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?

Our hospital Is by no means empty and almost all services are up and running. I'm
Sorry to the people who have been failed and suffered subsequently. In our department we have all been seeing our cancer referrals under the 2 week wait during the entire pandemic. Some
GPs are not writing sufficient referrals which can delay things too.

And benefits like PIP are focused on very narrow parameters. Illness and disability can affect a person in a multitude of ways - I don't consider being able to walk 200m with a walking aid or being able to hear up soup or pasta the bench mark for not disabled.

Tell me about it. According to the assessor i had because i like history that means i don't have any issues with short term memory or processing.
The idea that how a person is affected by their disability can be measured with a points system is just absurd. But then they knew that, that was the point obviously. 😡

It’s sucks
Mine isn’t really comparable but had a dental abscess , ended up taking 100000 painkillers and finding someone private
But it pissed me off , worked and payed tax throughout
But not even comparable to your situation OP

@Thisisworsethananticpated

It’s sucks Mine isn’t really comparable but had a dental abscess , ended up taking 100000 painkillers and finding someone private But it pissed me off , worked and payed tax throughout But not even comparable to your situation OP

My DH position is nothing like as bad as so many people on this thread.

I think those people who have just been diagnosed with cancer are getting initial treatments but those that have had it diagnosed a year before have had nothing.

Also, If anyone has a terminal diagnosis I would ask for hospice referral. They provide excellent care which can be as an outpatient as well as inpatient. Imo they are far better at managing symptoms

This is the route of our problem.
Dp was diagnosed as terminally ill.
However to extend his life he was told of an operation that he could have if his cancer was within a certain criteria. It might also cure him

He had all the tests and was told he would be a perfect candidate for the operation.
However as he was terminally ill then then the NHS wouldn’t pay.
Yet one of the criteria to getting this operation was that you had to have been diagnosed with a terminal prognosis.

We ended up paying just under £80,000 for the operation which has definitely extended his life.

My dp has been in agony since april. He has arthritic hip and needs steroid injections but there was no clinic so no injections. The pain got worse and he finally got to see someone in june only to find he also has kidney stones, but they sent him home "theres a waiting list". We rang to check last week to find hes not even on the blooming list. so now he has the dual agony of hip and kidneys and theres no clinics, no list, painkillers knock him out, some days he cant even walk, he crawls and i am powerless and feel so useless. There is no non-covid NHS here right now.

This government is to blame, lack of funding and some trusts were instructed not to open services when they said they had capacity. Honestly, I didn’t know why there isn’t an uproar about Hancock who has been totally inept.

I don’t understand it, why is Covid the only disease that seems to matter at the moment? It’s totally inexplicable and some of the examples on this thread of other illnesses being totally ignored are absolutely shocking.

It is appalling and I’m so sorry op.

I place the blame with the government. Failure on an epic scale.

@DarklyDreamingDexter

I don’t understand it, why is Covid the only disease that seems to matter at the moment? It’s totally inexplicable and some of the examples on this thread of other illnesses being totally ignored are absolutely shocking.

I think it's because of the mass hysteria that Johnson and his mates whipped up on purpose.

The problem is, it has backfired on them, it was too effective, as a very large proportion of the country bought into it and continue to do so. They are now desperate to get people back out there, but an awful lot are too terrified to do it.

He's reaping what sowed.

He's reaping what sowed.

That should say:

He's reaping what he sowed.

@Oliversmumsarmy

I think those people who have just been diagnosed with cancer are getting initial treatments but those that have had it diagnosed a year before have had nothing.

Also, If anyone has a terminal diagnosis I would ask for hospice referral. They provide excellent care which can be as an outpatient as well as inpatient. Imo they are far better at managing symptoms

This is the route of our problem.
Dp was diagnosed as terminally ill.
However to extend his life he was told of an operation that he could have if his cancer was within a certain criteria. It might also cure him

He had all the tests and was told he would be a perfect candidate for the operation.
However as he was terminally ill then then the NHS wouldn’t pay.
Yet one of the criteria to getting this operation was that you had to have been diagnosed with a terminal prognosis.

We ended up paying just under £80,000 for the operation which has definitely extended his life.

That is shocking but unsurprising. I am so sorry you are all having to go through this.

'This government is to blame, lack of funding and some trusts were instructed not to open services when they said they had capacity.'

Trusts were instructed to halt all non urgent routine cases. Hospitals, like care homes, were high risk areas for infection. If they'd carried on fixing hernias and hips which led to more deaths there would of course have been outrage.

Private hospitals have NHS contracts, they are running huge amounts of NHS lists (as are NHS trusts) including orthopaedic and gynae surgery. I'm not sure why the MSM aren't reporting on this, I suppose it doesn't quite fit their hysterical doom mongering agenda.

Some trusts who weren’t overwhelmed, were ready to resume normal services earlier, were firmly told no ...

'think it's because of the mass hysteria that Johnson and his mates whipped up on purpose'

Yet in other threads they didn't do enough and played it down.

The only whipping up I saw was by arseholes like Piers Morgan screaming 'we're all going to die!!!!!!' every morning.

Whether people support Johnson or not the fact is they were acting on the advice from Chris Whitty, Patrick Vallance and the rest of SAGE. As every Government would have.

'Some trusts who weren’t overwhelmed, were ready to resume normal services earlier, were firmly told no ...'

Yes because community transmission was still high!

I agree with you @GetOffYourHighHorse nhs being unfairly criticised, nothing new there !

The only whipping up I saw was by arseholes like Piers Morgan screaming 'we're all going to die!!!!!!' every morning.

If there is one thing I have managed to do during all of this, it has been to avoid seeing this individual on TV and hearing anything he has to say.

I’m fortunate that I can pay for a private midwife for extra support, expectant mothers have largely been abandoned until their first face to face appointment at 28 weeks.

I have spent the last five months literally begging people to come to their appointments
Many have felt too frightened to attend and often these were the ones who most desperately needed to come
I think one of the biggest failings was the messaging
The "protect the nhs"
A lot of older people felt that they shouldn't use nhs resources at such a time and put themselves at risk of irreversible damage that will impact their lives and independence for ever
Also the fear that was put into people meant people who were more vulnerable felt too frightened to attend even though their condition needed constant monitoring and treatment
We did pause routine stuff that could wait
But now the ones that were waiting for the routine stuff are on the phone constantly and some of the abuse I have had beggars belief. I bet they clapped every Thursday
We are still picking up the pieces with the vulnerable ones and will be for years

Our Trust was not overwhelmed by COVID but very, very close and - more to the point - it was rife amongst the medical staff. The idea that they should have just carried on as normal is laughable (if you have a sick sense of humour). Cant think of a more certain way to have caught COVID here in March, April or May than to have come to a hospital.

That said, now in August, and it's not clear why everything is still so far from normal, esp in areas which were never badly hit in the first place.

One of the things that need answering is why some care homes which are privately run and charge a fortune (yet pay staff peanuts) were so crap at ensuring barrier nursing/isolation nursing were of a high standard. Patients discharged from hospital without a test should have automatically been barrier nursed. Care home owners don't seem to want to take any responsibility, it's all the government's fault.

Also, this is anecdotal I am not suggesting every surgeon is pulling a fast one, but there are stories of some Drs in high risk categories such as obese, pre existing medical conditions or whatever who will not take on extra NHS work yet are raking it in in private hospitals. That needs stopping imo. If they can't do a bit of overtime to assist in the crisis then they shouldn't be allowed to do private work. How it would be enforced is of course another matter.

@EscapingFromWorkStress

My dp has been in agony since april. He has arthritic hip and needs steroid injections but there was no clinic so no injections. The pain got worse and he finally got to see someone in june only to find he also has kidney stones, but they sent him home "theres a waiting list". We rang to check last week to find hes not even on the blooming list. so now he has the dual agony of hip and kidneys and theres no clinics, no list, painkillers knock him out, some days he cant even walk, he crawls and i am powerless and feel so useless. There is no non-covid NHS here right now.

That is absolutely appalling. It is an example of a total contempt for patients. It is a dereliction of duty and an institutional failure on an epic level. Where is the media? Where is the outrage? Absolutely shameful.

@Pomegranatepompom

I work in London - everything back to normal and we only postponed routine surgery for a few weeks.

I'm in London under a couple of hospitals. Only MH hospital is doing their job.

My dd who is another London hospital trust isn't allowed visitors. She's in her early twenties, had a heart attack and had to be resuscitated at work. She has been there since last week, and arrangements are being made for us to meet today but only because her MH is suffering as you can imagine. Reception is shit in there and only thing that works is the rip off patient phone.

Another massive London hospital trust has on their outgoing message before press whatever number for whatever department that things are cancelled, no visitors etc.

Those 3 trusts are north, east and south London. Nothing normal about it.

nhs being unfairly criticised

The NHS is responsible for nothing at all? Is that your position? Its legions of bureaucrats, its senior management? Nobody responsible for any decisions?

Although if things are back to normal in some areas how can this be down to the government?