To be scared the NHS won't go back to 'normal'? Does anyone actually know if it will?

[leafyclover]

I'm not sure if this is a case of unreasonable or not or it's just my anxiety. Also, I'm not trying to start a political bunfight nor am I NHS bashing, I'm genuinely scared.

I'm on a low income. I can't afford any form of private healthcare.

After being lucky enough to be in relatively good health most of my life, I've recently developed a gynae problem related to my births years ago. I'm in a lot of discomfort every day and it's causing symptoms which are really impacting on my life and I don't know how much longer I can continue to do my job like this.

I've been to my GP who has referred my to the hospital, but she says it will be at least 8 months, possibly even a year. A YEAR!! To even speak to a consultant?? Then presumably waits for tests etc before I even start any treatment??

I'm almost more depressed about this than I am about the condition. I remember being annoyed about waiting 8 weeks 16 years ago.. It feels so incredibly unfair and scary that I am mid 30s and could be looking at years and years of my life like this until I get treatment.

Please tell me that this is temporary backlog and things will get better..

I am so down about it and scared for the future.

It won't get better while the Tories are either power as they clearly favour a private healthcare system, which is rather terrifying. The sooner they are out the sooner we can start to save the NHS. It may not be working well at the moment, but that is by Tory design to make people think private is the only way to go. It is definitely not. The NHS is one of the remaining great things about this country and should be protected.

Society is aging--it isn't going to get better.

At some point, hard choices will have to be made about how much society is going to do to keep extending the lifespans of very elderly people in poor health.

COVID has turbocharged these issues. Marriage and birth rates have dropped, obesity has risen.

God knows who's going to be staffing wards by the time I'm old.

Don't rely on "immigrants" either; birth rates are tanking in almost every part of the world including middle income countries like India and the Philippines. The only place where birth rates are falling more slowly is sub-Saharan Africa, which produces few skilled workers and has serious medical worker shortages of its own; it's not ethical to strip-mine places like Nigeria for every last nurse and doctor they have.

No easy solutions, frankly. Hopefully technology will streamline SOME things.

Wales gets a bloc grant and can spend as they see fit but can do nothing about staff training policies, their aging population nor have the tax rising powers to fund more new build, Wales isn't a separate country.

Scotland has a slightly lower waiting list than England.

The NHS wherever it is in the UK is appalling.

Though the Tories could take more money from poorer Wales to fund NHS services in England, they haven't already.

I used to think the Tories did indeed want a privatised healthcare service but now i doubt that is the case at all.

I suspect they don't actually care what happens and have no idea how to even begin to improve it (even if they wanted too)

Take their recent Healthcare bill, zero help for the crisis in Social Care, despite that being a mainly privatised service, same with GPs, private service contracted to the NHS, again, nothing.

Good for you.

I fat

Think AndreaC74 is right. Running down NHS by Tories is not willful destruction. It's willful neglect. Didn't Tories continue to oppose NHS for like 20 years after it was founded?

Similar to national minimum wage, it was still Tory party policy to oppose that for at least 10 years after it was introduced.

The NHS has been deteriorating for years under all governments. It needs a cross party solution. Unfortunately it's a useful political football for all parties so that's not going to happen.

I’m so sorry. That’s awful.

It was. I moved in here under labour government and everyone warned me not to stop insurance back in my country because I will need it... My gynae told me many of our women travelled back there to give birth because it was not great here. The atories just got worse under tories, but issues were famous (at least abroad and amongst immigrants) even under Blair and Brown.

I was put on a waiting list for ‘urgent’ surgery in December, told by surgeon that she fully expected me to be operated on in 8-10 weeks as that was her usual wait time. I eventually had surgery at the end of June - a massive 29 weeks later - in which time I needed numerous GP appointments and courses of antibiotics because the problem kept re-occurring and getting infected. This is despite the link above saying average wait time for treatment for that department is 16 weeks 🤷🏼‍♀️

Also waiting from first week of January for an appointment for an injection in my jaw as the next step in treating TMJD; this was having waited from May 2021 to January 2022 for a follow up appointment that should have been 3-4 months. And, after waiting best part of 6 months for the appointment to come through, I rang the consultant’s secretary who said I was sent a letter in April stating they have no clinics at all this year for joint injections so I was being added to the list to wait for one - I never received a letter or I wouldn’t have been ringing to ask what was happening!! Turns out, not for the first time, that a member of staff in the department stuck a load of outcomes on the computer system without doing the actual work so patients were either told they’d not replied to letters asking them to book appointments therefore had been referred back to their p; or hadn’t received letters telling them they were placed on hold until they can get the service up and running again.

Those issues aren’t as a result of funding but poor admin management and then having to undo the mess created by someone not doing their job properly.

Add to that, where we are we live under one county but are treated by a hospital in the neighbouring county (which is 1 hours journey away as opposed to the county hospital which is best part of 1 1/2 hours or more away!!) - and, for various services, the CCG (or whatever acronym it’s currently known by) refuse to fund some treatment out of county - so I’ve had the referral, the investigation and been told what treatment I need; the surgeon who did the investigations and made the diagnosis would have had me in for surgery within 3 months had I lived over the border but he had to write to my GP and ask them to refer me to the only hospital in my county for them to arrange the required treatment (major surgery). I now have a minimum of 44 weeks wait for me to get to the top of the waiting list for an appointment at that hospital and then they will probably want to repeat the same investigations as they’re likely to be a year old by then (if I’m lucky!) and then I’ll be added to yet another waiting list!!

Mind bogglingly crap.

The NHS really doesn't help itself sometimes and that's why endless money in it's own won't fix this .

@Rememberallball that is so crap! Poor you!

Although it does solve a little mystery for me -- I referred DD to the local foot service when she was a toddler, heard nothing and eventually received a letter saying they'd discharged her as I hadn't responded to appointments being offered - now I understand what may have happened! I have now spent £££ on physio for her privately.

@Phineyj, I’d do a parental DSAR request to the hospital to get all your daughter’s records relating to that service (and associated ones) specific information all letters, test results, X-rays and medical notes - that would highlight whether or not an appointment had been offered to her!!

I'm no Tory fan but having worked through the 2000s in healthcare development the Labour Party were equally complicit in pushing through with privatisation initiatives. Yes. Started by the Tories but Tony Blair & Gordon Brown could have reversed it. They didn't. Billions was wasted with PFI agreements in the 2000s while Labour were in power.

The NHS was already dire, there’s no improving it.

It can be a wonderful service, when I’ve had unwell DC in the past they were thorough, carrying out all the tests to check for more sinister stuff than what turned out to be infections/viruses. This was once I’d gotten past the gatekeeper receptionist at out of hours of course, who couldn’t see that a 6 day old unresponsive baby shouldn’t be seen asap. Another time, DC asthmatic intervention and 3 ambulances turned up immediately. I am virtually 100% confident that they’ll always move mountains to attend to unwell children.

The overall system though, and the processes, dire and in the dark ages. They’re basically exclusively paper based! Forms can’t be emailed, prescriptions can’t be. Paperwork at hospitals has to be done on paper. Why? Why hasn’t this been moved into the 21st century?

And for every excellent member of staff, you will have at least one who can’t be bothered, who does the absolute bare minimum.

I’ve had great service, but rarely use it

I did see what an overfill labour ward was like with dd which wasn’t great for one woman in particular- told not to push and no assessment, I would t have listened

I’m really late to it but finished watching This is Going to Hurt last night, thought it was really good and an eye opener (yes a programme but still)

Over full..

@wonkylegs This doesn't have something to do with a company beginning with S does it? They turnover in excess of £1bn but have appalling service and have failed every single person I know who has had contact with them at some point. I am thinking I might have to change to a consultant hundreds of miles away to find a hospital which hasn't contracted with this company to supply drugs to patients at home.
Contracts worth billions paid for by the nhs....outsourced to companies that dont' have the infrastructure to cope.

There can be no cross party agreement because both parties have diametrically opposed views.
This is perhaps why the Europeans are so much better with their healthcare provision, they are used to coalitions and working together.

@CornishGem1975 all very well this constant criticism of PFI but without it, we'd have had no new hospitals throughout the 2000s and the Tories have built no news ones, so where would the NHS be now?

I would like Tory supporters to tell us all where are the 5000 GPs promised (Cameron 2015) and where are the 48 new hospitals promised 3 years ago by Bojo?

Have any plan permissions been sought? or plans drawn up? or is a Hospital now 3 portacabins turned into a knee replacement centre????

@AndreaC74 Oh I'm not criticising it really - though it's created a lot of debt - but just pointing out that getting rid of the Tories isn't going to be the golden answer to fixing the NHS, as all parties have played their part.

@SammySueTwo I know who you mean they used to be H@H (and used to supply another drug for me) but nope mines with Alcura which is owned by Walgreens/Boots
They are both bad unfortunately.

I think the current situation is down (in the main) to 3 things the Tories did.

a: Removal of AHP/Nurse bursary
b: *cutting NHS funding to 1% above inflation for 10 years, the historic average is near 4%.
c: freezing (or 1%) NHS pay.

*Funding is better now but its only just been put in place.

Labour have yet to state their NHS policies in a manifesto, will be interesting to see what they will do.

I think it’s the model that’s broken. It just doesn’t work. I have my team chasing the company all the time and I’m always late getting my drugs so condition worsens. Added stress for the NGS teams who are vastly overworked as it is.

It has nothing to do with any political party, and it is not new. It needs fundamental change to bring in an insurance-type system that encourages citizens to take some responsibility. Sadly, none of our current politicians are brave enough to acknowledge this.

We're severely over-populated already - with nearly four million more coming in from HK soon.

if you really believe we're at 70m, you're insane. I reckon it's nearly 100m now. It was around 90m back in 2000 when I worked at the head office of a major UK supermarket and was told this by one of their top level execs (based on unique credit and debit card use in store.)

It's not going to change. If you can't pay from now on, you suffer and/or die.