To be totally fed up with the sorry excuse that is the NHS?

[Carlie97]

I have gynaecology issues and I'm constantly bleeding heavy and leaky without a break as well as pain all the time.

I was told I had endometrial hyperplasia (abnormal cells - pre cancerous) last year and was due to have my six month check up last July to see if it's progressed. I heard nothing until I chased this and have an appointment for a hysteroscopy and biopsy in a few weeks time. They've outsourced this to a private company due to demand on the NHS but I've received my letter today and it says to take pain killers before the appointment as its going to be done without anaesthesia. This is an absolute nightmare as I've had it done without anaesthesia before and they had to stop because it was so painful. If they offer general, I think that's via a spinal which I can't have anyway. These are on my notes.

The coordination of my care has been an absolute shambles and my gynaes secretary is so unorganised, tells me thinks that aren't accurate which sends me round in a wild goose chase. She doesn't have a clue what she's doing. She also recently made it out like I wasn't going to attend my appointment as it's 50 miles away (where i used to live) and spoke to me like a child. As I'm bleeding non stop, suicidal (won't act on it) and severely anaemic, of course I'm going to attend! The gynae also tried to persuade me on the phone to have a mirena and take provera tablets. He obviously didn't see my notes that I've expelled two coils with flooding so much and I've told him numerous times that the tablets make me bleed even more.

They also scheduled me for iron infusion, months and months of me asking for this. I phoned the team who deal with this to query an appointment and they said I should never have been booked in with them as I'm out of area. They're still seeing me but what a fucking palaver!

I'm absolutely going to move my care to my new area when this is all done but in the meantime aibu to think this is unacceptable?

I'm sat here my heart beating so much every day because of the anaemia, I cry everyday, my mental health is on the floor and I'm honestly wishing each day that I go to bed and not wake up. I'm exhausted. I can't even go to A&E with the bleeding as friends have been and were sat in the waiting room for 27 hours waiting for a bed.

It’s the gratitude we’re supposed to have for such shite healthcare that pisses me off. Just give us proper healthcare like the rest of Europe!

Women can have stayed sanctioned torture rather than respectful treatment?

Outrageous.
It'll be a man who decided that.

This is the problem and why the NHS wont be fixed.

It's not NHS style or insurance/US system. There is a whole in-between that would work but so many Brits are happy paying a shitload of tax for the NHS to get 'free health care'.

I'm sorry you're going through this OP.

Yes please to paying a nominal fee (excluding children and those in receipt of benefits). So tired of hearing of friends or family being admitted to a bed in corridors, waiting >6 hours in A&E or getting dates for urgent appointments weeks later. How is this happening in a first world country!

There are too few admin staff to coordinate care/grease the wheels between departments

Many of the consultants you see privately are taking time off from their NHS positions

There are too few specialised staff and far too many patients

A lot of the 'routine' care is now outsourced to private companies who will reject referrals if there is the slightest hint that the patients' condition is more complex than the referral guidelines

I pay for Private Medical Insurance, can afford to pay for it but still don’t think we should get rid of the NHS or deliberately underfund it because there are millions of people who just won’t be able to afford to go private. Would hate for us to try and copy the American insurance model for healthcare.

How do you think those in Europe who don’t have jobs survive? Are they dying in the street? No. Private models do not simply mean the US model. There are plenty of highly successful, cheaper alternatives. See Europe. Do you think they wait for days in corridors In A&E to be seen there? No.

But by paying for private healthcare you ARE essentially getting rid of the NHS.

Where do you think the doctors for your private healthcare come from? They're paid more money than the NHS so do private work "on the side" or only work in the private sector. They will be NHS trained.

Then the NHS have to outsource procedures to the private sector (at cost to the NHS) which again eats into the budget.

And not to mention the fact that the private sector have no A&E units, so if something goes wrong, then the patient is taking to NHS A&E to deal with it. They take the money but not the risk.

We do need to fight to keep the NHS but changes need to be made to keep it afloat.

It is massively complex, but a good starting point would be people taking responsibility for their own health and looking after themselves with a healthy diet and exercise.

I also want a more European style healthcare system. I am from another European country myself and I have never understood why people in the Uk are so proud of the NHS. I can only assume it’s because they have never really known anything else and are brought up with this idea that the NHS is amazing. Personally I have private health cover and hope I will never need a&e for anything.

Why do you think the US model is the only alternative? What about all the European countries with insurance based systems? Or Canada, Australia? It's not a binary choice between the UK's NHS and the US system. However, we WILL end up with the US system if we don't wake up and smell the coffee and accept that the NHS is no longer fit for purpose and needs radical change, as more and more people are choosing to go private and/or take out private insurance. We need some brave politicians to do what should have been done a couple of decades ago when the NHS started creaking.

I think that for trauma and cancer treatment, the NHS is amazing. For non life threatening issues, the system is swamped. The Tories have a lot to answer for there.

But what is the alternative? People dying because they can’t afford treatment ? Or losing their homes? Terminally ill patients working til their dying day to pay for lifelong treatment?

Insurance models work in Europe. No one is excluded from treatment. If the NHS system was good, why is it the only developed country using this system.

Agree. I now live in a European country and the care is so much better than the NHS

I wonder if a complaint made to PALS would be an idea ? At least there are people that will listen; how much influence they have I don’t know, but could be constructive?

I recently moved and it was my gp who had to refer me to the new area hospital but in the meantime you stay under the care of the previous hospital if that makes sense x

I’ve only read your OP. I’m so sorry. I had extreme bleeding through Covid and I know EXACTLY how dire it is. In my case it was a fibroid and it is resolved now. But I felt suicidal and palpitations and trapped too.

Honestly, for you, beyond immediate medical priorities, I would go see my MP. Give them the brutal reality and sob and bleed freely in his/her office. They need to hear this.

I have a similar story. Been ill since 1st December and unable to eat. Diagnosed as a stomach virus. Went on for three months. Multiple trips to A & E . Blood tests. Saw so many Doctors who all said different things. Had to cancel Christmas and New Year. Eventually went private as I was in so much pain and got a diagnosis of Smoldering Diverticulitis. Had to pay for two lots of very strong antibiotics, which seem to have killed the infection for now. But the delay and lack of diagnosis has resulted in damage to my bowel.
I can't afford to get it all sorted privately, so I'm back to the NHS.
GP's nose is out of joint and she's making me jump through all sorts of hoops, which will takes for ever, all the time the smoldering aspect means I could end up in terrible pain again. If the surgery is done as an emergency, it's much more likely to end up with a stoma bag. As a planned precedure, it will be much more successful.

Two issues:

1. the approach to certain gynaecological procedures needs to change completely. Anaesthetic needs to be offered as a matter of course.
2. NHS in general is appalling - this is nothing to do with funding which successive Govts have increased and increased. It’s to do with public sector attitude, low productivity, absolute acceptance of negligence and laziness and inability to fire poor performers. There is no concept of the patient as a consumer who has paid for this service. (Huge apologies to anyone reading this who is a conscientious and hard working NHS worker.)

For me:

• More joined up care, all the different parts actually talking to each other.
• Some of the OPs problems, ironically, seem to be the result of a public/private hybrid system. They need to either invest money to keep it all in-house or sort out the outsourcing to private companies so patients don't fall between the cracks or be treated like 2nd class citizens by the private health providers.
• better attitude towards women's health problems. This isn't a unique NHS problem. Ironically I needed treatment in a country often held up as having a better system (the Netherlands who have an insurance model) and also had shockingly low.iron levels that would have qualified for an infusion in most other countries including the UK. None were forthcoming and I was expected to cope on tablets (which weren't doing much) for far to long.

Part of the OPs problem is that her problems are gynecological. When the NHS was first created they were shocked at the numbers of women with devastating untreated long term birth injuries who came forward for free treatment. Prior to the NHS it was hard to justify spending scant resources on their own health as mothers always put themselves last. "Women's issues" áre still seen as inevitable/something women should learn to live with rather than be treated. We are better if with the NHS than without. That doesn't mean we shouldn't criticise it's failings.

The nhs is a nasty, perverse, self serving, patriarchal shitshow. It exists purely to suit itself and they're highly selective in whom they'll treat. You're expected to go cap in hand, grovelling for even basic care and you don't get to have an opinion or choices in how you're treated. The people in the UK are stuck in an abusive relationship with the so called health service and only the well off or very lucky get to escape.

Many European countries manage their health systems more effectively. How?

Yes, let’s move to the European model of healthcare - they all spend far more per capita than we do, including for the public spending. (Or, we could stick with what we have and increase our per capita spending in line with what they spend in e.g.Germany, and we’d probably see better outcomes…) Bottom line is, healthcare is expensive and we don’t actually spend enough on it to get the outcomes people want. If you’re happy to pay more for healthcare, please do let your MP know and then vote accordingly.

Iived in the Netherlands and had very good healthcare except anything in the area of pain relief and women's health issues. This included:

• being in labour for 3 days and asking for pethidine just so I could sleep or (towards the end) deal with the excruciating pain. Gas and Air wasn't available so the only options were pethidine or an epidural. I was dismissed throughout (they were very busy TBF) because my contractions didn't appear to be that strong on the monitor so it was clear I wasn't actually doing all that much and making a fuss over nothing. When, after several hours of extremely intense pain they actually checked I was 9 1/2 cm dilated so it was "too late now anyway". And the nurse said they didn't realise I was so far along because I was too "stoical" even though I had been telling them my contractions were stronger and I was in pain
• having extremely low iron levels due to heavy periods. It turned out I had levels of 6 when the healthy minimum is 14. Apparently that would normally be really bad but since I was still walking about my body must be used to it. But I felt really ill. That's why I was at the doctor's
• the classic mirena coil insertion with no painkillers which is the same there as here

Other aspects of Dutch healthcare were excellent (Kraamzorgs are amazing). But people romanticising European systems possibly haven't experienced all aspects. I don't think the central problem with the Dutch system was how it's funded. I think it's cultural - both a Calvinistic attitude towards pain and probably a common scepticism towards women's pain in particular. I think that's also a big problem in the NHS but again it's cultural, nothing to do with how the NHS is funded.

It’s not the entirety of the NHS that’s struggling.

I’ve been referred to Gynae twice in the last 18 months, for post-menopausal bleeding. I have been seen, biopsied & diagnosed within 8 weeks on both occasions. My cystoscopy was done under a General, in a clean and efficient NHS hospital.

Mum had a Severe Stroke, an Ambulance arrived within 20 minutes, and she was taken to the regional centre of excellence, where done highly qualified medical staff looked after her.

I also know three people undergoing cancer treatment - not one of them has to worry about how they will pay for it, or how they will pay for ongoing meds.

If I need to see my GP, I’ll ring at any point in the morning, the triage GP will ring me back within a couple of hours, and if I need to be seen I’ll be seen that afternoon.

I’ve also just reorder Medication, and yes there is a Prescription fee, but it’s a damn site less than it would be in another country.

The NHS is one of the great institutions in this country, and we shouod defend the principle of Free Healthcare for all at the point of delivery.

I'm so sorry that you are going through this OP, and you're correct, the NHS is an absolute shambles except for perhaps A+E, cancer pathways and cardiac care.
For everything else, you either suffer or have to put your hand in your pocket.

It takes me 5 days to hear back - via email, from my GP. There are no appointments the same day. It can then take a further 14 days to get an appointment via phone or F2F.
Prescriptions take 7 days to be processed.
There is no NHS dental service.
The women's health / menopause service is non existent in my opinion.
It is massively abused. People do not look after themselves and if there is a way to get it 'free' on the NHS, they will.

I would welcome a system where I can pay to access the NHS GP and services. At the moment, I'm paying twice - once in insurance and once for a system that isn't working.

One reason women’s health is ignored is that until recently there were very few female doctors.

At some stage the new cohort of female doctors might have negative experiences with lack of pain relief in their own lives.
Suddenly they have power to change things, and provision of eg anaesthesia will improve for everyone else.

Separately, it’s always useful to observe what female doctors in the relevant field choose when offered a choice in any given scenario.