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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be really worried about the NHS this winter

240 replies

AtlasPine · 31/10/2021 15:58

Just that really. Lots of issues around GP access, backlogs of people waiting for treatments and overstretched A&E departments. Flu season coming, Covid cases rising, staffing problems linked to Brexit and the rise of private practices offering better terms and conditions to doctors.

What can we do to support the NHS?

Vaccinations (flu and Covid) and look after ourselves as much as possible I suppose. I can’t afford private health care like most here I suspect.

OP posts:
Ghoulette · 01/11/2021 19:08

@Rosebel

Every single winter we hear the NHS is under pressure. Every year since I can remember. I don't even pay attention to it now. Of course they use Covid as an excuse now but it was the same long, long before that.
Yes but this year we were in Extreme Pressures likened to Winter Pressures months ago and it's not eased at all. We don't usually get this until November/December.

This year it was August. With Winter Pressures on top we are fucked. There was a whole thread on the Covid boards with HPC's sharing similar shit and it barely got any traffic.

No one here, or anyone else in the UK, is listening! The NHS is screaming for help.

Cheerychirpy · 01/11/2021 19:15

There has been no saving the NHS for years though. Have you read independent analysis of manifesto pledges in recent elections? Cause I have. They pretty much all say under any party the NHS is totally stuffed, it’s just Labour will drag out the painful realisation a few months longer. The reality is unless Labour announces an alternative the Tories will use the collapse to bring in a horrendous American style system. If Labour don’t announce an alternative I’ll be blaming them!

HannibalHayeski · 01/11/2021 19:19

unless Labour announces an alternative the Tories will use the collapse to bring in a horrendous American style system. If Labour don’t announce an alternative I’ll be blaming them!

Yes, that always makes sense. Don't blame the people who have destroyed the NHS and brought in a dreadful and expensive insurance based system, blame the opposition.

Fxcking idiot...

frumpety · 01/11/2021 19:20

A big issue that I come across is getting older people to accept help when they need it and unfortunately a lot have to pay for it because it is means tested. So we have people reaching crisis point, get admitted to hospital and then get free care for a short period of time, a few weeks from social services, refuse to have care once they need to pay for it and so end up back at crisis point again and the cycle continues until something catastrophic happens.

I can understand why they don't want to pay for care or would rather not have strangers coming into their home, but it is so frustrating when you know their quality of life could be massively improved by accepting they need some input.

julieca · 01/11/2021 19:23

It is hard as you get older because your savings have to last you till you die.

DecadeBCU · 01/11/2021 20:07

I agree that the system needs a huge overhaul, however sometimes I don’t think people realise how much treatments actually cost.

For example

You break a leg as a child that needs surgery - that’s £5000 not including any overnight stays or follow ups.

Want to have children and it ends up with a c-section, that procedure is also £5000 not including any antenatal or post natal care or any NICU care that may be required.

A lot of us pay £9ish for prescriptions per item however many medications actually cost hundreds of pounds so are heavily subsidised. Not to mention the huge number of people who are entitled to free prescriptions.

Then at some point in life you get cancer. The cost of treating cancer can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds and considering 1 in 2 of us will get cancer in our lifetime it’s fair to say that for the vast majority of us, we will never pay in as much as we take from the NHS.

This is by no means an excuse for poor care, poor management and poor decisions. The NHS could be so much more cost effective.

I don’t really know what the answer is, I just feel frustrated when people say ‘I pay enough in tax’ when actually it only scratches the surface really.

julieca · 01/11/2021 20:20

@DecadeBCU I totally agree that most people have no idea how much medical treatment actually costs. I was pretty ill a few years ago. I called a specialist nurse for my condition who did a home visit. She called an ambulance. A paramedic came out and gave emergency treatment, then an ambulance with 2 staff took me to hospital. I was taken to A and E given tests, saw a consultant and admitted. Next day I had further tests. I was in for 5 days with food and medical treatment every day and a consultant visit every day. Plus HCPs helping me. It would have cost a fortune.
And I was back at work within a few weeks because I got the treatment I needed.

MercyBooth · 01/11/2021 20:53

@katesbushh RUBBISH I dont hate the NHS I dont think much of some of the "influencer" doctors on Twitter. Anyone is welcome to AS me. Thats not the same thing. I know a 65 year old man who is currently on the waiting list for a knee replacement. Its a long wait. His taxes were good enough when he was able to work though. All his life in heavy manual jobs!!! The silencing and smear tactics used by posters like yourself is why we can never have a conversation about the problems in the NHS. Posters like yourself have also smeared people as far right for daring to bring it up. And before you start on about unherd what i shared previously was written by a NHS doctor. And if you had the courage of your convictions you would have tagged me in properly!!!

julieca · 01/11/2021 21:01

@MercyBooth of course he will be on a waiting list for a knee replacement. We have a shortage of medical staff. For nearly two years the hospitals have also had to cope with covid.
I took my teenager to the GP today. We all had covid a month ago and I was wondering if some of my teenagers issues are to do with covid. The GP things yes and says they have had a lot of people visiting the GP with issues after covid. Most of them will clear up, but it still all takes Dr time to deal with.
However in my area even if you go private, you have to wait for a knee replacement.

MercyBooth · 01/11/2021 21:02

Social housing tenants...............be grateful its free
NHS patients................be grateful its free

Same rhetoric.

MercyBooth · 01/11/2021 21:03

@julieca that was in reply to what @katesbushh posted. She was quite disparaging about someone turning up to A and E with knee pain.

Go back and look.

Sofiegiraffe · 01/11/2021 21:05

@girlmom21

I suppose using 101 as much as possible is a pretty good way of relieving pressure on the health service Grin
😂
Fordian · 01/11/2021 22:03

cuckoo 'And yes, let's use pharmacists when we can. Why wouldn't you?'

Because they're businesses that have a vested interest in making money.

I had to 'consult' mine a week ago with a toe skin infection that Canestan wasn't touching. Nor hydrocortisone. And zero chance of a GP appointment. Bear in mind I've been dealing with it for at least 6 months!

She examined me in the middle of the shop. Fine, just my foot.

Then sold me branded hydrocortisone cream (I discovered when I got home).

That's why.

katesbushh · 01/11/2021 22:07

@AtlasPine

3 month knee pain. Read it properly.
Nobody needs to attend ED with a 3 month history of knee pain. It is not an emergency.
Unless of course they've fallen on it and injured it.

In what way is 3 month knee pain in anyway an accident or an emergency?

katesbushh · 01/11/2021 22:08

Sorry wrong tag

That should have been @MercyBooth not @AtlasPine

Rosebel · 01/11/2021 22:17

Perhaps financially the NHS could help it's self by getting rid of managers. A woman who worked in the NHS told my husband that her manager had 19 managers above her. No wonder there's no money.

julieca · 01/11/2021 22:19

A woman in the NHS told my husband...
Aye okay.

Mantlemoose · 01/11/2021 22:32

I won't be doing anything different. If I'm unwell I will phone a doctor, if I'm not I won't. They don't want to provide nhs then reduce my tax but until that moment will use it when I need it.

Itsnotallaboutyoubaby · 01/11/2021 23:01

Whenever I try to see the pharmacist 9/10 they tell me to see my doctor.

MercyBooth · 01/11/2021 23:27

There you go everyone. The A and E is not for people in pain.

julieca · 01/11/2021 23:38

@MercyBooth of course it is not just for pain that is not an accident or emergency. Have you any idea how many people live with pain that cant be cured?

GreenLunchBox · 01/11/2021 23:40

@Rosebel

Perhaps financially the NHS could help it's self by getting rid of managers. A woman who worked in the NHS told my husband that her manager had 19 managers above her. No wonder there's no money.
Yeah, yeah 😂
GreenLunchBox · 01/11/2021 23:41

I'm trying to get my head around that hierarchy....the top manager must be band 28 or something. Oh yeah, THAT DOESN'T EXIST 🙈🤣

MissCruellaDeVil · 02/11/2021 00:07

@5lilducks

*Use 101 as much as possible.*😁
🤣🤣
GreenLunchBox · 02/11/2021 01:46

Even if that poster had correctly said 111 instead of 101 does she think 111 isn't the NHS?!Confused

That service is massively over-stretched too. Did you see the thread the other week where a poster was fuming they called her back at 4am when she called them at 9pm? And all the people saying they have been on hold for 45 minutes? It's not a silver bullet.