I am scared of the state of healthcare system

[Notsurewhattheansweris]

I am going to start saying that I respect all the clinicians and doctors and my personal experience has generally been positivie (with the exception of one case which likely led to a physchological trauma).

Whenever I see things on Mumsnet, there are so many stories of negligence, people being fobbed off, missed cancers etc. etc.

I find it really difficult after my own experience to feel safe anymore. It did leave me with a health anxiety that I am in therapy for but I cannot see the end to it because ultimately, I do not feel safe anymore.

What do you do, how do you cope? Or is it just my anxiety talking and we only see the scariest stories here that are still rare and not the norm?

Well in my own experience, they misdiagnosed me for over a decade which left me with permanent damage.
The NHS failed to recognise I was going into early labour that meant the death of my triplet sons, that could of been avoided.
Then the nhs nearly killed my 7 year old by sending him home without tests despite being in DKA undiagnosed type one diabetes.
Then finally they failed diagnose my mother in law despite her going back & fourth to the doctors for two years, she was finally diagnosed with cancer and then died 5 weeks later.

so yeah its in a dire state.

Im the exact same @Notsurewhattheansweris.
I've tried therapy, cbt and hypnosis for health anxiety and I still have it.
Please tell me if you find something that works.

But it’s been terrible for years OP, this isn’t a new thing. The Tories decimate it, along with education and social care.
it will take many many years to fix it. It needs more money.

There will never be enough money to fix the nhs sadly. They waste so much on it on managers & paper pushers.

I've had 2 brilliant experiences in the last 3 years- emergency surgery and a family member who was sectioned. The care has been brilliant.

interestingly though, I remember when Tony Blair’s new labour came in and public services had also been decimated by the tories- there were stories of 20 hours in a&e and 10 year waiting lists for operations- I’m not saying we can get it back but that thinking the health system is crap isn’t just a 2025 phenomenon.

If more people took responsibility for their own health by cutting back on drugs, drinking, smoking, consuming too much (of the wrong kind of) food and doing a reasonable amount of excercise it would reduce avoidable, life style related pressure on the NHS and free up time and resource for those with unavoidable illnesses.
Instead, we hear an endless litany of excuses from people who have no self discipline an expect the NHS to rescue them from their own poor choices.

It is a complete shambles and has been for decades. It should have been replaced with a social insurance system like in France/Germany/Australia in the 80s but no government would have dared.

Blair allowed Trusts to spend, spend, spend, exploiting PFI, introduced the bureaucracy of PCTs, and put a wrecking ball through the GP contracts allowing family doctors to contract out of house calls. Then Brown sold all the gold.

The Tories didn't decimate the NHS, it was a non starter, not replicated elsewhere, in 1947.

Due to poor care and failure to diagnose, I don't trust it either We spend about £7,500 pa on private insurance. If the girl from accounts puts VAT on the premiums, whilst Wheel Chair Harmer does nothing to deal with the behemoth, I may stage a one woman revolution and chain myself to the railings of No11.

It does not need any more money to piss up the wall waste.

Agree with this. To many people eating & drinking themselves to death expecting the nhs to save them. Just like those ridiculous weight loss jabs, everyone was expecting the nhs to hand them out like sweeties.

Its a post war service for an apocalyptic era, its never going to work. Anyone with any moral compass would not jump straight in to blame the nasty tories or berate people for wasting the nice doctors time. Its over, its finished and it kills people. Get over it. Literally the rest of the world except Cuba has models that work just fine. And Cuban medicine is almost as morally corrupt and ineffective as the UK. Im alive in spite of Cuban healthcare professionals, like the NHS they dont listen and fob off and then when you have to be resuscitated, they fuck even that up.

you are very lucky probably to have that degree of self control.

@Bambamhoohoo I remember my parents and their friends discussing eye watering waiting lists back in the mid-90s.
New Labour came in and slashed the waiting lists, using private hospitals and even sending people to France for hip replacements! People being interviewed on the news marvelling at how great the food was in French hospitals. But of course the UK had money in 1997 and a growing economy.

More money? It’s taking a fair bit already. Who’s paying the more money part.

Or common sense and an acceptance that it is necessary to take personal responsibility or put your own hand in your own pocket to sort out the mess you have made. These have to be consequences.

I was diagnosed with cancer last week (totally unexpected - it was as the result of a routine blood test).

I've been blown away with the speed of the response (I start chemo this week), and the fantastic staff at the hospital I've been referred to. The sheer amount of resource and expertise I'm now receiving is humbling and I'm truly grateful. I'm confident they will give me the best chance of surviving a very serious illness.

For every person who's got a horror story there will be someone with a positive experience.

@PatsFishTank Inam pleased you are receiving excellent care and swiftly.

However we need to move on from for every person with a horror story, there is a person experiencing excellence. We need a system where for every 100 people experiencing excellence, there is only one horror story.

In that case, the insurance based system would have worked much better. But again, you are lucky if you can afford it. The price tag for private consultations and treatments is astronomical.

Also, as taxpayers people are entitled to good care.

I had 2 friends who were living in Germany for a few years for work reasons and both had been diagnosed with cancer at that time. Both were diagnosed super quick, which I am sure helped them to be cancer free now.

If you’re spending 7,500 PA on private healthcare now (presumably because you have significant medical needs) how are you going to fund that in your old age?

people use 90% of their lifetime healthcare in the last 4 years of their life.

On top of that, when we were growing up there were no concerns about ultraprocessed foods, sugar, teflon etc. a lot of things that people consumed were not seen as dangerous. Who is responsible for that?

I'm 65 and my mother knew that packet food was crap.

A fit for purpose healthcare system can’t rely on controlling people’s behaviour to work. That’s short sighted and immature

Wishing you a full recovery! It sounds like you are in very capable hands. A lot of centres in the UK are centres of excellence for treatment.

It is the diangosis part seems to be much more difficult than it should be I think for many people.

I'm sorry for your diagnosis and glad you are getting good care.

'For every person who's got a horror story there will be someone with a positive experience' wouldn't exactly be great statistically though, would it? 50% good, 50% terrible.

No, significant health needs but because we are in our mid 60s. We will fund it from our income, on which we will pay tax.

@RosesAndHellebores the OP is anxious and I'm trying to offer a balance. I don't have stats at my fingertips for the quality of NHS experiences and I do think the whole model could be reviewed.

Obviously any assessment of the NHS needs to be based on accurate figures but I don't have any reason to believe for every 100 experiences 99 are terrible anymore than I believe 99 are fantastic, I'm just offering my current experience.

Agree. Nor people themselves are too blame. Who is controlling the quality of water in the UK? Why does it contain so migh higher levels of forever chemicals compared to the US even? Who is controlling what goes in our food? Even the ingridigents. Am I the only one alarmed by "Not for the EU" labels on all of the food now?