I know this isn’t the first thread, but the NHS is close to collapse

[Adropintheocean1]

I don’t want to be to outting, but basically I have some symptoms. GP suspected a condition due to these symptoms, and referred me to the hospital.

My hospital (large city) said we don’t test for this condition, please refer to x London hospital. London hospital said we are the only hospital dealing with this diagnosis, we are overwhelmed, we can’t see her. Suspected illness is not life threatening or limiting however does cause horrible chronic symptoms that need to be managed. So that’s it… GP seemed genuinely embarrassed. Basically if I want a diagnosis I need to go privately (can’t afford it.) GP said for a relatively poor area, his making as many private referrals as NHS ones.

Is it not time we got angry about this?

I went private this year to see a max-facs surgeon & for surgery. I also paid privately for consultations with a neurologist/headache specialist and paid thousands for private MRIs.

The wait was so long for the NHS, I needed help ASAP and we had the money in savings. I never imagined I would go private.

Having said that, my DH is currently an oncology inpatient at an NHS hospital. He's currently waiting to be discharged, once they've put equipment and palliative care in place for him to come home.

The doctors, nurses, OT, physio, have all been excellent. But they are so so busy.

He's in a side room on his own. If I hadn't been going in every day for several hours, there are some days where he would not have eaten or been able to shower.. what happens to the people without wives or relatives looking after them???

To br fair, my neurological involuntary movement disorder called tardive dyskinesia is pretty rare, involving bizarre symptoms and involuntary movements that most doctors won't ever see in their career and only read about in textbooks.

I remember my obstetrics doctor saying he had only read about it in text books, and another student doctor wanted to write a case study on me. I know that most neurologists and psychiatrists will have heard of it, but won't admit that it is caused by the very psychotropic medication they prescribe to (ahem) help.

The Queen Square Neurology hospital in London is pretty specialist and might see more people with it than the average NHS one.

As someone that works in the NHS, I don’t know a single colleague that does not have private health insurance. Says it all really.

Gynae is awful at the minute

I was referred to a private hospital who said no can't touch this, back to NHS
Had numerous scans then an MRI. Appointment cancelled as 1 consultant off sick, 1 on maternity which left.. 1 consultant for the entire endometriosis centre

Current wait time from GP to being seen is around 18 months

I'm now over a year in and expected surgery date is still up to 6 months. My flare ups are so bad I'm a regular a&e user who give me more morphine and send me home as nothing they can do

I've been incredibly patient but when you're worried about sickness and your job and also crying/yelling in pain.. it's hard!

I've seen tardive dyskinesia

I don't know anyone who does!

Our DC needed to have an operation, we were told DC was the highest risk patient on their list, but the NHS couldn’t pull together a date. Six weeks went by and we then disclosed we had private insurance and got a date for the same NHS team to do the operation but privately. It cost our insurer over £10,000. I understand the profit was reinvested into the NHS. I’m enormously grateful that we were able to do that and I understand the reasons why it happened that way but it just doesn’t seem fair or right.

On the other hand I should say my doctors are amazing
You can get a same day appointment, or ring at 6pm and get an evening one. Even weekend appointments. So if you get to Friday at 11pm and think shit I've got a really bad UTI, you just ring 9am Sat morning and you'll be seen

You must be one of only a few people... I'm sure it's something most people would only be able to relate to if you said it was like Parkinson's disease and Tourette's combined together... in my experience, I've not found many people have been familiar with it, and that includes some health professionals.

I was quoted 6months by my GP for a referral for a condition. 4 years later....I've been outsourced to a private clinic on an NHS pathway. And now I've joined the back of their queue waiting for surgery.... 😩

I have struggled to get my ADHD treated for a long time. Frustrating.

but when my 20 week scan in my third pregnancy showed an anomaly I was at St George’s within 24 hours meeting a professor of fetal medicine, having an MRI + meeting the paediatric neurosurgeons.all within a 3 days.

(my daughter is absolutely fine now after a really worrying couple of months)

its still really really excellent in a crisis.

agree with PPs that say the expectations of the NHS have absolutely ballooned. It’s really hard to know how to do it all. I don’t think my ADHD or my husbands back pain should necessarily be priority issues.

My GP didn’t even know what POTS was so referred me. I’ve been waiting 2 years for my next follow up appt! Reason given is that Covid jabs caused so many heart issues the waiting lists for cardiology are through the roof.

And as I don’t have official diagnosis I can’t get travel insurance etc. although DVLA have been notified.

NHS is geared up for emergencies not chronic conditions ime.

The number of missed appts in the NHS is shocking, maybe fines are what’s needed.

NHS organisational skills are improving and huge improvement since I worked in the NHS many years ago. Management still appear to be only interested in furthering their own careers still though.

My father has been waiting for a knee replacement for 11 years. At some point they took him off the list, perhaps someone thought he’d be able to grow a knee or something. It’s dreadful.

Me too, psychiatric hospital, mid 1980s.

Those of us reading these posts from other countries might disagree with "The NHS is the best system for providing healthcare in the world, bar none". Goodness knows we have problems of our own, but some of the things I read on MN are truly appalling. I really don't get all this worship of the NHS.

The NHS was created at a time when there wasn't as many people.

We have too many people and too little beds/ money/ staff.

I aren't turning this into an immigration bashing post as the whole world is over populated by humans. But the UK definitely has too many people for an island.

Don't bash the NHS. Each trust is different from the next. The NHS is a wonderful thing. Yes it has mistakes and yes it's not perfect. But compared to the rest of the world, I'm proud of our NHS.

Maybe people should stop attending a&e when they don't need to. Go to your pharmacy with a cold, not your gp.

We are all responsible for our NHS!

Argh this sounds really frustrating for you. The chronic underfunding of the NHS is an absolute disgrace and also factors such as nursing training funding being taken away, meaning that there is a shortage of nurses. Saying that, I have been stunned at the remarkable service I have had with the NHS for severe asthma (which could be life threatening). I am so utterly grateful that I have had the treatment (from A&E support to injections delivered to my home) for free. I compare this to what my experience would be like in the US for instance - and god forbid if I didn’t have health insurance.
My point is that I think we need to be enormously grateful to the incredibly hard working NHS staff (including your Gp who has no control at all) and we need to complain to the appropriate people…. E.g. to your local politician rather than to your local hospital

Try having American health care!

It's already collapsed imo

Looking into insurance for autistic dd but for me, I've got so many health issues, I've got no chance

Sorry op x

But compared to the rest of the world, I'm proud of our NHS.

This is exactly what I mean. How can you say this unless you know the ins and outs of every single country's health system?

Try having American health care!

There are many more healthcare systems than the UK and the US you know.

Me too!

YABU. It is way way beyond time to get angry.

I’ve been angry and frightened for years about this, ever since I was admitted to hospital as a child when we were n holiday in the US. Suspected appendicitis. I was screaming in pain and they wouldn’t even look at me until my dad handed over his insurance details.

I’ve been angry and frightened since I found out the Tories were selling off parts of the NHS to private companies. Since the Michelle Mone scandal. Since I lay on a ward in 2015 and listened to a woman screaming because she had dementia and she didn’t know where she was. She shouldn’t have been on a general ward but apparently she’d been found in the street so they didn’t have her address / emergency contact details - and there was no social services support available so they couldn’t get her off the ward to free up the bed.

My paramedic friend has told me if several night shifts where they go to one or two calls, then spend the rest of their shift sitting in the ambulance with the patient. Queuing, because there are no beds.

It’s not on the verge of collapse - it HAS collapsed. Brexit fucked it. Covid was the icing on the cake.

It needs enormous and sustained investment to rebuild.

Sorry @tillyandmilly - meant to quote the OP, not you. Very tired!

I waited 8 years for a CFS diagnosis. (2013-2021)

I don’t think my ADHD or my husbands back pain should necessarily be priority issues.

But both of these things are health problems aren't they? A health service should treat health problems. In the case of back pain - my father had his ignored by his GP, now he uses a walker. That is, he is an older adult who has lost mobility. Christ knows what that's going to cost in the long run - he can't walk now. Had he received timely appropriate care this wouldn't have happened. I've looked into it myself - he just needed a splint on his heel. Ffs. And that's before you even start considering the human cost.

Another friend of his also had back pain, again ignored for ages until the NHS got together some kind of half arsed pain management plan, too little too late. He was in agony, ended up on tramadol, very fucking swift decline as he was out of his mind with pain and opiates by then, dead within months. This was a guy who had till then worked years beyond state pension age and was otherwise fit and well, but he nicked his back and well that was it for him, in a country with a shit healthcare system.