To think you don't quite realise how badly the NHS is suffering until you witness it first hand

[DaisyCat33]

My parents are sitting in A&E today. They've just hit 12 hours. My dad was sent there by his GP for severe neck pain this morning. He's had morphine and an MRI scan, but they're now endlessly waiting to see a Dr about results. He hasn't even got a bed to lay on, despite debilitating neck pain. Many people are standing or sitting on the floor.

The couple sitting next to them have been there since 3am, for difficultly breathing.

I'm shocked. Honestly I knew the NHS had it's issues, but this bad?! It's frightening. I also had an email the other day saying my NHS dentist is closing, and it's basically a "well sorry no dentist for you any more, bye bye"

I don't really know the point of this thread really, I just feel shocked and upset that this is how it is. And I think a lot of people don't even realise? My parents definitely didn't until today. They are losing the will to live sat in that hospital.

Does anyone else just feel utterly helpless and anxious about this?

No, things were not perfect back then. Things were getting bad under Labour. If you look into it, Blair started to fuck things up before 2010. This isn’t just a Tory problem. You’ve got rose tinted glasses on.

And I can remember sitting and waiting inside A&E for hours as teen, not just a few hours but half the night.

This is SO important to read. Because what it looks at is the spending since 2010. And we all know what’s happened since 2010: the Conservative government. So they should have spent 55% more on the NHS between 2010 and 2019, not to even mention the damage they did by underfunding during a pandemic, and continuing to underfund until now.

And @DaisyCat33 , I do think it’s possible that you don’t realize how bad the NHS is until you need help. It has to be why people kept voting Conservative. Because you don’t know until you know.

Most people have had a headache. Imagine an unbearable headache. Maybe you’ve had one. It lasts a day, maybe two. The pain is terrible but it’s over in a few days. Now imagine that headache lasts from Christmas to New Years. You’d be beside yourself. You wouldn’t be able to do anything, you’d be sick with the pain, and you certainly wouldn’t be able to work. Now imagine you have a pain like that, but the NHS can’t fix it for a YEAR. Because that’s how long the waitlist is. You have to go to work, because you’ll starve otherwise, but you’re not able to give your best. All your time except at work is spent in bed or on the couch just barely holding it together. Honestly? I’m surprised we haven’t seen a huge jump in suicides as the NHS has started to fail, or maybe there is one, and it’s just not being tracked appropriately.

It’s hard to realize that even when Labour gets voted in, they’ll spend their whole first term just trying to START fixing the clusterfuck the Tories have left behind.

This is my bonkers story, my DD had a nasty fracture treated at a ski resort, so when we got back to the UK we were told to get it xrayed and checked a week later.

So I called the fracture clinic, to be told my GP needed to refer me, called the GP who took 4 days to write a letter.

I then went back to the clinic as I could get through on the phone, to be told if we went in a&e we'd be seen sooner.

So after wasting 5 days and people's time she walked us to a&e where we checked in for essentially an xray, waited 6 hours.

We weren't a current accident or emergency, it was bloody stupid and I felt like an idiot in a&e, but people are being referred through to get X-rays faster than waiting for appointments.

@Madwife123
Yes, good point

But I wasn't just waiting

I was having tests and procedures to determine the spread and type, and which consultancy to align me under
Once that was done, it was less than a week to chemo.

I got the impression it was slick but I don't know

We have an urgent treatment centre which I've used a couple of times, very good service
We need more I think

But I also think pharmacists are under used, people go straight to GP when pharmacy could've helped. And if they can't get to GP, then to ED

Virtually everyone knows this but it doesn’t translate into people actually being willing to pay more themselves. People who don’t understand tax say the government should pay more. People who do understand tax say rich people should pay more. Just as long as it is someone else. Very few people are willing to sully the ideal by sticking their hand in their own pocket. Presumably people don’t know how big the nhs is, or they might realise that we all need to pay more towards our health care.

As a GP, I can confirm this is the case.

I now work partly in GP and partly in A&E. My time in A&E during the week is a welcome break.

The state of the NHS is shocking. To be honest I've just got private health insurance for myself because I'm terrified. The number of patients I've referred for scans or consultant appointments who are still waiting months and months later, is extremely depressing. People in debilitating pain, people with horrible resistent eczema or psoriasis, 2 week waits pushed to 4 weeks. Very scary times.

No one mentions immigration -population increasing -I’m late 60s and it was 50 million when I was young. So increased by nearly a half so you need half as many again of hospitals, schools,GPs etc.
And aging baby boomers -those born just after the war are reaching their 80s.
Medicine has been so successful that people often require several urgent , expensive treatments before dying, let alone care home needs.
Most countries have an issue with an ageing pop so it’s other things than bad gov.
why don’t people put the name of the bad hospitals - then others can visit better ones further afield.

This is SO important to read. Because what it looks at is the spending since 2010. And we all know what’s happened since 2010: the Conservative government. So they should have spent 55% more on the NHS between 2010 and 2019,

And whose taxes should have increased to pay 55% more? It’s not the govs money it’s our money.

This is what you get when you vote Tory

It will be interesting to see how /when Labour give pay rises to doctors.

Yes, I agree. More money is needed in the UK.
However the govt only pay 70%, we pay into a mutuelle, insurance, for the rest.
That said those without means don’t pay and lifelong illnesses eg. diabetes, cancer etc are 100% covered by the state.
All French services are better funded. Every town has a French services office that the public visit with problems re tax, council tax, health admin etc.

Yeah, it’s horrendous. Former A&E nurse, now back to ward nursing. I couldn’t cope with it. I feel dreadfully for the patients but had to leave as it was messing with me physically and mentally. My days from start to finish with commuting were 16 hours. I didn’t get breaks. One month I was sick due to work so missed a few night shifts. I took home £1800 after tax. That’s when I decided to leave - you get more working at Tesco. Why would anyone put themselves through that? Pay nurses more and they might stay.

Remember all those press reports about how much money the NHS ‘wasted’ on managers? - just saying

Plenty of bodies in suits on 100k roaming the hospital telling you what you should be doing. Sadly not as many bodies on less than a quarter of that doing all the work. There is literally zero incentive to work in the NHS now as a porter, nurse, HCA, doctor etc

I work in A and E ( not a doctor) and sorry to hear about this.
I absolutely love my job and its the best place ever to work.
In our hospital it gets very busy and we have to triage accordingly. We only have about 12 bays for trolleys but a big waiting room.People who are in an imminently life threatening condition such as heart attacks/ strokes etc get seen very quickly.
There are more of these than you would think.
How long you have to wait if you have a fractured wrist for example eepends on the number of people in a and e with more serious concerns.
There is no easy answer. We all work hard and I have met patients waiting too long whiich is very upsetting.
Peoole feel bad for coming in to a and e as they don't want to bother us. But we are here for a reason...unless you have an itchy nose or a sore toe with no injury.

But yes..the government needs to fund more beds abd pay us better so we don't loose staff. If i got paid more I''d stay doing clinical rather than looking at other ways to feed my family.

It’s shocking.

I have been there 12 hours having a guy come out to shoot morphine in my mouth.

I have been in children’s A and E with dirty nappies and used calpol syringes all over the floor that children were picking up. When I pleaded with a HCA for a nappy and some rash cream as we had rushed in via ambulance and I forgot to grab the change bag only to be shrugged at.

when the GP insisted I go to a and e for a scan despite feeling fine and having an appointment next day. The queue was out the door, people were sat and laying on the floor. The floor I had watched some guy tell his friend on the phone he was there for a bad chest and then hock up and spit on the floor. I turned and left.

the worst thing we can do is become complacent and think this it’s normal. It’s not normal. It’s NOT ok. We are sleep walking into paying for a service we no longer receive. How many of us have gone private with dentists because we have no other choice? How many of us have decided to take the work insurance policy out because at least we get quick video calls with doctors and nurses?

I remember being able to call a GP and see someone that afternoon.

I remember the GP coming out to check on sick kids.

this is not ok.

This clip sums it up for me. Awful.

Newsnight

It's absolutely shocking. My brother has repeatedly suffered from TIAs (small strokes) - can have multiple in an evening, loses his speech etc, mimick the same symptoms as a full blown stroke. Each time his wife has called for an ambulance and each time she has been told its a couple of hours wait and to make your own way to the hospital.
My mum had cancer and post cancer op had severe pain one night due to a complication. She's 75. She got a taxi in the night to take her to A&E and spent 2 days sitting in a chair before they could find a bed.
I live overseas. I've had to call for an ambulance once. I waited 4 minutes for them to arrive. Each time I've been to A&E the longest wait I've had is 1h 20 mins. But often I'm seen within the hour. I don't understand why the NHS doesn't work. But I find most things don't work - public transport, infrastructure - roads etc. And it's one of the reasons that stops me moving back home.

I agree with plenty of bodies in suits roming round telling you what you should be doing.
Too many chiefs and not enough indians.

But many people genuinely believe the nhs is free. They have no concept of the actual cost of anything. Even the people who work in the nhs have very little idea. It is a shambles.
So much waste. New equipment purchased that wouldn't fit in the space provided. In a newly built hospital. They had to knock a wall down. Beds wouldn't fit in the lifts, making transferring patients impossible. A reception area for several clinics with one telephone and the only two electric sockets in the wrong place.
My own consultant was in despair at her brand new consulting room where the desk was fixed to the short wall facing away from the patient so the patient had to sit behind her.
When I started in a new practice it took 6 weeks to get my smart card. 6 weeks of doing clinics before I could access patient's records.
The avoidable problems are endless and expensive to fix.

It dosn't work as people vote Tory " coz immigration" conveniently forgetting that half the nhs workforce are from overseas because noone in their right mind would work in public services in the UK. I bet Australia isn't short staffed.

Rephrase - patients are suffering because of incompetent management of the NHS.

I agree. Australia is also another health system to look at.

On 24 December 22, I fell leaving the shower. The pain was so excruciating I knew I had broken a bone. I called my GP around 10 am and was told to get immediately to the surgery. They made a booking with a GP, not my own, who could see me at short notice.

I waited no time in the surgery. The GP wanted X-Rays and called the nearest radiology to make sure they were open. I drove 15 mins to them, got seen immediately (there were no clients waiting, and the receptionists were already celebrating Christmas' tea break :)

The radiologist confirmed I had a chip in my humerus and emailed the report to my GP. I went back to see him, got my arm in a sling and a prescription for pain and by 1.00 PM I was back home. Total cost was $A14 on the 24th of December.

Last time I went to Emergency (your A&E) was with my youngest for a suspected fracture. Left home around 10am and were back by 12.30pm with his arm on a sling as well. On a Sunday.

I can't compare systems because I don't live in the UK and my only references are my family living there and the posts I read on here. But something is seriously not working with the NHS. A poster before said that the NHS is no longer fit for today's health reality in the UK, and I agree. It needs a serious overhaul and much more money invested in public health. The problem, as I see it, is a conservative government that is hell-bent in following the US model with a privatised health system. They don't care to look at other systems working much better. They want people to get private health insurance so medical multinationals can make billion dollar profits.

Is there a reason your brothers wife couldn’t get him to the hospital herself? Not judging just curious. It would be a couple of hours wait as obviously things like cardiac arrests etc take priority.