The NHS has collapsed.

[brahmahda]

It's great that no Covid wards have been overwhelmed for lack of ventilators - Clap Clap. But ...

1. My regular preventative treatment for a chronic condition has stopped, with no sign of it restarting.
2. My 13yo son needs diagnostic tests for symptoms he's had for several months, but the diagnostic clinic is closed, again with no sign of it restarting.
3. A vital service that the GP would normally provide has been redirected to a "hub" with a convoluted appointment booking process and a very long waiting list.
4. My elderly, isolated/ing mum who urgently needs a face-to-face with her GP due to a sudden decline in her health has been messed around with a complicated process that changes depends on who she speaks to (she was phoned and told she'd need to get a Covid test 10 mins before setting off for the appointment, so had to cancel it).

Of course issues of delayed cancer treatments etc have been widely reported in the news, but it's clear that they are just the tip of the iceberg. The problems must be impacting almost every family in the country to some extent, and there's no sign of them being temporary. I just can't see the NHS getting back onto it's already-shaky track in the foreseeable future.

Anyone else find this terrifying?

Whilst lots of negative things are reported I would argue there is a lot of work and patients that have been seen.

I work in the NHS and also as I live and work here am a patient.

My son was diagnosed by GP for a skin condition using phone and photos during Covid we were really impressed

My best friend had a non urgent operation yesterday as a day case so services are resuming.

People in the NHS are working hard to restore services and capacity and review waiting lists focusing on most urgent. I personally an involved in lots of areas where we are working to increase the number of patients seen and in some areas services are back to 75-90% of capacity.

And hospitals are working hard to prepare for winter and any potential second waves

And hospitals are working hard to prepare for winter and any potential second waves

I'm so sorry about your relatives. It's a real worry.
I phoned the hospital about an appointment for my son ( he's been waiting since early Feb) and I could hear the smile in her voice when I asked how much longer he'd have to wait ' ring back at the end of August' was all she could suggest although I know nothing will happen for him till next year probably. His ' top of the pile' which sounded a bit of a fob off! Not her fault , but it's frustrating.

No real advice , but I hope you get somewhere soon. It is awful how much primary care has been affected by the virus.

My elderly, isolated/ing mum who urgently needs a face-to-face with her GP due to a sudden decline in her health has been messed around with a complicated process that changes depends on who she speaks to (she was phoned and told she'd need to get a Covid test 10 mins before setting off for the appointment, so had to cancel it).

I’ve had a number of face to face appts recently as I had a baby in lockdown and the process has been the same for all appts - they call you the morning of the appointment and ask you a few CV related questions. Ie, do you have a temperature / new cough etc. If you answer yes to any of those they postpone the appt and ask you to get a Covid test.

Are you sure that’s not what happened here? It would be disastrous to see someone with Covid in a doctor surgery

My dh had a letter last week for a routine a appointment for a fairly serious health condition that needs monitoring . Appointment was last night and usually takes about two hours and he was seen and sorted in half an hour -things are starting up again . This was lockdown Leicester as well.

My appointments have continued as normal, they moved chemo to a private hospital with only us there. 2 weekly bloods at hospital and surgery and have had 2 ft hospital consultations and a dr ft after a telephone consult. I needed to speak to my consultant about an issue and they called me in to clinic that same day so I think it's a postcode lottery unfortunately

I would tend to disagree, during full lockdown my daughter had a lump in her breast (she is 14) our gp was online contact only at the time. I emailed the gp & got a telephone call within an hour & a face to face appointment 30 mins later. Within a week we had an appointment at the hospital where she saw a doctor, had an ultra sound & got the all clear (thank god it was a cyst) in normal circumstances I can’t get a gp appointment in the space of a week.
My husband had a far less serious issue - skin infection in his ear. Sent the email to gp late evening got a reply 9.30 the following day with a prescription ready to be picked up from the chemist.
I have an annual appointment with a neurologist which was done by Phone this year, very thorough & very clear that if I wanted a face to face he would find a way to do it (I didn’t need it but sure some would)
I really can’t fault any contact we’ve had with the NHS this year, especially the handling of the situation with my daughter.

I do agree op.

I'm under the care of several hospitals for chronic conditions. My hospital appointments have all been via phone during lockdown, which I understand, but in each one the Dr has said " we really need to see you face to face so will book to see you again, hopefully when things are back to normal".

The first one was in March, follow up for end of June - still no f2f so I'm now waiting for them to send me another appointment. Hopefully they will be up and running by then but I last saw them in person in December. I normally have appointments and treatment changes every three months. It will be more like 9 months before I get seen.

Appointment to discuss joint surgery was again over the phone in June. They now want to see me f2f " once this is over" for an examination and more scans before they can list me. My initial appointment was November 2019, I don't have a follow up appointment as yet.

Basically, every one of my appointments has kicked the can down the road until "this is all over" and they can see me f2f. My condition is deteriorating because I've not had any treatment this year so far.

I really do understand why and I don't blame the staff but there seems to be no mechanism in place to catch up the patients who are so disrupted. I had hand therapy and physio sessions cancelled but they've not re booked and I can't get in touch with them so I'm now lost to follow up. How many other people has this happened to where it will have serious implications?

Seems to be a bit of a postcode lottery really. DD is under two different hospital trusts, one has already got her in for non urgent surgery next week, the other has cancelled her appointments for long term conditions indefinitely. She is probably overdue her appointment by a couple of months now.

Our GP surgery still not even doing routine blood tests. They wouldn't do OH's monthly blood tests to monitor his cancer. They won't do my 6 monthly HBA1C blood test to monitor diabetes which was due in March.

YANBU
Though I'm sure some areas have pulled out all the stops, others have disgracefully pulled down the shutters.
Same with schools.

I do agree somewhat. I have had experience of both with my dd.

I think it's at the front door gp practices that is falling down.
On one occasion I sent photos to an email and the gp rang back and prescribed cream. All fine.
Second time I rang about something, also rang 111 twice who told me to go back to my go despite not getting anywhere. No one even set eyes on dd. They passed us back anf forth between gp nurse, gp doctor and specialist hospital team who actually took a week to get back to me. Turns out dd should have been admitted then and there. I regret not taking her to a and e but I went on the advice of those hcp. No one would see her. No one still has. I got an anxious phone call yesterday from the specialist team who now want to admit her ASAP. We have been through a week/weekend of hell with dd being in pain and quite ill and on and off the wrong medication. The specialist nurse was gobsmacked that not one hcp had bothered enough to actually see her and assess her. We are looking at possible long term damage to her body now. Really upset with myself too for not just going to a and e but I was advised to wait at home.

We’ve been lucky, our local minor injury/blood test place has done drive through blood testing to help people that are shielding. It probably does depend where you live, I’m in London - we have a lot of hospitals nearby & I think we were over the worst of the Covid stuff quite early on.

Things are starting to crank back up. I have had an outstanding blood test done. I have a procedure ( admittedly) private booked for August but they are all subject to Gov permissions on this . Another process I need is still subject to Gov guidelines being revised . You really do have to be your own cheerleader with the NHS I had a great GP in my previous practice but this new practice is a bit weak .

YABU to use such a sensationalist thread title.

The problems must be impacting almost every family in the country to some extent, and there's no sign of them being temporary. I just can't see the NHS getting back onto it's already-shaky track in the foreseeable future.

Anyone else find this terrifying?

Yes. I do.

These are relatively small issues on the face of things (before anyone screams at me, my dad died from a stroke and my mum died from cancer, so I absolutely understand that "bigger" diseases will inevitably take priority at this point) but they are all adding up to a huge backlog of untreated cases which will probably just get cancelled for ever and we will be left to deal with the discomfort etc on our own.

DD hasn't been able to have her HPV vaccination or her orthodontic treatment (not just braces, but also an operation which is time-sensitive and that time is rapidly running out). We were paying for her braces ourselves as the NHS waiting list was already 3 years in our area, and she qualified for NHS but the treatment just wasn't available. As it is, she is going to be left with permanent problems now.

I can't have an overdue smear because our GP is only offering appointments for the current week - you phone on Monday and are allocated an appointment for that week, but by the time I manage to get through on the phone, all the appointments are gone.

DH hasn't been able to have a long overdue (not through any fault of his, but the GP never got around to it) checkup to see whether he can continue on his long-term medication. The GP refuses to see him face to face, so instead of issuing a prescription for 2 months at a time, it is now being issued monthly, and we have to manually request it every month and go and collect it from the surgery - they've stopped sending them automatically to the pharmacy. Which is particularly stupid, as it means that we are constantly going into the surgery and the pharmacy, spreading our potential germs around!

They passed us back anf forth between gp nurse, gp doctor and specialist hospital team who actually took a week to get back to me

That's what happened with my OH and his cancer treatment/monitoring. GP practice wasn't interested and referred him to the oncology dept. Oncology dept was closed and phone calls referred to a call answering service where he left numerous messages which were never returned. He was completely abandoned in limbo. The oncology dept re-opened in May and he got a call back, but it was just a holding call with a promise to call back and arrange a blood test in July!

My friend's father had breathlessness so made an appointment at his GP. The GPs insisted on two CV tests first (both negative). With the time for testing/results, by the time the GP saw him, he was so I'll they sent him directly to A&E, where he was kept in overnight and had a pacemaker fitted the next day! The shortness of breath wasn't Covid19 (he's been shielding since lockdown) it was extremely irregular heartbeat.

I completely agree. It seems that all the NHS, government and a large portion of the public care about is Covid-19 and having enough capacity in case there is ever a second wave. This blinkered view will cost tens or hundreds of thousands of lives that could have been saved or prolonged. Not to mention the pain and suffering for those who have had treatment or diagnosis delayed or cancelled. Hospital wards sitting empty while people in need are being denied treatment. Some GP surgeries refusing to see patients. It’s disgusting. This will be the second wave/tsunami, not the virus.

My friend is due in for an operation at some point, she has been told she needs to self isolate for 14 days, then two days before the operation to make the trip into the hospital to have a COVID19 test.

Apart from the fact she has kids, that will need to go to school, her husband works full time in a public facing role and can't take the time off.

She can manage to get most things sorted, but she doesn't understand the whole going to the hospital for a test, as if she is going to get it within those 14 days that is when she is going to get it.

My DH has a number of health issues which involve 3 separate specialties.
For his most serious condition he has in effect had the same consultations as he would normally have had - but via phone rather than face to face. The bloods he needed prior to the consultations were done in a specially set up area, separate from the main hospital.
For a fairly recently condition which was partway through diagnostic testing in March, he had has 2 letters assuring him his case has been reviewed and no action is currently necessary. He has a telephone consultation booked for Aug, which is a similar date to a face to face which was cancelled early on in the pandemic.
For his life long condition, he has has 2 phone consultations, and has been able to call the specialist nurses whenever he needed to.

To be honest, it’s been better than normal, and the phone calls are much easier to cope with than actually having to turn up to hospital. I hope the phone consultations continue in the long run.

It does seem to be what trust you fall under a bit. Although cancer treatments for those most vulnerable have been halted, a load of other things have still been going on though. GPs for example here can do same day appointments, either remotely or face to face (a nurse travelled to my aunt's as she is shielding). 'routine' apps are going ahead now and have done for the past month or so, as have MH services in the community. I think a lot underestimate the mammoth task of catching up though, and those relived that covid is calming are a bit naieve to the impact this will have on the NHS.

I’m so sorry your treatment has ground to a halt OP and that your DS and DM are not getting what they need either. That’s awful.

I agree that it appears to depend on how each GP and Hospital Trust is dealing with things. I had a non urgent MRI yesterday which had been cancelled back in April. I didn’t expect it to be rescheduled any time soon with it not being a particularly important problem.

I had a menopause clinic referral cancelled back in March but last week the GP saw me in person to rule out any obvious cause for spotting after I phoned to make an appointment and she arranged for an ultrasound which I had on Monday. The radiologist told me they would want to do a hysteroscopy as the womb lining was a bit thick. Even though it’s probably all being caused by new HRT and I’ve had lots of similar problems with previous HRT that were investigated, they are taking it very seriously and following the 2 week urgent protocol.

Right now it’s easier and faster to speak to our GPs than it ever has been and they are seeing patients in person when necessary. My friend had a routine blood test at the same practice this week. It’s not good that it’s so hit and miss throughout the country.

OP it’s unacceptable that your experiencing this. It does seem there a massive holes through out the system.