NHS waiting times

[Funkypolar]

Covid has completely finished the NHS off.

My mother needs an endoscopy. The next appointment she can make is December 2021!

My friend works as a nurse in an eye clinic - their backlog is now predicted to be two years long.

Tempted to get private health insurance, if Covid doesn’t get me, something else is bound to finish me off.

@bloodywhitecat I am so so sorry to hear about your partner. It makes you feel so bloody awful to watch nothing being done when something COULD be done by the NHS and they are putting Covid first.
Cancer is still happening! It's not something that can be put on the back burner.

I have an auntie who lives just outside London and she was admitted last week as she couldn't take any fluids. My cousin said she was literally the only patient in the entire hospital as they had emptied it ready for a second wave!!!

I was gobsmacked when I heard that!
They knew this was coming all along so why decommission all the Nightingale hospitals

It's awful and I'm afraid to point out women's health is the worse hit. I ended up having to go privately for excision surgery for endometriosis, it's a awful chronic condition and it's down on the NHS as elective surgery, women are waiting years for diagnosis and now potentially 18 months for patchy NHS laser surgery.

It's a blood mess.

A friend of ours said if you want to buy shares, buy them in private healthcare, because for the next 5 years it will be booming.

5 year old son has had his eye clinic appointments cancelled for a minimum of 12 months. This is the time in his life he could do with some eye patching (like my older two). It’s not something that can be done when he is older.

He has had his speech therapy cancelled full stop. We were given some online leaflets.

@Shamrocksunshine

5 year old son has had his eye clinic appointments cancelled for a minimum of 12 months. This is the time in his life he could do with some eye patching (like my older two). It’s not something that can be done when he is older.

He has had his speech therapy cancelled full stop. We were given some online leaflets.

And this is where there is no logic.

In June we had a phone appointment from the orthoptist, that showed he needed seeing so he had an appointment, new prescription and new glasses sorted. I have another call today and as expected his squint has got worse so I am imagining that we will arrange another appointment to go in.

Like you said some things are time critical too much to keep delaying. If you think he may need patching I would complain to PALs

To be honest I would also write to your MP. We currently no longer have a national health service with large chunks of it effectively inaccessible.

@Sirzy

Yes you’re right. I will do that today actually. He absolutely does need patching.

I think it’s at a point now where we need to keep shouting to make sure the “minor” things that are actually very important don’t get forgotten about.

Hospitals here in London (and probably elsewhere) are taking patients from other hospitals. I work for a large NHS trust, and our seniors are liaising with other hospitals to help support and ease their waiting lists. It makes sense, if hospitals have to capacity to help, then waiting lists from other places can be reduced.