To feel angry at celebrating the NHS

[TaylorSwifting]

The NHS is falling apart and today people are all full of glee at the NHS yippee 75 years today, it’s making me so angry!!!!!!!!!
My family member has been diagnosed with cancer, 2 months down the line and has had no treatment and terrible delays for tests…..still yet to see an oncologist. 2 months!!!!!!!!! Family member only has pain management because us family have begged and fought to get it. It is an utter disgrace and I had no idea how bad things were until this awful diagnosis in our own family.
We are not alone / it hasn’t been a mistake or being lost in the system by accident! Record high cancer patient delays - this is what so many people are facing. I am in utter disbelief!
I won’t be celebrating today.

@Blossomtoes the Netherlands had the same issue. The difference was in how the money was spent. On the whole infrastructure - not just healthcare but also transport - has had so much more investment. Even from right wing governments. It's all about different priorities.

@BandyLionAndDurdock i agree with every word you have written but I don’t have faith in any of the main partners to deliver it.

Parties not partners

No they don’t.

They will have a matron who is responsible for that ward.

Yep. And the attitudes of SOME NHS staff doesn't help either. The whole thing needs reform. 🙄

No they won’t. They’ll have a Band 6 nurse. Matrons are Band 8s and there are very few of them. About six in the Trust I worked for.

There will be a band 6 junior sister who will report to a 7 who in turn reports to an 8
Those 8's will have a set of wards they are responsible for

How much more is an American doctor/nurse paid compared to their UK counterpart?

I'm with you. I had this fantastical image of the NHS - blown out of the water with DH's cancer diagnosis. Diagnosis was sort of straightforward.

But this is when the whole thing churned to a stop. Took from January 31st until May 11th to have the operation. With one complaint to PALS about the 2 cancellations, one when he gowned up with the DVT socks on.

He then has the op. We now have complications. He has not seen his consultant since the operation on 11th May and we have no idea if he still has cancer - now 5th July. He also has complications from his surgery which means he has a catheter now for 8 weeks again no word from his consultant. To be fair the local hospital has been pretty good and picked up the pieces from the main hospital where he had his op. But sitting in A&E twice with him, seeing the old people parked in their wheelchairs for hours with no one paying any attention to them has been eye opening and so very sad. The care has been removed from the system. Everyone is too busy to provide the basics and people are suffering.

That’s what I said. Matrons are 8s. So there isn’t one in every ward.

But there will be one who has responsibility for that ward

One isn't needed for each ward, just one who has overall responsibility for that ward

That isn’t what you initially said. You said there was one on every ward. There isn’t.

If the wards are full, where do you expect A&E to send people to? If there is no bed available how can an operation go ahead?
It isn't ideal, but what is the solution?

I work in the NHS, in one of the not-glamorous and not high profile service areas (adult LD - where I get to meet fantastic clients, families, carers and colleagues). Love my job, love my colleagues (it’s probably the first time in my life I’m accepted for being openly autistic and can use it as a strength) and love some of the work we can do. However the staffing holes where we simply can’t fill vacancies and bits where professional egos stop people getting the help they need really do fuck me off massively at times. Combined with the mess adult social care is in at the moment - we can’t do the job as well as we should be able to do.

Hate the fucking rainbows and viewing it as some kind of pseudo religion though - but what we created in it was remarkable.

I have been dodging all the birthday celebration stuff though - but office socialising stuff is never my kind of thing! Unless there’s cake, I can be convinced to be more sociable for cake.

This.

DD2 was born without an arm. In the USA I think the average someone in her situation has paid out by the time they're 18 is around $200k. A lot of insurance companies won't cover it as it's a "known condition".
For her, she's had between 1 and 3 prosthetics since age 6 months (and despite what you see in the media, the NHS ones are pretty good) even at the time she was growing so fast she was growing out of them in 2-3 months. They listen to what she needs and try and figure out a solution. She also gets physio, annual check-ups, OT, prosthetics and we haven't had to pay for any of it.

People won't realise what they had until they lose it.

The only people to blame are the government, I will be celebrating the nhs today as they have saved my life on numerous occasions.

That’s very good, but I would contrast that with the experience of kids with ASD, where DX is very delayed and no support when you get it - the attitude seems to be there is nothing which can be done. US does much better there.

If you saw me you would no doubt conclude that I am obese and therefore a drain on the NHS etc etc etc. What has actually happened is that I've had the misfortune to be born with a genetic disease called lipoedema, that due to NHS neglect over the past 35 years or so and the refusal of successive medical professionals to believe me when I disclosed what I eat, has progressed to stage 3 out of 4 meaning that I have huge disfigured legs and a chunky lower abdomen as I have it there too. My arms are better due to recent surgery. Given that my medical records show that at 13 I was being treated for bulimia and by 17 I was complaining of varicose veins, it's pretty obvious that I should have been diagnosed in my teens when the conservative methods of treating my disease may have stopped it progressing. As this was not the case, I had to sell my house early and use my half of the equity to fund 3 non surgical liposuctions, travel to Germany with my children and undergo very painful surgery alone and afraid, to try and stop me becoming disabled and immobile just like my mother has. I will now rent until I die and have no hope of owning my own home again. I will not celebrate an organisation that has forced me into poverty and forced me to travel abroad for the treatment I needed. The NHS is a national disgrace.

Was thinking this very thing today. So sorry to hear about your relative with cancer. So very scary .

Mum (86) has been diagnosed with dementia recently and I am visiting for a couple of weeks. I live 7 hour drive away. She was complaining of a lump on her back that she had tried to make an appointment about at her local GP practice a couple of weeks ago. The surgery recording stated that reception was busy and call back later. She got bus to surgery and was told that triage nurse would call her sometime that day. They never did. When I arrived we called surgery and got recording stating "call back later" so I drove her to surgery and was told a triage nurse would call us back. I gave my mobile number as well as mum's home number. No one called.

This morning we had a lady visit from a dementia charity to help mum fill in a form. When we told her what happened she said she would call in at surgery and find out what was happening. She did so, and called us to say call again and they would ensure that someone would deal with mum's request for an appointment. This time we just had to wait in a queue for call to be answered and eventually it was. We were told someone would ring us back (honestly) and sat back to wait. They did call back and we got appointment with practice nurse! Mum very happy and we are now waiting for appointment for a scan to look at lump, with blood test booked for tomorrow.

Thing is, it is bizarre that there is such a huge difficulty getting an appointment to see a gp. Mum is vulnerable and shouldn't need to get a bus to speak to a receptionist at the doctor's surgery, only to be told to wait at home for a triage nurse to call and ascertain whether she deserves an appointment with her doctor. I despair!

I can’t comment on American ones because it’s performance related pay for all clinical staff.

But I have a friend who is a midwife in Australia and FairPlay to, as she’s absolute top of the tops. She prescribes too I believe, consultant midwife, they call her anyway she’s on £180,000 a year pro rata because she has kids. They fully support her being part time because they literally rather have her any of the time than none. Unlike the NHS who keep refusing my poor other friend, reduced hours, despite the fact that she’s actually on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

And your mum stage in life does she really not have £200 a month for private medical insurance? That would be the best possible use of her money.. I’ve had an absolute nightmare with my student kids not being allowed to register for GP’s. So I just gave up and paid and it was nowhere near as expensive as I expected.

Thing is, it is bizarre that there is such a huge difficulty getting an appointment to see a gp

Sadly its not that bizarre to anyone who knows how dire things are in GP land, it's only going to get worse as more doctors leave and as less stay here for specialist training. The heart of the NHS is the staff, without them it doesn't matter how much fancy equipment, how many beds or how many new buildings open. The government don't care about the staff though, they aren't listening to any of the concerns (which go way beyond pay) and have developed a work plan in hopes of papering over the cracks whilst making care a lot worse. I'd advise anyone who can to go private for whatever they can.

Why? It saved my life in April when I had sepsis.
Safely delivered two children.