NHS unbelievable

[Chatterlyssecret]

Our local Hospital say they are too busy to give my son in law an appointment in the near future to have pain relieving Botox injections after suffering a massive stroke, expecting him to travel 114 miles to a different Hospital for a ten minute appointment. Am i being unreasonable to think the system needs someone with a bit of common sense to understand the situation, we do not have transportation to get him there.

The system is broken.
It’s getting worse. YANBU.

NHS and common sense don't seem to overlap.

It's crazy, can get enquire about hospital transport? Probably unlikely but worth asking.

I have hope as I met a young Dr yesterday with an amazing bedside manner. I hope she goes far as she was so patient and kind with my mum.

Request patient transport?

the local may have a longer list so they’ve referred to the next nearest? Not much you can do ask you can’t expect those already waiting to wait longer so he can jump the queue - the appointment to have Botox will be longer than 10 minutes too

I assume it’s because they already have an extensive waiting list so that’s the alternative.

Not enough detail in the OP to even venture a full comment, but undoubtedly the situation will be much more complex than suggested.

That's a very specialist service- I imagine the local hospital don't have anyone trained to do the injections. A specialist service can only run if there is funding and enough demand for the professional assessing and delivering the injections to keep up their skill set.

My friend had to have botox injections for haemopleagic migraines. It is a specialised area - the closest place that did it for her was 104 miles away. She couldnt drive and if no one could take her she had to get 3 trains each way.

Unfortunately with specialised services you might have to travel.

Transport can sometimes be provided when patients have to travel further afield. Contact the PALS team for advice as they'll be able to direct you to the appropriate service provider.

I do feel that running down the NHS is exactly what Reform want - it helps create the rhetoric that the NHS is failing, which paves the way for the end of the NHS & further American investment & privatised health care .
We don’t tend to hear the stories of when the NHS works well. My husband, daughter, mother in law & myself have all had hospital treatment this year. We all had GP appointments within a couple of days, were seen by hospital specialists within weeks for scans & then treated really quickly for a range of conditions including musculoskeletal condition, hip replacement & cancer. I have nothing but praise for the effectiveness of the process & the professionalism of the staff. I just wanted to add some balance with the experiences my family have had.

I was having Botox every 3 months for migraines, but now they can’t do it as regular as that because they have too many patients so it’s as and when. It’s not just one injection, it’s 32 and I travel 59 miles for them. If I was told I could go 114 miles to have it done on time, I’d snap their hand off.

The NHS is failing in many ways, but it doesn’t seem terrible service for them to offer you the next nearest hospital for a specialist treatment if the local hospital doesn’t have capacity. He’s still being offered free, timely, effective treatment, it’s just not in a convenient location.

If they are too busy to give the injections when he needs them surely it’s better they give you an alternative hospital that can give them when needed rather than him waiting? It’s not ideal no but I’d arrange travel or ask them about patient transport if it was something I needed

YANBU nhs is a joke. Just keep calling daily to moan about it eventually someone will answer the phone with half a brain cell.

It's a very broken and overloaded system.

My DH has a very serious neurological condition and needed an urgent hospital appointment so that he could start with the only medication currently available. He was told that urgent neurology appointments were 14 months away! We had to really fight for it as the consultant, who had already seen us privately, had wanted to see him within a week when the time came to transfer back to the NHS.

Maybe. Perhaps the Botox is a bit more complicated than I imagine. But my experience is of a very elderly relative in a care home. When less experienced staff were on duty at night they’d often ring 999 if they were worried. At least 3 times that I'm aware of a paramedic in a car came to see her from Portsmouth, we are south Midlands. That’d be about 120 miles/2hrs trip one way! Wouldn't surprise me at all if they expect a patient to do the same.

This