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.

DM was fobbed off for months, luckily we moved house and new surgery/nurse who really fought our corner. DM had endometrial cancer!

I went to hospital with DD1 as I new something was very wrong. Was sent away by a tutting midwife. DM instead took me to the next nearest hospital where a consultant saw me, I was to rushed into surgery within 2 hours of arriving for an emergency cesarean.

When my neurological condition first developed , the first consultant I saw missed the diagnosis (arguably understandable as it is unusual) and so deemed it psychosomatic (not okay at all). It seems to have contributed to a delay in my eventual correct diagnosis, as it was given credence for a while.

Some of these examples are horrifying and I’m so sorry for those of you who have lost loved ones.

These examples are more than NHS mismanagement, funding, lack of resources though. They’re about a culture of arrogance, prejudice, narrow-mindedness, misogyny, lack of care amongst some clinicians who miss / ignore the golden rule of listening to the person / relative.

My mother who was an nhs nurse couldn't get an appt with her doctor who just kept writing out sick notes for her without seeing her as they presumed her neck pain was from an old injury
She died of throat cancer
This was pre-covid

Gosh there are some horrific things on here @BunsyGirl What are the implications of Scarlet Fever if antibiotics are not given? Myself and DD had it and I can't remember DD being given them. I had it badly twice as a child, ill for ages many years back & doubt I had antibiotics.

Went to GP after a fall because i was in agony with my back. He prodded my lower back briefly and announced that I had torn a ligament and gave me Tramadol for a month while it healed.
Pains continued for months, kept going back to the GP who kept saying ligaments take a long time to heal.
Started getting leg numbness when walking so went back to the GP who again said it was due to the ligament damage.

This went on for years. The problem just got worse and worse.
Eventually my GP retired and a new GP started at the surgery. My surgery only ever had one GP in it as its quite a small clinic in a small village.
New GP said prob wear and tear from my job but because I had a previous injury he would arrange an xray (this was 4 years later).
Xray came back showing I had a spinal fracture which had caused my lower spine to slip forward and had caused irreversable damage.
I may need surgery in the future to fuse my spine if it slips further.
All of this was confirmed with an MRI.
My GP missed a spinal fracture and left me in agony for years because he was too lazy to organise an xray.

Also had a fractured collar bone which was missed by 2 hospitals. Sat in A&E for god knows how many hours where eventually an orthopaedic surgeon reviewed my xrays and announced there was a clear fracture which had been missed for 3 weeks.

@Okaaaay
Out of mere coincidence DH is a GP, but when starting out he had a surgical placement with the consultant who did my original operation, at the time we hadn't been together very long.

The surgeon was an absolute arse and made two errors just in the time period DH worked under him, both he brushed under the carpet. He was extremely arrogant, and loved to tell people how they felt, DH said he'd say 'and this is Mrs Smith, and she's feeling excellent for a day 2 post op, aren't you Mrs Smith, very well' and then would move on.

This sadly reminds me of my old neighbour, she kept going to the doctor insisting there was something seriously wrong with her, she was prescribed antidepressants. She paid for a private scan and it found she had ovarian cancer. She died a few months later aged 29.

A few years ago I rocked up to a&e with horrific stomach pain and vomiting. After a 4 hour wait the dr told me they were too busy to deal with a stomach bug and to go home and that I never should have attended- no tests or examinations. Less than 12 hours later my appendix ruptured and I almost died from peritonitis. I lived alone at the time and luckily my Dad had stayed over to keep an eye on me otherwise I probably wouldn’t be here to tell the tale.

In fairness I did get an apology from the A&E dr and apparently the surgeon that operated on me went ballistic with them!

I think GPs may well be doing themselves out of a job in the very long run. Those who can afford it are already in effect self-referring to private specialists, and there is talk of reforming the system so that it is no longer so reliant on overstretched jacks-(quacks?) of-all-trades. I’m not saying GPs have a cushy number job-wise, but I suspect they won’t do well out of any reforms that need to happen.

@RegardingMary how horrendous.
How are you now?

Not as horrific as some of these misdiagnoses but I was under investigation for breast cancer in 2020.

Had a phone call telling me all clear, back on the 3 yearly mammogram. I jumped for joy.

Two days later I had another phone call telling me I had suspicious masses in my breast and needed an operation to analyse the mass. I had that and though all clear then (🤞) I'm on a yearly mammogram for the foreseeable future as each time they find more to investigate (they insert a marker each time).

I'm dreading going back next week to find out why I've suddenly got recurrent scream out loud pain in the scar area two years later.

nixnjj- a family member has those symptoms along with the occasional tightness in the chest. Would you mind telling me how they they came to the conclusion that depression was part of it too please? Can this be an aside symptom of a heart condition if that makes sense? Thank you.

My mum. Was told that her constant headaches, confusion, sickness and year long nausea along with more and more frequent falls, at age 56, was because of stress.
She explained she wasn’t stressed and wanted an mri. Was told she was wasting their time. Was made to feel embarrassed and ashamed for asking for help. She saw several different GPs at a small village surgery who all chatted among themselves about her and they’d all written her off before even seeing her. Even when she begun coughing up blood, she was told it was anxiety. When she lost the entire feeling and mobility of the right side of her body, she was once again told stress. She wasn’t working at this stage and was practically bed bound. She was not stressed about anything other than being listened to by health professionals. This went on for 18 months. 9 different GPs all at that one surgery.

It wasn’t until dad called an ambulance that the paramedics said this was not stress. They knew it was something serious.

It was and unfortunately she passed away because her cancer wasn’t caught in time and had become metastatic and spread so much.

Less than three months after my
mum’s Hospital diagnosis a little boy attended the same surgery with his mum. Pre Covid. The mum was berated for bringing a sick child to the surgery (kind of defeats the whole idea of seeing a dr really?). Was told her son had a headache and to take him home and stop being melodramatic. Unfortunately the child had meningitis and later passed away in hospital.
Guess what, those doctors are still to this day practicing after speaking to the mother of a dying child like that and treating my
mum the way they did. It’s infuriating that they have required no further education or altered their bedside manner.

These are reasons that gps will be automated, there is AI that is already much more accurate at diagnosis.

It seems fairly normal to me to cough when spraying deo or perfume. We were talking about it at work the other day and the majority of women said they held their breath while spraying. Fragrance is an irritant so of course it'll make you cough.

My experiences are not NHS, but misdiagnosis and mistreatment happens everywhere :( Women specifically are often dismissed when they report pain.

In Australia - Dr felt I had Bells Palsy but it was late on a Friday and she wanted me scanned to rule out a stroke so sent me to the ER. Waited hours, did not get a scan or steroids for Bells Palsy. Instead I was sent home with eye drops. Went back to my Dr on Monday who was furious. I did have Bells Palsy and I was told if I had gotten the medicine sooner I wouldn’t have had such severe symptoms for so long

In USA - 32 weeks pregnant and having pain. I went to my Dr who said I was having contractions and sent me to hospital. Hospital said I was in false labor. I asked repeatedly for pain medication and was mocked by the nurse who said it’s only Braxton Hicks contractions which don’t hurt and asked me how I was going to give birth if I couldn’t handle false labor. Hours of writhing in pain before I’m told I’m passing a kidney stone. Which, for the record, hurts like hell!

I had classic symptoms of heart failure.

But I was a fat (if very active, walking 10 miles most days) 28 year old, on benefits, on a council estate, suffering depression.

It took two years to get from the GP who thought I was having panic attacks and gave me sleeping pills to deal with waking up at night unable to breath and the constant wheezing... via the GP who ignored an enlarged heart on a chest x-ray, a positive response to a heavy dose of diuretics, nearly dying of flu twice (yes really!), and then eventually getting treatment for the long ignored (didn't have the right numbers) hypothyroid and serious b12 deficiency...

To an Endocrinologist who listened to my heart and found the murmur, sent me to the specialists who found the dead bits of my left ventrical and put me on the right meds..

And then the surgeons who got all excited... until the probability of Ehlers Danlos meant surgery wasn't a sensible option, and then I wasn't exciting any more.

I've lost mobility, independence, a lot of years - I am likely to die from a massive heart attack... whenever (I was given a generous ten years about 12 years ago now).

It is hard not to think that had this been spotted earlier - and I have had several drs point out that the murmur and malfunction will have been there all my life... gradually getting worse, and my records show multiple red flags for Ehlers Danlos if anyone had cared to look - i might be a smidgen better off.

But they didn't listen, they didn't believe my history, they decided I was just fat and lazy.

You can't live life based on 'what if' though.. so I just get on with it.

Oh and my sister was recently DX with the same heart issue but no other obvious expression of EDS...

It took 3 weeks from first onset of heart failure symptoms to dx and gold standard medication plan.

She has a different GP to me so it wasn't that they knew about me - she's just not fat.

NC for this.

This story on the BBC today resonates with my own experience:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-61634898.amp

My parents realised I was deaf aged about 3, after I stopped responding to being called and my speech becoming affected etc. They struggled to get a diagnosis. I was sent to a local clinic where they dropped a dictionary behind me to see if I reacted to the noise. I reacted to the vibrations and turned my head. ‘She’s not deaf, you’re a neurotic geriatric mother.’

I went to school. The teacher agreed with my parents I was deaf and helped them lobby again for a diagnosis. The same consultant shook his head at my mother. ‘You should have brought her 18 months ago. We see these children too late.’ Mum gave him a piece of her mind and never trusted doctors again.

In this little boy’s case, he responded to a visual stimulus. I can’t believe that, 50 years apart, we’re still seeing failure of appropriate diagnosis Deaf children.

I had an awful experience a few years ago - I had all the textbook symptoms of anemia yet it took six GP appointments and probably as many visits to the walk in before they even agreed to test my blood.

The last appointment - I literally took a list of my symptoms in that could have been copied from the nhs page on anemia. I felt absolutely terrible and essentially had no life due to the severity of the symptoms.

GP told me I was depressed and wanted to give me antidepressants. I never cry, but I burst into tears and she reluctantly agreed to test my bloods.

I was one point away from transfusion levels, vit D and B12 were practically non-existent. Took me months to recover and I'm dread to think what would have happened if I hadn't cried in the appointment!

On the other hand, the NHS were fantastic when my mum was seriously ill recently. They absolutely saved her life.

This is absolutely disgusting. The way the medical profession gaslight & blame patients for their own errors is so so wrong. Makes me so angry & sorry for your & others experiences on here. It is truly shocking.

Boyfriend’s mum repeatedly went to the Dr with weight loss, nausea, upset stomach. Repeatedly refused any investigations, said it was probably IBS. It was pancreatic cancer and she died.

I live in Australia. A few years ago I had a chesty cough for a couple of weeks and felt generally under the weather. Went to dr. Was immediately sent for chest x Ray, put on prednisone, told to come back if it didn’t clear in 3-4 days. It did. All was well.

my DH had periods of quite severe blood loss from his anus, blood in stools, agonising pain. Immediate colonoscopy and endoscopy under GA. Diagnosed with piles and they also found a couple of polyps while he was there. Treated and back to normal within a month.

A year ago he cut his thumb very badly washing up a knife. Went to ER, they kept him in, he had microsurgery that day and was home that evening.

My son recently had a random allergic reaction to something. Not anaphylactic, just a load of hives. Took him to ER (it was a Sunday so GP closed). Was seen in 10 minutes, treated, given follow up appointment with GP. Now am booked in for allergy testing at GP hub.

Healthcare in Sydney is amazing.

Totally agree with this. It’s unfit for purpose in so many ways & needs a dramatic overhaul. We are incredibly lucky to have a national health service but structural & systemic change in the way healthcare is provided needs to happen.

I have so many more examples of excellent (what I consider normal!) healthcare in Australia.

1. The fact that my gestational diabetes was picked up as every pregnant woman is tested even though I had no risk factors or symptoms.


2. The blood tests every two years to pick up anything early and also to establish a “health base line”


3. I had a prominent vein in my breast - ultrasound the next day


4. I book appointments with my GP online, I can book in for the next day if necessary


5. My GP can do things like minor suturing, so when my son cut his head open we went there and he had it done with zero wait.


6. My GP will do appointments over the phone or in person, whichever you want, so no need to attend for prescription refills etc, it just gets emailed to you.

All of this is free - we also do have private healthcare which paid for births in private hospitals but normal day to day healthcare is free. We do pay for prescriptions but if you reach a “threshold” (like I did when I was pregnant with scans and things) everything after that is free, so you’re not penalised if you’re chronically ill.

When DH and I think about moving back to the U.K., one of the things we actually consider is, which country do we want to approach older mid life and onwards healthcare in?

Having said all that, my parents have a mini surgery/GP centre near them and it sounds really good. However, my dad has suffered with on and off deafness which they put down to old age, but he had an episode when he was in Barbados of all places, went to the Dr who gave him an a antibiotic and an ear clean out and it went away completely!