To have really noticed a decline in nhs

[Lime123]

Before I rant, I know it’s not the fault of drs nurses and other staff that work for nhs. They do a wonderful job under pretty stressful conditions I would imagine.

In the last year I have noticed a real decline in the quality of service offered by nhs. Up until then I had just thought it was “daily mail” type moaning by others. In last 6 months I’ve noticed:

-my miscarriage handled badly, told I needed an Erpc due to gestation BUT that there were limited slots so wait it out and hope I don’t bleed lots. If I did bleed lots rush to A and e.

-an ambulance failing to turn up for a child having breathing problems (was croup but extremely scary!) they were very apologetic but said not enough staff

-I might as well not bother with my gp. You have to call at 8am, get grilled by a receptionist and she will decide if the appointment is urgent enough for same day (in my case a lump) was told not “acute” and can I wait 4 weeks for a “regular gp appointment” if you call st 8:01 or later it’s unlikely you will get an appointment.

-a family member receiving absolutely awful advice on 111 “take paracetamol and rest” unfortunately he later required 2 operations to fix a serious health condition

-a friend having a terrible birth experience due to lack of staff and support (in particular post natal) she ended up discharging herself

There are many more. All I’ve heard are horror stories from friends lately.

I am seriously getting worried for the nhs! I’ve never seen it this bad. It’s only going to get worse surely before it just won’t function anymore.

What do people think will happen? How on earth can it be fixed?

I suspect without a culture change towards tax and a massive increase in tax or a reduction in NHS services it won’t be improved.

I had my first child in 2012 and my second in 2014, both emcs. Huge difference in staffing and care levels, so much so that I was ignored and my anti-biotics were forgotten more than once, probably not the reason my post birth infection turned into Sepsis that left me in intensive care for a week but it won't have helped.
The NHS is being systematically and deliberately under-funded to make the case for privatisation. They are doing it on purpose and we should all be protesting loudly about it.

Well yes, every service has its bad reviews.
People rarely pist good ones so...
I had a seizure start of feb.
Ambulance arrived fast
Was triaged quickly
Treated kindly and was well looked after

My dad had his gallbladder op last week
Nurses were lovely, really looked after him

I have a disabled teen who is in hospital alot.
Diagnosed properly and the years since care has been fab

Well have you only just noticed? It’s been happening for the last few years with leaders from the NHS constantly trying to tell the Government and the media. We now have serious healthcare rationing, waiting lists as bad as the 80s and early 90s. And nowhere near enough staff, yep those austerity measures really helped the NHS! Remember when Cameron promised to “protect frontline services”? Well it turns out he was a lying bastard - no surprise there then.

Oops posted too soon.

NHS has massive problems, theres no hiding that. But its not the fault of the on the floor staff you see. Its the years of underfunding and neglect.

Not sute if it can be saved but i hope so

My son had multiple health conditions, from my experience the admin side is often lacking, the waits are often horrendous but on the whole the front line staff are fantastic and will go above and beyond to help.

I’ve only just noticed I guess because up until a year ago, I’ve only been moderately affected in my area. I’m my area (south east) things are just getting terrible. It’s not just me but friends, family, colleagues. As I said appreciate this isn’t a staff issue as such. You can’t offer the same quality of service if you are that stretched! It’s not possible.

The thing is, you tend to only hear the negative stories and that seriously distorts your view of the NHS (and the world at large, since we’re bombarded with negative news all the time).

I’ve had a good experiences of the NHS with DS2 recently. But ‘consultant is good at job and responds promptly and helpfully to blood test result’ or ‘nurses make the process of having blood taken almost enjoyable for child’ aren’t the sort of stories that get much attention.

Perhaps it differs by area. I had babies in 2014 and 2017, both fantastic experiences, two midwives present the whole time, I never saw another pregnant woman the whole time, so it definitely didn't feel stretched.

Baby had a fall at Christmas and needed stitches, seen quickly with excellent care. Dd had surgery last year, staff were fantastic and she was seen immediately.

Lots of other good stories but I realise how stretched other services are and lots of people have bad experiences. From friends who work for the NHS, it sound like some areas are close to breaking point. Thank God we have such dedicated staff who do their best with so little in the way if funding.

I think the emergency/acute side of things are still just about clinging on to provide enough of a service that the public haven't yet got to the point where they are demanding change. It's acknowledged things aren't great but also that by and large if you turn up at A&E you will eventually get seen.

The bigger problems are in all the other non acute NHS services. They have been decimated and this will have long term impacts for generations.

Diabetic clinics
Podiatry
Mental health care
District Nursing for long term conditions
Specialist Learning Disability Nurses and Integrated Teams
Occupational Therapy
Physiotherapy
Continence Nursing Teams
Acquired Brain Injury Teams
Integrated rehab teams for Elderly people
Falls clinics
Asthma Clinics
Specialist Parkinson's Nurses
Specialist MS Nurses
Palliative Care
Maternity Care

FittonTower I ended up ina similar situation but thankful narrowly avoided intensive care. I was apologised too and the outlined the changes they plan to make to care as a result of my case but I suspect not enough staff was one of the route causes.

As GPs, we've had real terms cuts in funding every year since 2004. It's no surprise that the cracks are showing.

Tory cutbacks continue to stuff the country.

Dh broke his leg yesterday. Busy a and e, three x rays, one plaster. Home within two hours.
Back today for another one.
Fantastic in our experience

It’s good to hear some positive experiences. I am lucky enough to have private healthcare given as part of my work package but you still usually need a gp referral and it doesn’t cover everything (maternity services, emergency services)

I have paid for a few things when I felt I couldn’t wait... eg there were no scans available at my hospital when I had a miscarriage so I paid for a private sonographer to confirm the baby had died.

Another good experince here. Last month, DS (13) woke in the night, in pain. I phoned the doctor's surgery at 8am when they opened. GP phoned me back, told me to bring him straight in and saw him as soon as we got there. He then sent us to A&E, with a letter he had prepared. A&E saw him straight away and DS was in surgery within 4 hours of my initial conversation with the GP's receptionist. Home that evening, recovered and all ok now. Incredible. Couldn't fault them in any way.

The thing is, with all services and industries, you rarely hear good things if things are going well. The most we hear of airlines, restaurants, hotels, retail etc is when people complain about poor service or poor products. We live in a society where negativity is reported because that's interesting and newsworthy. We never celebrate when things go well or even just tick along nicely, which can skew our perspective of such services.

Unfortunately the NHS is hugely under funded and staff are expected to do more with less resources. Plus when services are decommissioned or underfunded, the knock on effect is that other services suffer and ultimately, patients then suffer from inadequate care.

Individuals also have to take some responsibility for their health care by accessing the correct route of treatment (pharmacy for minor ailments rather than GP for example), which won't cure the issue but would ease the burden a little and free up GP appointments for those in need.

Most days NHS staff spend their shift firefighting and don't actually have an opportunity to give the standard of care that people deserve, then they get hauled over the coals for making mistakes due to tiredness or rushing and very little recourse goes back to the leaders of the services or trusts.

NHS staff are human and make mistakes under pressure. I've been saying it for years but more staff on the ground working would improve services immensely, but that takes money, and that we just haven't got because, of course 'there's no magical money tree' according to Theresa May - which is highly amusing when she manages to pull a billion out of her arse to stay in power...

And don't get me started on Hunt...

What I don't understand is how our government departments can be lead by people who have no experience, expertise or knowledge of those areas.... how we can have a health secretary who barely sets foot into hospitals and has no experience in delivery of healthcare is beyond me.

Perhaps if the NHS were lead by someone who knew what it was like to work in the system, things wouldn't be so shocking.

Ultimately, the reasons that the NHS is underperforming are many and varied and nothing will change until someone looks at the whole picture and addresses ALL of the issues, rather than cherry picking issues which will get press coverage in order to make a name for a certain MP (think GP and junior dr contracts).

Apologies for the rant...!

I also think we as individuals don’t do enough to help overall. People seem very quick to rush to seek medical attention rather than trying to self care. I suggested to someone they nipped to the pharmacist for advice a few weeks back and they looked at me like I was daft!

It may only be the tip of the iceberg but misusing things doesn’t help with keeping t available where it is needed

Ive had some horrendous experiences, most recently through general lack of care. I don't think people go into nursing or become a Dr if they don't care about people but I think the system and a lack of hope of improvement seems to beat the caring out of people.

I'm a heavy user of the NHS and services have always been abysmal. I'd say they're slightly higher than abysmal at the moment though verging on poor.

People seem very quick to rush to seek medical attention rather than trying to self care

this

you wouldn't believe how many people ring the GP because they've had a sore throat for two hours!

People seem very quick to rush to seek medical attention rather than trying to self care

On the flip side a lot of people leave things too long and require hospital admission where antibiotics from a GP would have done

Yep. Partner recently suffered a reoccurrence of a condition he had treated in 2003, same hospital.
In 2003 he was in surgery within three hours of arriving at A&E (endoscopy.)
In 2018, took 6 hours to get from A&E to a ward and to get decent pain relief. 36 hours for an ultrasound, 60 hours for an MRI by which time the acutely painful episode had resolved itself. Spent four nights in hospital as opposed to two back in 2013. The nursing staff were excellent but ridiculously busy.

It’s pretty simple. Historically the NHS received 4% real terms increases in funding every year. For the last ten years it has had 1% total. That’s why it’s fucked.