Really frustrated with the NHS

[BabyCatMama]

They keep asking if things are an emergency or I can't get an appointment. Well one thing that isn't an emergency is I have had a fungal infection covering my feet for years last year. Nothing at the pharmacy helps. My skin is bleeding and cracking. When you try to tell the doctor all of your health problems they say they don't have time for all this. I've lots of issues that I just ignore because I only get time for serious things.

I just say I'm in agonising pain and there's no appointments left. Today they did say someone will call me in a few days. But I'm on weak sleeping pills that don't work and I don't know if I will be able to be awake at the time they call me. I told my psychiatrist these ones don't work and he said lets just see. Why don't they listen to you ?

The pain medication I'm on isn't strong enough and I've seen several doctors and they refuse to prescribe anything stronger. And I'm taking paracetamol with codeine every day and it's making me ill. Like it's burning my stomach so they gave me something to coat my stomach but I just think if it's doing that to my stomach how is my liver taking it ?

My psychiatrist office just doesn't answer the phone. They just send letters that I can't attend he appointment because my sleeping pills aren't working. Then they wrote to me saying they were taking me off the patient list for not attending appointments even though I had phoned and left messages on the answering machine. I have a psychotic illness and can't take the meds I was last prescribed because of horrible side effects.

I can't call the GP to repeat my prescription I have to have in a form every month and it is on the other side of town from me and I can't always afford to travel there and back every month.

I bought a private prescription for pain meds last month but it was a hundred pounds. I can't afford it this month. I have bought meds online for half the price but I can't really afford it and I'm worried about being poisoned.

I'm thinking about going to see a private GP next month they charge £50 an appointment. But a private psychiatrist would be 2 or 300 hundred. This is why people aren't working. They are staying unwell because of this. I don't know is it this bad for everyone ? If it is how is this allowed for go on. Why has no one sued them ?

A fungal infection covering your feet for over a year, the GP you are so desperate to see may not be the best medical professional to treat.

Not sure who is, but a call to 111 would be my first point to understand "who" that best medical professional may be.

Op@BabyCatMama you shouldn’t be taking codeine every day long term, is the GP aware of this? It also has a lot of drug interactions and depending on what you are on for your psychosis and sleeping meds, I would ask for a medication review…if you are resorting to private prescriptions ,there is a problem there . Do you think you have an addiction issue? Have you tried an online email to your GP listing all your challenges, as it seems that there are many ,including difficulty engaging with services and appointments offered? It’s really common that people with enduring mental health challenges receive poor physical care so trying to communicate with your gp and put it in writing could be a start? I know it’s really difficult but I think putting things in writing is crucial as there is a “ paper trail” whereas verbal converse at not be recorded fully or acute on.

@Ssrissri I'm not addicted to it I've just been having pain in my back for a while. It's too severe sometimes so I bought the codeine without paracetamol from a private doctor so I can take a higher dose. I think writing is a good idea. I have found 2 stamps and I am going to write a letter to my psychiatrist to start with. I don't know if they will be able to take me back without being referred again though. It's so hard to have a normal life with my sleep like this maybe they will understand they have to give me something stronger if I can't even show up for medical appointments

A fungal infection that bad and for so long is surely an emergency. Couldn't you just say yes it's an emergency and see your gp and get that sorted.

Back pain so bad you're taking coedine daily is also urgent, again second appointment with gp first, tell them it's an emergency and get that going too.
They won't address everything in one appointment so it will be a minimum of 2, you might be able to ask about a referral to the psychiatrist in one of them or short term sleeping pills but be prepared to need a seperate appointment.

Don't feel you can't say it's an emergency- it's affecting your life in such a huge way it definitely is.

The NHS is in a state and unfortunately we as patients have to 'play the game'.

If you're not engaging with psych services then they will take you off their list. They have given you many appointments which you have not attended. You can't complain about not getting an appointment, when you haven't attended the ones you have been given.

Ask the GP receptionist for a routine appointment if you don't feel it's an emergency. It might be in a couple of weeks but those are your options. If you want to be seen urgently, you need to ask for an urgent appointment to be seen on the day.

My practise isn't doing routine appointments only urgent appointments I said I was in pain so they said that would be urgent and I will get a call in a few days. I know the psychiatrist has offered me appointments but they don't answer the phone

I have seen a doctor face to face for the back pain, he said there aren't any disks out of place and I will just have to wait for physiotherapy which will be 4 to 5 months. I said I'm in severe pain and the cocodamol isn't working and he said well don't take it then

Where's your nearest walk in centre / urgent care? I'd go there to get your feet sorted.

The way you speak about the pain meds is a red flag for addiction. You need to be more measured. And also consider the possibility of addiction.

Gps do not like to give out pain
meds so much anymore it seems. At 1 week post surgery of having my leg broken and then pinned and played and I was refused dihydrocodiene from the GP. I was discharged from hospital with some and some oxycodone…I wasn’t asking for more oxy, just a weeks worth of dihydrocodiene, I was told (correctly) that the first two weeks were worst for pain. GP still bloody refused

Self help is your first recourse, so find out what is causing the fungal infection, and then get what you need to treat it. This could be done via a visit to your pharmacy first, then if they consider it beyond their remit, you need to get a GP appointment, but it’s not an emergency otherwise as you are living with it. Same with the back problem, what is causing it? You need to try and sort out the cause, then seek the best treatment.
Your problems are bigger than your feet and your back if you are under psychiatric care. You need to recognise this, go to your appointments or risk losing them. You too have responsibilities, firstly to honour your appointments, another branch of the NHS, then to try and self help as much as you can. But if things have got so bad you do need an appointment, then stand firm and make your best effort to get one, including booking one online if you can. You are in a spiral of health depression, and need to make an effort to break it however you can. Self help>pharmacy>GP. Good luck with it.

Many NHS podiatry services accept patients on a self-referral basis

and yes if you are missing appointments you will be taken off the referral list

If you miss appointments you won’t be given more as it’s a waste of their time and others could have had those appointments. I don’t get the sleep issue, why does that mean you miss appointments?

Has any Dr any point said it is fungal? Many skin conditions can flare up because of stress and MH issues which you have been diagnosed with. I agree a walk in centre is probably the best place.

You need to kick your pain killer habit, do not buy drugs from the internet for starters. Codeine is highly addictive. Look painkillers mask the pain they don’t fix the problem, sometimes they are needed I’m not anti pain meds, I used to be a nurse. I needed strong pain killers last year for a medical emergency, I took them but once I could stand it I rode through the pain when it had lessened. In masking the pain it means people do things they probably shouldn’t.

When it comes to physio there is the regular list and then the urgent list. Your psychiatrist would have been good to be on side to press for assistance but you have not engaged with the service. Do you have an appropriate adult to advocate for you ? If not I would suggest you look for an advocate to assist you. If you look at Mind/ Rethinks websites they give advice on MH advocacy, charities do this free of charge and you are exactly the kind of patient who would benefit from this. You say you have been diagnosed with psychosis. That’s a serious MH issue, are you classed as a vulnerable adult at all? and have you ever had a social worker or any sort of support worker.

I think your MH condition plus pain is contributing to muddled thinking, which is perfectly understandable. please try and get an advocate.

Do you not have any feet clinics on your high street? You could always pop in and see what they advise as they are NHS too.

Hang on a minute - OP hasn't missed her psych appointments, she has tried to contact them to cancel / rearrange and they've not picked up the message and assumed she was just a no-show.

There aren’t magic solutions to most things - it’s generally about learning to manage your conditions and look after yourself within any health limitations.

It may be worth looking at whether your GP has any social prescribing, they typically have more time per patient and can help you navigate things better.

Heavier duty sleeping tablets or painkillers aren’t suitable for ongoing problems. They’re a short term fix to get through a short term issue.

You need to find a way to engage with appointments if you want support. Consistently sleeping through isn’t a way to get anything useful from a service and more potent sleeping tablets won’t solve that. Sensible use of alarms and caffeine will get you awake at the time needed to get to an appointment.

A fungal foot condition will take months to r solve even once you get the right thing for it. Pharmacists are good for advice here, and signposting to next service if something isn’t working. But to know whether it is, you’ll need to give something a good couple of months of working consistently on it and following all the care instructions.

@Overthebow my sleep wake pattern moves forward several hours every day and also is interspersed with pure insomnia so I can also be awake for several days. If I have just fallen asleep a couple of hours before I am unable to wake up at a desired time like normal people. I literally can't have any form of routine without strong sleeping pills.

Maybe it's living with chronic exhaustion I don't know but I sleep through alarms or if I hear them I will just turn them off still asleep or half asleep and not realise it means I need to get up. I don't know if that's linked to sleepwalking which I also suffer from

People tend to take a normal life in this area for granted and don't believe me but I actually can't help it

For your prescription, sign up for a service that delivers from the pharmacy, so you don’t have to trek over

Don't go stating that it's so sad, you can't afford an NHS psychiatrist.

You've had one and didn't attend. And no, calling to cancel doesn't make it better- it's still repeatedly non attending an appt that could have been offered to others.

So for the same reason also don't go bleating that your antipsychotics need amending.

Make a GP appt JUST for your feet rather than leaving it to the end of what I expect is already a very lengthy amount of time you take there.

I couldn't help not attending though, because the psychiatrist didn't listen to me and prescribed me and prescribed me something that doesn't work. As if I can make an appointment about a skin infection, when it is a nightmare trying to see them for anything. My kidneys are bleeding right now from taking ibuprofen. Obviously the next appointment will be taken up by all that and then they will rush me off or I might get just enough time to tell them again that I am in agony and need effective pain relief you clearly have a better GP service and don't understand what it's like. They don't see you for having a minor skin infection

Do you have a care-coordinator?

I don't really blame the GP for not having the resources to make normal appointments but I blame NHS doctors for not prescribing the right medicine people need

I strongly disagree that sleeping pills for example are for short term use only, because people like myself need them long term. There is actually a genetic mutation that causes insomnia conditions and it needs to be treated for the person's life sometimes it is also treated with amphetamines in stock me cases in the same way ADHD is

I don't think I should just get increasing amounts of oxycodone or anything for my back for a long time but I am assuming it will ease at some point. I don't believe in leaving people on terrible pain. It makes me think of more vulnerable people in care homes for example just left in severe pain this must be affecting millions of people

To be honest a private and insurance based model from birth would have worked out a lot better for a lot of us. Maybe I could have had a normal life.

Even if funding resolved the medical staff deficit which I haven't heard anything about since labour came up government doctors will still withhold necessary medicine

@denhaag no I haven't heard of that. I have just wrote a letter to my psychiatrist explaining things and hopefully he will write back

I asked because you said you have a psychotic illness which I would have though meant you are under long-term MH care, and/or it's quite serious. I thought such people were assigned a care-coordinator - someone to help you navigate your way round the system.

I do not speak as a health professional, but as someone who had a care-coordinator.

You sound over reliant and probably addicted to medication, it looks like the professionals who have had years of training recognise this. You say you haven't got the money to go to the GP across town but have the money to pay for private prescriptions and GP apps. You need to own your problems for this and not transfer it to the NHS, you would have had to miss 3 appointments before you were taken off their list.