Are things in the UK really that bad?

[namechange10022002]

I’ve been living overseas for about seven years and I am lucky to have a very safe, easy, comfortable life here but for various reasons I really want to move back home to England. However I keep hearing about how bad the situation is over there, with the cost of living crisis, housing, energy bills, health service, etc. For example I was watching Triggernometry and the hosts were saying the next few years are going to be extremely difficult for everyone there. I was just wondering, is it really as bad as they say? If you never watched or read the news or looked at social media, would you notice the difference in your quality of life? What is the general feeling on the ground, so to speak?

I guess I just want to know if it would be a mistake to move back there.

If you never watched or read the news or looked at social media, would you notice the difference in your quality of life? What is the general feeling on the ground, so to speak?

The op asked for personal accounts though. So posters are saying how it is in their area, with people they know.

immigrant002
Do other European countries tell you to drive someone with a suspected heart attack to the hospital cause he is young and is probably fine and there are no ambulances

No idea - but this sounds like a plan;

Hospitals in France are to charge a fixed-rate sum of €19.61 from January 1 [2022] for patients who go to the accident and emergency ward (urgences) but are not then admitted to hospital.

www.connexionfrance.com/article/French-news/French-hospitals-to-set-flat-fee-of-19.61-for-A-E-care-from-January-1

Not something we should copy;
2018 Riot police clash with ambulance drivers in France...

www.standard.co.uk/news/world/riot-police-clash-with-ambulance-drivers-in-france-a4006951.html

In healthcare terms, the Commonwealth Fund ranked the UK 4th in its 2021 study of 11 countries - below Norway, the Netherlands and Australia, but above Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand, Sweden and the US); and placed it in first place for five years prior to that. The Legatum Index placed it 10th last year - below the Scandinavian countries, Germany, New Zealand and Ireland, but above Canada, France, Australia, Belgium, Spain and South Korea. The WHO reckoned it was 18th in performance terms - putting it still ahead of Ireland, Germany, Canada and Denmark.

Which tells us that a) hard data available to three renowned and internationally respected bodies led them to believe the NHS is not “appalling” and that b) performance ratings and statistical studies apparently aren’t reflective of anecdotes and people’s experiences on the ground.

If you earn a lot in the south east its fine.

If you are a teacher, nurse, police officer etc, your quality of life and standard of living has plunged in the last 5 years.

I would agree with PPs that its bad everywhere. My colleagues are in the US, germany & Switzerland and have many of the same concerns as us. Relatives live in Canada and Australia and say the same.

If I avoided mumsnet then it would really only amount to a bit of grumbling about rising food and fuel prices amongst friends and colleagues.

This. We live in an affluent area and the pubs and restaurants are full, the neighbourhood kids are racing round on brand new christmas bikes, lots of people are moving job and getting payrises.

immigrant002
Do other European countries tell you to drive someone with a suspected heart attack to the hospital

This doesn't sound good either -

November 2022
A man with a suspected heart attack was forced to spend three days on a chair in the emergency department of a major Dublin hospital

www.independent.ie/irish-news/man-with-suspected-heart-attack-spent-three-days-on-a-chair-in-hospital-emergency-department-42149339.html

Spy the Daily Mail reader.

My son lives in America, and they have a lot of the same problems, with higher prices, interest rates etc.

I don't know - I did the recession of the 70's, winter of discontent, as an adult, with rocketing inflation, interest rates, fuel and food prices, crap NHS, etc;

This recession doesn't seem as bad, although it might be for those who aren't old enough to have lived through the previous ones.

They pass in the end. It'll probably get worse before it gets better though.😗

Shortage of eggs is annoying

Life is pretty much the same as always here. Energy costs have gone up obviously but for us it is affordable, and none of my friends and living on beans and having to sit in the dark and cold house.

I needed NHS treatment recently and was seen the same day by the doctor, was referred and seen by a specialist about 10 days later and had minor surgery about 6 weeks later to sort out the problem. No long waiting times, all good.
If it wasn't for the media and people complaining on Mumsnet I wouldn't know that the UK was "a mess".

Cool, now look at the data of NHS waiting times compared to... its past self.

www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/chart-of-the-week-how-has-the-waiting-list-changed-over-the-years

And we can't even blame it on covid.

I really loathe the phrase “media scaremongering”. It’s the badge of the moron.

Juat assume for the sake of argument that the media did have an explicit mandate to “scare”, they would need content to back that up.

Yes of course the media cherrypicks angles and facts. But we have yet to reach the point where the media doctors pictures of ambulances queuing outside hospitals. Or invents quotes from extremely reputable and senior clinicians.

No, it's not. Because the cost of living in London and the SE is so high. For those on pensions or benefit/top ups, the disposable income for other regions is higher, because they are not regionalised.

Why weren’t they printing those photos 12-15 years ago of said ambulances? It was certainly happening then.

Sure. They’re much worse than they used to be. Waiting times aren’t the only determinator of a good healthcare system, though. If they were, we’d have to conclude that the US hits it out of the ballpark and offers the best healthcare model in the world. I doubt you agree with that conclusion (and nor does the broader hard data.)

Sure. They’re much worse than they used to be. Waiting times aren’t the only determinator of a good healthcare system, though. If they were, we’d have to conclude that the US hits it out of the ballpark and offers the best healthcare model in the world. I doubt you agree with that conclusion (and nor does the broader hard data.)

No sure about that, given the number of Americans for whom "waiting time" is basically "forever".

It really wasn't the case 15 years ago that ambulances were waiting 18 deep outside A&E departments. I remember there was a huge flap in about 2002 about a woman called Rose Addis who had a three-day wait in A&E. That was at the time considered a new low for the NHS, it was by far the worst thing anyone could remember in living memory, and dozens of such cases have happened this winter. You can tell how common it is by the lack of personalisation in the stories. No one is interested in the individual stories any more because they are too common.

Yes the media are sensationalist and love a bit of drama but they rarely completely pluck stuff out of thin air and if they ever do doctor photos it tends to lead to the resignation of editors (see Piers Morgan). So you can believe those photos of stacked up ambulances are accurate.

Oh I certainly do believe they’re accurate. I also believe what my father saw and went through for years as a paramedic having to wait outside A&Es with patients dying on board because there weren’t any beds. It is not new news. They weren’t 18 deep, no, there aren’t even 18 ambulances in some trusts. But it certainly was the case that they had lengthy waits outside A&E. People have lived this. They’re still living with it post retirement.

Well, precisely. Eligibility to access healthcare in the first place is one measure of a model’s success.

@BabyFour2023

If your dad was a paramedic I'm sure he witnessed some disturbing stuff and I'm sure there were harrowing incidents and I'm sure that did happen. But I'm sure that its more routine now than it was then.

Certainly primary care is in a far worse state now than it was 15 years ago. It didn't used to be a days-long battle to get seen by a GP then with no certainty you would get seen at all.

It's far, far worse in the last 6-12 months. Is your dad still working as a paramedic? I'm thinking not or he would be able to confirm this.

It probably is, which is awful!
There were support groups, therapy paid for by the service and suicide of staff members; all of which tells a very different side to the one currently portrayed.
thank you for your understanding. I am in no doubt that things are currently terrible and yes, probably worse than then. My point was just that ambulances queuing is not new. It’s difficult for those who served during those periods when this happened who were affected. It feels as though their experiences are minimised because the majority of people weren’t aware and because it wasn’t a news story.

Does that make it ok that it’s been happening for so long then? It’s not a race to the bottom.

I live in a UK touristy area that's pretty well sheltered from the overtly visible effects that people have mentioned. It's not really "real life" where we live in the national park and things have mostly carried on as normal here- sometimes I have wondered if there's a COL crisis at all among certain demographics, as it doesn't seem to have put them off spending at all.

We are used to having minimal and very patchy public services (as locals in a place with no council funding for such) so haven't necessarily noticed a downturn in something we never really had. Obviously we've been affected by strikes and food/energy price hikes like everyone else, but we're used to paying London prices for everything whilst earning NW wages so not much change there either.

Think my point is there are places where the bleakness isn't quite so obvious and if you're determined to move back to the UK then make it somewhere that attracts money, otherwise stay put.