To ask what YOU would do to help save the NHS?

[TamiTayorismyparentingguru]

I don’t care if you’re an HCP or not, I don’t care who you vote for, I don’t care what you think about Brexit - all opinions welcome.

Opinions on practical suggestions on how to save the NHS only though.

Our local hospital is getting worse and worse with regards to staff shortages and waiting lists getting longer and longer. I will say that our GP is really great and we’ve never really had a problem with getting appointments etc, but as soon as you are referred to the hospital things go massively downhill. (We did have a GP misdiagnose/miss DH’s cancer which was pretty shit - but I wouldn’t say that was a particular problem with the system - more just one of those unfortunate things that happens, that really shouldn’t happen, but that are just a matter of course.)

The hospital is a different story though - wait lists for some departments are insane (current wait time for an initial cataracts appointment is 42 weeks and then up to 18m for treatment, paediatric dermatology is a min of 30weeks, paediatric podiatry is approx 30weeks also. I have been on a wait list for max fax for 14mths so far. I also had an 8week wait for an appointment at the breast clinic after seeing the GP with a noticeable lump.)

DH has also had to fight for every single appointment since his cancer treatment last year - instead of the 4-weekly appointments he’s meant to have had, most of his appointments have been 7-8 weeks apart and have been cancelled at the last minute (sometimes just an hour before) at least 4 times in the last year.

It’s awful and yet I do trust that the doctors, nurses, receptionists etc etc are all doing everything they possibly can.

What’s the solution?

Gallstones is EXCRUTIATINGLY painful You cannot do ANYTHING but writhe around in pain during an attack

Anyone who suggests this is not life threatening so put up with it is a sadist

oh and wrong...........

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10182112/Man-dies-after-999-operator-refuses-ambulance.html

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2365464/Man-41-died-gallstones-begging-999-operator-GP-ambulance-told-bath.html

For me I wouldn't charge everyone that comes into a&e no.

However, those who come in because they have a cold, or their little finger hurts a little bit or they have had knee pain for 4 months would he charged if I ruled the world.

At triage they should be advised. You can see your GP for this or even the pharmacy etc. We will see you today but there will be a charge of £100.

I'm sure a&e waiting times would be dramatically reduced.

It really gets on my tits dealing with a patient at 4am on a Sunday morning for pain in a joint that they've had for weeks and weeks. Pain that hasn't got worse.
On a scale of 1-10 about a 3 when I do my lunges at the gym
Full range of movement
No history of trauma.

It is not a fucking accident or emergency.
Piss off and let me deal with the patients who need me.

Coral Jones
‏ @coralcejones_c
3h3 hours ago

This is very alarming, 2000 letters not actioned, 588 tests not read, 1500 notes not transferred. Yet given 6 months 'to make improvements' Second Virgin Care practice in Essex rated inadequate by CQC | GPonline www.gponline.com/article/1495959

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/06/depressed-poor-housing-costs-nhs-14bn-year

Diamonds Your friend's situation. Is the kind of thing that makes me want to tear my hair out. A patient had a life-saving operation cancelled due to transport? Good lord. Talk about not taking some personal responsibility for yourself. Get a cab, pay a friend, for goodness sake. Or is your friend one of these unique "only in MN World" people who has no friends or family and in fact has never had a conversation with someone who owns a car?

I'm the US (although born and raised in the UK) and I'm truly baffled that people look at the shitshow that is the NHS and respond to any serious debate about necessary overhaul sand the first thing they say is, "Well I wouldn't want it to become like the American system." You'd be bloody lucky to get the standard of care that most (non-insured) people get here.

TruWarrior yes I’m truly struggling with lack of transport being considered a valid reason to cancel a kidney transplant operation. An hour and a half journey like you say pay for a cab or a friend’s petrol. Also the person who is self-employed but the date for their op is not convenient.

I think we have found the reason the NHS is on it’s knees

"An hour and a half journey like you say pay for a cab or a friend’s petrol. Also the person who is self-employed but the date for their op is not convenient"

A lot of people who are ill and have been for a while are likely to be on sickness/disability benefits which are being cut and/ or Universal Credit. Not in all cases but a fair few will be . I was reading about a woman last week who was sacked for having breast cancer and had to go and sign on.

An hour and a half journey in a cab is a lot of money that some people with long term illnesses just wont have.

Helena so sorry you went through all that! My mum had gallstones not sure what caused it for her as she certainly wasn't overweight at the time. Even when she has been its been slightly - dress size 14-16.

Graphista I've been flying back and forth to manage my fathers care for what is now 2 years. I'm visiting approx every 6 weeks. From what I've heard there isn't an issue with the NHS in Scotland or Wales compared to England.

I was in Scotland for work earlier this year. Honestly I didn't see any enforcement of laws around excessive drinking like they have here. I saw lots of paralytic adults at about 1:30am in Edinburgh and the same in Aberdeen.

For the patient needing transportation, here in the US Medicaid covers that in full. You book with a provider and they show up. It's really expensive but Medicaid is for poor people and it's understood they have no ability to pay for their care.

Menarefrommars - I know there are time wasters BUT myself and several others have said there are MAJOR issues with getting GP appointments in some (most?) areas.

And the longer a patient has a symptom the more it gets them down AND They start to ruminate on the cause and get anxious.

Do you not think where you could USEFULLY make a difference to this issue is asking patients why they chose to go to a&e rather than GP and feeding that info back to those who could improve things?

Where u live there was a HUGE cock up that resulted in several HUNDRED patients being without a registered GP for MONTHS, a similar issue happened where a friend of mine lives in an English nhs trust. Shouldn't even have happened - in the meantime these patients were HAVING to go up a&e for basic treatment.

Now unless they told you they were one of the patients affected you wouldn't know, so you would have ASSUMED they were a time waster.

Homeless people and those who've fled DV also often have difficulties getting registered at a GP surgery - are you going to vilify them too?

Frankly I think it's ridiculous that British citizens need to have a permanent provable address to register with a GP!

Where I love flipping auto correct!

Live! Bloody phone

Seeing people who were drunk but presumably not doing any harm? Doesn't mean that public alcohol issues aren't being dealt with.

Nothing. It is beyond saving and needs to be replaced with a different system. Every individual who lives in the UK must stop making excuses because it is free and a national treasure.

It is not free. It is funded by the people for the people and the people need to cease feeling grateful for sub standard services delivered to us as a favour.

It is not a national treasure. It is a poorly delivered, out of date institution that has become bureacratic and inefficient beyond belief - it is a self justifying target centred behemoth rather than a patient centred service.

Replace it with a European style service as in Germany and France.

When you're next back or even have a look online. My understanding is that the Welsh are not particularly happy with how the nhs is being treated either (Welsh folk correct me if I'm wrong).

Ultimately the problem - as myself and several others on the thread have said - is that the tories WANT the nhs to look like its failing and to move to a system closer to the USA system to line their own pockets

And while you say the system in USA works ok I'm afraid various news reports plus what I hear from family and friends in USA makes me TERRIFIED of that possibility.

I have thus far tried to avoid the mh side of things as there's SO much wrong there - but the USA attitude to mh is imo from what I've seen & heard FAR worse!

Not least because people who are seriously mentally ill are not able to work and are therefore viewed in the USA as "lesser" and it's becoming more the case here.

Those of us that are mentally ill are STILL being viewed and TREATED even by many hcps as if we CHOSE this illness. Which is of course crap!

NOBODY chooses to live in a constant state of depression/anxiety, existing rather than living, taking meds with some quite awful side effects, experiencing the stigma applied to the mentally ill in EVERY area of life - healthcare (try getting a physical ailment taken seriously when you have a mh dx even IF you have clear physical symptoms), housing (not least again as many of us can't work so are relying on benefits and many landlords won't accept benefits), employment (IF you get well enough to work good luck getting an employer to even CONSIDER someone who's been long term sick with mh dx), banking (many banks if you're honest about your issues - and some conditions make money management tricky - won't let you open an account with them).

I've talked to my friends and family in the states and they say that honestly if we end up with a similar system here, people like me will end up getting far worse treatment than we currently do - and it's already bad enough thanks!!

If I were having to pay for my meds at USA levels it would cost me £113 a month - and that's just my mh meds.

I'm also asthmatic and on inhalers and steroids for that, plus on norethisterone for endo (I don't take a break in the packets and it still only reduces symptoms. Had various treatments for this inc surgery).

Then there's if I get an infection and need antibiotics - I'm allergic to penicillin so limited which ones I can take, even some of the non-penicillin ones make me react.

I'm also on tramadol for spinal pain.

I'm housebound agoraphobic - currently at 10 months and counting this time. So not able to work.

If I have to find over £100 every month for meds well frankly I could NOT afford that! I dread to think what the total cost of all my meds, plus GP, plus cpn, psychiatrist, psychologist would come to under a USA style system!

People in the uk are ALREADY dying due to the UC fuck up! I honestly don't think it's an exaggerating to say the tories are trying to cull the poor!

What's wrong with a European system Graphista? Why the assumption it would be a US one?

I am sorry you are so poorly. FWIW ny dd developed depression and anxiety and became v poorly. The NHS refused her care. No therapy, no meds.

From what I've heard there isn't an issue with the NHS in Scotland or Wales compared to England.

The Welsh NHS is in a very bad way. I've just left Wales due to how bad the NHS is.

Another Brit in the US here. I can understand why people are scared of US style care- whilst it can be very good, it isn’t always, and the costs can be phenomenal. My husband was in an accident a few years back and was treated in hospital. He was then transferred by ambulance to another hospital for specialised care. The insurance company refused to cover the ambulance and we were billed almost $10,000 for that alone, even though it was the only way he could be transferred and it was ordered and authorised by the hospital. We had to fight it for over a year, and still had to pay over $2000 just for that one ambulance. I have a couple of health conditions and my medications are over $60 a month, that’s after the insurance has paid out their share.

I do think there’s a middle ground between the UK and the US systems. I think that people do take the NHS for granted and see it as ‘free’. The amount of waste is tremendous. I’d instigate charges for appointments, paid at time of booking, and refunded when you show up. No prescriptions for cheap over the counter medications like paracetamol or ibuprofen. I’d also have a&e charges for people coming in for trivial reasons that could be resolved at the gp. No NHS funding for plastic surgery or IVF, and a small charge for pregnancy/birth services. I also think medical staff should have their training funded, but be obligated to work in the NHS for a period of time in return - if they don’t, they have to repay at least part of the cost.

I agree diamonds.

Re cost of drugs though - dd has 3 medicines every two months and has to pay, as a student, just under £30 for them. Prescriptions are not free on the NHS.

In fact 28 day prescribing where implemented is a joke. It's two monthly for me. I take thyroxine - dose unchanged for nearly 30 years. I am very glad my GP practice has time to pfaff about six times a year when an annual prescription would do nicely and then to complain about overwork.

It would really irk if I had to pay £9ish every time for wasting my time but because I have thyroid disease ALL my prescriptions are free for every ailment I may have or develop. I earn a six figure salary and it is bizarre that I get free penicillin and painkillers as well. But when my dd had MH problems there was zero care. She is better now, because I had £5000+ to pay for a consultant psychiatrist.

Re the cancelling of a kidney transplant due to and hour and a half journey and no transport being available I still think a cab fare us a small contribution to pay towards getting a transplant.

OhTheRoses sorry but you only get free prescriptions on a medex card if you present your card and claim , so next time you are prescribed painkillers and penicillin, ask for a paper script DONT present your card, don't tick the box, don't sign the free medication declaration, get your purse out and pay its simple I did it for years, Now I have no choice I am age exempt my age and dob are printed on the front I cant pay even I want to they wont let me, if my age wasn't on my prescription I would be paying and would have no problem doing so

OhTheRoses you do understand France and Germany have much less efficient services? Higher percentage of GDP spent, people pay at front door, greater polarisation of healthcare but more beds per capita.

I was in a hospital yesterday that was an absolute delight to wander around. Musicians playing and singing gently to elderly patients, z beds for relatives of any patients that needed it, kind attentive staff, beautiful gardens managed by volunteers. No call bells ringing incessantly, no cries of distress.
The NHS is nowhere near as bad as people imagine - the Daily Mail and government cuts have much to answer for. It certainly isn’t broken - it just needs adult social care to be sorted out and people to take more responsibility for their own and their families health. A first aid/healthcare course should form part of all antenatal care packages.