handcuffs. As my bible quoting Grandmother would have said it was like sodom and gomorra.

Can't say in my 28 years as a nurse I have met many colleagues who are 'slackers'. Most of us are on the edge of a nervous breakdown, I spend my days off work feeling sick about going back in and what I will face. I do not have a break in 13 hours, I literally run from one patient to another, I go into meetings with consultants and senior staff who want more and i have nothing left to give. Last week I burst into tears in a meeting.

My local hospital is one of the worst performing in the country - last week saw a 16 hour wait for an ambulace.

My Dad died last year in a different NHS Trust and I have a clinical negligence claim against them.

The NHS is a fucking disaster IMO.

Bad and getting worse. My local hospital was in the news last week due to a ambulances being redirected as a result of sustained pressure on beds. Hospital capacity has been 111% the last few weeks, the next nearest hospital (under the same health board) had been 124%. Neither had been under 100% capacity since September. I'm surprised it was so recently as September. The beds are full of patients waiting for some sort of care in the community which does not exist.
Luckily my family haven't needed hospital care since 2020 but I work for the NHS so I see/hear, first hand, what's going on.

I work as a nurse in a very large nhs hospital with a very good reputation.

Yesterday a man stopped me in the corridor because he couldn’t find his wife.

I located her and whilst showing him the way he told me she had been in A&E for 18 hours in a chair before being given a bed at 7am. He was obviously distressed but really grateful to me which frankly is embarrassing because he has every right to be angry at the lack of bed for his wife.

our hospital has just converted a very large conference room into a makeshift discharge lounge to create beds. This hospital has over 1000 beds for crying out loud and there are now patients sitting in a makeshift ward waiting to go home.

I spent 20 hours in A&E/hospital over the weekend with adult Dd. Dd was in Resus 6 hours and she had her observations taken regularly. But no water or drink offered. I stayed with her so I was giving her drinks but many patients were alone and I did wonder if liquid input/output was being monitored. I overheard staff saying that there were only 2 doctors on duty for the whole of A&E in a relatively large city which I was shocked at. I found the care offered to dd was quite transactional and process driven. Communication overall was really poor.

She was then moved to a high acuity area and the noise was awful - staff shouting across the room to each other, I overhead every patient being discussed along with their issues, treatment plans etc. Dd was vomiting constantly and I had to keep asking for vomit bowls and when full just told to leave them in the side. Her buzzer which she was instructed to use if needed was just left in the floor by her trolley.

Dd finally moved to an assessment ward and I was surprised how many nurses there were there. One elderly lady brought in and she just had a pair incontinence pants on and a vest. She was clearly having difficulty understanding instructions to get into bed and had both a porter and a nurse helping her. It would have been nice if her dignity had been considered and the curtains pulled round whilst she was in a state of undress. Thankfully she seemed unaware.

We were finally discharged after 20 hours and I saw faces that had been in the waiting room when we arrived who were finally receiving treatment.

Obviously thankful that we have an NHS but as an NHS employee of over 30 years I was truly saddened and shocked by some of the things I saw and encountered.

That was exactly my overall impression - the care has gone. Lots of compassion fatigue and the NHS 6 Cs have all but disappeared. Obviously this is sweeping generalisation and many staff remain dedicated to but they are spread so thin that basic care has all but disappeared

When I was an inpatient for 5 days in 2016 I was in a private room and aside from observations and drug rounds I didn’t see a nurse at all and buzzing for one was a waste of time . I was not being isolated this is a hospital that is mainly single rooms . The tea person was the only regular staff caller - not that I could have anything and in 5 days the cleaner came in once to change the bin bags in the room and bathroom - I assume you are supposed to do your own cleaning .

Hellish.

During lockdown DH was told he had cholangiocarcinoma which took months and months to diagnose (at the start of the pandemic he'd been 'triaged' by the GP's receptionist who told him sudden onset, painless jaundice was not worthy of an emergency appointment so he could wait two weeks for a call back from the GP. He didn't wait two weeks, he was seen that day after a battle).

November 2021 he developed the signs and symptoms of a DVT, he went to the GP where bloods were taken which showed raised D-dimer and as he was already at risk of a clot as he was on chemo the GP sent him to hospital where he was pushed from pillar to post before finally being sent home without a scan or any treatment. Three days later he had a massive stroke. He was dead within three months. The 'care' he received on the stroke unit was woeful, he had three falls, he was left unattended in the shower and fell again depsite being a known fall risk. His food and drink were put on this paralysed side then removed before he could eat/drink. He had no speech at this point and couldn't ask for help. His Creon which was essential to him digesting food after a Whipple's surgery was withheld. They missed the fact he had a saddle embolism. He was alone, scared and dying but they still wouldn't let me visit more than an hour a day. I can't begin to put into words how failed he was by the hospital and how angry I am about it.

I had excellent care for cancer ; surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy in 2022 ( some delay starting treatment due to Covid) and I had an A&E experience that year that was also satisfactory.
Recent trip with DC was also satisfactory in terms of assessment and management although there was a lot of hanging around and the A&E was packed out.

Was rushed in three weeks ago and had emergency surgery pretty rapidly.

Nurses on the ward were brilliant, Surgeon and his team also brilliant.

They saved my life, so I'm not about to complain about them at all.

When the shit hit the fan, they were all over it.

Very good when I went outside having dc and births. CAT scan on time no waiting.

Professional staff, who were nice

Results in a week

The building is completely ramshackled, I spent one night on a hospital ward during the beast from the East shivering at under two coats because the heating died.
But our a&e waiting times beat the national average and the NHS targets, the ambulance times beat the national target in all but category 2 incidents. So yeah, I'd rather have it that way around.

Oh god, this is absolutely tragic and heartbreaking, I’m so sorry what you’ve been through, my heart goes out to you.

Your story exemplifies exactly what I believe is happening all over the country. It’s truly sickening and horrifically unfair for people to be treated this way.

I hope you are getting some level of therapeutic support for yourself xx