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?

I was in for a fortnight last year. Emergency admission in February. I arrived on one of the busiest nights the A&E had ever had. Fortunately (!) I was ill enough that I was treated as soon as I arrived but before I was moved to the ward I saw nurses running from room to room calling for drip stands or pillows. It was beyond shocking. I also saw great kindness from the staff, patience and care in impossible circumstances. I saw part of the department locked down due to an assault and I saw a doctor treating a homeless man whose dog was lying quietly under his trolley because the staff knew they were inseparable. How anyone in the NHS does it is a mystery to me, especially A&E. Thank goodness they do.

Depends on other eye issues. I could have waited longer except my eye pressure was at 56. Glaucoma so they did the cataracts along with other surgery

I rang my NHS dentist for an emergency appointment as I had an abscess forming and was in a fair bit of pain. I was told that my dentist had retired in October and they hadn’t had an application to their advertisement yet. I could pay private or ring 111 or if my husband was with another dentist in the practice I could be swapped over. As it’s not the 1940s and I’m unmarried I had to ring 111.

Having read so many threads on here about how awful the NHS has become I was really starting to worry after some health scares but honestly the care I have received has been amazing. Very efficient, kind and once on a cancer pathway, so quick and thorough. I have not had an A and E experience for a long while but do remember that being a long wait. ☹️

I think GP surgeries haven’t helped the issue, especially since COVID. Battling to get an appointment has caused some to go straight to A&E.
Mental health crisis patients have also increased and that adds to the problem as secondary care dire.
Having to pay out millions in damages in court cases.
The list goes on.

This is a tory strategy of systematically underfunding and under-resourcing the NHS so that it fails to function. It will then get sliced up and sold off.

Now, the NHS definitely needs to reform and improve, I am not in favour of just carrying on as it was before but what we are currently experiencing is due to chronic underfunding.

I would re-introduce the nurse bursary.
I would put health & social care into 1 government department, I would also move 'sport' from 'culture' into health.
There needs to be a holistic way of looking at keeping the population well

Please remember this when you are voting later this year. The tories have made the NHS shit on purpose

Root and branch reorganisation

i know a few people whose appts have been a total waste of time lately (serious illnesses) because they’ve seen the specialists who hasn’t had vital test results! So someone else could have had those appts

Probably too simplistic but I don't know why proper GP surgeries can't be 24 hours with two shifts of different staff. Instead of out of hours doctors being based in hospitals or other buildings. The only way to get an appointment in out of hours time is to ring 111.

Not in my case. Rapid development following surgery for a detached retina. The thick cararact combined with post-surgery extreme myopia made lens replacement essential and urgent. So I wasn't previously diagnosed, wasn't on any waiting list and it wasnt developing slowly.

Not sure of your point tbh.

In 2010 it was one of the best value for money healthcare systems in the world. We've had 14 years of austerity, that's why our public services, not just the NHS are at breaking point. Councils have been underfunded to the point they arre going bankrupt. Think about this when you vote in the next general election and don't vote Conservative.

I would go back to training nurses in the hospitals the way we used to do it. The pay was not great but there was a qualification and a job at the end of it. It is perfectly possible to do a degree like that, we used to call them sandwich courses and I would make it a 4 year course to allow for study and exams. If people could train in one hospital instead of being sent all over the place it would make training more manageable for mature students. I worked with a couple of brilliant HCAs who would have been able to do their training but couldn't afford it and had family responsibilities. It is hard and expensive to do a nursing degree theses days. I don't know about medical degrees tbh. It is such a long course, but maybe costs could be reduced in exchange for a requirement to work in the NHS for a number of years instead of going straight off to Australia.

They don't have enough Gps that's why.

And bring back Matrons!

I’m sure that there are many horrendous experiences in areas of the NHS and I’m equally as sure that there needs to be change to protect its viability long term.
BUT this month my family experienced the NHS at its best. My nephew (9months old) has bacterial meningitis and without the exemplary treatment he received he would no longer be with us. 100% gold star care. PICU was terrifying but incredible. 24 hour care, near immediate results from tests and complicated surgery decided on quickly and implemented perfectly.
My nephew isn’t out of the woods but stands a fighting chance thanks to our NHS.

I worked with a lovely junior doctor in the 80s who was doing his training in the army. I don't know if you can still do that, but he was on a good salary and was signed up initially for about 12 years I think. I know a local lad who has just done his engineering degree in the RAF. Signed up for 7 years and on a good rate of pay. Got promoted to junior officer once he passed his exams. There must be more imaginative ways to train and retain people.

It’s awful but there’s system issues. Went to a major city a+e, saw 2 people who took similar information, re allergies issues etc. Gave details at front desk, despite everyone having a digital record now. Sent to an another hospital for a specific emergency reason. No follow on referral made, so waited in the queues there, supplied personal information again to be inputted on the systems. Saw not 1 but 3 people who all traced and asked the same set of questions and the last one prescribed some medication. Took 8.5 hours and I’d say at least 3 of those people did not need to be involved as they were triaging and asking for the same information. Staggeringly inefficient. We have one of the best trained and expert healthcare workforces and it wasn’t a case of needing a doctor, but it didn’t need 5 people. After triage at the first site a direct referral to the right person could be made to site 2.

Parent sent to A&E via gp. After wait and checks got to ward. In first 48 hours moved beds 8 time - at times to one of a number of empty beds in the same ward. Each time the bed needed cleaning. The last time they tried to move him at about midnight he kicked up a fuss and the ‘people flow’ person said he didn’t have a medical need. He therefore asked if he could go home and people flow person said no!!! Probably because he is at risk of kidney failure and they are trying to stop it (so possibly a medical need!!).

he has been in a week, is utterly fed up, the underlying issue isn’t being addressed. The dr has said he needs one thing, someone else (he thinks) changed it on his chart but he wasn’t told. He is collecting his wee so they can see how often and how much, only see that they aren’t recording it because they are too busy. Which is what they need to monitor his condition.

i am an absolute advocate for our generally amazing nhs having generally had brilliant care (there can always be a blip). But what’s happening to my dad is ridiculous! They really aren’t helping themselves let alone my dad right now.

I don't think anyone realises just how bad it is until they need to access the services.

ds(19) has severe acne that has come from nowhere to every cm of his face, arms, chest, neck, back and shoulders being a big deep red, painful, pus filled mess. Dr's have referred to dermatology and we were told 18 months wait. We are fortunate to have work health insurance and be able to afford to pay for private prescriptions at £160 a go.

My niece collapsed at home with severe vomiting which meant she couldn't absorb her time critical (to sustain life) medication for another condition. She was found collapsed and unresponsive on the floor at home, blue lighted into hospital, waited 4 hours before getting some cursory tests, told because she hadn't vomited again she seemed ok now, and even though she protested she still felt very ill/confused due to the lack of medication, she was sent back home. She collapsed again a few hours later and was blue lighted in again. She waited in the ambulance for 3 1/2 hours before getting into A+E.

She spent 2 days in a corridor, during which time, she had to insist she was moved to a room or somewhere with some privacy while being examined instead of exposing herself in the corridor (next to a window!) The Dr she saw told her she should have made sure she wasn't sent home the first time as she was lucky the lack of her medication wasn't fatal (so it is the patients responsibility now to kick up a fuss to save their own lives?!?)

She was eventually moved to a ward meant for 6, she was the 8th person in the ward. With one toilet that there were constant queues for, there were elderly people in the ward having accidents and peeing on the floor because they couldn't get in on time. It would take ages to be cleaned up and the whole place stank strongly of urine.

She is a frequent flyer at hospital over the last 7 years or so due to very serious life threatening episodes, and she says she has never seen it worse than it has been in the last year, even during covid.

It's not a Tory thing to destroy the NHS. I'm in Wales labour. During covid all private health centres, hospitals were taken over then left empty. Spire, Bupa renting out premises empty of patients. They made obscene profits. They've built brand new buildings in my area off the back of it.

Every party in government has quietly agreed on a two tier system.

I've actually had really great treatment twice recently with two different issues. Once I was haemoerreging, went to hospital and was taken through within 15 mins and straight in a cubicle then admitted. Second time I went to my gp, was sent up to hospital to the assessment clinic, waited maybe 20 mins to be taken and done my vitals then was checked by a junior doctor within ten mins and a consultant came down 15 mins later and I had surgery the next morning. It seems to be hit or miss and a bit of a post code lottery.

Definitely post code elsewhere, not our hospital trust unfortunately

Did you not see the ghastly account upthread from @Lovelesslily where delays attending to her father may well have contributed to the amputation of his leg? That was an unattended emergency that deteriorated while on the hospital premises.

Yes, we need more flexible training routes into professions. There has been too much focus on getting degrees which can be hard to do if your course is at a brick-built uni far from home. Hard to access if you have family/caring responsibilities, have a disability, can't travel far etc. So much untapped talent out there; it's scandalous. And while I'm at it, reinstate an adult education system so adults can have opportunities to return to learning in their local community. Not everyone is degree level but they still benefit from other types of learning opportunities. It's appalling how that has been decimated.

A letter from China a family member who visited A&E last week

Read the one without pictures first

@PatsyStonesBeehive

Do you know why they wre given free food and drink?. There was a lady on here the other week who couldn't even get a glass of water.