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?

I cannot understand why the logistics are so archaic. We each have an NHS number yet i have moved area within England and have been told that my hospital records are not available. It ridiculous.

@PassaggressfedupIm not sure what your last sentence says. I would agree it’s not as good as it was but they also have the ageing population issue. I still prefer it to our system.

Wrong. Spanish health care is excellent, for example.

Don't believe the domestic propaganda the UK feeds you.
The NHS is NOT the envy of the world.

I would agree with this. Before my DPs finally moved into a care home, there seemed a positive battery of tests on a regular basis that seemed faintly ludicrous due to their ages. Except of course when DF was finally referred for the memory test , that apparently had a waiting list of months.
The system works in a fractured way so each area focuses on delivering its outcomes, never questioning the benefit of all these tests on a 92 year old with failing overall health- not unexpectedly at the age of 92.

Spanish health care is excellent, for example
You're wrong, the Spanish system also experiences long waits like the NHS.

25% of residents in Spain pay extra towards private insurance!

Everyone's experience is individual and unique to them. As a child in the 1960s and 70s, I was forced to undergo multiple surgeries for no reason other than, and I don't say this lightly, experimentation so they could improve what is now one or two amazing surgeries. Absolutely no way, today would any of these be done as a) the surgeries are redundant and b) just being called to hospital where there is a bed several days before to wait in, surgeons immediately available and a couple of weeks in hospital afterwards, just doesn't happen

This year, I've had to have inpatient non surgical time and surgeries related to what happened when I was little and the wait was, while not unacceptable, quite hard to deal with and left me in pain and frustrated for a couple of months. When it all happened though, it was done by the top consultant in the country in that field plus three other top surgeons from other teams and I was treated amazingly well.

It wasn't their fault I had to wait and they did everything to get it done

We can't just generalise. The nhs is in a mess for many reasons but when you ask people their experiences there will be some unhappy (£480 a year and moaning thinking that pays for more than a couple of outpatients 10 minute appointments ) and some really relieved it's there at all and appreciative of what was done

The NHS is shit for so many reasons. Loads of additional appointments rather than just treating someone on first contact. The UK limiting medical degrees and placements. Drs who have graduated not able to train. Many people working in the NHS doing the bare minimum. Toxic environments that are accepted. Terrible treatment of their customers/patients. Staff not listening and minimising until patient becomes so ill even more expensive treatment is needed. No accountability and just pass people around.

When in A&E signs everywhere saying if in pain ask and they will do something. Not true. People suffer for hours. A simple fix would be a nurse going round checking on the poor people waiting.

many other countries have much better systems. Someone said earlier how much they had paid in and has been rudely told they don’t pay enough. Billions more can go into the NHS and it will still be shit. I paid £108K in tax last year so I’m sure anything I would need I have well over paid. However I feel I would be safer if A&E were needed it would be quicker and safer to jump on the Eurostar or get a flight to Spain as the treatment would be better and quicker.

The issue is that when the waiting list for anything to be done about your illness is 6-12months if it’s bad enough you end up paying for the NHS AND thousands of pounds in private treatment to make life bearable. While sometimes unable to work due to the illness. That’s when it stings.

I live in Spain and have for 20 years. I have 2 chronic illnesses and all.my children were born here.
I assure you that the Spanish healthcare system is streets ahead of the NHS, and although it is true that a lot of people pay for private healthcare as compared to the UK part of that is that it is a lot more affordable and the other part is that in order to move here in many circumstances for the first year you are required to contract full private healthcare with no copays if you are not working and therefore not contributing to the Spanish social security system.

But my point stand, the national service is very helped by the fact that 25% of people in Spain go private. The NHS would do amazing with 25% less patients.

It's a significant difference!

It would also have 25% less staff. We don’t have an infinite supply of health professionals.

We have a hell of a lot more than they’re making out. Loads of newly qualified nurses and doctors and AHP desperate for jobs. And loads of international applicants too.

More than who is making out? Is there any evidence for that assertion?

It would also have 25% less staff. We don’t have an infinite supply of health professionals
Not forcibly. The NHS attracts foreign health workers. That is definitely not the issue, the problem is funding the significant increase in long term conditions that has gradually soared in the last 50 years.

On this matter, Spaniards do look after themselves better than the Brits.

The NHS is a total embarrassment- it needs totally dismantling and starting again in favour of a system that works.

We should be looking at European systems and what works there and how we can do it here.

I wouldn’t be happy to pay more tax for the NHS in its current form - I doubt many would.

We need a better system with shorter waits and the ability to choose and consultant and vote with our feet if the clinic and hospital doesn’t perform.

As someone said upthread in a private hospital if things aren’t done there are consequences not just “that’s the system” excuse.

I think what bemused me is how NHS digital has existed for years and I have not seen the transformation or digitisation yet that = efficiency gains it needs.

And record keeping is shambolic. Last year I saw my GP about a suspicious patch of skin on my arm. Referral to dermatology on the 2 week pathway. Seen in 2 weeks, harmless skin change all good. GP had taken my blood pressure just for the record. It was fine. About a month after seeing GP the practice nurse is on the phone to do a routine health check because apparently I haven t had my blood pressure taken in 20 years??? And is there any reason I haven't been for breast screening. I always go for these appointments and I have the letters saying all okay and your GP has been informed. Last one done in February this year

The NHS is a total embarrassment- it needs totally dismantling and starting again in favour of a system that works.We should be looking at European systems and what works there and how we can do it here
Typical statement from the public whose knowledge of the NHS goes no further than what they read in the media.

For one, the NHS is everything but an embarrassment.

For two, European countries have actually been modelling NHS systems. Many of them struggle with the exact same issues and those who don't have a much higher ratio of people paying to go private or pay much more in taxes.

I think what bemused me is how NHS digital has existed for years and I have not seen the transformation or digitisation yet that = efficiency gains it needs
Again, absolutely wrong. You might not have seen it, but there's been massively successful projects that have come to fruition. The use of NHS app for a start. Still plenty to do but again, sound like a statement straight from the media!

People always moan about the US system, even when they don’t have direct experience of it. I know an American chap who was amazed that his UK GP wouldn’t continue to prescribe the drug he had for a condition but switched him to cheaper alternatives, despite him saying he had tried these in the US and they weren’t effective for him.

I was prescribed a migraine preventative a couple of years ago. It’s been OOS for over 6 months now. I’m worried it might go permanently unavailable in the UK as there’s no sign of it coming back. One of the reasons I’ve read is that the NHS pay such a low price for it that it’s not worth it for manufacturers to produce it.

The alternative is inconvenient (4 x per day instead of 1), gives me heartburn and isn’t as effective. I’m seriously considering trying to get a prescription when I go to the US I’m September, $70 for 100 tablets which I’d happily pay.

If the NHS was a great system, it would be copied around the world and yet no country has. Odd that!
I don't believe for a second that waiting lists are falling. I do know lots of people that have got so sick of waiting for surgery that they have taken out loans and gone private. That could be the cause. Certainly not anything the government has done!

My dc currently in hospital and has been for 6 weeks, alot of the issues are down to staff not caring or just doing the bare minimum, he had to wait over 14 hrs in resus to get an MRI to decide on his treatment, so it would seem MRIs are scarce, when he needed a further MRI, the porters came to the ward and as he was getting washed they left and he missed his MRI and the slot presumably lost. When I spoke with the ward, they said that MRi dept didn't tell them, so I raised a complaint ( which wasn't straightforward) and as the MRI dept say they told the ward, complaints have said complaint successfully completed. I have no idea who is telling the truth but complaints are satisfied, absolute joke.

It’s common knowledge that the band 5 (ie: NHS entry level) job situation is dire at the moment for new graduate health professionals. 100s of applicants for each few and far between post - many are going unemployed, retraining or simply leaving the UK for better prospects elsewhere. Widely publicised in the news and unions such as the CSP are finally beginning to speak up too. We’ve got plenty of eager to work AHPs, nurses etc - they just can’t get an NHS job as posts in which people have left, retired from etc are no longer being readvertised to save money. Despite this, the NHS are still funding university places and training for these students who are inevitably going to be left jobless. Make it make sense!!

I have only had one bad experience of the NHS, but up until recently, I would have sung their praises.

In April I had a fall. I thought I had sprained by elbow and I didn't do anything about it. I actually posted about it on here. Ended up going to my GP who referred me for an urgent xray. I literally got a phone call the very next day and went for the xray a day later. It was wonderful.

Got a call from the GP a few days later to say my arm was broken, but it wasn't displaced. It would need treatment, probably a splint as opposed to plaster. He said he would put through an urgent referral to the nearest hospital. It's now the end of July and I have heard absolutely nothing. I tried to chase it up, and still nothing from the hospital. Anyway - I won't even bother now, I believe it's healed itself, although my arm has a strange lump on it. I just hope it doesn't come back to bite me as I get older.