To think the NHS is beyond repair?

[NHSisfallingapart]

DS has been unwell with chickenpox. A couple of the blisters looked like they might be infected. It’s a Sunday and the GP is closed, when I rand their after hours line it just goes dead. I rang 111 for advice at noon and have been waiting for a return pcall ever since. Someone rang me a few hours ago to ask whether I stil want to speak with someone. They could not provide an estimate of when I will receive a return call and told me it’s a 24 hour service and I may be called at any hour.

AIBU to think the standard of care provided by the NHS is inadequate? I suspect DS needs antibiotics and I can’t do anything about it.

It used to be nearly all care homes were local authority. Now there are virtually none left. We did not have the number of scandals in the past we now do.

Yes, our city had 3 large "homes" for convalescence, long term care, etc., which were either council or NHS owned. Trouble was that they were so old, they were falling down (literally) and were riddled with asbestos, so repairs/improvements were incredibly expensive. Repeat that all over the country and you soon see why successive govts have "contracted out" longer term care to the private sector. The three homes in question took years for the developers to clear out the asbestos and either knock them down and/or convert them into housing.

Same happened with the railways. They "had to" be privatised because the trains themselves (as owned by the nationalised BR) were so old, they all needed replacement over a relatively short time period because they weren't compliant with current H&S (disability friendly, sliding doors, tanks under the toilets, containing asbestos, etc) - successive Govt couldn't afford to buy replacement stock (at a cost of billions), so it was privatised to get access to private funding.

Likewise PFI for building new hospitals, etc as lots of older hospitals were unfit for purpose due to age, asbestos, layout, etc.

The international money markets are controlling the UK because of the national debt. For the Govt to build new buildings, buy new trains, etc., it just adds to the deficit and increases national debt, and money markets charge higher interest if we borrow too much. Hence why Govts subcontract out big spending projects so that the debt doesn't land on the Govt balance sheet, so the money markets aren't spooked and don't increase interest!

It's a lot more complex than just a govt saying "nah, we won't bother funding it" - and it's not just the Tories either. Blair/Brown tried all kinds of fudges to try to assure the money markets we weren't borrowing beyond our means, hence the vast amount of new schools/hospitals bought on PFI that the taxpayer will be paying for decades ahead.

That would be great to have at our local pharmacy

very true!
what the govt would like is for us to work as hard as we can (so that the rich & powerful can stay that way) until we start to decline and then just drop dead

Having just had my husband rushed in last monday for a pulmonary embolism straight into resus he has been discharged today home I want to say its not easy but I will take whatever system there is cos when we desperately needed them this past week they came through for us.We are very lucky and have nothing but praise for the medics,nurses,ambulance staff,caterers,ward assistants who all worked so hard. I am counting my lucky stars I got my husband home today,still not right but well on his way and so so much better.

I’ve name changed for this.

I am fed up of people saying in an emergency you’ll be rushed through. You won’t always. It happened to me last month.

I am not blaming the individuals in this situation because the care was good but the timescales were something else.

I have a chronic health condition that can deteriorate very fast. I’ve had many intensive care and high dependency admissions. If we can get on top of it quickly, I can prevent such a rapid down slide. Sometimes the meds I have at home to treat a flare up aren’t enough and this was one of those times.

I phoned daily for a GP appointment but I was 87th in the queue on one occasion. They closed the online request system as they’re so busy. I’m lucky, I like my GP surgery. The doctors are good and kind and the receptionists are helpful. They’re just really under pressure.
Due to waiting so long, I ended up in A&E. I spent 14 hours waiting for treatment and admission. They were overcrowded. They have cubicles in majors for each person but they had 3 people in my cubicle. People were vomiting, on oxygen or sharing drip stands. It was horrific.

I needed hourly monitoring which didn’t happen. I went 6 hours without obs and I had rapidly deteriorated by the time I got to the ward. They hadn’t had time to start the meds I needed desperately. I saw them rushing around, they were genuinely too busy to administer medication but I was illler as a result and ended up longer in hospital.

The NHS is under immense pressure. In the absence of any significant medical concerns, personally, I would not have called 111 for this. You waited a long time because it was low priority not because it’s “broken”. It was only one day until your GP surgery opened. There are other examples of failure of the system (not the individuals within it) but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with waiting such a long time for a phone call for a minor issue.