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.

Oh my dear, I really felt this one
i too had a fractured vertebra and I cannot fathom how they could tell you this.

the obsession with women as walking baby machines leading to that....oh my god. I would want to hunt down whoever said that to you.

the pneumonia example given by OP...there's a doctor at my practice who is notorious for not giving antibiotics. I had to see a second doctor who said "I know I shouldn't apologise to you but I feel like I want to". I told her not to worry about his behaviour. I would have recovered so much faster. I think he must have gone now as so many patients had issues with him.

Some of these are awful. I just have the standard experience of being fobbed off by numerous HVs and community paeds before DS being diagnosed with ASD, once I realised I’d have to pay to see someone who knew what the fuck they were talking aboyt

For about 6 weeks my son was being treated for constipation by the GP and then the hospital. Turned out he had medulloblastoma, a brain tumour. He died 364 days after day of diagnosis.

Examples from DW, who seems to just never be taken seriously.

• DW had a seizure, hospital refused to believe that DW wasn't drunk, despite having been at work and arriving to the hospital by ambulance with her boss (who also confirmed she hadn't been drinking, she'd been at work). They did no tests at all and told her she could leave after 12 hours waiting in A&E "if she's sobered up now". They took her seriously after her second seizure though.


• DW had a change in bowel habits, rectal bleeding, abdominal pain. Saw her GP who said it was anxiety (because rectal bleeding is well known anxiety symptom 🙄). Then, one night, developed heavy bleeding and really serious pain so went to A&E, who said it was her appendix. Her appendix was removed after three days nil-by-mouth and wasn't inflamed. She was then diagnosed with bowel cancer off the back of the histology report and subsequent tests from the appendix. Even after her diagnosis, her GP told her she didn't have bowel cancer because she's too young...she'd already been diagnosed!


• DW fell down the stairs whilst heavily pregnant, GP (over the phone) told her that her arm was fine, it was broken.

20 years of having my awful period pain dismissed.

Eventually diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis and had cysts the size of oranges - so much damage was caused over 20 years, it caused infertility.

But much worse is a friend, who aged 33 was dismissed by her GPs when she had abdominal pain and other symptoms. It was bowel cancer, caught far too late, she passed away 😢 I think about her every day.

Oh, I forgot the time that DW had kidney stones and was urinating blood and the doctor insisted she must be on her period... wrong hole doc.

My partners daughter was 3 years old and taken to the doctor only to be sent home with a cold , turned away from hospital because of a cold only to die 6 hours later from sepsis brought on by meningitis. This also caused his wife to commit suicide about 13 months later as she couldn't bear to live without her daughter leaving an infant daughter never to know her mother .
She would have been 22 this year and my partner still misses her and thinks of her daily .

I'm so sorry for your loss - bowel cancer in young people, especially women is dismissed constantly by GPs. DW's was only caught by chance after her GP fobbed her off again and again. We're pretty certain hers is back because all the symptoms are back but "due to Covid" no one will do any tests or checks at all. She's on a support group for young people with bowel cancer and so many people are saying they haven't had routine checks done "due to Covid" for over two years now. We can't afford a private colonoscopy right now but we're saving for it.

My grandad was told he had a stomach bug.

He had liver cancer. 8 days later he was dead.

When I was pregnant with my first I knew something was wrong and his head was too big. I kept getting told I was fine. Even got told it doesn't happen when I said I feel like he's going to get stuck.

He got stuck. Shoulder dystocia. Left with erbs palsy.

My surgery are fantastic. Reception staff, pharmacy, drs and nurses are all top class and having experienced total shit I really appreciate them

Had post partum pancreatitis - discharged and told I was fine. I was neurotic and out of my mind as I knew something wasn't right.

Got pancreatitis again 5 weeks later - miraculously diagnosed with a pseudocyst on the pancreas - told to go away and let it absorb. Begged for follow ups as I still knew something wasn't right.

Started turning yellow - still fobbed off, just something of nothing apparently.

3 CT scans, ultrasounds and an MRI - nothing to worry about apparently.

Attended a&e countless times as well as the GP.

Tried a different hospital.

I was jaundiced with a blocked bile duct.

Endoscopic ultrasound and fine needle aspiration test to fit a stent ensued.

Week later I was diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer - tumour was the size of my fist and unmissable on scans. I was 28 with 2 kids under 2.

I wouldn't give in until I was listened to and thank god I did because 5 years later and I can say I'm 'cured'.

Don't back down when you know something isn't right.

It's not a new thing, unfortunately. From the age of 2 my mother told every doctor there was something wrong with my brother's hearing. Eventually they told her she was being unreasonable and over protective.
He did have learning disabilities, which obviously made life more difficult. At 22 he was found to have just 10% hearing, he does wear hearing aids, but it was too late for him in terms of what he might be able to achieve if they had listened instead of making mother out to be a nuisance.

My BIL didn't even get to see his GP, he saw a nurse who told him he had piles. It was eventually diagnosed as bowel cancer. He died 3 years later.

7 year of telling various gos I had crushing tiredness, fell asleep in a soft play ball pit with my toddler, almost fell asleep at the wheel. told the gp I was snoring unbelievably badly. They they repeatedly ignored me then ironically referred me to a insomnia clinic. As soon as i told the insomnia therapist i got refferal to a sleep clinic. I'm now on cpap for sleep apnea.

My gp was telling me a few weeks ago how they very rarely get things wrong. I reminded him of my apnea and that I cant be expected to blindly except everything I'm told after that.

7 Years of my life sleeping for two hours during the day just to survive

repeatedly told I did not have endometriosis. This was a string of GPs over the years and then my fertility Consultant. I had a laparoscopy for a tube problem and when I came round I was debriefed by a junior member of the surgical team - because my surgery had been far more complicated than anticipated. Due the extensive endometrial lesions.
My Consultant was too arrogant to come and tell me himself, and also because he knew I was a headstrong patient who would have told him exactly what I thought of him.

Friends mother - GP repeatedly failed to examine properly,ignored concerns about DVT. She died as a result.

My husband had been going to the doctors for most of his life with chest infections. He'd be told it was asthma and would be prescribed antibiotics, the infection would clear up and then the cycle would repeat. He had an occasional scan too.

When he was 30 one of our friends was diagnosed with bronchiectasis and we asked his GP to look at whether he might have it as the symptoms were similar. He went for another scan and was then called to a cancer clinic because of a large shadow on his lung. It was quickly deduced that it was dead tissue rather than a shadow and he was diagnosed with bronchiectasis.

Upon looking into the possible cause of it, the specialist tested for cystic fibrosis just to rule it out really. His bloods were lost so after a few weeks he had to have them done again. And he was then diagnosed with CF at the age of 30. After a lifetime of NHS incompetence.

However, to balance it, the specialist care he has received under the NHS since then has been absolutely phenomenal.

My cousin had terrible stomach troubles and went to the GP for about 5 years about it. The only referral he made was to a psychiatrist. They only found the massive tumour in her bowel when she started vomiting faeces. She died.

A relative of a relative died of cancer.
Months of going to the doctor - nothing.
Wasting away in bed - doctor couldn't be bothered to come out and see.
Few days before death - you've got cancer - too late to cure.
Absolutely disgusting.

What caused your voice to change?

At 12 I was told my suicidal son was "putting on" his mental health difficulties "for attention" and I was a neurotic parent. So he was not going to be referred to a psychiatrist or for any further testing as I just needed to "buck up" my parenting.

After uncountable visits to A&E, multiple suicide attempts, two stays in mental health units and forced to participate in totally unsuitable (and incredibly harmful) therapies it turns out he has ASD, SPD, Complex PTSD, An attachment disorder, EUSP and Gender Identity Disorder (and I'm not neurotic).

Bumped into the Educational Social Worker a few years ago, the one who told the fragile and surgically attached to me DS (Attachment Disorder - I couldn't even go for a wee on my own for a while) that if he didn't buck up and go to school then she would take him into care and I would be going to prison. DS did indeed "buck up", went into school, came home and tried to slit his wrists. Such was his fear of being without me.

Took a sadistic sort of pleasure in announcing to her that DS did in fact have ASD (as I had said at the time) and queried why she hadn't raised it - her response - "oh, I'm not allowed to send children for brain scans and you can only diagnose ASD with a scan". I walked away in disbelief incase I forgot I was an adult and knocked her out. Stupid, ignorant bint.

I was told that my bloating and stomach pain was IBS.
I couldn't possibly be in that much pain.
GP refused to do a physical examination despite me saying I could feel something on the lower left of my abdomen.

Went to A&E the consultant could feel a mass. Sent for CT and ultrasound. Turned out to have stage 3 ovarian cancer. I had 7 litres of ascites (fluid in my abdomen) removed as well.

DH back and forth to the GP for 5 years with episodes of excruciating pain being told it’s an ulcer when eventually got so bad he went to A&E and told by the first doctor (who actually felt the area) it is so obviously a Hernia.
Refusal by GP to refer delayed DD to a paediatrician, until a while later when a health visitor came and said she will be writing a letter requesting he urgently refer her and she was actually shocked that hadn’t done so at the first visit. DD has Global delay, ASD and SPD and my 3rd child. It was so bloody obvious but he was adamant that everything was ok.

My dad repeatedly went to the GP over a period of months with severe pains in his collar bone and shoulder, persistent cough. As time went on the pains get worse and spread.
He was referred to a pain management clinic, to help him "think more positively" about the pain.
His weight dropped dramatically.
Eventually he was diagnosed with lung cancer that had spread to his bones, which was the cause of the pain. It was only investigated properly after the bone cancer caused a vertebrae to collapse and paralyse him. He died six weeks later.

Was told that i had nothing serious and it was just a blocked ear tube. The first nurse didn't even understand what I meant when I was describing pulsatile tinnitus. One doctor sent me to A&E because he could see there was something seriously wrong, A&E sent me home! 4 months of numerous doctors, excruciating headaches, relentless dizziness, losing my sight when I stood up, pulsatile tinnitus and just generally feeling very unwell I was diagnosed with Intracranial hypertension (build up of pressure around the brain). Normal pressure around the brain is up to 25cm. By the time I finally got a lumbar puncture (4 months after I first became unwell) mines was at 43cm! Gps where I live - fucking useless!

Gave birth on my sofa 3 hours after being examined, smirked at and told I wasn't in labour. Had to drive home through contractions. With my second, baby's head appeared just as I sat down on table to be examined!!! No arguments this time.