The NHS. We need to fight to keep it.

[Differentforgirls]

My Mil is 87. Last year (around September) she was bleeding from her vagina and went to her GP.

The GP referred her to hospital for tests, which she got quickly.

It was cancerous polyps in her womb so she got further tests to ensure they hadn’t spread and was referred for surgery.

Tonight she has been discharged from hospital after numerous tests over the intervening months and a surgery yesterday (keyhole).

She’ll get follow up treatment too.

All NHS, where she has been treated with dignity, respect and kindness.

It might not be what it was due to cuts but it’s still something we should be proud of.

She’ll celebrate her 88th birthday next month, as an OAP in social housing with nothing but her pension, because of the NHS.

AIBU for thinking the NHS is something to be proud of and fight to keep?

And not only do we have an ever increasing population, we have an aging population with multiple co morbidities that everyone wants to fix and make them healthy again.

We don't allow people to just die of ill health anymore

So because people don't agree with you, you're not coming back, how very grown up of you.

Well they have given up on my mum ,they are going to let her die ,as nothing is to be investigated due to dementia.
Maybe the NHS does the same with other illnesses and diseases..I don't know ,but maybe someone who works in the NHS would know ..
Maybe it's not just people with dementia who get no investigation or tests or no hospital for anything

You’re awful.

She wasn’t in ICU Ffs. She stayed one night in a hospital.

Cant believe you look after vulnerable patients with these awful views.

The grim reaper springs to mind.

Have you seen a full resuscitation in action, I can assure you, its not what happens on TV, it is brutal, one of the most brutal violent things you can go through, your chest is pummelled, ribs broken, tubes rammed down your throat, your heart given an electric shock, stabbed multiple times to get lines in so drugs can be given, it might even end up with your knee being punctured so a line can be gotten in - now ask yourself, is that what you want for your mum?

I am a nurse and I am telling you this resuscitation is brutal and I wouldn't put any member of my family through it.

The trans obsessive has hopefully left the thread.

That is actually what her doctor explained to me when they told me they decided DNR and no hospital for anything with the mental health nurse .
So I did understand why they were doing it ..I didn't get a say in the matter

I am not the grim reaper, far from it, I am realistic.

I am also the one that keeps that ventilator adjusted to the right amount that it doesn't kill you or cause permanent damage
Keeps the infusions going so your blood pressure is optimised
Keeps your skin clean and dry to prevent pressure sores
Hold your and your families hand
Advocates for you
Supports junior nurses
Manages that unit so it is safe - so call me all the names you want

She may have only been in hospital one night, I am asking about what if.

I can see that from the other sod though.

My dad had a bowel cancer removed at 80. He was. Fit and healthy then. Didn’t need chemo (he said he would have declined it anyway at his age).

At 89 he had dementia and was in a bad way. It was clear he was having bowel issues again, everyone agreed the cancer was probably back.

I wasn’t going to put him though test, surgeries and hospital stays. He was confused, upset and agitated enough. It would have been awful for him and for what? To die in hospital? Or at the best, to keep him alive for another couple of years, trapped in the hell of dementia?

It was best to just keep him pain free.

I also made sure he had DNR on his records (I was only NOK). One of his friends called me a murderer. The last few months of his life, he was staring blankly ahead, weighed 9 stone at 6 foot 3… he was frail. Attempting to resuscitate would have only snapped his ribs in half and finished him off further.

It is a clinical decision.

Again call me all the names you want.

That is the same situation with my mum .she was treated successfully age 50 with an op for bowel cancer ..she's permanently on morphine now

I live in Scotland and have experienced and witnessed poor and worsening “care” from the NHS since the 1970s. Your experience is not the norm.

I went private for the first time late last year - paying to see private neurologist and for an MRI. My GP suspected MS and made routine then urgent referrals to Neurology in August 2024 and April 2025. I finally saw a neurologist last month, and was able to provide him with the MRI I had paid for. If I hadn’t paid for my own MRI I would now be on a 5 month waiting list to have it done on NHS with another 5 month wait to get the results. MRI shows no evidence of MS but I obviously still have symptoms so am now waiting for more scans. I didn’t have the heart to ask how long that waiting list was.

In the 1980s my granny was in a car accident while employed by the NHS as an on-call doctor. She was sent home with my mother while clearly concussed and with a broken pelvis which took a week to be discovered. In the 1990s the same granny, now blind and deaf came out of hospital having lost a huge amount of weight because meals were simply put in front of her - she couldn’t see the food or hear them telling her it was there. They then took the plate away untouched without wondering why. They also gave her the wrong medication despite my mother telling them repeatedly it was wrong.

1990s - I was in hospital. Nursing staff got my meds wrong and tried to make me walk to the toilet despite the sole purpose of me being there was to ensure my feet were elevated and I didn’t walk! Another patient on that ward, who happened to be a nurse, was changing her own wound dressings as the staff couldn’t be arsed doing their jobs. That same patient had been told late in the Friday that she had a large tumour at the top of her leg and the leg would need to be amputated. She told me this on the Monday evening, and no one had been to speak to her since that one brief conversation about amputation.

2010s - visiting an elderly neighbour on a ward. She was clearly extremely unwell - couldn’t speak, drooling, couldn’t move one arm. Nurses ignored repeated requests for assistance or even to look at her. She was having a stroke and died the next day.

I could go on.

The NHS has been broken for a very long time and this persistent refusal to accept that reality means it is nothing short of abysmal and dangerous now.

As an nhs nurse I can honestly say I do what I can with the limited service I can provide but I cannot honestly say I am proud. My own trust does better than some, and my own work area we do a pretty good job but we are micromanaged on an unsafe scale. proud. No.
as a patient on a ward in my own trust last year I was absolutely disgusted at the treatment I received. And they didn’t know I was a nurse working in the same hospital nor did I announce it. Signed myself out. Embarrassed yes. Ashamed. Yes. Proud, no.

Well I'm not the "trans obsessive" PP, but I 100% agreed with her post.

I have no idea what the NHS is like in Scotland, but I do know that if I was treated there, I'd be concerned about having a male bodied person on my ward, and being gaslit by the staff (as if they have nothing better to do) that it was single sex.

That wasn’t a name.

My in-laws have always paid private for health care
But now in their late 70s they have decided to stop
They said in their experience the care in private hospitals was not as good as NHS as if an emergency overnight ,they had to be taken to an NHS hospital,so they don't see the point in paying for it anymore

Three years wait for surgery on a anterior vaginal prolapse.

See that's just ridiculous!

Here in France, you go straight to the gynaecologist (no need to go via the GP) by making a rdv online with the one of your choice. There can be longer waits for gynae rdv so most French women have a yearly check-up and make their next rdv well in advance. It also means that you get to know 'your' gynae and they can often fit you in for an emergency rdv if needed. If you choose one who is also a surgeon, they will do your op - if not, they will redirect you to a colleague who is. I had a small op to remove uterine polyps under general anaesthetic a couple of years ago. I think I saw the gynae in April, was referred to her surgeon colleague and saw her a couple of weeks after, She agreed surgery was necessary, I had the extra blood and ECG tests at my own convenience, and a separate rdv with the anaesthetist (results all going directly to the surgeon as well as to me), then had the surgery in October - but that was only because the July-August summer holidays got in the way and we mutually decided to wait until October and the schools were back / life calmed down again. So really only a few months, done and dusted, everything done at times and dates of my choosing. I paid maybe €200 out of my own pocket because that particular surgeon works in a completely private clinic so the charges were higher and not all reimbursed. For the service I received (top surgeon, lovely clinic, own room, great follow-up care etc) it was well worth it. Everything else was reimbursed, and I could have chosen to go a fully-reimbursed route if I wanted to.

The absolutely beauty of the French system is that those who can pay a little, can access private level healthcare, and free up the fully-public / completely free system for those that can't afford to pay anything. We've been in France for nearly 20 years, and haven't actually had to use the public hospital system for anything yet. Most surgeries we've had done at the private clinic literally round the corner from our home. I am absolutely wiling to pay a little out of my pocket to access this level of healthcare. DH and I are not rich (teacher and school administrator), yet we can afford this access to private healthcare - as do the vast majority of French people.

It doesn't have to be NHS free at point of care for everyone OR US-style huge charges and bankruptcies, there are other options, but it doesn't seem like any politicians in the UK are interested in exploring them.

About a year or so ago I ended up in the equivalent of A&E in what would be called a 'third world' country. Slightly less fancy machinery and equipment (they were still using paper notes and manual blood pressure machines) but the environment was spotless, the care was superb and I kept being apologised to for the delays. A delay of about an hour for a doctor to review me because they were waiting for some blood tests.

Pales into insignificance when 2 years ago I spent days in A&E, including sleeping on the floor at one point when I was too unwell to sit on a hard plastic chair and then a few days in a corridor. I had sepsis and thankfully at this point I was too unwell to actually give a damn.
My local hospital are now recruiting 'corridor care' nurses for A&E. I'm not quite sure thats something to be proud of.......

The Scottish Gov has just wasted £1,136,903.74 trying to remove women’s rights from law. I’m sure the NHS would’ve benefitted from this. Slow
handclap for them.

My DM, aged 99, had the most terrible time with the nhs. I hope that never ever happens to me. It was appalling from start to finish. No information, poor care, pain team never did come to see her to advise so her pain was excruciating. A pet would have been treated better. Some well publicised illnesses are reasonably well managed but get old - you are a complete nuisance and a bed blocker.

5 months for an MRI? MILs took two weeks and my husband got one recently a week after he’d seen his GP.

It’s not. But it’s down to underinvestment.

Nope, I am still here. Not trans obsessive at all. Just ‘governments wasting my taxes ‘ obsessive. We could talk about Deposit return scheme, Baby boxes You names it. All diverting funds.