AIBU to wish the UK healthcare system functioned properly?

[DickEmery]

Or at least tolerably well. Because what we have now is woeful and it impacts on all aspects of life.

I don't know why people think getting private insurance in the UK is the answer as it often isn't.

We have insurance, we have used it for. Physio, therapy and I had an operation which I would have had to wait months for on the NHS. So it's a great supplement. But it doesn't cover DS asthma or my long term health condition either so we have to rely for treatment on the NHS for these.

I've also been let down terribly by the NHS recently. I should be receiving treatment from them, but we have had to pay for access to a drug which I'm actually entitled to on the NHS. All I get from my clinc is they have no funding for it, my PALS complaint still hasn't been sorted 3 months later. So hay we'll just leave you in pain and suffering.

I know it's a funding issue, but other people in other parts of the UK are getting this treatment. It's a total postcode lottery.

It needs changing but there isn’t a one simple fix :(
Pay, resources, access to the best equipment or treatment. More front end support (therapy etc) rather than waiting for the point of hospital admission.

End users - we have to look at how we use the NHS. We know someone who didn’t like answer she got and then went to multiple other A&E/urgent treatment centres & pushed the GP to refer her (more than once)- she had Gout but didn’t want to accept that or willing to take the medication.

It needs a shake up from all areas but no government is confident to tackle it as the opposition will jump on it. NHS can’t be a fix for everything for it to be fit for purposes it needs it purpose to be clear.

So your solution to the crumbling NHS is to discriminate against the staff who are actually just about keeping it going??

Aside from the blatant racism/discrimination, UK (and Irish for that matter) health systems could not operate without foreign staff. That is a fact.

Also, I’m pretty sure nurses get paid more in Ireland than in the UK so any Irish nurses you come across in the NHS certainly won’t be there for the money.

^this.

There would be less incentive for migrant nurses to come to the UK due to the high cost of living.

I also don't believe in paying experienced and well-trained nurses less than their British colleagues.

It absolutely is shouting down @SlothOnARope - every single time someone says they've had a positive experience, multiple posters feel the need to leap on and tell them how lucky they are and how it's not the norm.

As unpalatable as it may be to hear, not everyone does have a negative experience and those positive experiences are just as valid as the negative ones.

@Blanc0Nin0 well, I've never said people shouldn't speak up, but giving your negative experience shouldn't involve shouting down the people who have had a good experience - both viewpoints are equally valid and should be recognised as such.

I've used the NHS a fair few times over the last six months - not for anything major but for a few mundane issues.

My experience is that it's excellent - I can get same day appointments, my results come through quickly and the staff have generally been polite, helpful and friendly.

That doesn't mean I don't believe all the bad experiences or that I think people have been unlucky - but my experience is just as valid as anyone else's and it's not helpful to try and shut down those positive comments.

In fact, we should be looking at those positive experiences and trying to figure out why it's not like that for everyone, surely?

I don’t think that anyone is suggesting that getting private health insurance is a magic fix, nor is it sold that way in the UK. Yes, it has limitations but it’s an incredibly useful backup to the NHS nowadays - we have certainly been very grateful to have it there in times of need.

So you’re choosing to ignore the very widely reported reality that the NHS is broken. You had a good experience so we should all pretend it’s all ok. Errr no thanks.

Where did you get that?

I'm saying that everyone's experience is valid, even if it's positive.

YANBU. The health service is atrocious. I am tired of being asked to be undyingly grateful for substandard care. We are paying for this. It isn't free. It needs hugely reformed. The care sector is currently the weakest link - if it was addressed hospitals would improve remarkably quickly. Closely followed by diagnostics.

As I said before-from you accusing people of shouting down when posters reply to posters saying they “wish the bashing of the NHS would stop and give the staff some credit.”

We have every right to speak up about the widespread serious failings we and friends/ family are experiencing.

A positive experience is a drop in the ocean and doesn’t make the suffering of my family from the state of the NHS go away.

I agree.

Though if you voted Tory or did not vote, you have helped create the position we are now in.

I dare say that a lot of people also need to start taking more responsibility for their older family members and stop expecting the state to do everything for them in terms of care + housing. It’s no coincidence that Christmas and summer holidays are conveniently the most popular time for elderly family members to get dumped in hospital as a sort of baby sitting service. Sounds awful but it happens far more than you’d think..

Last time I was in A&E there was a confused old woman in the bay beside me crying out for her family. The nurse rang them begging them to come and get her as she was fit for discharge and they really needed the bed. They said they were too busy at a wedding and she’d have to wait until the next day. Beggars belief!!

These people should be charged £5k per night. Let the whole family do a whiparound. But I doubt they are a family of net contributors with that attitude. I could of course be wrong but I doubt it.

That is insulting and frankly racist .

We have every right to speak up about the widespread serious failings we and friends/ family are experiencing.

I never said otherwise. It just doesn't need to be directed at people who haven't had the same experiences as you.

A positive experience is a drop in the ocean and doesn’t make the suffering of my family from the state of the NHS go away.

I never said it did

Can i please have a link to your petition stating that Carers Allowance should be raised. Cos you have done one................right. Ditto the one you have also created asking for the state pension age be put down to where it originally was. So family members oops sorry WOMEN cos we all know you mean women can retire earlier and provide the unpaid care that you expect.

I await your posts on the petitions board!

Nope, that would be your own assumption - I fully believe that men should be putting in the effort too. I am referring to otherwise very well off families within my friendship/wider family circle who can more than afford to pay their own way. Start your petitions, I agree that change is needed but don’t put words into my mouth. There’s a big difference in not being able to afford to care for your loved one and simply dumping them whilst you swan off on holiday abroad, I suspect you’d be well aware of this had you actually read my post rather than writing an ignorant and aggressive paragraph..

This. 'With contempt' is absolutely the way that many nurses have spoken to my DM this year. It has been shocking. She has been in and out of hospital and is now having district nurses. The way that many of them speak to her is so rude, demeaning and down right nasty at times. We complained about one nurse recently, who made mum feel unsafe in her own home. The person we spoke to refused to address any issues and instead made my DM feel she was the problem! Ever since complaining they've reduced her visits and suddenly 'can't get' the dressings she needs. It's like she's being punished for daring to complain about NHS staff. There have been a handful of wonderful nurses, who clearly hold everything together, but we are frightened as to what is to come for the NHS based on our experience this year.

I dare say that a lot of people also need to start taking more responsibility for their older family members and stop expecting the state to

It is the law that vulnerable adults in need of care, are the responsibility of the state. The state cannot have it all ways - allow the manufacturing capacity to wither away; then told people in the 80s to get on their bike to get a job, keep house prices artificially high (because the banking system would collapse if house prices did), so women need to work to help pay the mortgage and incidentally increase the tax take too; and increase the pension age for all to 66 - then when it comes to the care of the elderly, try to put the genie back in the bottle and expect the sandwich generation to care for their elderly parents, living on c £80 a week carers’ allowance!

People choose their career when they are in their teens.
'Helping others' and 'caring for the sick' probably sound wonderfully rewarding at that age however, roll on a couple of decades when that person now has elderly parents or difficult teens and a household to run and all that caring can be a bit too much. I suspect if you are a nurse the choice of other careers you could move to is limited.

I filled in an online form at my GO surgery for a routine query at 8 am last Tuesday am, got a phone call to see GPat 10. Had a change of medication prescribed and an ultrasound requested , ultrasound appointment arrived yesterday for 2 weeks time. All very pleasant and efficient. This was not a two week wait situation , it's a minor gynae problem . The system is underfunded and staff massively overworked but it does mainly work quite well where I live

It’s very patchy. I’m finally getting my “urgent” CT scan for a tumour next week, 7 months after referral.

You do know where you will go if you have a serious accident? The NHS, because they have the expertise in trauma and the equipment to deal with it. Private health care is a luxury, mainly to have elective procedures carried out at a convenient time. It is also good for mental health problems, I will concede, because the NHS is overwhelmed with this and waiting lists are horrendous. Apart from the mental health issue I would not rely for all my care on private medicine.
NB If you are in a private hospital and things go badly wrong, you will be sent to an NHS hospital also. Unless you are a Saudi prince of a member of the RF (and the Duke of Edinburgh had his final heart surgery at an NHS hospital, btw).

EXACTLY. Bang on! They want it all ways.