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

I think the problem is the lack of understanding. I’ve just seen the comment about SLT delays, in my area the lists were already long. Add into that the fact that they’ve had to change the way they work to video as SLT whilst wearing masks isn’t very effective unless for swallowing assessments etc. So there would have been a delay whilst everyone got set up with the right equipment, this took our hospital months because of the channels it needs to go through to get funding. Then add staff redeployment to Covid wards (yes even SLT, literally every single job role in my trust has had someone redeployed). Then add staff sickness, shielding, isolating etc. It’s shit that wait lists are what they are we know that, but it’s not from lack of effort or twiddling or thumbs. And whilst it is frustrating and upsetting when you’re on one side of the delays, it really is demoralising when you’ve worked your arse off for a year and haven’t even begun to process what you’ve experienced to have this pressure and negativity.

@Dishwashersaurous

Thanks I’m going to try and phone some other places. Just too ill and tired to face the phone call.

I’m also curious as to why seemingly the NICE guidelines about cost of extra years of life wasn’t applied regarding Covid. But that’s a whole separate debate

Would you consider having it done overseas? Hospitals in New York are doing surgeries again, even those that require a post op stay.

Sorry to read of your experience. Whilst in no way lessening your pain and your wait, had the government followed scientific recommendations promptly in March and then in September, the waiting list would be a bit smaller. Probably would not have meant treatment by now for you, but for some others it might have done.

But no one on the thread did natty so you’ve done to posters here what you don’t like at work.

The government has promised funding to reduce the waiting lists by using longer clinics times and operating theatre time but no information about where the staff are going to come from to provide it.

Every week it seems I get a text from my go surgery ‘ we’re not doing flu jabs’ ,‘we’re not seeing patients’ , ‘we’re not answering the phone between 9 and 10 or 2 til 4’, ‘don’t call us we’ll call you’. It’s outrageous. Some other health workers are doing the jobs that doctors are supposed to be doing so what the ACTUAL fuck are they ACTUALLY doing??

Clark Griffin

" Scotland, they've decided to stop all treatment for any cancer patients except the very early stages, because they can't keep up. "

First I've heard, and I know people in Scotland still  receiving longterm cancer treatments.

Can you provide a cite?

I totally agree OP. Could you afford a service like Benenden? I think you need to a member for 6 mths for general surgery though, but may be a faster route, my family have been members for 25+ years we have unfortunately had to call on the service on a few occasions.

Just - email and ask. DH’s surgery has been open throughout as have many many others.

@Parker231

The government has promised funding to reduce the waiting lists by using longer clinics times and operating theatre time but no information about where the staff are going to come from to provide it.

It's the same staff working far longer hours and extra shifts.

It's dreadful for the hundreds of thousands of people who are waiting for "non urgent" surgery. Agree with the poster upthread who said perhaps quality of life should be prioritised sometimes.

Not quite sure all the burnt out staff with PTSD will be up for the extra hours.

Get the ones in the empty wards doing tik tok dances to work them then

What an awful thread. I know 2 nurses who work in the NHS. Both are in their knees. One is a real mess through dealing with so many deaths.

It’s terrible that there is no treatment, but it’s terrible what’s happening. It’s just firefighting at the moment. It’s no ones fault, l wish people wouldn’t blame the heealth workers

Agreed, no need to blame the workers. Many of us work considerably over the hours we are paid for and do our best to provide care. This is a systems issue, lots of discussion on the nightingales too. They were a government decision, clinicians have been warning over underfunding and increased need and noone has listened. It feels as though no one in power listens and everyone else blames us.

Talk of us working more hours too - we already do, and it isn't fair to expect more.

@quarentini are you one of the people who tried to get into a hospital in london. Filming empty wards and corridors to somehow prove hospitals weren't full to the rafters ? You seem obsessed with a minority of tik tok starring nurses.
Our ICU has 8 beds and a 10 bedded HDU
At one point we had 29 ventilated patients, we were using theatre vents which aren't designed to ventilate for weeks on end, we were rationing oxygen, sedation and inotropes, we ran out of dialysis machines. We had midwives, community nurses and theatre staff supporting us, even taking intubated patients under supervision. The vast majority of ventilated patients sadly died. Try setting up video calls with relatives to say goodbye to their loved ones. It's horrendous. To imply that we are all slackers is pretty disgusting

YADNBU

I resent that we didn't do the same as Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore.

Health services are largely normal in these countries.

The UK government prioritised international travel above everything else. Health (mental and physical), lives, livelihoods.

I'm sorry for everyone waiting for NHS care. It's an awful situation with no easy answers until we get the majority fully vaccinated. 40% of covid cases were caught in hospital. It's terrible.

Sorry to hear about your situation op. Yanbu. Thanks to Covid it's now harder to get an appt to give blood. I've been trying and trying and can finally go at the end of this month. My friend sadly lost a baby and had to go through some really heart-breaking times in hospital alone instead of with her partner (the baby lived for a short time - less than a week). I think it's appalling and pointless.

Get the ones in the empty wards doing tik tok dances to work them then

Why don’t you stop spending so much time watching tik tok videos and go and volunteer to help them then.

I was talking to someone in social care yesterday mainly about post covid health, and also about service availability during the covid period. It is possible to acknowledge that the decisions that were made had to be made, whilst also having concerns about the effect on wider service delivery. Things like no falls clinics, 'unsafe' hospital discharges - so medically ok, but no occupational therapy assessments, people not being picked up by rehab teams, children's community health services being squeezed to release staff. Going forward we have people who haven't left their house for 12 months, possibly previously in declining health, this is going to have had a massive effect on their mobility and function.

So yes covid and that time period was dreadful, but it terms of service demands, both in health and social care, it is only going to get worse.

I don’t know why we idolise the NHS. It’s such a mixed bag of quality and in many areas offers nothing better than a very basic service.

This is not to say that there aren’t some very dedicated, hard working staff within the NHS. Of course there are. But that isn’t universal either.

I’m glad we have a national health service but really we need a lot more choice, higher quality services and a NHS culture overhaul.

@Tealightsandd

YADNBU

I resent that we didn't do the same as Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore.

Health services are largely normal in these countries.

The UK government prioritised international travel above everything else. Health (mental and physical), lives, livelihoods.

I'm sorry for everyone waiting for NHS care. It's an awful situation with no easy answers until we get the majority fully vaccinated. 40% of covid cases were caught in hospital. It's terrible.

Nail on the head here. The answer was prevention in the early stages. Even now we’re having the South African variant causing problems because people have been allowed to travel!

@user1471453253

They have not stopped all cancer treatment in Scotland. I live fairly rurally there and was diagnosed last May: had initial treatment over the summer, followed by ongoing long-term immunotherapy with a very new drug. I fully appreciate I've been very lucky, and that non-Covid provision is patchy, but there's certainly been no country-wide cancellation.

Of course they haven't. I have posted a rejection of that claim and so has another. All in Scotland. We KNOW NHS Scotland IS treating cancer patients.

I think MN needs to take a serious and urgent look at this thread as it appears to have been targeted by trolls attempting to discredit the NHS, and NHS staff, with blatant misinformation.

Op, so sorry to hear you’re having a rough time. You gp should be pushing for you to be seen being in pain and waiting so long is ridiculous!! Not fair.

I had a really awful time in November. Tummy pain, extreme diahorrea nausea etc went on and on and on. Bloods were massively off, liver etc. Had urgent ultrasound scan and colonoscopy before Christmas. Seen gp face to face and he pushed and pushed for me to be seen Asap. Also in daily pain etc. Since had a diagnosis, seen consultant, on treatment and waiting for a mri scan. It is taking some time, but during covid I feel I’ve been really lucky. So it’s not all stopped - am in Scotland. I hope all of you still to be seen are soon, def get on to your gp’s mine has been absolutely fantastic he’s been right on top of everyone asking for me to be seen etc.