To hate what covid has done to the rest of the health service

[Dishwashersaurous]

I need an operation. Haven't seen a consultant in over a year due to covid. Finally, following telephone appointment I've been listed for the surgery.

I'm in constant pain and barely able to get out of bed most days.

I phoned to find how long the waiting list is. Due to covid its over a year.

I then investigated taking out a loan to go privately. The private wing at the hospital have just told me that due to covid they are not doing any overnight stays for months.

So I will probably lose my job ic I have to wait until a year. And I will be in constant pain. And all due to covid

The government need to fund the NHS properly so that staff are empowered to be able to give good quality care. Many also need better pay. We need to pay more taxes in turn to pay for this.

@Pupster21 I'm sympathetic, I just don't agree with a blanket no seeing patients rule. My FIL had to have emergency open heart surgery for a valve issue (the hospital was fantastic). MIL had a concern about the stitches but their GP also only doing telephone so in the end they just checked in with a nurse from the ward when they were back at the hospital for the blood clinic. When I was in hospital the staff were complaining about the amount of work coming to them because the GPs were not seeing people. My friend is a A&E doctor & she said last weekend is was jam packed because of clot vaccine concerns. Lots of people just wanted to know they were ok & discuss symptoms but even a telephone appointment is hard to get.

We need to pay more taxes in turn to pay for this.

I agree but the country is unlikely to go for it.

@CirclesWithinCircles

It's bizarre how the nhs has virtually closed in the UK. I have friends and relatives in other European countries who have had non life saving surgery in the midst of the pandemic.

This! My dad had a cancer discovered and treated, my niece had an ADHD diagnosis (both in France)

I really feel that here in the UK and in the health sector in particular Covid has been used as an excuse to pause lots of things.

DH is French & I prefer their system tbh.

1/2 french I should say!

I agree with you. My Dad's cancer wasn't diagnosed as the GP refused to come to the house because of Covid. They are using it as an excuse for anything.

@Natty13
How does it explain GPs not seeing patients face to face? Or cancelled speech therapy (in community center, not hospital)?

@Hobbitfeet32

What *@Natty13* said. Completely agree with you. The expectation of the public that nhs staff are immune from all the other pandemic stresses has been apparent. We’ve had staff off sick, self isolating, not able to see family, redeployment, childcare and other caring responsibilities and anxieties around the pandemic. And yet we are expected to deliver the same level of service as previous. My staff are on their knees with exhaustion and when they read threads like this it makes them think why do we bother. We have van cancer we can’t fill-if people want to retrain to be health care professionals then please do.

Yes exactly this. It was hard enough dealing with the constant moaning about service delivery but now it's completely unbearable.

Why are these threads always about the NHS? Why not the government who leave us in the lurch from funding and resources time and time again? Blaming "big wigs" for making the best decisions they can with the resources they have is like a fucking slap in the face.

@Natty13

No one is talking about those specialties that have obviously been hugely impacted by Covid.

But it is plainly obvious that many specialties have radically reduced their throughput (perhaps for perfectly justifiable reasons), despite them NOT having an increased workload due to Covid.

There is plenty of evidence of this, if you care to look. Many cancer specialists, for example, are raising concerns about the big drop off in cancer detections - these haven't gone away, they are simply not being picked up.

Many, many parts of the NHS have seen volumes drop significantly due to Covid. Many GPs are reporting that it has been much more difficult than normal to get hospitals to look at patients where the decision to see a specialist might be borderline, for example.

The NHS is already matter a postcode lottery & Covid has worsened this.

However I had non-Covid health issues in 2020 that had the potential to be life-threatening.
After a telephone appointment with a GP, I had 4 hospital-based investigations within 10 days, another a week later & everything proceeded very swiftly.
Later last year I had further health problems loosely linked to everything else & again the referral was quick.

I know I was extremely lucky - everything seemed to happen at warp speed - I have no idea how long it would have all taken during 'normal' times.

All the hospital departments I dealt with said they'd been twiddling their thumbs since March 2020 however I don't know if this was to do with no referrals or lack of beds.

I’ve not experienced this at all. Maybe it’s again a postcode lottery type situation?

My colleague started her cancer treatment this time last year, my daughters septic arthritis was treated in August, DH had a hernia repair in October and MIL had a minor op last week.

Ww will never no if more prompt diagnosis and treatment would've saved DP's life. He is now terminal and that makes me angry and bitter.

I've had negative and positive experience of the NHS since Covid.

Negative

• dd's eye surgery that she had been waiting for for a year was cancelled when the pandemic started and we were told it would be at least a year to get it rescheduled. We paid and had it done privately. The wait list is probably now three years.

• dds dental treatment was cancelled the day before the first lockdown and still can't be rescheduled. We've also had to pay privately for orthodontics due to there now being a two to three year wait list for NHS treatment.

• Dd is under GOSH for a chronic illness and they asked me on Tuesday to arrange a urine test through my GP due to a suspected infection.Couldn't get through all day Tue and finally spoke to receptionist yesterday. Was promised a call back by midday yesterday and still haven't heard back. GOSH also wrote/emailed GP last week asking them to prescribe something for DD and the surgery still haven't acted on it. Chased up again today after queuing on telephone for almost an hour and I'm still waiting on both issues. They won't call me back to update and I have to keep phoning and waiting an hour to get through each time just to see if prescription is ready.

Positive - dd was taken seriously ill just before Xmas and the GP and hospital were absolutely amazing in an emergency. GOSH have also been brilliant and all scheduled appointments at local hospital and and at GOSH have gone so smoothly because they are seeing so few patients we feel like VIPs when we go.

@Natty13

Some of these comments are making my blood boil. You have NO IDEA what NHS staff have gone through in the last year despite news reports, articles, social media posts....

I'd love it if any of you keyboard warriors could have come in a year ago or before the second wave and explained how, with havong to cram insanely sick ITU patients in every space with an oxygen and power supply. That includes all operating theatres, recovery areas, A&E, 2 floors of the elseparate children's hospital, rehab units....we had to pull staff from everywhere: pre op clinics, specialist cancer nurses, A&E, wards where elective patients go post op, wards which were already slammed with less acute covid patients. And we still struggled to deliver even the most basic fucking care.

In the last year I have had to make decisions I never in a million years would have though possible. I'm not alone in that but I feel really fucking alone. Despite stopping ALL other treatments and operations I was still REGULARLY having to make decisions between 2 or 3 people crashing at once and only being able to attend to one. Imagine that for one second. How would you decide? I've had no magical training, there are no policies to show me how to decide who lives and who dies and I lie awake at night going over and over the decisions I made. Imagine having to call someone's family and explain they died because you were with someone else.

We are human beings and the lack of compassion for what we've gone through is absolutely disgusting. No wonder 40% of nurses have responded to a union survey stating intention to leave the profession.

But yeah, keep telling yourselves that the "big wigs" could have found a way to keep other services going you absolute ignorant ***.

No need for the emotional blackmail. People are allowed to be angry about this stuff.

[quote LovelyLovelyWarmCoffee]@Natty13
How does it explain GPs not seeing patients face to face? Or cancelled speech therapy (in community center, not hospital)?[/quote]
I cant say for sure since I am very much hospital based however with the amount of times I've had to call security on people trying to barge into covid areas or the stories from my mum (who works with an kids in the community) about families who have tested positive trying to turn up at schools and clubs...I'd certainly guess it's the selfish covid deniers running it for everyone. After being exposed for the second time my mum refused to work in person til numbers dropped and she and my dad had their vaccines. I don't want to get covid from my work and I don't want my parents to either so if that means services have to shut because people can't fucking behave and follow the rules then I support that. The countries like Australia where they had the police/military rounding up rule breakers and forcibly quarantining them seem to have got back to normal a lot quicker but can you imagine if they tried that here?

He is now terminal and that makes me angry and bitter.

Of course it does & its ok to feel that

It might be mindful to bear in mind a woman has posted about her stillborn baby natty and you have accused posters of ‘moaning.’

In a modern, civilised society and one of the tenth richest countries in the world, why is it actually considered acceptable to leave someone in debilitating pain for over a year. When there is a really simple solution that will remove the pain
I fractured two vertebrae in my back in 2009.

Between 2015 and 2018 the pain was getting gradually worse and I was starting teacher training so I had a stupid amount of "Pain Clinic" appointments.

There were a fucking joke but eventually got prescribed a copable amount of pain relief.

Had to move GP in August 2019 and after hassle being prescribed my ADHD meds (being told that the dose I told them was wrong and treated like a drug-seeking liar) the CMHT demanded that they were reinstated.

February 2020 prescription for pain meds is less than usual.

March 2020 less still goes to enquire and surgery closed.

By June 2020 all pain meds stopped so I am basically fucking housebound.

Complained on eConsult, SystmOnline, in writing everything.

Just told "try pacing yourself" FFS

Surgery still closed now.

All my comments have been removed from SystmOnline (that I made) asking for my meds to be provided and my complaints to be acknowledged.

Total denial of all knowledge.

Only thing is I PDF printed everything

I am beyond angry that I have gone from active person to hermit. Aside from you lovely ladies I see no-one except pharmacy staff once a month.

Sorry about my long ranty post.

I didn't mean to go on but it is such a relief to write it down.

@VegCheeseandCrackers
I am so sorry what has happened to you.

Are the ‘back story’ threads still running on here star?

StarCat2020 💐💐💐 sending much sympathy.

I agree with others saying in general terms the NHS is often very poor in helping people with pain.

My GP has described eye watering quantities and combinations of painkillers over the last 10 months. Hasn't seen me face to face. And was then surprised when I got private advice from a spinal surgeon that surgery was necessary. So disappointed.