AIBU to be frustrated by NHS delays and inefficiency?

[LovingLilacDuck]

I think the NHS is so incredibly inefficient sometimes, I mean the system not the care. From getting an appointment in a GP to referrals to actual appointments literally take months sometimes. WHY?

Why do we have to keep up with this? Surely a proper healthcare system that works as it should must be a priority? It’s 2026, goodness sake!

Some can afford private healthcare and some can’t. Yes, NHS is free for all but is it ACCESSIBLE, I’m not sure. Therefore I think this rubbish situation where you have to be on a waiting list ??? for months must, must be sorted.

AIBU to be so frustrated?

Some things are stupid. It's a 4 year wait for a child/teen autism assessment here, and if (as happened to my eldest) they decided that it would be worth doing an ADHD assessment based on observations made at the autism assessment, it'd be another 4 years' wait. But the NHS here has run out of capacity to do any adult autism assessments, which means in practice that you get referred to private assessor through Right to Choose (at the NHS's expense) and can get an assessment in 3 months.

I think it's important that adults are able to be assessed, but it's clear that children have a far higher need because early diagnosis means that supports can be put in place that reduce the burden on the public purse of not having appropriate adjustments made.

We also had a funny one when we moved area. My son had been at the allergy clinic in our old area but we did not think it was necessary any more. His GP had originally prescribed an Epipen and referred him to the allergy clinic. The clinic said that without the GP having done that, he wouldn't have met the criteria for the allergy clinic and definitely didn't meet the criteria for an epipen, but because he had one, he had to be monitored every 6 months. When we moved, we contacted the new allergy clinic to say we didn't think he still needed to be seen. They then called us to an initial appointment at the clinic. This was not actually to discuss treatment, but was a triage appointment designed to reduce the official waiting lists. The only point of the appointment was to make certain that the allergy clinic really was the right place for my son to be seen. Given that the only info they had about him was that we thought he shouldn't be seen there (or anywhere else), this was nuts.

Edit for typos

It's decimated. Gross negligence, I'm saving up money for private care. I don't know if it can be fixed at this point.

We aren’t paying nearly anything like what it’s costing through our taxes. Look at the post above- infuriated after paying less than £2k in 4 YEARS they’ve only received 4 surgeries, multiple appointments being passed from ‘pillar to post’ and yet it’s a ‘shit show’ because they won’t provide weight loss surgery. This has to prove we aren’t putting enough in

Many, many years ago I went for an interview for a purchasing role within the NHS. One of the questions was you have to order some tables for a ward. The ward sister wants particular ones but there are very similar ones available from another company at a quarter of the price. Which ones would you order? I said the cheaper ones and failed the interview.

I went on to work for the NHS in another capacity many years later and was horrified at the waste and utter disregard for the cost of things. It was like another world.

In terms of delays, my neighbour went to A&E yesterday afternoon with excruciating head pain, confusion and disorientation. He got back at lunchtime today having spent the night on a chair waiting for various tests. A&E was at capacity with people laying on the floor for over 24 hours. Our NHS certainly isn’t the envy of the world.

My friend just had her first baby in Mumbai. They paid privately and had a 5 star experience. What they paid is far less than we all pay in tax for the NHS (at approx £3500 per person)
That's the other common statement that shows complete naivity.

The cost of care for one person increases year on year and goes up significantly after the age of 60 up to the average life expectancy in the 80s. That is 15 years or so of costing the NHS the most when contributing zero to the system. Of course you are going to pay more than you use, on average in younger years. You'll more than make up for it after retirement.

I read her post as her weight gain being caused by being left on the medication she was on while on the waiting list

You would be extremely unreasonable NOT to be angry. People are literally dying.
And being left in pain, even agony, and with permanent disabilities.

Everyone will scream but it's "freee, look at America!" There's systems in-between. I have American friends who like their healthcare.

We get our healthcare checkups done in India. It's so much cheaper and more efficient. Even surgery.

I'm on a surgical waiting list they said was about six months long. To me that's fairly reasonable. Though obviously if the ailment is causing excessive pain that can't be managed or effects mobility that would feel quite long.

Another example of how grateful I am of the NHS. My whole family suffer from a rare genetic disorder. This a referral for testing, counselling as to whether go ahead and test, expensive generic analysis and then preventive measures in addition to treatments. We have one chance in three in developing a cancer that is silent due a long time and often picked up too late.

Myself and DS never had and never need to worry about funding all this. We just attend the appointments. One of my family member in a other European country had to fight for years to receive free treatment under the lifelong illness cover. Her sibling with the same condition who lives 50 miles away but another district is told they don't meet the criteria and are therefore for the all costs linked with surveillance. They are tearing their heads. They are so envious of our NHS system.

But weight loss surgery won’t fix the underlying issue? She said once she’s had her hysterectomy she can stop taking the tablets which have caused the weight gain.

The NHS cannot fix everything.

We get our healthcare checkups done in India. It's so much cheaper and more efficient. Even surgery
Of course it seems cheap for a UK income. Not so much for those on very low wage or unemployed in India 🙄

And then struggle to lose the weight herself when it was caused by being on a long waiting list

The ageing population and the cost of that is a big issue.
My friend has gallstones confirmed by a scan in Aug last yr. She had her first gastro app last month due to the waiting list. The waiting list to remove the gallbladder is over a yr, she is going private. She pays a lot of tax, why should she have to?

Yes, absolutely. Again, the NHS cannot fix everything with the small amount we pay in. She should absolutely lose the weight herself.

It’s awful. DH got really sick in February leaving him, the only breadwinner, on SSP (£700pm). Urgent referral to neurology filed in Feb. Appointment date: August.

We’re almost there now and we find out it’s actually just a hearing test ahead of the referral…

How long is he meant to be out of work? A year? Longer? All our savings, decimated paying bills and some private help so he didn’t kill himself.

Older workers should pay NI towards NHS care or the health & social care levy that was scrapped

In my department it’s purely volume of people that the GPs are referring to the hospital. Consultants have to vet each referral and prioritise depending on clinical need and then slot into already packed clinics.

Im willing to bet that there was a diff medication they could have given her that wouldnt have had the same side effect but was more expensive.
Id lay money on it. Seen it before

I also had an appointment myself last week. 9am appt. I was there at 8.45am. I was finally seen at 12.30pm.

It was over a year back in 2002 when i got gallstones

You're all grateful you live in the west and have modern medicine. Not the NHS. You'd have survived if you were in the Netherlands or in Germany.

Honestly, what century was this 😂 I’m a sister, I don’t get a say in the brand of biscuits we buy for the patient tea trolley never mind what tables we buy. On your bike 😂😂 This will make us laugh at 3am tho when I’ve got matchsticks in my eyes!

I do agree at the state of A&E tho, staff are in uproar about it. We are furious and devastated all at the same time. I cannot see how we can go on at all. FWIW, I don’t want higher wage, what I want is more staff and better facilities for the true and desperate patients that come through the doors in massive quantities every day. I can only see that happening by paying more taxes and really streamlining services offered to the public.

I think this is absolutely fascinating and not at all what I anticipated being posted.