Are they all hiding in a fucking fridge?

[noblegiraffe]

The government? Where is the leadership? The reassurance that the problem is being addressed with urgency? Cobra meetings? Horrendous stories coming out of A&E departments right now.

Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary today announced on twitter that people should download the Couch to 5k app to reduce pressure on the NHS.

twitter.com/stevebarclay/status/1609957311610556416?s=61&t=rHTkCD1w_H9OmH9UB2E4UQ

Do your fucking job, Steve. And Rishi, show some leadership. You bloody wanted this job so badly, where have you gone?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64142614

I understand getting people so fed up with waiting lists that they go private, but there isn’t a private option for A&E is there?

This awful situation doesn’t seem to be putting money in any private company’s pocket.

We don't have a functioning government. We have a bunch of people out for themselves and what they can take from the country.

They are a bunch of the worst scrapings humanity has to offer in my opinion. Richi Sunak thinks we are automatons put here to make him and his mates richer, hence the drive for productivity to increase, yet wages, health care and standards of living decreasing ever faster.

The whole bunch of Tories are as bad as each other, they obviously agree as they are doing jack shit about it.

it’s terrifying.

Anyone who thinks the nhs is functioning and that we are safe is deluding themselves- which is almost a tempting approach because I’m utterly terrified and feel (know) my children are in danger in the current system.

This is what the country voted for. Or rather a proportion of the country voted for and saddled the rest of us with the results of their stupidity.

You really think a government minister in a car crash will be held in a queue outside A&E?
Boris supposedly had a bad bout of covid but somehow although taking up an icu bed didn’t even need cpap.

I’m alright Jack, then?

Yes, I agree. Thatcher did it with railways, electricity and gas.

They've been doing this for the last 10 years with the NHS. What's callous is letting 500+ people die a week. Then again, it doesn't impact them or their friends, does it?

Horrendous that we'll see it happen before our eyes

We're all aware the Government don't give a shit but just pointing out there are still amazing parts that work well.

there aren’t amazing parts of the nhs working well anywhere. There are some fortunate cases in an ocean of inadequacy.
And people are dying.

A few anecdotes from the past year:

My daughter took an overdose. Potentially due to psychosis. No ambulance available. Care was not good enough- lack of staff meant her life-saving drip was not set up properly and not checked for hours.
Not entitled to camhs or any psychiatric care. Discharged from the system before she got any help at all.

My son had scarlet fever. GP had to be persuaded to prescribe antibiotics. Pharmacy had none.

Other daughter suffered a head injury at school; passed out. Ambulance- 7 hour wait. Said to drive her in. Luckily I was close by and could do so.

My brother had a heart attack. His partner was told not to move him. He was a Category A call.
Over two hours for an ambulance to get to them. On a target of, what, 8 minutes? Something is very broken. He's alive. Thank God. He's not even 50.

Someone I know fell down the stairs, broke her leg and couldn't get up, in too much pain to be moved into a car. She waited six hours on the floor for an ambulance. Friends grandma fell over at home last week, friends grandad couldn't loft her and every time he tried she was screaming in pain and a broken hip was suspected, she waited five hours for an ambulance. Someone I work with had a suspected heart attack, she sat in a waiting room in A&E for nine hours, was told by a doctor in the waiting room in front of everyone that her bloods showed she'd had a heart attack but she didn't appear to be in immediate crisis so she should go home and ask her GP to refer her for a cardiology appointment.

I am lucky with my gp surgery looking at some comments on here, and we have a reasonably good hospital

however what needs to happen is people taking accountability, stop smoking if you have lung issues, lose weight ( and I say that as someone who needs to do just that) stop going to the doctor for every tiny thing, speak to pharmacists ( who should be allowed to prescribe antibiotics for some things such as infected bites)

The nhs is a mess, the government does need to do something immediately, but it can’t continue, there needs to be change within the nhs to automate, streamline, move more back to the community so bed blocking doesn’t happen.

These stories are awful and terrifying. No one knows that they are safe from needing emergency help.

If A&E say only go with life threatening emergencies, then what happens to those who are severely but not life threateningly injured? Broken bones, like a poor PP?

The government are deliberately running it into the ground so that the public will agree with them when they say "the NHS is broken, we need to privatise it in order to fix it".

They're the ones who have broken it and they're the ones who will profit from "fixing" it.

What are you supposed to do with a broken leg/arm/hip? It's not life threatening...?

And how are non medically trained members of the public supposed to know if their issue is life threatening or not?

The British government is making the choice to let British people suffer and/or die.

It could be our mums laying in their own urine on a trolley in a corridor.

How have we let things get so bad in this country?

My 86 year old husband is currently in hospital. On Friday 2pm GP said dh needed an ambulance . It arrived at 9.30 pm. The paramedics were wonderful which was just as well as dh was in that ambulance for 17 hours! He was transferred to corridor inside the hospital still tended by paramedics who took over when the first team ended their shift, He finally got to a bay at 3pm on Sunday and to a ward at 10 pm that night. He was moved twice more and is currently in a bed in the annex to yet another ward at 6pm Monday. I lose track a bit.
Throughout every member of staff has been pleasant, professional and, above all, gentle and caring. When I left last night there were 18 ambulances queuing outside A&E.

Yes, OP. Hear hear. Of course not every interaction with the NHS is a disaster - by any means - but that doesn’t mean it isn’t in the most desperate crisis, and our supposed leaders are MIA. The ambulance crisis (amongst others) is utterly disgraceful for a supposed first-world country. My uncle collapsed with a heart attack in a central Cambridge street in the middle of the day. ETA for an ambulance was no less than 7 hours. My aunt was advised by the dispatcher to download the UBER app and take him to hospital herself. Fortunately a kind passer-by procured a taxi. Good citizens somehow bundled the patient into the cab, Addenbrookes were great, and uncle will be OK. Is Steve Barclay therefore entitled to say there’s nothing to see here? Of course not.

I myself was left at home alone with a pulmonary embolism. Sorry, no emergency care available unless you can make your own way to hospital. Don’t call back as the service is overloaded. Stay at home to protect the NHS. Blah blah. After a second pulmonary embolism they did admit me to hospital, coughing up blood, but again it was UBER who got me there. Nothing to see here. Enjoy your holiday, Rishi.

I think I really does depend on where you live.

I had a horrendous stint in A&E before Christmas. 10 hour wait to be seen, people curled up on the floor.

Then in a different county my mother was seen in 24 minutes. A scan within two hours, admitted within 4 hours. MRI the following day, minor surgery the day after and home for tea that same day. Unbelievably quick for the NHS.

Still, at least we have those 40 Boris Johnson new hospitals and the Brexit £350 million a week, otherwise we'd be in a right mess.

I was in and out of A&E with a broken bone in 1.5 hours last month, but it was absolutely rammed and I was horrified. One lady I spoke to had been there for 8 hours and she looked so poorly she could barely keep her head up. So the people posting good stories are very annoying and the reason why we as a country are putting up with this shit care. Instead of saying "this is bad and needs to change" people are saying "but I'm all right, Jack" 🙄

Absolutely. And I'm getting my daughter a unicorn for her birthday ☺️

There was a thread on here where someone's elderly aunt was waiting 36 hours for an ambulance with what was likely to be a broken hip.

Why you posting this here like they read here? Go @ them on twitter or email their PA’s

I think until people have seen it with their own eyes they can’t comprehend it. 27 hours in A&E with elderly relative with flu (which turned into pneumonia) was horrific. She had to sit in a chair for 27 hours at the age of 85! We were stuck in a tiny mental health room with other people positive for flu. She needed an ecg but didn’t get one because there was nowhere to do it! There were people everywhere, being treated on trolleys and chairs in the corridors. Zero dignity for anyone.

Who made you thread police? People are allowed to talk and share concerns. If you don’t like the threads here, try NetMums.

Totally agree. They know they are going to get voted out but want to make loads of money for them and their friends by privatising it all before they go.