Examples of Wrongly Being Told There Was Nothing Wrong By The NHS

[Westover]

Interested in examples of this, as it appears to be a growing trend to be fobbed off, sometimes repeatedly by a GP, and told there is nothing seriously wrong when there is an issue requiring treatment. I'm also wondering if it is bad in other countries. In my case:

• Developed what turned out to be pneumonia. 2 initial visits to the GP, first visit told there was nothing wrong and it was just a virus and couldn't be treated, second visit a few days later and was diagnosed with a kidney infection and given antibiotics appropriate to that. Ended up collapsing at home that weekend, ambulance called, taken to hospital, chest x ray and diagnosed with pneumonia. Was given penicillin. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a penicillin-resistant strain and so felt increasingly terrible over the next week. Managed to persuade my GP to give me an emergency appointment (this was pre-Covid), during which he barely looked at me and took a lengthy phone call before dismissing me, telling me that the antibiotics took time to work. Phoned 111 the next day and was given an appointment at a local health clinic who sent me back to hospital, where I was admitted for 4 days and put on intravenous antibiotics.

• Fell while out running and slightly dislocated my kneecap (as diagnosed by my GP). A week later, felt a sharp pain and was unable to bear weight after that. After being phone triaged, eventually got an appointment with NHS physio some weeks later where I was x- rayed, told there was nothing wrong with it and told I was being lazy and there was no reason I couldn't exercise and I should be walking properly and not using crutches (I have never been lazy in my life!). Went back 2 months later as it was worse and was told the same again by a clearly even less interested physio. Refused an MRI scan. Paid for a private MRI scan, which showed a stress fracture. My knee is now severely damaged as a result of not resting it for 5 months after it occurred.

• Fell off my bike and got a bad cut which caused scarring to develop on my face. At A&E where it was initially treated, I was told by the consultant that I should refer for possibly laser treatment or to have the scar revised once a year had passed. GP happily did this and in the consultation, I was told that "the best option" was to have psychiatric counselling to help me "get used to the change in my appearance". I wrote a stinker of a letter back saying that I would not be taking up that option as I wasn't that bothered by it but I had been advised to get further revision surgery by a consultant. I then moved house, got another consultation elsewhere and was given laser treatment to revise it which was successful.

Was told I had PND after my first child was born. For months I had a racing heart, anxiety, insomnia, weight loss. I told them that my mother had had an overactive thyroid. They didn't take any notice. I eventually went to A&E crying and thinking I was having a heart attack. Turns out my thyroxine levels were off the scale and I had Graves disease.

@LakieLady I've been told by two different GP's that that isn't a treatment option.
😡

My lovely father, who died last year from motor neurone disease, was initially told by his completely disinterested and frankly negligent GP that his symptoms (which he had been back and forth to the doctors repeatedly with) were just a reaction to some medication he was on. If MND was treatable, and catching it in time would have made any difference, I would not be able to let this go.

I think that's becoming more common. I've had the misfortune of having MRI scans and ENT consultations recently. In both cases, with absolutely horrible/nasty "consultants" who really couldn't give a toss, had no empathy/sympathy and no patience. Neither had been on any "customer friendly" courses, that's for sure. Both could barely manage more than a grunt, both did the "eye rolling", etc. Personally, I don't think either should be let near any patients, especially vulnerable ones, but probably only employed because they couldn't find anyone else.

@Badbadbunny agree. It seems almost like it’s a race to the bottom.

I have never voted for this. When have we ever been given that option?

Do you think that because there is such a shortage of people to fill the vacancies in the NHS , that as long as you are qualified you’ll get the job regardless of how good you actually are? This would affect standards . Maybe high standards are not the priority now. Maybe it’s just getting people seen.

DD had some surgery, which didn’t work - while going through what could go wrong, nobody had told us this could happen! While complaining to a doctor in the family, that we had no confidence in the team, who did it anyway due to their failure to work out how to get DD’s gown off and they seemed to see it all as a jolly jaunt, laughing and joking! (We had to go right into either the theatre or anaesthetics room to show them how to get the gown off)! The doctor told us this country doesn’t attract the best surgeons, rather those who are good at paperwork, and anybody can lie on their CV!

We've consistently voted to under fund primary care and to demonise GPs (see this thread for that) so why all the pseudo shock horror of where we are now?

We’ve never voted for this? We consistently voted for the party, who it seemed to us, would put more money into education, the NHS and the pension/benefits system, under a progressive tax system!

As my solicitor said to me once, and I knew he was speaking from personal experience:

”When you look to the state for the state for the safety net, and find it’s not there, you don’t vote Tory!

Afaik, this government has never had over 50% of the population’s vote in general elections since 2010!

No governement since 1935 has had a straight majority of the popular vote unless you count the 2010 coalition.

..we also had the chance to have a different voting system but voted that down.

Wonder how many folk who are now finding out the treatment etc from the NHS is somewhat lacking, have also voted Tory time and time again.

No governement since 1935 has had a straight majority of the popular vote unless you count the 2010 coalition.

No, but posters shouldn’t make sweeping statements about we voted for this, when statistically many posters on MN didn’t! We certainly never did; as it’s the complete opposite of what we believe in!

Told by NHS physio - I needed to do some tai chi

Told by private physio - I have a slipped disc and would NEVER need surgery

I had my first hip replacement age 35 and second age 38.

It took a private Oesteo to correctly diagnose me at the point I was in so much pain I was ready to hack my own leg off.

Our surgery has gone from being easily accessible and very efficient to being impossible to get an appointment (DH told next available was last week of July) and GPs never there. All since lockdown.
I don’t understand it, I worked as a DN for 25 years and have never seen the NHS as bad as it is now.
i dread it every time my heart failure moves up a notch because my GP, assuming he even does a phone consultation, will tell me to go to A+E, where 15 hour waits are the norm and if I’m lucky I might see a junior dr who won’t know what to do.
My previous GP, now retired, used to ask me what did I think was wrong with me! She was more interested in talking about her dogs than her patients.

@VeryEmptyArms I am so very sorry xx

My heart goes out to so many of you on this thread 💐

I feel my gp surgery is making things worse with their appointments procedure. Firstly it takes at least 20 mins to get through to a receptionist, then it's the luck of the draw if you have phoned at the right time as to if there are even any appointments available. You are then given a telephone appointment to decide if they need to see you face to face. If you do need to see the gp in person, then that's two appointments. I don't understand why they haven't gone back to the pre covid way of making a face to face appointment, unless you just want to speak to the duty dr. It would save so many appointments, people would be able to get through to the reception as the line wouldn't be blocked up with so many people trying to get through, and having to repeatedly call through the day, and people would get seen quicker.

I've not had any really bad experiences. One which could have become bad was when my yd was born at 31 weeks. I'd been given some pethadine to sleep for a bit (I had been in a sort of labour for two days where they had been trying to stop her being born) and I woke up and said she is coming! No she's not, they said, and I said she really is, which is when they checked and all panic broke out. The room was suddenly full of people and a travel incubator. A moment of levity was when the wall light fell off and hit me on the shoulder! I was ok, I think the shock of it and surreal it was just made me laugh. She was born ok, spent 4 weeks in NICU and is now 22 years old

Veryemptyarms - I am so so sorry

We have had some very near misses and all could have been avoidable. 2 maternity ones for me and SIL. I don't understand why mums in labour aren't listened to. Even if we are wrong why aren't our worries investigated, especially as we are already there is hospital. My SIL kept being sent home when in labour, they told her she was 4cm dilated, then next midwife a few hrs later said only 2, they sent her home. She was in agony and her mum insisted she should go back in. The midwives tried to send her home again as said she was no more than 2 cm dilated and refused any oain relief. Luckily her mum was really pushy as knew she was in a lot of pain which wouldnt be normal for 2cm, a more senior member of staff examined her and she was actually fully dilated and baby was breech. She had emergency c-section and all was fine. The consequences could have been devastating.

My dad had meningitis when he was early 20s, him and my mum were just married. He was extremely unwell and the receptionist refused to request for the GP to go out to him, said it was a cold and made my mum feel guilty for suggesting she would call an ambulance so she didn't. My mum was only 20.

In the end my auntie marched round to the surgery and demanded to speak to the GP went straight round there and called an ambulance instantly, the ambulance was only a few minutes but my dad was unconscious by that point, they had to get another ambulance team there to get him down the stairs. He was OK in the end luckily, but how terrifying.

A year of toing and froing to the GP, shrugs, sighs and "I can't see anything' comments. Felt like I was wasting time and a hypochondriac pain in the A.

Finally one GP listened, saw that I only ever shuffle in once every 3 years for a smear test and sent me for an MRI. Thankfully, that picked up the brain tumour and within weeks I was in surgery.

She quite literally saved my life.

My Mum was told that she just wasn't as young as she used to be when she went in with a swelling under her ear, severe anaemia, pale, sweating and struggling to breath. after a lot of fuss they agreed to take a blood test just to make her go away (doctors words) it was leukaemia.
I was sent for counselling as "women these days just try to do too much" by a different doctor didn't help the endometrial cancer they discovered after I collapsed and had to have 5 pints of blood transfused.
I went to the GP after finally working myself up to talking about PND he told me if he was as fat as me (UK size 14) he would be depressed too!
I have now found a GP who listens to me and explains things well, there are some wonderful GPs out there it can just take a while to find the right one

I am surprised no one has mentioned how much money the NHS is wasting on rubbish and not front line staff, they are like a massive black hole wasting public money because they can and there are no repercussions. Maybe someone needs to ask how much are NHS directors getting paid, there are some that get more than the prime minister and have 3 different PAs at around £40k to £60k each, because why not.

GPs get paid for the number of patients they have, this means that they can and DO have more patients than they can actually treat, because no one checks or cares to check.

It is shocking how incompetent and apathetic most of the NHS staff are, especially GP staff.

Unfortunately the NHS also has a huge problem getting rid of bad staff, once you get past your probation period it is almost impossible to get fire in the NHS, no matter how bad you are.

The patient is made to run around, half the time you get the wrong information, if you do develop any serious issues that require actual investigation, you are better off doing it abroad then come here with the findings and pray that they know what to do. They will most likely re-do the tests but at least they should know what to look for.

I think the government should allow people to pay for private healthcare before tax, just like you do with pensions. After all the longer you live the more tax you will pay. If you are lucky enough to get private healthcare from your work, its a taxable benefit... lovely. It would be great if I could chose not to pay Tax for the NHS and pay for private healthcare. Around %45 of your tax goes to the NHS by the way.

For example, for a working couple, it would be cheaper to pay for decent Medi Care in the US than the NHS equivalent through tax.

Thought provoking post 👍

Also no one ever seems to mention Major Tom and where all those millions he raised went. Completely disappeared it seems.

Good grief. The incompetence is astounding.

Funny you should say that, Captain Tom’s foundation is apparently being investigated for irregularities according to the news.

It's sad that the Captain Tom money has seemed to have evaporated. He did so much and now there are queries about its distribution etc :(

He raised an awful lot of money which has never been accounted for.