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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

629 replies

Polnm · 19/08/2020 00:14

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?

OP posts:
Northernsoullover · 19/08/2020 08:01

These delays are shocking. Its not my experience though. I had some serious abdominal pains and was referred for CT scan which I didn't have to wait for. However if I had needed treatment then obviously I don't know if that would have been delayed or not.
I know of several people who have had continued treatment throughout. I know that wasn't the case UK wide before seeing this thread though. If one health board can do it why can't the others?

m0therofdragons · 19/08/2020 08:04

The August appointment moved to October isn’t acceptable or within guidance at all.

Polnm · 19/08/2020 08:06

@funnyonion1

OP I'm so sorry about your husband. I can't believe this has been allowed to happen.

My DH was due to have surgery but postponed due to lockdown. We are still waiting. His mental and physical health deteriorating quite rapidly because of the postponement.

It is hard to see how they will catch up on the backlog. Mental health is so key to any recovery. Not knowing when something will happen is much worse for me than having a date even if that date is 6 months away
OP posts:
user1497207191 · 19/08/2020 08:06

My OH was mid cancer treatment in March. He got a curt phone call on the morning of one of his treatment sessions, saying it was cancelled and that they'd get back in touch with a new appointment. Weeks passed and we heard nothing. After a month, he called the oncology dept and the call was diverted to a call answering service which promised a call back. A week later, no call back, so he phoned again, and again, week after week. We even went to the dept in person, but it was in darkness and shuttered.

He also had other issues (cancer drug treatment side effects, complications, etc) which his own GP's wouldn't deal with - they just kept referring him back to oncology, even when he said they were closed and non contactable. The GPs wouldn't see him, wouldn't take the "essential" monthly blood tests he needed to monitor his cancer (even though they did them normally at the surgery). They wouldn't even issue repeat prescriptions as they said that was down to oncology too!

Finally, in May (!) he managed to speak to the oncology nurse who had been assigned to him. All she could do with provisionally book a blood test in JULY with a "maybe" treatment could start in August! My OH hit the roof and insisted on speaking to his oncologist. End of May, finally got a call back from the oncologist, who claimed she couldn't understand what the problem was, apparently she'd not cancelled his treatment and just "assumed" it was going ahead as normal (either lying or stupid as presumably she should be monitoring and checking blood tests etc), and we finally got a quicker blood test, a follow up phone call, and finally re-started treatment in July!

That was only because OH was getting more and more adament and forceful with the GP and oncology dept to get things moving again. If he'd sat back and waited, I wonder if they'd have ever got back to him.

It was a complete shambles. You can't blame the Govt for local incompetence and inefficiency.

InDeoEstMeaFiducia · 19/08/2020 08:07

@LunaMuffinTop

The NHS bashing didn’t take long to rear it’s ugly head again did it yes things could be better but at the end of the day we are still trying to deal with the pandemic and nothing is back to normal yet. It’s not the hospitals fault that people can’t be seen at the minute you want to try blaming the government not the hospitals that are trying their best. Bet everyone complaining on here about missed hospital appointments and blaming the NHS are the same people who where stood on their door step thanking them not that long ago. What happened to thank you NHS or has that gone out the window now that they aren’t quite so important anymore. Is it not better that your DH is being kept safe from coronavirus by having to wait a bit longer for a face to face appointment or would you rather have him laying in a hospital bed alone dying from coronavirus. No one is getting to see a doctor at the minute it’s shit but I think the idea behind it might be to try and stop the spread of the virus again you know so that millions people don’t end up dead.
So instead he dies from cancer? Healthcare cannot be done by a fucking Zoom. Bullshit millions would have ended up dead from it, too. Not getting to see a doctor right now is not just 'shit', it's fucking lethal for a lot of people.
SockYarn · 19/08/2020 08:08

It's not just cancer care. It's everything. A relative of mine is an eye surgeon who spends her days replacing lenses for people who have cataracts. She hasn't operated since March and is only just now starting to see patients again in her clinic. OK so cataracts aren't life threatening but it's a massive quality of life issue for so many people. Same as all the surgery for hip or knee replacements.

Our GP is still under total lockdown - literally. The surgery is locked up. You have to phone for an appointment, be triaged by a doctor over the phone, and then they might call you in. They are giving off very clear "do not bother us" messages.

We are going to see a huge rise in all the other sorts of illnesses in the next few years as the message "protect the NHS" has been received as "the NHS isn't dealing with anything other than COvid".

Carycy · 19/08/2020 08:09

Also certain things being delayed are for a reason. My friend had her cancer op on her throat cancelled and postponed not because they couldn’t do it but because data started coming through that patients having these sort of ops were ending up on ventilators if they causing Covid after. She is grateful it has been postponed. It isn’t as black and white as people think it is.

Ponoka7 · 19/08/2020 08:10

@LunaMuffinTop, the panel of senior medical people, comprising of Oncologists, Surgeons etc, who were warning the government from the start have been researching this. For every three people who died from Covid, two have died because of cancelled treatments. Other people have had their quality and length of life impacted. Some children will never recover because therapies stopped. The paediatrics specialists prepared a petition for the government, if things, including schools, didn't start up again.

We knew quite quickly that the virus wasn't what we thought at the beginning. But the government had to cover up their incompetence and how much they'd run this country into the ground. Chris Whitty got that in wherever he could. He banged on about the lack of investment.

It was a Government problem, not the NHS. The will from the government wasn't to make it work any better and I'm still of the opinion that they wanted a bit of a cull.

Children have died because of lock down. It isn't acceptable.

InDeoEstMeaFiducia · 19/08/2020 08:11

In some areas it's become the CHS, Covid Health Service. We've definitely moved from trying to avoid overwhelming the system to Covid annihilation. 1 case of Covid in a school, everyone and their brother stays home for 2 weeks. Funny how we don't do this for any other illness, but hey, it's not Covid.

alphabetsoup1980 · 19/08/2020 08:11

The government dictate what the NHS are are able/not able to do due to a criminal level of underfunding. I didn't clap for the NHS at all- not because I don't appreciate the nhs but of the complete hypocrisy of the government and those who stand on their doorsteps banging saucepans when they voted the Tories in!! My husband is a nurse and found the whole 'clapping' absolutely insulting.

I'm so sorry about your father! Xx

Ickabog · 19/08/2020 08:12

Our GP is still under total lockdown - literally. The surgery is locked up. You have to phone for an appointment, be triaged by a doctor over the phone, and then they might call you in. They are giving off very clear "do not bother us" messages.

Same here.

Supertree · 19/08/2020 08:12

Nothing as serious as any of these stories... absolutely heartbreaking to read. It makes me so angry to read that people have unnecessarily died.

My son’s medication ran out two weeks ago. It happened a couple of months back too. It isn’t life threatening, but it is time limited, so every time he misses medication it has a lasting impact for the rest of his life. Really annoying.

However, I was seen within ten days for a lump on the two week wait pathway. Gp saw me same day and had a hospital appointment ten days later. This was during the much stricter lockdown. But it is ridiculous and unfair that a cancer symptom can be investigated so quickly, yet people who are definitely known to have cancer are just left waiting.

Yesyoudoknowme · 19/08/2020 08:14

My mother had breast cancer 15 months ago and was treated. Her check mammogram and blood test were due the week of lockdown. Didn't happen. Cancer returned. Now terminal. There will end up being more people dying due to this kind of thing than from Covid.

Ickabog · 19/08/2020 08:14

1 case of Covid in a school, everyone and their brother stays home for 2 weeks.

That's not true.

PhilCornwall1 · 19/08/2020 08:14

No one is getting to see a doctor at the minute it’s shit but I think the idea behind it might be to try and stop the spread of the virus again you know so that millions people don’t end up dead.

Millions we're going to die of this bloody thing. Whilst I might be extremely clinically vulnerable, there is absolutely no sodding risk if this virus killing me down here. Hardly any bugger had died of it and there has been bugger all cases.

With the pain I'm in at the moment and the endless infections I have to deal with, the only thing at risk of killing me is, well, me, as I have absolutely no life whatsoever.

Yes the government have failed and yes, the NHS are failing us.

Spaghettipie1 · 19/08/2020 08:15

It's terrible that more hasn't been done to provide urgent care and cancer care. But hospitals definitely aren't empty. Some wards were shut but turned to covid wards or staff redeployed. Many staff were off sick with covid or shielding. And think of the complaints if people had been going in and catching covid as a result of mixing with others in waiting areas etc. Steps were taken with safety of the entire community in mind. However, many people have been let down who needed urgent care, but let down by the government, and it's depletion of nhs resources, staff and facilities over the past decade or more.

InDeoEstMeaFiducia · 19/08/2020 08:15

@Carycy

Also certain things being delayed are for a reason. My friend had her cancer op on her throat cancelled and postponed not because they couldn’t do it but because data started coming through that patients having these sort of ops were ending up on ventilators if they causing Covid after. She is grateful it has been postponed. It isn’t as black and white as people think it is.
She's grateful she wasn't even given the choice just told no even though delaying the op could cost her life? 'No, you can't have this because of Covid'? That's astonishing.
InDeoEstMeaFiducia · 19/08/2020 08:16

There's being let down and there is dying because you didn't have Covid Hmm.

PhilCornwall1 · 19/08/2020 08:17

Millions we're going to die of this bloody thing.

Stupid phone. That should say millions weren't going to die if this virus

Polnm · 19/08/2020 08:18

user1497207191

That is shocking. What about the people who don’t shout and just trust the system and sit and wait.

We experienced a bit of what you describe during his treatment last year. 3 hospitals and a GP all with computer systems that didn’t link. Hospital saying go to the GP for x but the GP had no appointments available for a month and the hospital saying well your GP must give you an appointment and the GP saying the hospital needed to do it. It all felt a bit points scoring at times.

OP posts:
Diceroll · 19/08/2020 08:22

The NHS bashing didn’t take long to rear it’s ugly head again did it yes things could be better but at the end of the day we are still trying to deal with the pandemic and nothing is back to normal yet

I hate this, it isn't NHS 'bashing' to have valid concerns and complaints about treatment (or lack of). It's not our mate, its a healthcare system. To make any decent changes to it (which are desperately needed) we need to remove the emotional connection and the oh we are so grateful for the NHS. Yes, free at point of access care is something to be proud of, but it is not beyond reproach. That's why it's failing.

Diceroll · 19/08/2020 08:23

Also FFS 6 x more people are dying of flu and pnemonia now, is no one going to have appointments reinstated until it's completely dissapeared? Which could be never btw.

Polnm · 19/08/2020 08:24

@Yesyoudoknowme

My mother had breast cancer 15 months ago and was treated. Her check mammogram and blood test were due the week of lockdown. Didn't happen. Cancer returned. Now terminal. There will end up being more people dying due to this kind of thing than from Covid.
Your poor mother, that shouldn’t have happened

In a few hours overnight this thread has filled with such tragic stories. How many more people must there be?

OP posts:
InDeoEstMeaFiducia · 19/08/2020 08:25

@Diceroll

Also FFS 6 x more people are dying of flu and pnemonia now, is no one going to have appointments reinstated until it's completely dissapeared? Which could be never btw.
No, because 'second wave' and 'heartbreaking Winter' and 'clusters of Covid'. Can't have Covid now. Ever.
SockYarn · 19/08/2020 08:25

Also why is the NHS considered as this sacred cow which no-one must criticise, ever?

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