To ask why the NHS is cancelling operations?!

[CFEC]

I'm due to have a (much needed and waited for) op in a few weeks time, I've just rung my consultant's secretary as I haven't had a pre-op appointment letter through yet and queried it, as I wanted to make sure the operation is definitely going ahead as if nothing else, I'll be off work for 2 weeks and my boss would ideally like confirmation.

She said 'Oh, well they're cancelling A LOT of inpatient appointments, but as you'll be a day patient no, I think yours will go ahead.'

I swear I will lose my sh&^ and cry if it gets cancelled again, this will be the third time!!!

Why is the NHS cancelling operations left, right and centre?! Surely it can't be due to Covid still? If it is, what is going to happen to us all, so many people are going to die surely as a result of not getting treatment? A lot more than with Covid! Most people are double vaccinated now, this virus isn't going away, why are operations for in patients being cancelled?

Last winter .. mid covid pandemic.. we were all wearing masks and under restrictions for socialising etc.. there was practically NO hospitalisations due to flu or complications of flu....
So,if we all want the pressure on NHS to be eased going forward it would make sense for us ALL to continue to wear masks and VOLUNTARILY reduce/restrict our socialising... but again too many people are too selfish and too careless to bother..

So the situation with the nhs is not going to improve any time soon....decades of cutbacks, staff shortages, too many managers and no foresight....

'My sister is a nurse and they have had 3 Dr's leave her department because the local trust will not allow them to see patients. Nurses are taking observations and completing procedures while Dr's are locked in offices in full PPE away form patients.'

@CBUK22 this is just ridiculous bollocks. And insulting to medics.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius

It absolutely was NOT incompetence, *@CBUK22*. The hospitals were filled up with covid patients, had staff going off sick with Covid, and didn’t have any leeway in either staff or beds to cope with that.

Operating theatres were being used as covid intensive care units - those units could not do routine operations. Theatre staff were redeployed to the wards to nurse covid patients and the other unavoidable admissions - no staff in theatre = no operations.

There were no available intensive care beds for patients needing them after routine surgery - it was hard enough to find either theatre spaces or ITU beds for emergency admissions.

I cannot see how anyone can call them incompetent, for the way they responded to a huge crisis when the NHS had been systematically robbed of staff and resources for years.

I find your comment sickening, to be honest.

Thank you.

Our staff have been working tirelessly. If almost the entire department wasn't converted to an overspill for ITU, then our staff were over there helping them out. Even now, we are nursing ITU patients in our recovery because ITU is filling up again.

We haven't stopped doing surgery. We've just had to prioritise which ones we do. Fractured NOF is obviously going to be ahead of a hip replacement. It makes me sad how the public think we have been a "disgrace" and "incompetent". We've been doing our best in a shit situation.

They should have just carried on, sending the Covid patients to the nightingale hospitals for triage.

The Nightingale hospitals couldn’t be staffed. They were an utter waste of time, money and resources, typical of this government’s approach to managing much of this pandemic.

I think you have done amazingly

The first wave response was fantastic, going in with the rapid changes , the worry for yourself and your family the fear of Italy

But what has impressed me even more is that the nhs is still going. This is dragging on , the pressure never easing up as when Covid is quiet you start on the backlog , yet still it is functioning, not as anyone would like perhaps , but a lot better than we should hope for or expect

So thank you for keeping going and keeping doing your best ( whatever best can be at the moment )

[quote CBUK22]@Awalkintime It's bizarre how so many in the UK are indoctrinated to think

left leaning = good

right leaning = bad

Especially given it's capitalism that's revolutionised the world we live in today and made us healthier and wealthier than any time in history.[/quote]
Has it? or destroyed the planet with market driven economic policy that has overseen deforestation and wealth inequality.

I expect you also believe in "Trickle Down" economics too?

The Tories never wanted the NHS and have sought to run it down every since, they see it as a socialist construct and want it gone, unfortunately, despite saying they love it, the uk keep voting in a party that, as we can all see, destroy it.

After all, in the face of staff shortages, the Tory response is to put healthcare students into debt by 50k and then pay them a low wage when they work in the NHS.

@CBUK22 is the Virgin care GP open to everyone, if it was put in to reduce attendance at A&E or only open to everyone after normal GP opening hours ? Who staffs the out of hours GP service over night ?

Is it too much of a stretch to say it's in part a huge knock in effect from lack of Carers? It's my let subject at the moment bc my poor mum is stuck in hospital bc there are no carers available for her to go home to. There are a huge number of such patients. I know they're elderly and on different wards, but could sheer numbers be having an impact on beds and wards and resources?

The NHS is not fit for purpose.

[quote frumpety]@CBUK22 is the Virgin care GP open to everyone, if it was put in to reduce attendance at A&E or only open to everyone after normal GP opening hours ? Who staffs the out of hours GP service over night ?[/quote]
The OOH GP service, at least locally, is either staffed by GPs employed directly by them or local GPs doing extra locum shifts. We had an email round last week begging for staff because they are struggling to fill slots too

'My sister is a nurse and they have had 3 Dr's leave her department because the local trust will not allow them to see patients. Nurses are taking observations and completing procedures while Dr's are locked in offices in full PPE away form patients.'

@CBUK22 must have imagined my full list of face to face febrile patients yesterday then.

My sister is a nurse and they have had 3 Dr's leave her department because the local trust will not allow them to see patients. Nurses are taking observations and completing procedures while Dr's are locked in offices in full PPE away form patients.

Bullshit. Complete and utter rot.

[quote frumpety]@CBUK22 is the Virgin care GP open to everyone, if it was put in to reduce attendance at A&E or only open to everyone after normal GP opening hours ? Who staffs the out of hours GP service over night ?[/quote]
What @CBUK22 failed to mention is the Virgin Care service will be run by that company on behalf of and paid for by the NHS. Its branding is NHS. It will have tendered for the service to win the contract. It’s an easy service to run efficiently.

Nice to see the pigeons coming home to roost. This situation is because we as a nation vote Tory. Low taxes and me first are attractive until you come face to face with the consequences of that approach. My sympathies with the OP are low. My sympathies for NHS workers are high.

@Formaldeheidi

My sister is a nurse and they have had 3 Dr's leave her department because the local trust will not allow them to see patients. Nurses are taking observations and completing procedures while Dr's are locked in offices in full PPE away form patients.

Bullshit. Complete and utter rot.

EXACTLY THIS ..

Name changing one post wonder posts goady thread to wind up NHS staff. Yet again.
And the same old names looking at you notpersephone turning up to put their uninformed two penneth in and not even listening to the answers provided by actual NHS staff.

The waiting list currently for private is longer than my scheduled op in a few weeks, much longer in fact. The receptionist at the private hospital said people are going over to private in droves as they’re not getting the care from the NHS

This is true. But how many private hospitals have you tried, how many surgeons have you asked? After waiting 18m for surgery on the NHS I went private. It took some searching but eventually I found a consultant who had a slot 3 weeks from consultation. It was further to travel and cost £5k but was well worth it.

@NotPersephone you pounce on every NHS thread as if you are an expert. Being the other half of a medic does not qualify you as an one. Last thread you reckoned NHS staff were paid too much because hubby was rolling in it.

I don’t know whether it’s crap management, lack of funding or a bit of both - but it was happening long before Covid and it’s a disaster

Where do you place patients who aren't ill enough to be in Hospital but can't live at home without help, where there is none and where community hospitals don't have enough staff?

What magical managerial formula can conjure up care workers or staff for community hospitals?

Its a funding issue and if those in power had to use the NHS and adult social care, you can be certain it would indeed be "world class"

[quote Effybriest]@NotPersephone you pounce on every NHS thread as if you are an expert. Being the other half of a medic does not qualify you as an one. Last thread you reckoned NHS staff were paid too much because hubby was rolling in it.[/quote]
Never misses a chance. I see she’s not playing the Mrs Consultant card on this thread.

,@Blossomtoes indeed..

@jasjas1973 we used to have a thing for that, but as I discovered yesterday that public service was privatised and wound down in the 80s 😢