When did the NHS make a difference to you?

[tryingtobenice3]

what was a time you had a positive experience with the NHS? Or was there a time the NHS helped you or a particular HCA, doctor, nurse etc did something that made a massive difference to you?

Obviously there’s been a lot of posts on here recently about the state of the NHS- people unable to get a GP appointment, people waiting days in a&e, people unhappy with the treatment they’ve had (or lack of treatment in some cases) not to mention all the different opinions on the strikes. I’m not denying or pretending these problems don’t exist because it’s awful right now. I have so much respect for NHS staff right now- I have NO idea how you cope with it all.

I just thought it would be nice to have a thread on here with nice stories or times someone in the NHS made a difference to you. Just to have a positive thread in case it cheers anyone up or makes a difference at all.

I’ll go first- my GP surgery, which isn’t always easy to get appointments at, have been so supportive and amazing when I was unwell. I was seen on the same day and the GP was so patient and lovely meanwhile I cried because I was frightened and felt so unwell. I never felt like a burden and I’m sure she was tired and fed up and wanted me to leave so she could see her next patient, and I probably held up her day and clinic diary as my appointment took well over the time, but I never forgot how kind and sympathetic she was when I was so unwell. It made such a huge difference to me. I ended up getting sent straight to the hospital and admitted for a week and I probably would have been too scared to go had she not been so kind and supportive to me

I’m not pretending the NHS is perfect and I know this is not going to fix the problems that other people have had, and it won’t help the staff with how overworked and under appreciated, but I just thought it might be a nice idea to have a nice thread with nice stories to show nhs staff how much we really appreciate them☺️

I had a lovely gastrology consultant recently who has spent loads of time trying to investigate my IBS, intolerances, auto immune conditions etc whilst explaining everything without patronising and trying to refer me for other support
unfortunately no joined up working so I’ve not got much further as yet but hey ho st least I felt someone cared

Countless times. The one that stands out for me was the birth of my DS. I was very ill afterwards and the midwives took great care of me.
Today I had a smear. Might not seem much but imagine paying for cancer screening.
This is without the cancer treatment and surgeries which saved or prolonged the lives of family members.
The NHS staff deserve the upmost respect. The situation they're in now is no fault of theirs.
Millions of us rely on them and I'll be eternally grateful for their existence.

Not so recently but cannot fault the community rehab team who helped DF after his stroke
we gad involvement from OT, physio, SALT, dietician etc and they were amazing - supported us as a family and helped fight our corner

The adult mental health team have literally given me my life back. I was under them for four years and they never made me feel that I shouldn’t be, I was kept at the centre of my treatment and they held my hand as I slowly recovered from a psychotic breakdown. I’ve been discharged now but will be forever grateful to the psychiatrists and care coordinators who helped me.

They saved my life when I had skin cancer. It had started on the Cartiledge so I was very lucky.

3 births, 2 sections - miscarriage support, removal of pre cancerous cervical cells, inoculations, mammogram etc etc it's endless really

two that stick out - the care of DD3 when she had encephalitis aged 10 and the care of my mum when she had a heart attack

Saved both of my asthmatic children's lives.

My eldest would have lost his vision were it not for the cutting edge surgery he had aged 11. We had a few awful weeks where I really had to fight to get the treatment for him as it had only recently been NICE approved, and I looked into going to America (my home country) for it. Impossible. It was only available in a few teaching hospitals and would have cost something insane like $500K plus the cost of the hospital stay. Very few insurers there covered the surgery, as I learned from various forums, and without the NHS my son would be blind now.
In the end we travelled 90 mins from my front door and had this amazing vision saving surgery without any up front cost to us.

Less dramatic, but still wonderful to me, the same son had a ingrowing toenail that had to be operated on during Covid. The podiatrist gave me his number so we could Whatsapp him daily pictures of the toenail, so could monitor it without us having to come into the hospital.

Our GP calls my husband back on the same day/ next day when he rings about his underlying condition.

I delivered two healthy babies (not straightforward or excellent care admittedly, but safe and healthy)

The very lovely midwives and health visitors who CAME TO MY HOUSE to check on me and my babies post partum. My sisters in America can't quite get over that last one.

A 5 day stay with an abcess that could have turned septic.

Antibiotics

Pain relief

Flu jabs

Covid jabs

Stitches

Regular checks for my little one who is on the .25 centile for growth, to make sure he is developing well at his own pace (he is)

Every time we get a prescription filled

An an American, I am still astonished by how wonderful the NHS is. I may have just been lucky, but that's been my experience.

Every year since I turned 20.

There’s not been a year go by where I’ve not needed treatment (crohns) whether that be infusions, transfusions, resections, ileostomy, further resections, emergency surgery, colonoscopies (yuk to the prep). The team at my local hospital have been amazing, as have my GP surgery.

I’d be dead without it.

Local hospital saved my son - to be fair, if I'd left him go to bed with a view to seeing how he was in the morning, he'd have died, but they listened to my concerns when all I could say was my gut was telling me something was really wrong. He was regularly throwing up and had been for a number of days but were no other obvious symptoms. It would have been easy to dismiss me.

Many times! Most crucially when DD had her ruptured appendix removed. Amazing care from all personnel and I was so relieved to be allowed to stay on the ward with her--despite it being the middle of covid. Her birthday was the day after her surgery and the nurses gave her presents and cards....we take presents back to the children's ward now so they have something to give out to other children as needed. And they saved her life. I will always be grateful.

So many times. But especially the birth of my kids (one needed intensive care and breathing support from birth for a couple of weeks, the other was healthy but my wife had a huge bleed). In both cases our family was so well cared for we were so grateful. Also my brother's emergency mental health care when he was sectioned, my grandmother's care in her final days, my uncles ms care. My own many falls off horses, my sister's burst appendix operation. So so much to be grateful for. Beyond value. I can't express in words how much I hope my kids grow up knowing that the NHS can help them if they are in need....I am very frightened about losing that.

We lost a baby very late on in the pregnancy. A really shitty time made better by the staff looking after me. Every single person who was involved in my care was clearly incredibly well trained at dealing with the situation. Not once was I made to feel that it was 'just' a miscarriage. I can't speak highly enough of the nhs staff at our local hospital they got me through that time and the counsellor (sp?) I was assigned afterwards was fabulous too.

On another occasion the vagina physio I got after a nasty 4th degree tear was pretty good too!

They picked up that my son was grunting less than an hour after birth. Midwives arranged for a paediatrician to come and see him quickly and he was whisked off to ITU. I honestly just thought that he was making cute noises, and had they not noticed it, I think our outcome would have been much different. The care my son received on ITU was excellent.

My dd is now 31 but just 5 day after his 3 rd birthday he was bluelighted to hospital with bacterial meningitis. There was a paediatric team waiting for us as we got there , we knew which strain it was within an hour and they pulled the consultant out of bed - they saved his life that night . We were in hospital for 8 weeks and they could not have been kinder , more attentive or more determined that he would pull through . On Xmas day he got the biggest donated present of a stuffed polar bear which stood about 3 feet tall ! A nurse who used to be a hairdresser shaved his head for us after his
Operation so he didn't look silly , they gave us a
Side room with a camp
Bed in for me and then in the two years after he had every follow up and therapy he needed . They were all wonderful. He wouldn't be here today without that team of doctors and nurses and without the on call gp who came straight out and got the ambulance. We were in the childrens ward of Scunthorpe hospital within 13 minutes of the ambulance arriving - a journey that normally takes 35 mins.
I bet none of them still work there now but they were amazing.

During baby loss. I cannot fault any of the care I received during a hospital stay, childbirth and eventual loss of babies at 27 weeks. Was in hospital for about a month and it was pretty much all exceptional. Even when they were wheeling me over to the neonatal unit to give me the worst news of my life I was thanking the midwives, doctors, anaesthetist and others for trying so so hard to save my twins, and to give me really good care. It was really humbling and amazing. At a truly shitty awful time.

I have foot problems, I got an NHS GP appointment on the Thursday who referred me to a specialist who makes shoes and was seen the following Tuesday and my orthopaedic shoes are being made at the moment.

Dts born at 31 weeks. Apparently is £1500 a day to keep a child in nicu. Mine were in 36 days. They had to call 15 staff in to deliver them as they weren't expected. I was in hey for 24 hours. I will never forget the care we all had.

Emergency cs which saved my DD’s life
Appendicitis operation.
Brother cancer treatment very quick and efficient
I could go on.
🙏

The NHS is the reason I can still walk. I suffered a fracture that was missed when I attended urgent care in my home country, after the accident. Sent away with painkillers & told to attend my GP when home to arrange an MRI as they assumed soft tissue damage, like ligaments. My GP, the A&E team, then trauma orthopaedics, all worked together to identify a very serious fracture that needed surgery. If they hadn’t, and the fracture had been left, I would not have been able to walk normally on that leg ever again. Very good care when I was in hospital, especially attentive to my pain levels and a whole team of people worked to find me a pain medication that didn’t make me vomit. Outpatients have been good too, especially physiotherapy. I think the NHS is wonderful in an emergency, and if you’re already ‘in the system’ so to speak. It’s getting into the system, through initial appointments, ward admission, etc. that is often the difficulty at the moment.

I'd be dead, several times over now due to a recurring condition.
They were there through the dc births and illnesses, through dh current referral under 2ww, through his heart scare. My dsis is alive thanks to treatment she received, my db is alive because of his treatment.

I'm so glad we gave the NHS and it makes me fucking furious at the way the government is destroying it.

When I had massive health anxiety about my eldest son. He was 9 at the time but I was beside myself. Completely in my head but I couldn't see that. I went to the doctors while the kids were at school and cried that my son was dying. The doctor wasn't phased at all. Cancelled his appointments and sent me straight to school to get my son. I took him straight back to the Drs and he checked him over, gave him a clean bill of health, was so reassuring then made another appointment to see me about my health anxiety. 9 months id been terrified, lost 2 stone that I didn't have and he was just the nicest man. Changed my life. I've never been that bad since.

My gp surgery organised and ran the first two mass vaccination programmes for the local rural area. It went swimmingly well and involved other local practices. Ran over weekends and evenings. Our local mp was in the queues moaning about gps during this when local residents told him to f off.

Massively sorted out my back problem during lockdown via telephone appointment (which I preferred as I couldn't move) with a back up secondary plan if it didn't work.

Consistent manage my dh's rare ongoing brain issue.

GP massively helped son's physical issue including pushing referral for an issue school was convinced was psychological.

I could go on...

I have my 2 boys because of our nhs. One was an ivf miracle, hand made by my lovely embryologist and the other arrived by emergency section, without which there's a good chance he wouldn't be here now. Not to mention the effort that went into patching me up again after the significant blood loss I had.

Eternally grateful to have our NHS.

Saved DDs life on several occasions.

She's had medical care worth 100s of thousands in her 3 year life. Like pretty much everyone, we could never have afforded NICU, PICU, ventilators, blood transfusions, heart surgery, tons of medication if we were paying it privately.

I got the call on a Monday to say I had aggressive breast cancer
Saw the oncologist on the Friday
Was in surgery on the Wednesday

And I remember in the operating room, the nurse tucking the gown around me, to give me a little dignity whilst I was still awake. Such a small action but so impactive

And now, with post menopausal bleeding. Referred for suspected cancer on Tuesday, appt is on Friday