How many people have been failed by the NHS during lockdown?

[Polnm]

My DH has cancer.

His appointment in April was by phone
His appointment in August was postponed until October

How is this acceptable? Hospitals are empty whilst patients can’t access care.

GP appointments by zoom with a 2 week wait for a basic blood pressure check in person or to take bloods

Why isn’t there more publicity and outrage about this?

We can’t be the only family going through this surely?

@FluffyKittensinabasket

Out of interest, how are we going to be vaccinated for Covid if GPs and nurses aren’t seeing patients face to face?

Boots have already opened their online booking system for this year. I’ve booked my family in for the end of September. If you normally get a free jab from nhs you fill in a form on the day and there’s no charge.

Those of you saying it should be covered in the press- it has been, lots?

And because there is some misplaced tribal loyalty

Runningaway

You know what is shocking? That in a thread with example after example of appalling, third rate service, people feel 'sorry' for the institution which is failing its patients in such an indefensible manner. There needs to be a serious conversation about serious reform. The NHS is not the 'envy of the world.' It is a third rate, dysfunctional horror show.

Sorry, this was the flu jab I was talking about!

@RunningAwaywiththeCircus

I sometimes think that the reason Brits put up with a third rate medical service is because most people have absolutely zero experience of what a functioning health care system looks like.

Hard agree here! And because there is some misplaced tribal loyalty that equates not being overly-impressed with or grateful for a third rate albeit FAPOD system, with actively wanting poor people to die.

Made worse by the GPs being annointed as the gatekeepers so that you have to go through them for most things, whether the GP really needs to see you or not. They've managed to mould the system to make themselves the most important cog of the wheel.

Why on Earth do you need a GP appt to get a referral for a ingrown toe nail removal, physiotherapy or a hearing aid? Why can't people "self refer" to other departments when it's blatantly obvious what service they need?

How come that opticians, dentists and pharmacies can operate and provide NHS services without GPs writing a referral letter? They sort out the wheat from the chaff, check entitlement to free/subsidised NHS services, etc., so they're quite capable of the "gatekeeping" role. They can also make referrals to other NHS services as and when required, i.e. an optician can refer to the hospital eye dept for complicated cases, a dentist can refer to the hospital dental/maxfacial dept, etc etc.

Just why, when I know my son has an infected ingrown toe nail and needs it removed (partially or fully) do I need endless wasted appts with the GP nurses to try all manners of quack remedies culminating in a GP appt to look at it and say, "yes it needs attention" and only for then for him to write the magic referral letter. We had that with our son. I've had ingrown toe nails, I've had them removed, I've had them treated etc). I knew he needed more than antiseptic cream, salt bath, antibiotics, toenail softening solutions etc but we had to go through the farce just to get the magic GP referral letter. It took about 3 months during which time, DS couldn't do sports, was often in pain and some days literally couldn't walk. Once the referral was made, he was in and out of Podiatry to have it sorted within 2 weeks! Someone please tell me why they couldn't have just let us go straight to make an appt with podiatry who could have said what needed doing and got on with it!

StopGo my god, I am so so sorry.

And so sorry for all of you who have been bereaved or otherwise left to suffer.

To all who have fallen foul of this situation 💐 keep fighting your case, keep contacting your care teams. I've had great service from my gp - dc has continued to have regular bloods done, weight monitored and even had in person reviews of medication they've also given both of us timely appointments for our chronic health issues.
However dc hospital nurses who I'm usually in contact with weekly have been uncontactable and health has deteriorated because of it. Dc had 3 consultation appointments cancelled hopefully the next one end of September won't be cancelled. Dc has had surgery recently which had been delayed the staff were great but there is no follow-up even though there were complications and he needs urgent tests but been told it may be months.
Another dc was just discharged from cahms without treatment, the school nurse rang me once at beginning of lock down said she was leaving new nurse won't be allocated to her clients till schools reopen.
I've had one consultant appointment over the phone the rest were cancelled. My nurse hasn't contacted me since the beginning of the pandemic I've been waiting over 54 weeks for quite major surgery unfortunately my condition has deteriorated and the op won't improve the deterioration but prevent further damage.
From our point of view our care has been disrupted however the problem is care before lock down was full of long waiting lists and now these have increased and with winter pressures this will only get worse (my local hospital usually stop all but emergency surgery November - March each year this will not help the backlog).
Its not just the NHS.
My house needs adaptions the waiting list pre covid was about 18 months it's now so long they can't tell me how long I'll be waiting. I've had 3 falls which would have been prevented by these adaptions the next one could put me in hospital which will surely cost more.
The whole nhs/social care was an issue pre covid-19 now its just tipped it over the edge and I'm not sure how we'll get it back.

@Badbadbunny my husband has just said to me (re ingrown toenail saga) "you could have written that post". We had the same problem at the beginning of the year with our 13 year old son. Three GP appointments until we got the referral letter to the podiatrist who said to me at the appointment, 'you should have been referred to me in the first place' when I explained to her the number of times we had to go to the doctor to get it seen properly. DS finally got a partial nail removal at the beginning of February this year and he's so much better for it.

For my family this isn’t about who is in government or how they have operated since lockdown

To us they have always been shit.

It might be a free service but in our experience if you need to save your life then you have to go private.

Dp (grade 4 cancer) has been waiting to see someone since last November.

Twice his appointment had been cancelled.

Then we had lockdown.

Then last month he got an appointment but he first needed to go to for a scan and a blood test.

Had the scan but they have lost his blood test 3 times.
This isn’t about government failures or shortages. This is just the usual apathetic way they treat people.

Lockdown I think has brought to the fore what we as a family have known for years.

Me, I started losing feeling in my feet last October, made a GP appointment, when i went the doctor spent the whole appointment talking about my thyroid blood results, when i asked about my feet I got told that she hadn't got time to talk about them & to make another appointment. Had to wait 8 weeks for another appointment only to be fobbed off with needing blood tests which because of christmas couldn't be arranged for until mid January. Rang for results & was told bloods needed to be repeated, again had to wait 4 weeks for an appointment. By this time Covid was happening, my numbness was spreading up my legs to above my thighs, doctor told me I needed a neurological consultant & I would be waiting 9-12 months on NHS, I asked for a private referral & got an appointment for 30 March, 2 weeks before my appointment it was cancelled, spent all lockdown struggling to walk unable to feel my legs, got a telephone private appointment mid July, consultant was so concerned that he got me in his NHS clinic the week after, after he saw me in clinic he referred me for urgent MRI & nerve conduction tests, had a head MRI & further bloods last week, MRI is clear but my Vitamin B12 level is unreadable it is so low, previous tests from GP had been read as normal but were dangerously low. He wrote to my GP to start loading injections, GP is not doing any injections due to covid, am stuck in limbo unable to walk & no treatment. Have spoken to a solicitor about medical negligence, they say I have a case.

On the plus side I have noticed HCPs are now much more willing to communicate via email. I have today had an email exchange and come up with a short term plan for an issue instead of the normal problem trying to get hold of them via telephone and leaving messages back and forward.

Things like that alongside a return to face to face where needed could lead to things becoming much more efficient long term - if used well.

This is not my experience. I was diagnosed with breast cancer 3 days before lockdown and had my surgery on lockdown day. My active treatments have followed on exactly as they should. Aside from consultant appointments which have been on the phone, everything else has been face to face and indeed I have been treated in a Macmillan Cancer Centre where it is business as usual. I know several people in the same position as me and their experiences mirror mine.

My GP has been excellent but the several hospitals I am under are still cancelling clinics and putting people to phone appointments. I blame the hospital management and wider healthcare management who are only interested in making things look good and not in the actual health of people. They are highly led by targets and are busy manipulating targets to obfuscate the true devastation of the lack of care and will not speak out about the lack of funding and organisation that has got in the way of care. The same people who jumped to obey when the government said clear hospitals, over riding clinicians who warned of the danger of sending untested people back into care homes and the community.

@MaxNormal. It’s obscene isn’t it that people whose family members have died due to NHS failings are told they’re being ungrateful.

The covid lunatics, of which I can only assume that @LunaMuffinTop is one of, think that the only thing that’s important is reducing covid cases/ deaths. They completely misunderstand that for the majority of people many other diseases are much more dangerous/ life limiting. Why the hell should we be grateful to get a mediocre covid health service rather than one which treats all issues?

The covid lunatics, of which I can only assume that @LunaMuffinTop is one of

I think that sums it up quite nicely.

For the people worried about their surgeries not offering flu jabs don't worry there is money involved in flu jabs. Their doors will be wide open and everyone will be encouraged to book an appointment asap.

It's been dire. I've been waiting for a stent to be changed since before lockdown. The longer it is in the more damage it causes and I lose my kidney. That's if I survive infections.

various injections haven't been done.

Surgery on my stomach hasn't happened yet either nor has bowel treatment. I'm now underweight and getting closer to being back on oxygen again.

I'm also supposed to provide various things for weekly testing, I have my first blood test booked for next week. Everything else has been every 5/6 weeks.

I really dont understand what is happening tbh. Hospital staff post on the site their hospitals are quiet. I talk to friends who work there, they say the same. My dd is currently in one, a&e was empty and there's hardly any patients on the ward. She's been there since the weekend. Friends who have been admitted have said the same.

I honestly thought treatments would have started before opening up pubs, restaurants and schools.

The last time I got into discussion about this on mn, it was said that these treatments weren't happening because of CV. That those with CV had long term impacts and priority was those patients. I thought at the time the poster who claimed to be nhs was taking the piss, now I'm not so sure.

@ChupForPresident

For the people worried about their surgeries not offering flu jabs don't worry there is money involved in flu jabs. Their doors will be wide open and everyone will be encouraged to book an appointment asap.

Yep, as I said in my post, they'll suddenly find that they have the staff after all and that their surgeries can in fact have their doors opened, when it comes to wanting their dosh!

If funding was given "per appt" as it should be in any sensible system, they'd have never closed in the first place. What a stupid system when someone is paid whether they provide a service or not. What incentive was there for GPs to stay open when they'd get paid anyway?

Likewise with my diabetes check. My OH has been virtually pleading with his GP surgery for his essential monthly blood tests to monitor his cancer, but no, they were apparently not doing routine bloods.

Last month, it was time for my annual diabetic check (for which the surgery gets paid). I wasn't pushing for it to be done, I didn't even ask them. But I got phone message after phone message from them virtually pleading with me to go in for the routine blood test. After that, I was constantly harrassed with messages from the diabetic nurse asking me to call her back urgently. I thought it was something serious, but no, she just wanted to ask the same questions they always ask, do you smoke, how much exercise, etc etc to fill in her form so that they could claim the funding for the annual check!

Money really talks in GP surgery. They refused to do blood test for my OH's cancer as presumably they can't tick a box to claim funding for that, but they were all over themselves wanting to tick the boxes for my diabetic check to get the dosh.

If NHS are struggling to operate with new COVID guidelines how is it that private hospitals are managing? I called on a Friday, had an appointment on the Monday. If I could have made it back on the Thursday I would have had the injection I needed. Because of distance I couldn't make it so will be waiting until the surgeon gets back from holiday.
I wonder why they can operate efficiently but the NHS can't 🤔
Some of these stories on here make
Mine pale into insignificance. So sad for everyone, but relieved to see I'm not alone too. It's ok to say out loud that things aren't working and people are suffering.

I've been thinking the same about my gp, several of the injections/infusions I need normally get done by them. Was thinking lets see how quickly their doors will be open for the flu jab. There's 2 people in the practice who can do these for me, and it's been constant cancellations.

And those saying private is better. Not in my experience, I nearly died under their "care" and have long term health problem because of their blunder that had me transferred back to NHS because they don't have the equipment needed. World renowned for the excellency. One of their consultants came to see me on the nhs ward and said oh well look on the bright side, you will have a huge payout. Like that makes up for having to life with a live limiting condition.

Nothing life threatening here - but paying Denplan ( as last dentist stopped being nhs!) and no apt or treatments. No routine bloods or checks that I normally need ( diabetes) and told to buy my own blood pressure monitor! My consultant cancelled my apt for another condition which is why I was on the ECV list. And no contact from them or any other appointment made. A relative’s psychiatrist is not doing phone apt or face to face ( apparently they are just doing urgent section type visits due to staff being off shielding! No idea why they cannot use the phone though).

My children - one paediatric appointment via video, but the tests and folllow up needed cannot happen. Paed eye hospital not seeing patients.

I am not sure what all these NHS staff are doing. I totally know Covid wards and staff are busy, emergency admissions etc. But what are the staff doing that are not seeing patients? As shielding has ended, and all staff who cannot do their job should be at work - hence staff who were ECV now have to teach in schools. So why cannot psychiatrists, psychologists, audiologists, dietitians, paediatricians see people?

As for seeing a Gp - cannot even get a phoncall booked for a time that suits, I had to wait all dat for a triage Dr to phone me. Apparently phone appointments are not allowed, just a triage Dr at their convenience. No continuity with a Dr one might know and trust - only one triage Dr working a day, and same triage Dr sees people so no idea what other 6 are doing. No idea how can get an appointment when teaching - as apt’s are needs but can still work ( eg found a breast lump). Am so frustrated that a phone apt cannot be booked for a set time. Can only see a Gp if they think it is needed. So the people who need seeing are being missed - a relative with a DVT for instance.

Money or not, the doors will not be flung wide open for flu jabs. We are having discussions about how we're going to do it this year. Previously we would see up to 400 people a session for their vaccines and having multiple clinicians doing the vaccines every 3 minutes.

If everyone feels comfortable gathering together in a packed waiting room, then perhaps we can do it like before. Somehow I think patients will be expecting social distancing and the other measures like fresh PPE per patient though.

I would like to say that I'm mainly trying to point out that a lot of surgeries are working very hard and have not been shut. I don't know of any local to me (NW) who have been shut and diverted to 111. The only time any clinicians have been working from home is if they have Covid symptoms and/ or are waiting for a Covid negative result.

I'm sorry for all those who seem to be having a shit service. But I can assure you that many surgeries are doing their best.