Angry at long nhs waits

[glitterwobbles]

I get daily headaches and nerve pain in arms and legs.Was diagnosed with cervical myelopathy last summer.
Was referred to another hospital as mine does not have any neurosurgeons and need surgery to prevent it getting worse and possible paralysis.
Have been told that the wait for an appointment is 18 months.
I know that the NHS is struggling after covid. But I have a condition that will get worse and if i had the money could have the surgery privately within weeks.
Just feel let down by NHS and as if the list keeps getting longer as when I was referred it was 10 months. Feel as if I will never get to the top

Be angry at the fucking Tories who have been destroying the NHS for the next decade. I hope your wait is less than you fear.

It is totally shocking. And I don't think many people actually realise the enormity of the situation until it involves them or a loved one being told they'll have to wait years before even getting an initial consultation, or not getting an ambulance when they actually need one. Don't think there are any answers but I definitely plan to look into private healthcare and get that in place for me and my family in the next few months.

Of course there are fucking answers. Last time waiting lists were anything like this was in the 90s, under the last Tory government. Under Labour in the 00s 18 weeks was the absolute maximum you waited for an appointment and the NHS was functioning well. Stop voting Tory, and vote for people who actually care about the NHS and the sick and want it to function.

You’re angry at the wrong people.

Personally I blame the decision to lockdown the country for nearly 2 years.

It’s a nightmare for both patients and staff.

one of DS consultants recently told me he was putting on the form that he needed to see DS in 3 months in the hope he was actually seen in 6 months as that was the longest he was willing to wait:

the system is stretched to bursting point sadly.

Be angry at the government for decades of underfunding, not the NHS. How is it their fault? They're not keeping you waiting for the fun of it.

As someone whose daughter works for NHS in a clinical role and where her mental and physical state is a wreck after doing over two years of up to 55 hour weeks YABU.

Blame Boris and his merry wine, drinking, cheese eating, party going men. be angry at him and not those who have nothing left to give.

Ironically that private healthcare that a pp refers to, has just increased our annual contribution from 1700 to 3700 because our DD claimed for some MH therapy sessions on it last year, therapy needed because of job in the NHS who can’t prove that therapy.

So don’t rely on private healthcare filling the gap, it’s great…..if you don’t need it.

The NHS is not underfunded. It's badly managed. Too many overpaid managers and not enough front line staff.The waste is absolutely appalling

Over 3m people were waiting for treatment pre Covid, with over 110k NHS vacancies.

Sure, its worse now but after 12 years of underfunding (1% p.a) and still charging students 50k to earn below average wages, staff leaving to go abroad or work in other better paid sectors, its only going to get worse.

the Tories are doing absolutely nothing to address waiting lists, its not something that affects the super rich, so why would they.

Yes, it’s always the Tories. How would Labour have been any more amazing?

It seems a problem that you can't fix and Covid is to blame. Ask a friend to start up a Go Fund Me page on your behalf and try to afford private treatment. I have known amazing generosity and great outcomes for people in genuine need.

I agree, and i work in it.

100% this. Over the years the NHS have asked for specifics financially. They've been given them and it's never 'enough'. It needs a restructuring from the very top.

It would be good to take the NHS out of politics and have cross party long term planning

This.

This is not a Tory v Labour problem.

This is a 75 year problem in the making.

The NHS is not underfunded. It's badly managed. Too many overpaid managers and not enough front line staff.The waste is absolutely appalling

Managers make up 3.7% of NHS staff. Across the UK workforce, 15.4% of staff are managers. do you believe that all of private enterprise is over-managed?

Of course it's the Tories' fault. They've been in power over 10 years and yet still whenever anyone criticises them they or their supporters are like "but Labour..." No, look at the state of the country (NHS, economy, brexit, etc) - this is what the Tories have created. At least own it for goodness sakes!

In terms of your specific issue OP, you may find that if you can pay a couple hundred pounds to see a consultant privately it will speed up access to the operation. A friend of mine did this for her kidney stones which were causing her agony which the NHS left her in for over a year. She finally paid to see a consultant who put her on his NHS hospital list and she got treatment a couple of weeks later. It turned out the bottleneck was to see the consultant, not to get the treatment.

They're not talking about managers who lead a team of nurses or cleaners or HCA's, quite clearly

Absolute rubbish!
For the 1st 10 years of the tory govt, NHS funding run at 1% above inflation, whereas health inflation was between 4 and 6% over the same period, we still spend less than EU averages on health, the figures only look comparable when we add in private healthcare spending.

If you believe the NHS is badly managed, then who has been managing it for the last 12 years?
Failing to address adult social care and staff vacancies is down to the Govt.

This is just silly. Labour have always invested more in public services. The NHS is deliberately understaffed now. The Tories chose to cut beds. The Tories have chosen to cut funding to primary care. The Tories have chosen to cut funding to public health which increases health needs down the track.

Vote Tory if you want but don't pretend you don't know the difference between the parties.

The people to blame for the state of the NHS in 2022 are the Tory party and their voters.

The government makes the policy decisions about the NHS. What you are seeing now is a direct result of government policy.

It's dreadful, I have been waiting since March 2019 for endometriosis surgery.

Ha, this is what the Tories always start to say when they nearly break the NHS. They were saying this in the years before Blair won. Funnily enough Labour didn't need a cross party solution as they invested in the service.

Apparently across the population one in six people are now on a waiting list. This is a deliberate political choice made by the Conservative party.