To be so angry with the nhs and considering complaining with the view to being compensated?

[shebuildsquickmachines]

I know this will divide opinions so I'm prepared to be flamed

For 17 years I had thyroid issues. I had yearly appointments with endocrinology and every time I went I was feeling progressively worse and worse which I told them.

I was never given any medication or any further help,
I always felt fobbed off . On top of that I had thyroid nodules that gave me an enlarged thyroid gland) which gave me a very unattractive swollen neck. It even affected my breathing. This slowly got worse over time. It destroyed my confidence and self esteem and even worse there was a chance that it could develop into thyroid cancer. So I had the feeling I was living with a ticking time bomb.

I have wanted the whole thing removed for a long time but everyone kept fobbing me off. Despite the fact that there is a gmail history of thyroid issues on my mums side (mum, 4 aunts and grandmother all had theirs removed for same reason) I felt so awful all the time that I could barely work plus I was constantly anxious. Luckily my husband works so I did not need to try and get benefits etc

Last year I decided enough was enough. And we used a credit card and paid privately for the operation. From seeing the consultant to getting the all clear after my op was 6 weeks, at the cost of £7000

I literally now feel like a new woman. I have to take thyroxin replacement hormones but My energy is sky high, I feel great, I sleep better, I even look so much better. When I look at pics taken of me in the last couple of years I honestly looked so poorly, my face was pale and bloated and I just looked ill

Don't get me wrong I am so happy to be well again. But I'm in debt due to having an op that I should have had on the nhs. and I am also so angry that I was put through almost two decades of feeling absolutely shit and no one helping me. I feel like I should have some sort of payback.

Would there be any point complaining ? I know the nhs is on its knees due to underfunding which didn't exactly help matters.

OK, now I understand. You're just plain nasty......

We need a different system where health care is based on how well you care for yourself and what taxes you have paid.

Foul

You cannot blame every life choice on your medical condition. I was diagnosed with an endocrine problem in my early 20s it has has had a significant effect on my long term health, fertility and relationship. At no point did it impact on my ambition, drive and ability to fulfil my professional duties.
As a result of this condition I developed secondary PCOs, fertility problems, joint and immunological problems, thyroid problems and ultimately it’s possibly an underlying cause of my recent breast cancer diagnosis.
In the last 37 years I have run my own business and brought up a family.
There are plenty of women who live with chronic illness who just suck it up and get on with it.
Having your thyroid removed at 25 for anything other than hyperactivity or cancer is just not an option. Nodules are slow growing and unlikely to kill you unless you develop haemorrhaging cysts within them. Then you know about it since your neck blows up like a balloon within hours.
Elective surgery to remove cosmetically offensive nodules is perfectly acceptable. But an NHS surgeon will not carry out unnecessary surgery in such a dangerous area. If your thyroid was under active then the only thing you could redress is the failure to prescribe thyroxine.

There isn't a fixed amount of money for the NHS. We could spend two or three times as much on it if we wanted to. It's a political choice to offer a level of care that's below what some of the people paying for it consider acceptable.

Of course the NHS has a budget from the Treasury and it's currently running at 40+% of all government spending with a further £12billion in funding awarded recently. Remember, there are other demands on the public purse: UC , social services, fire, police, works and pensions, defence, local government, transport, infrastructure and of course funding support for the low paid in the current climate. To award yet more money to the NHS would involve either taking it from elsewhere or raising taxes or both. To think you could spend two or three times what we are spending at the moment is for the fairies. It's not political, it's basic economics.

I think there is a time factor in this & you may need to do an official complaint with the NHS first (3 years - re your private diagnosis & treatment?) but go to solicitor for an interview first one who specialises in clinical negligence & ask. If your case is strong enough they may offer no win no fee or similar but it does not cover the medical specialist advice & research into your case & that will thousands. Request all your notes from hospital/gp too & read them through I would also suggest reading the NICE guidelines/advice on treatment for this & your local NHS trust/areas practice & treatment which can differ from NICE.
It takes a few years & lots of letters back & forth even when there is obvious surgical negligence (says she with feeling)

@Angrymum22 I think she said she wasn't prescribed it.
& this is why I suggested she read the NICE guidelines & get her notes because she should be able to see whether she would have been entitled to treatment in her specific case

You won't get a penny. NHS has gone to pot and the protective walls are up. Move on if I were you.

I doubt you'd get any money from the NHS as its not like an operation went wrong or similar. Not everyone can take out a loan so think yourself lucky.

This.
Move on and don't dwell on the past. Turning it over and seething with resentment will not change anything but it will make you feel bad. Legal action would take years more of your life and probably for nothing. Even if you won it won't change the past.

What were your levels OP - TSH, T4, T3?
I assume the levels must have been adequately controlled on carbimazole for the consultant to feel that surgery wasn't warranted?

Clinicians have to have protocols and guidelines to determine what treatment to offer, and they have to weigh up cost and clinical risk when making decisions.
I can think of 7000 reasons why the private doctor was prepared to do the surgery.
Anyway, if the NHS doctors had guidelines and they worked within them, you have no grounds to sue and will get nowhere. If their cut off for surgery is X, and your level was Y, then you can criticise the protocol but not the doctors working to it.

YANBU to be upset and complain. But personally I wouldn't be looking for compensation from the NHS right now, it is on its knees. But I can see why you would.

You need to find a solicitor who deals with clinical negligence cases, and take it from there.

This was my point. Thyroid function is not generally affected by the development of nodules. I say this from the vast amount of research I did when I was diagnosed with nodules. One of my nodules became cystic and was a rare type of cyst that necessitated removal of half my thyroid. The remaining half functions perfectly normally. They regularly biopsy nodules to monitor them if they do not think surgery is necessary. I had two biopsy over two years but then had a big haemorrhage into the cyst so had emergency surgery.
Nice guidelines are there to protect patients from the risks associated with unnecessary treatment. If you have endocrinologically normally functioning thyroid the risk of permanent damage to nerves in the neck far outweighs the risk of leaving an enlarged thyroid.
I was left with minor nerve damage which means my voice has been affected and I snore due to paralysis of one of the minor muscles in my neck. I also struggled with reflux and swallowing for a while after surgery.
All this I was warned may happen, along with damage to the parathyroid glands.
Luckily I don’t rely on my voice to make a living. Had I been a professional singer I’d have been fucked.
People really don’t understand the significance of post op complications. Informed consent is a major problem. If you’ve had surgery or any procedure recently you may have encouraged trees the new approach to consent. The NHS is really trying to clamp down on unnecessary legal cases where patients just don’t acknowledge that all the risks have been fully explained to them.

Also it’s not the NHS’s fault that the OP hasn’t succeeded in life. Any solicitor worth their fee will consider this case a non-starter.

Encouraged trees should read encounter

I’m sorry I also agree with this.

Solicitors (of all descriptions) won't take medical negligence unless t's 100% guaranteed to win because the medical profession are so well defended on all levels.

Wow you sound lovely

You've no idea of how my illness affected me in so many ways and made me unable to work as much as I wanted, what a horrible and unnecessary thing to say

Fuck off and live in America then

17 YEARS?

Fucking right you should complain.

I am surprised how many people on here think doctors are magicians ! The problems with the NHS are caused by being underfunded and privatised.

You know they have a line in their budget for this right? The OP accessing this money (that the NHS know full well they have to spend) doesn't take from any pots set aside for delivering front line services.

What were the levels OP?
You've asked if people think you should complain, but without the facts, no one can give you a proper opinion. If you were persistently thyrotoxic, despite medication, or if the medication caused you recognised disabling side effects, then you were reasonable to expect surgery. If your levels were normal then surgery would have been too risky.
Imagine posting that you'd had surgery despite normal levels, and now your voice was permanently croaky.
Risks and benefits, it's a balancing act.
But as I said before but you chose to ignore, you have no case at all if your levels were controlled.

Firstly, no, compo is paid by their insurers.

Secondly, if people don't complain, the NHS will never improve and just get progressively worse.