To be really worried about the poor, disabled and elderly this winter?

[Namechangenhsworried]

I’ve just got in after spending nearly 14 hours in urgent care at my local hospital. During this time they didn’t even have the capacity to X-ray me. In the end I had to leave and fortunately what is a suspected broken hand and infection (the injury resulted in broken skin which has got infected) is manageable and I will be able to pay to have private treatment tomorrow after work.

I know much of the NHS isn’t in a good place but was shocked by just how bad it was. I have spent two days trying to get a response from a dr at 111 , my GP is off sick and it’s virtually impossible to see the locum. The queue for urgent care was out of the door and down the street (took an hour just to wait to get registered). The centre was standing room only with people saying they had been waiting for over 12 hours. Most of the staff looked exhausted , were running between patients and many irritable (one was angrily shouting at someone who was clearly unwell but it looked as though they had just snapped under the pressure). Staff complained of staff shortages, a lot of the equipment didn’t seem to work and on top of that they were having to try out a new records system which just seemed to be causing more problems.

I felt so sorry for everyone. I know things have been bad before but this just seemed so much worse than I’ve seen it before. It was like people had just given up /staff and patients were broken. And to make matters worse we are not even at peak flu/covid etc time. I should be able to get help from elsewhere but what about those who can’t? It’s so scary.

in the circumstances it doesn’t feel right that this lame government should be allowed to carry on whilst it is causing so much harm. But even if there is a change in leadership.- what then? Can this still be improved? We need change/to intervene before even more people suffer. It’s disgraceful that so many senior managers, private companies , the pharmaceutical industry, recruitment agencies and IT companies are making huge profits out of the NHS whilst so many of our most vulnerable can’t even get a basic service. It’s so sad and I just don’t know if it can be turned around.

YANBU

Blame the people who voted for the Tories

Thank you, but I’ve done a search on their website - all they do is explain how the ED works. It’s divided into four areas. There is nothing on live waiting times - which depend on what stream you are in anyway.

I find your experience extremely interesting MintJulia, as we left Hampshire 7 years ago, and one of the reasons was that we couldn't get a doctors appointment for 6 weeks, and they were just starting to build an additional 2,000 houses, with no plans for additional health care. Can ask which part of Hampshire you're in, as either things have vastly improved, which I very much doubt in view of the stories I hear from family who are still there, or you aren't living in one of the more heavily populated parts of the county?

@UpaladderwatchingTV You're right, that we live in one of the rural villages that has its own gp surgery.