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Original poster

To feel angry at celebrating the NHS

587 replies

TaylorSwifting · 05/07/2023 08:42

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.

OP posts:
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11
Jogonmagpies · 05/07/2023 09:32

I have to admit I get really annoyed with posts like this. The public sector including the NHS has been underfunded for years. Long before Covid, Ukraine War, Brexit and every other excuse thrown out these days. The people on the front line have told the public how bad it was for years. No one cared for the last decade when it was every other person's relative dying as a direct result of under funding. The problem has been with people burying their heads in the sand for far too long.

I've been the person who has to choose which dying person out of two to send one ambulance to. And that was 8 years ago. This mess is not new.

MariaVT65 · 05/07/2023 09:34

GCAcademic · 05/07/2023 09:28

Totally agree. Am having to pay for a hysterectomy privately as I'd be waiting another 18 months on the NHS, by which time I'd have to give up my job due to my symptoms, not to mention more episodes ending up in Resus. I suppose I should be grateful for Resus, but wouldn't have got to that point were the gynae services not so utterly woeful.

Sorry you’re having to go through this. You raise a really good point actually. I bet it’s really common for certain areas of the NHS to have high costs and long wait lists due to the initial failures in other areas.

My hospital had to admit that if it weren’t for their failures, I could have avoided an emergency c section and had a natural delivery. So the cause of that is not only an operation last time, but I’m opting for another one this time as I don’t trust them to take care of me if I attempt a VBAC.

Cakesandbabes · 05/07/2023 09:34

It's because if you keep it all emotional, people won't criticise it publicly too much (because "omg ❤️NHS you traitor") and it allows the dismantling and deteroration to a point new syatem has to be put in😉

TrixieFatell · 05/07/2023 09:35

I have mixed feelings.

I work in the NHS and I love that people can access Healthcare without worry about astronomical fees or insurance bills. It makes a massive difference to a lot of lives. The basic premise behind the NHS is worth celebrating. Ive had mixed experiences with the NHS over my lifetime but we have managed to get treatment when needed.

However I also am angry how years of underfunding and mismanagement have eroded the NHS. How the government decided to elevate it and their staff to being heros, making it a vocation and not treating their staff as the skilled professionals they are. This leads to feelings of anger towards the NHS and means that the staff should be grateful for some claps and a badge.
I hate the abuse we get almost daily because of the waiting times and I see so many of my colleagues burning out and leaving.

So I won't be celebrating the nhs's birthday. But I will be thinking of the staff who work so so hard to keep the NHS going against insurmountable odds.

Cakesandbabes · 05/07/2023 09:36

grafittiartist · 05/07/2023 08:49

Plenty of the world would be grateful for the NHS.
I think it's a date worth celebrating!

Plenty would not be grateful for it.
Aim towerds higher standads, not just hovering above the bottom

Artycrafts · 05/07/2023 09:36

Cakesandbabes · 05/07/2023 09:34

It's because if you keep it all emotional, people won't criticise it publicly too much (because "omg ❤️NHS you traitor") and it allows the dismantling and deteroration to a point new syatem has to be put in😉

This. Everybody also ignores the over inflated chief execs' salaries as well.

MariaVT65 · 05/07/2023 09:37

Jogonmagpies · 05/07/2023 09:32

I have to admit I get really annoyed with posts like this. The public sector including the NHS has been underfunded for years. Long before Covid, Ukraine War, Brexit and every other excuse thrown out these days. The people on the front line have told the public how bad it was for years. No one cared for the last decade when it was every other person's relative dying as a direct result of under funding. The problem has been with people burying their heads in the sand for far too long.

I've been the person who has to choose which dying person out of two to send one ambulance to. And that was 8 years ago. This mess is not new.

I understand what you’re saying, but it’s not just a case of underfunding. Much of it is a case of horrible staff. I’m aware one of the most common complaints in maternity for example is ‘midwife attitude’, quite commonly the midwife not believing women about pain levels or how for along they are in labour. Costs nothing.

Yellowdays · 05/07/2023 09:38

How awful for your relative.

I believe that the government are in fact gleeful to see the figures and the headlines announcing them, because they think we can't work out that they are responsible for them, and they think we will accept any kind of amendment to the nhs in the hope of reversing the wait times.

Then they can sooner get on with their terrible workforce plan, and soften us all up for an American style NHS (where much of the work is done by associates, despite the fact there is not much of an infrastructure or staff to train them.

beguilingeyes · 05/07/2023 09:39

The Tories are privatising it by stealth. I had to have a referral to a gynecologist recently and the letter I got back wasn't from a local hospital...it was from a private company thanking me for my custom.
The Tories have always hated the NHS and they always run it down. Thatcher was the same.And for those who say we should be looking to Europe or Australia as examples...it's not them that Sunak is running off to have private meetings with...it's US healthcare companies.

eggsbenedict23 · 05/07/2023 09:39

The NHS is fundamentally a bad healthcare system. But we all clap and say it's "freeeeeeee" so it's okay.

Sweetashunni · 05/07/2023 09:39

3BSHKATS · 05/07/2023 09:23

People reach a certain age and then they die. We need to get used to that fact that the doctors do not have a wand and they are not God. They cannot save everyone.
The NHS is entirely fit for the purpose of which it was set up for, the issue is people wanting all the added extras, if you want those get off your arse, go to work and pay for them.

I’m in a shitty mood, but I am particularly fed up of providing healthcare to people without giving back to society in one way or another. But we seem to be paying an extraordinary amount of money to people who literally just exist.

What does this mean? What sort of situations are you referring to specifically?

BarelyLiterate · 05/07/2023 09:40

YANBU.

This ridiculous orchestrated attempt to celebrate the anniversary of the NHS is a PR campaign designed to distract people from the reality of a failing, dysfunctional system which is no longer fit for purpose. It is a way of telling people to be grateful for inadequate healthcare rather than to demand better. It aims to stop people asking informed questions about why healthcare systems in comparable countries like France, Germany & even Italy are so much better.

tescocreditcard · 05/07/2023 09:41

I do t think there is anything to celebrate.

Must try harder, NHS.

LuvSmallDogs · 05/07/2023 09:43

After initially not being referred by a GP locum for scans/biopsy for a lump due to being "too young for cancer", my care has been brilliant.

I went in for a blood test in the morning and was sitting down for an early lunch when I got a phone call ordering me to go to AMAU as I had infection markers. I got admitted for 5 days and treated for Neutropenic Sepsis (basically chemo killed too many white blood cells, allowing any minor infection to progress). I was asymptomatic other than my temperature occasionally spiking, which I hadn't yet noticed.

Mumtothreegirlies · 05/07/2023 09:44

The nhs has sometimes been a great thing in my family but it has also let us down on many occasions. My daughter has brain damage due to hospital and gp negligence. And now suffers dangerous nocturnal seizures due to the brain damage and they are still refusing to help her when they could so easily do so.
we would love to go private but can’t afford to and health insurance won’t cover her issues we need help with so we’re held at ransom by the nhs. Although I value most of the staff in the nhs such as the nurses and hcas, porters etc I won’t be celebrating for obvious personal reasons.

eggsbenedict23 · 05/07/2023 09:45

How can the Tories be privatising the same thing for over a decade?

CrotchetyQuaver · 05/07/2023 09:49

NoChanceYouMetalBastard · 05/07/2023 08:46

Agreed. The ridiculous NHS worship that started during the pandemic continues.

Well to be fair even before the pandemic there were issues with criticising the NHS, constructive or otherwise. Now we're in the situation when we all really should be asking what the hell is going on with the NHS and demanding answers as to why nothing appears to be happening to sort out the mess, we mutter away but no collective voice emerges and nothing changes. Some parts are excellent (I was in one of those yesterday) and others are frankly a shit show (liver cancer in Northern Ireland anyone).

I don't think I have it in me to celebrate the creation of a monster that's out of control these days.

Mumtothreegirlies · 05/07/2023 09:51

3BSHKATS · 05/07/2023 09:23

People reach a certain age and then they die. We need to get used to that fact that the doctors do not have a wand and they are not God. They cannot save everyone.
The NHS is entirely fit for the purpose of which it was set up for, the issue is people wanting all the added extras, if you want those get off your arse, go to work and pay for them.

I’m in a shitty mood, but I am particularly fed up of providing healthcare to people without giving back to society in one way or another. But we seem to be paying an extraordinary amount of money to people who literally just exist.

Well lucky for you that you’ve never had to live through seeing your child failed by doctors and nearly lose their life and as a result go onto a life of disability due to brain damage.
do you think as a parent noticing my daughter was dying was me wanting ‘extras’
this isn’t a one off either, it happened to my brother too when they failed to diagnose his pyloric stenosis as a baby. One baby with my daughters condition died because her brain literally exploded through her skull and it’s a condition that’s easily detectable with very obvious symptoms and is resolved by stopping breast and bottle feeding.

beguilingeyes · 05/07/2023 09:52

It's a standard technique and we're all falling for it.

  • That's the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don't work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.
MrsU2022 · 05/07/2023 09:53

TrixieFatell · 05/07/2023 09:35

I have mixed feelings.

I work in the NHS and I love that people can access Healthcare without worry about astronomical fees or insurance bills. It makes a massive difference to a lot of lives. The basic premise behind the NHS is worth celebrating. Ive had mixed experiences with the NHS over my lifetime but we have managed to get treatment when needed.

However I also am angry how years of underfunding and mismanagement have eroded the NHS. How the government decided to elevate it and their staff to being heros, making it a vocation and not treating their staff as the skilled professionals they are. This leads to feelings of anger towards the NHS and means that the staff should be grateful for some claps and a badge.
I hate the abuse we get almost daily because of the waiting times and I see so many of my colleagues burning out and leaving.

So I won't be celebrating the nhs's birthday. But I will be thinking of the staff who work so so hard to keep the NHS going against insurmountable odds.

Well said! Totally agree as a fellow NHS worker.

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 05/07/2023 09:54

Agree op- I hate the celebrate the nhs crap- the left is as to blame as the right for the crap we are in. The system cannot work, even without the tories destroying it, it wouldn’t work with an aging population. No other country has copied this model for a reason.

Motnight · 05/07/2023 09:55

TrixieFatell · 05/07/2023 09:35

I have mixed feelings.

I work in the NHS and I love that people can access Healthcare without worry about astronomical fees or insurance bills. It makes a massive difference to a lot of lives. The basic premise behind the NHS is worth celebrating. Ive had mixed experiences with the NHS over my lifetime but we have managed to get treatment when needed.

However I also am angry how years of underfunding and mismanagement have eroded the NHS. How the government decided to elevate it and their staff to being heros, making it a vocation and not treating their staff as the skilled professionals they are. This leads to feelings of anger towards the NHS and means that the staff should be grateful for some claps and a badge.
I hate the abuse we get almost daily because of the waiting times and I see so many of my colleagues burning out and leaving.

So I won't be celebrating the nhs's birthday. But I will be thinking of the staff who work so so hard to keep the NHS going against insurmountable odds.

Brilliant post, thank you

adomizo · 05/07/2023 09:57

Oh thank goodness it's not just me. I work in the NHS and can't believe what I'm watching on BBC this morning. (Day off !) I want to throw something at the TV. All the grovelling thank yous. This is what any 1st World health service should be delivering..and people are sooo grateful to the NHS for delivering babies /saving their lives etc. Lovely stories but you don't have to be grateful. This is what you deserve. You are paying for this. And all these lovely stories are covering over the absolutely horrendous crisis that the NHS currently is..especially here in NI. People in Germany/France with superior health care systems won't be thanking anyone..just accessing the care they need. Why is the NHS treated as though its a person ? It's a huge institution (that is on its knees) Unless the public start to demand more and have higher expectations it will never get out of this situation.

doglikescheeseontoast · 05/07/2023 09:59

RagingWoke · 05/07/2023 09:24

Agree OP. It's not fit for purpose and has been failed consistently for years but we are still expected to worship the NHS and never criticise it.

Some services in some areas are great, but the failing ones aren't excused because of it. My DGM was failed and fobbed off for so long a very treatable cancer was left to spread and instead of a simple treatment she is now in pain and dying. Now we're at this point the palliative care team have been wonderful, so kind and professional. But they shouldn't be needed and the teams who failed her at the start aren't excused because the end of life care team are doing their job well.
And this isn't an exceptional case, it's happening too often.

I understand what a revolution the NHS was when it was introduced, how many lives have been saved or improved and that is recognised, but we also need to be realistic and fighting for the change that is needed.

This, I could have written this. My partner was fobbed off for a year with the symptoms she was experiencing, and by the time anyone took her seriously it was too late. Yes, she had amazing palliative care, and her death was pain-free, but they shouldn't have been needed and she shouldn't have had a death yet.

I am currently experiencing excruciating pain, which I first took to the GP in August last year. I have had to fight and fight to be referred firstly for a scan and now the cause has been identified, to be seen by the appropriate department. The letter from the hospital informs me that they are 'experiencing appointment availability issues' and I will be seen in due course.

In the meantime it is entirely possible that the level of pain will mean I need to take sick leave or stop work entirely. I work for Adult Social Services, which is already stretched to breaking point.