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?

@bloodywhitecat

DP has. He has a tumour and is looking at a likely cancer diagnosis but we are still feeling shut out and ignored by the NHS.

That is awful. Is there nothing that can be done to get him seen?

@Polnm My GP surgery and the oncologists here have still be examining lumps (and other things that need face-to-face examinations).

I think it's your area, or mine and just wonderful, but lots of people are still receiving face-to-face care (so the person who said it's the fault of the Government is incorrect).

I've had several face-to-face consultations throughout lockdown, including MRI scans.

I would say I am disappointed with gp services. I am scanning more patients unnecessarily because they haven’t had face to face appointments with gps and aren’t being assessed properly. Not sure why it’s too high risk for them to see patients but not too high risk to send them into hospitals and get me to scan them ( Very up close and personal types of scans) But again I blame the individual gps services not the government.

@Valleydad99

Yep. Big lump on one of my testicles out of nowhere with a lot of pain. Went to Doctor's to be told "it's probably cancer and you need a scan to check it but urology's closed due to covid, so you'll have to wait". That was in April, I'm now having all the classic symptoms of testicular cancer and urology is still shut, so my choices as I see them are - Die, get better, or remove my own testicles just in case and die of an infection.

Not great and will be a great story for my wife to tell my kids if I do die that no-one gives a crap about you unless you're not wearing a mask.

I am in tears again

I am so sorry. This shouldn’t be happening

There must be something that can be done to get this issue of no treatment more widely known.

I'm concerned that my DD's persistent cough (not new) is asthma but I can't get it investigated, meaning I will just have to hope it isn't and she doesn't end up with Covid on top.

@SockYarn

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

I have no idea. Worked for the NHS for 10 years when I was younger and still don't understand why everyone says how wonderful it is. Just like any major organisation it has its faults.

I do know of people who are having face to face investigation and treatment of cancers though, do why the disparity?

Valley dad that is truly awful. Is there any way you can go privately? This does not seem right to me at all and something has gone wrong here.

We are going to a funeral of a family member who died of cancer because they left his treatment too late. Told him to come in for chemo, machine wasn't working apparently went back a couple of weeks later and they told him he had less than 3 weeks to live. He found out he had cancer months and months ago but because of covid his treatment was delayed.

These examples are awful, I am a frontline NHS nurse and have seen first hand the devastation this has caused. My ward had a few weeks where we were at maybe 50% capacity now it is more than we can cope with. My patients are really sick, they are the ones putting off coming to A&E or that have not be able to access GP care or who have had their vital cancer or elective (gallbladder etc) cancelled.

I am so sorry to hear these awful stories, the cancer delays it's unacceptable, I don't know what we need to do, we are still only doing minimal elective work. I can't keep up with my work load the patient's are so unwell, I keep getting told we will ramp up the cancer surgery etc but I don't see it happening.

I do not know how the NHS will ever catch up, we have a huge workload from lockdown. If we have another wave it will only get worse.

What I am struggling with is the anger from relatives about the reduced provision, the visiting restrictions, I can't change it and am so angry about it, this is not the care I want to provide. Is am so sorry to you all, myself and my NHS colleagues really so care and it is quite an upsetting place to work because if what we are seeing on top of the risk of covid.

So so upsetting to read these stories, tragic for the individuals and worrying as we head into winter.

Are private hospitals up and running yet? There have always been unacceptably long waiting lists IMO for some things- my husband had a testicular lump, everything was crawling along, we went private and saw someone within a couple of days and surgery within a couple of weeks, not in Covid times, but I wonder whether going from every angle would help?

If private hospitals aren't up and running either (as that's their source of income) that suggests that the risks to staff are still too high in terms of social distancing etc for them to feel it is worth it. Covid is low now, including in hospitals, but it does spread super-quickly in enclosed environments, so I can understand why there is some caution, especially after the care home debacle.

I don't know anyone who has been hospitalised with covid, infact I don't personally know anyone who has had covid in this are (obviously there will be some) and today we are going to the funeral of a man who could have survived with treatment.
I know people who work in the hospital here and according to them it has been pretty empty throughout this whole thing.

In icu we are are nursing amber patients (those awaiting swab/sputum results) wearing basic surgical masks and gloves, apron. Even if 3 swabs prove negative we still wear the same gear. So why on earth a gp or practice nurse can't see patients similarly gowned up I don't know as long as those patients have no covid symptoms.

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.

Professor Ferguson’s worst case scenario prediction - if life continued as normal with no social distancing whatsoever - was 500,000 dead. Not millions.

I’m not saying 500,000 dead from Covid would have been ok, not in the slightest. But throwing exaggerations around doesn’t help your argument.

[quote Jargo]@Polnm My GP surgery and the oncologists here have still be examining lumps (and other things that need face-to-face examinations).

I think it's your area, or mine and just wonderful, but lots of people are still receiving face-to-face care (so the person who said it's the fault of the Government is incorrect).

I've had several face-to-face consultations throughout lockdown, including MRI scans.[/quote]
I think the stories on this thread show that it is widespread

@Carycy

Valley dad that is truly awful. Is there any way you can go privately? This does not seem right to me at all and something has gone wrong here.

I looked into private and it was £500 for the initial scans followed by a whole lot of other things potentially needed. I do not have the funds to be able to pay that as have been furloughed since the start of furlough.

Perhaps I'll revisit it in December once I'm off furlough and earning again but at the moment I just can't unfortunately.

This thread helps to explain why for every 3 deaths from COVID there have been an additional 2 excess deaths. It’s truly tragic. I don’t know what the answer is, but there must be a way to get the NHS fully functioning again, now there are vanishingly few COVID patients in hospitals.

A referral to gastro for my DD was marked as routine rather than urgent, the receptionist at the GP surgery said they are doing that with all referrals but asking for the letters to be triaged so the hospital can prioritise the patients. Sounds like a good system except the drs are so busy they don’t have time to look at all the letters in a timely manner so any marked as routine will have a long wait.

Unhappy with that situation I took DD to A&E where she was admitted for 5 days, started on treatment, had various tests and was given a formal diagnosis. The treatment DD received was excellent, it was just difficult (even more so than usual) to get her the help she needed.

I’m pregnant and I won’t see a midwife face to face until week 24. I appreciate that isn’t as bad as most of the stories here. But I do think more mothers and babies will die from lack of midwifery care.

My FiL was diagnosed with bowel cancer (luckily early stage) last week. He has his preop appointment next week and surgery is scheduled for the middle of Sept. A friend's mother had a 4 week "break" from palliative chemo in April but it was restarted at beginning of May. I dont know why some Trusts can manage stuff and others cant now, when rates are low.

Valleydad99

Have you emailed your MP? Whilst I find them generally useless they can sometimes get action taken with healthcare delays

You can just accept it.
Have you been to a&e? If you choose a hospital with a testicular cancer programme and go midweek you might be lucky and they will call a specialist down

www.ft.com/content/3aab4ef6-6f2b-4726-87aa-40071ad80544

“Private hospitals to be paid £10bn to ease NHS waiting lists

Patient backlog expected to reach 10m by Christmas after services interrupted by Covid.”

'Went to Doctor's to be told "it's probably cancer and you need a scan to check it but urology's closed due to covid, so you'll have to wait". That was in April, I'm now having all the classic symptoms of testicular cancer and urology is still shut, so my choices as I see them are - Die, get better, or remove my own testicles just in case and die of an infection.'

Nowhere is closed. Cases are being prioritised so routine stuff is at the bottom of the list. Your case clearly isn't routine. You need to see another Gp and request an urgent 2 week referral.

I've known people still being scanned, bloods still being taken. Private hospitals are now running masses of extra lists to pick up NHS waits. I find it quite unbelievable that a GP would tell you it's probably cancer but do nothing else about it. Please get seen again.

These examples are heart breaking but I must admit that experiences are affected by postcode.

My dad was diagnosed with lung cancer during lockdown - the 2 week wait was met - and is now having chemo as well as face-to-face consultations. The only challenge has been that he has had to attend on his own - and no-one was with him when he got his diagnosis.

Really sorry to read what everyone is going through.
I know three people my age (around 50 give or take a couple of years) who have died in the last 7 weeks. One I think would have died anyway (underlying condition that could have struck at any point), the other two had cancer that only revealed itself since March/April. It could be that both would have had a similarly rapid decline under normal circumstances, but it feels strange to me that so many people in my circle should suddenly and simultaneously have unmanageable issues.
Separately I have known a couple of people who’ve been quickly and well treated, one for a heart attack and one for cancer (more bloody cancer).
I’m another one who can’t get their head around the DIY dentistry (which is what I’m doing at the moment in spite of paying for denplan)