To be horrified at how decimated the NHS is

[Bunnyfuller]

Just had a phone call that has shocked me.

I’ve had various heart problems/emergencies since the end of April. A result of which means I’m on 2 anticoagulants. Almost 2 weeks ago as part of some other work on my heart I had an echocardiogram. It needed to be quite brutal to get the right view, they were looking for a leak!

So this (with the anticoagulants) has caused a massive bruise on the underside of my left boob. And there’s a very hard, lumpy sausage shaped thing close to chest wall, under the bruise.

GP is fairly sure it’s part of the bruise, cardiac nurses not so sure, so referred to the urgent referral Breast Clinic. My GP books it via an online system and I was in for tomorrow, following seeing GP yesterday.

Just had hospital call me. They have a new booking system, which isn’t working properly and in fact I do not have an appointment tomorrow as there’s no clinic tomorrow. Then they told me I would hear from them in 6-8 weeks.

Is this the norm now? I’m not especially worried for myself - I’m sure it’s just some epic hematoma, and nothing like a heart attack to change your reaction to health incidents!

I’m not blaming the NHS (the miscommunication is a bit frustrating but I’m having worse from BT), but am so floored at something that was such a benefit to patients, physically and mentally (you go away with the ok fairly swiftly) has been eroded to such a degree by this government. Maybe Boris will cough up for me to go private?!

6 out of 8 DNAs could also be post/communications failure if appointments booked by post rather than in person! Batch of letters lost rather than posted, mobile out of date (if text reminders activated!) DH has had appointment letters appear after the appointment- he chased by phone and got details that way!

I’ve attended consultant appointments recently that were a real waste of time, both for me and them. I even called up prior to check it was still necessary and was told it was.
It’s on both sides - lack of communication and updating of info a lot of the time I think, as I knew more about my case than they did!
Poor management has a lot to answer for.

My friend felt ill, after GP referral to hospital, got no results from her tests and mri etc, 4 mths ago. She rang 3 times. Nothing.

A totally different hospital sent a letter this week. Apparently she'd been misfiled under the wrong name. It now transpires that She has a brain tumour that has doubled in size in the last 4 mths, and will be starting chemo immediately.

IT error they've apologised for.

ncweds I don't know what job you do, but do you have a waiting list?
Could you have phoned anyone?

Dh asks to be put on the waiting list/cancellation list and we could be at the hospital within a few minutes?

I am convinced that we are going to end up like USA with regards to healthcare.
The NHS is on its knees in most areas. The lack of investment is shocking. It’s so frustrating as I keep trying to explain to family but they just don’t get it and keep voting conservative.

I’m no Jeremy C fan (by a long shot!) and I’m not saying that a Labour government would mean no problems at all, but people keep voting for this sh1te.

Soon there won’t be much of nhs left.

@randomsabreuse you say that like you think we aren't experienced practitioners who have worked in the NHS forever and haven't considered this😂

That could definitely be the case elsewhere, but unfortunately this is standard for my area. It's really sad, and often frustrating, but we are used to it.

I know my families receive my appointment letters, because often I'll post them through their doors with my own fair hands, it makes no difference. They receive my texts and voicemails, and they see my missed calls, they just choose not to attend because they don't want to engage with professionals, or they forget, or they just can't be bothered.

Lord give me strength!

@Oblomov19
I work in community, generally no waiting list as our appointments are scheduled at specific points. Although our diaries are usually full 2/3 weeks ahead

Appointment slots are only 45 mins so once someone DNA's and I've checked our system or the national spine for the up to date contact details, made sure me and GP have corresponding details, rang the family, left a voicemail, checked when the child was last seen alive and well by a professional, documented the missed appointment and my lack of contact, it's time for my next person. And that process is for your bog standard universal everything's a-ok family! The majority of the time there's loads more professionals involved and it involves finding the child, finding the siblings, ringing round nurseries and schools!

Not moaning! I love my job really...!

It’s time to let the NHS go and look to other systems that work better but we shall have to pay considerably more

France and Germany have better systems

I don’t think we shall become like America as we have a very very different attitude towards health care but there are insurance systems that work well

@ncweds - fair point!

My DH is a vet and was fairly shocked by the inefficiencies when he broke his arm... things like booking follow ups, stitches out, physio are all automatically generated by his computer system as are patient information sheets. Makes discharge much more efficient from the clinician side. He was blocking a day surgery bed for about 6 unnecessary hours because it took so long to discharge with drugs we could have bought otc on the way home!

I'm diligent enough that I phoned the community midwives from the postnatal ward to cancel my planned antenatal visit to the clinic the next day! They seemed surprised but grateful as their system hadn't told them I'd given birth!

Hunt literally wrote a book on how to destroy the NHS and then followed it... This government hate the NHS.

I was in the urgent waiting list for surgery and told it will if be a year. Almost died due to complications of waiting which then cost the NHS more as I had to have an extra surgery and 5 night stay.

I was told that after my complaint to my mp they now tell people they can refer to other hospitals with shorter waiting lists.

My ds was referred to children’s ENT in November 2017- we’re still waiting for an appointment! Luckily he’s already been given hearing aids by children’s audiology or I dread to think how far behind he would have fallen with his speech/learning by now.

It sounds like you were booked under the choose and book system. It's not a bad idea in theory, it can reduce DNAs as patients do tend to remember appointment dates they've chosen better. The problem is that in my experience at least half of all these appointments turn out to be inappropriate. To be fair to the GP a hospital will have hundreds of different clinics so it's no surprise they get it wrong.

The patient thinks they are booked in, the referral letter arrives and it's realised it's an inappropriate clinic for their needs to it has to be rebooked. A lot of these letters will end up in some pile that an appointments clerk will struggle to keep on top of.

@silentsister

The problem isn't that NHS consultants "earn too much money" - the pay is commensurate with the level of training , experience, responsibility and working hours.

The problem is some tax changes have created a cliff edge, where if you work an extra clinic , you can get a tax bill for £40,000 , either payable immediately, or payed from the pension with compound interest applied (more like £60,000 once it's paid)....

These are people who don't do private work, have no extra sources of income, who are just trying to see and treat as many patients as possible. I know an orthopaedic surgeon, one of the experts in their field in the country , if not the planet, whose take home pay will be £55 per week because of these changes. The NHS could have had him for another 10 years, but now he's going to retire.

4-6 weeks was standard for me when I had an “urgent referral” to breast clinic.

Wow, I think it really is luck of the draw according to where you live. I went to the doctor with breast lumps, she couldn't find anything but referred me anyway, as she said I "had a better sense of what's normal for me". I saw the consultant less than seven days later. (It turned out it was a milk cyst, I'd recently stopped breastfeeding!)

The waiting lists have deteriorated significantly since April...the reason? The governments tax changes made to pensions for higher earners have really bitten this year after people not realising what was happening. Guess what people vote with their feet so the consultants now refuse to do any additional extra hours over what they are contracted because the tax charges are so punitive they can end up virtually working for nothing.

So on top of the extra doctors we now need even more. On top of that, as girls are being so successful at getting into medical school (75%) in some areas, which is brilliant, that generates even more need as god fore sake us but we like to sometimes work part time when having families.

I wish the government would just stop penalising people who are successful like doctors who are not super rich and want to do the best for their patients. A friend of mine is in this exact position, and do you know what the answer is? They set up a limited company, sell their services to the NHS to do the same clinics/operations but based in a local private hospital for which the NHS pays for the privilege.

She knows of another one. A senior cop who got promoted 11 months ago and is now retiring due to the tax penalty he is getting. So we now all have to pay the pensions earlier instead of them paying a reasonable amount of tax.

I bet this wasn't the outcome those clever mandarins in the Treasury thought about when they dreamt up this wheeze.