The state of the NHS right now is terrifying

[Faciadipasta]

I am feeling genuinely scared for us as a country health care wise. I was reading today about a chap who died of internal bleeding while his family were kept on hold to 999 for 10 minutes as nobody even answered the phone.
Then there are all the people who die while waiting for an ambulance to arrive, because they are all lined up.outside the hospitals unable to offload their patients.
People can't see a GP at all, so there are bound to be loads who are dying of things that could have been prevented if they'd been seen. Waits at A and E are enormous and they don't even have enough chairs so people with serious injuries or illnesses are having to just sit on the floors in the corridors.
We're actually starting to feel like one of those warzone countries that you see on the news and it is scaring me shitless.
I mean even in the US you wouldn't just be left to die because there was nobody to answer the phone although admittedly you'd probably end up bankrupt for paying back the care, but at least you wouldn't be dead!
I personally feel like we have no care, no safety net. And it's scary.
Will it get better? What can be done?

@Kendodd you might be sick of these threads but I started it and I didn't and have never bloody voted tory so you can piss off with that accusation. I also didnt vote Brexshit btw so you can't pin that on me either. And I have every bloody right to complain when we don't have even a basic level of health care in a large part of the country.

That is tough. Can he only work alone rather than team up with someone who drives? Unless his work is driving of course

I think there are multiple factors at play. Firstly there is a huge mismanagement of resources and the NHS is propping up where other services should . If social care was adequate the elderly ‘long stays ‘ wouldn’t happen there’d be less Falls and UTI‘s in the first place because someone would be keeping an eye on that old person . There shouldn’t be people rocking up to hospital with minor infections , small wounds and so on, these things can be managed on the advice of a pharmacist or practice nurse - the cost is literally the hourly wage of that professional x .25 ( say they take 15 minutes to sort it ) small clinics dotted about with a 24 hr pharmacy and a couple of HCPs - job done . The amount of outsourcing to private companies is huge - where I am , everything from MRI, ultrasound , colposcopy, physio , mental health - all referred to private companies who are presumably making a fair old profit and costing per patient much more than those clinics would to run.
perhaps if the doctors and nurses and other HCP’s we train were given a substantial write off of their student debt after so many years of faithful service then they wouldn’t all be buggering off to Australia or to private hospitals .
why are private companies ripping off hospital trusts for £££££££ for cleaning, emptying bins , delivering supplies , catering , cleaning windows etc etc . If they gave those jobs to local people and cut out the middle man they’d save a fortune and hospital staff would build up a sense of loyalty and pride so there’d be a culture of good ethics , reliability , low sick leave etc.
It all just needs a massive shake up and the government need to throw money at the doctors and nurses not to contracts and scams .

Oh please don’t waste your time, they will continue to repeat stereotypes to make their point. The other guy claimed someone had a burst appendix and they didn’t even let him through the door, what dribble.

I detest the way we can’t discuss our issues without the obligatory US this US that stereotypical comments.

Completely agree, you have every right to complain if you didn't vote for this shitshow. People who voted Tory then complaining about the state of the NHS, get zero sympathy from me.

Its like fishermen whinging about Brexit.
YOU GOT WHAT YOU VOTED FOR!

WTF?

I had emergency surgery last week for an ectopic pregnancy.

I arrived at A&E around 10:30pm and was admitted - I already knew the pregnancy was ectopic following a scan the day before but I now had shoulder tip pain and abdominal pain. No beds were available so I spent the night trying to sleep in the A&E waiting room. I was nil by mouth and had a cannula in. When we arrived there was a man in a hospital gown and with a cannula in who wtheas also spending the night on a chair in A&E before surgery. Some patients ended up leaving A&E due to the long wait. We spoke to a lady in her 90s who had been there over 9 hours. A&E was awful, so busy, and it wasn't even a Friday or Saturday night.

I wasn't able to get a scan until midday and this was then delayed an hour due to an emergency operation. When I got the scan there was internal bleeding and I was in surgery just over an hour later. Even though I was an emergency the nurses were stretched so thinly that I didn't have a gown when I was collected for theatre and the person collecting me was shouting at the nurses about this. I woke up from surgery at about 4pm and was so hot they had to remove my anti embolism stockings - I didn't get a replacement pair until midnight.

I was sent home the next day. It was so manically busy they didn't have time to do my discharge papers. I've been home over a week and still don't have them yet (they're being posted). They told me there was such a shortage of beds that they were in a mad rush to get as many of us out as they could because there was a backlog of ambulances outside with patients who had been in them for hours. So they didn't have time to discharge patients properly.

Very grateful for the treatment of course but it was eye opening to see how much pressure the system is under.

For balance, since I have complained so much, I agree with pp above that for acute care, the NHS is often wonderful. I have 2 friends who have got great care for cancer. They are on the mend now.

But the same old groups would likely be exempt from those charges. The elderly (the biggest users of the health service and wealthiest demographic), children, those on benefits. Leaving the poor sods in the middle being penalised yet again.

@Faciadipasta we’re in the East Midlands. I do appreciate our experience may not be typical though.

Many say they’d like it to be funded better. That’s us paying though.

If you want to pay more you can with private care.

I didn’t mind the NI rise and wanted it when others didn’t, although I get the younger generation saying no way.

But the current model is endless - increasingly unhealthy and ageing population, no matter who takes it on.

Cannot find en exact number but quite a few A&Es have been closed or downgraded since 2010

www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/05/07/hosp-m07.html

the Tories have really done a number on the NHS and the population - it already is fairly privatised it’s just that the cost isn’t direct.

Id like to know how further privatisation/direct payment will help? How can it help?

@MarshaBradyo

You cant pay privately for emergency care

Ask around before you switch imo. Good luck. I’m not sure why the one here is fine

It isn't' all bad. Certainly the issues with ambulances are scary but...

I'm a year past diagnosis with breast cancer. I had a regular appt 2 weeks ago. I pointed out that my annual mammogram was overdue, and was offered an appt yesterday.
I got there early expecting to have to wait, but was called in, all done and back in the car park by my booked appt time.

Two people hadn't bothered to show up for their appts. Wasting about £300 of NHS resource......

I think if you're in a city (I'm in London), you're more or less fucked if you're ill.

Say you've a chest infection. You try to 'do the right thing' and treat yourself with paracetamol. You might even speak to a pharmacist who will suggest a cough medicine. You're not getting better and start to wonder whether you might need antibiotics. You try the fastest-finger-first lottery every morning for 2 mornings only to finally get through and be given a GP telephone appointment in 10 days time. You try to say that it's an emergency and you're struggling to breathe and the receptionist tells you to call 111. You call them and they may or may not have a 'clinician' call you back. By the time the 'clinician' calls, you've deteriorated rapidly and require an ambulance. You arrive at A&E and by the time you're offloaded, you've pneumonia and require admission.

Can you see where the problem lies?????????????????????????????????????????????

Yes I’m aware what my private covers but it takes strain off NHS with other stuff. Not that we’re heavy healthcare users.

But if anyone wants to pay more because they feel funding is too low, there is a way. Funding isn’t just what other people pay, we all do (usually).

But we are all 'the poor sods in the middle' at one point.

As adults, from 18-67 we all pay in.

There is enough money for NHS, it's just that there's lack of proper management. That's the problem. Also, too much admin staff, too little medical staff.

pollymollydolly you are talking absolute shit about bank nurses. Bank staff get paid slightly over hourly rate of permanent staff because they don't get paid holidays or any sickness entitlement...if you averaged out the yearly pay (for bank work) it works out slightly less...the advantage to bank work is flexibility for the staff member (I'm permanent bank staff due to childcare I can assure you I'm absolutely not any better off than my colleagues and I'm in a much more precarious position in terms of employment... but I can pretty much choose my shifts to fit in with my kids and holidays so swings and roundabouts really).
Agency nurses (totally different from bank staff) do cost more. The NHS has to pay agency fees, and agency nurses get paid slightly more than permanent staff...as far as I'm aware agency is similar to locum work you get a higher hourly rate but no sickness or holiday entitlement (that may have changed as I haven't locumed for many years)
Problems in the NHS; old antiquated system which where never designed for our current population; recruitment and retention; poor middle and upper management; too many captains and not enough troops, layer upon layer of bureaucratic nonsense; constant bickering between the strategic health authority, GP practices and hospital trusts.
Constant shortfall between outgoing and incoming income (more complicated than simply inadequate funding).
The shutting down of community hospitals has meant significant bed blocking in the acute setting (again not just down to funding). The ridiculously notion of 'care in the community' hmmm because it's more efficient to have people being visited by carers, DNs, HCPs and GPS in their own home than under one roof in a community a hospital....well that worked well...not!
When the NHS was set up is primarily designed as preventative rather than cure now it's much more cure than preventative. We have a population with longevity, but that longevity is because the NHS has worked well and disease which previously would have killed people are now managed / controlled / cured so people are surviving into their 80s and 90s.
The NHS needs a huge overhaul, it's perfectly possible to do, just need the right people in power to do it. I don't just mean in government, I mean the chief execs of hospital trusts, the high level management within the strategic health authority, these people are paid huge sums of money, but they have forgotten to put the patient at the top of their priority list.

Yes I’m aware what my private covers but it takes strain off NHS with other stuff. Not that we’re heavy healthcare users.

Of course you're not heavy healthcare users. If you were, no private health insurance company would touch you.

@PolaDeVeboise

You're talking absolute shite.

The reason sickness rates in the NHS are bad is because staff are burnt out, mentally and physically. Caring for far more patients than safe, with less staff.

Of course it's right staff get paid sick pay that's in relation to their usual pay.

'Staff bank' is made up of mostly of staff with a substantive contract, there are a smaller percentage of staff working entirely on a bank contract. The vast majority of us use it to top up our wages. We get paid the same hourly rate as in our substantive roles and in times of crisis they may offer something like a 20% bonus (about £30 extra on a shift when tax is taken into consideration).

Why on earth you've decided to wade into an argument with such misinformed nonsense is beyond me.

There’s a lot that could be done to relieve the NHS with a healthier population though.

That and sorting out social care so beds can be freed.

pollymollydolly sorry mate I think I misquoted you, I think you were replying to another poster. I'm on the app and it keeps jumping about...huge soz for missing quoting you..I'm going back into my kennel suitably ashamed.

Fair enough @Faciadipasta - you’re right, we need to have these discussions. I suppose I just find it such depressing reading.

And yes I am irritated that apparently lots of people who have voted Conservative also appear to be shocked and outraged when they experience the consequences of an underfunded and struggling health service. I understand these consequences are difficult & even traumatic & life changing, but that is why we need to proritise the funding of our health & social care system - odds on we or our loved ones will all need to use it at some point.

(I am slightly more than irritated when I read posts stating that the NHS is failing due to lazy, incompetent staff, but I think it’s best to stop there.)