Is anyone else just utterly deflated with the NHS?

[SpicyWater]

Please can someone tell me what I can do to try and fix the broken system and get the help that I need/want.

I have a chronic health condition and I find myself utterly exhausted and upset every time I try and seek help. Why do people need to jump through so many hoops and climb so many hurdles just to bloody speak with someone?

And even then, it's your luck of the draw if the hcp you speak with still cares enough to listen and take you seriously. Or if they decide you are another pain in the arse woman that's a 'burden' with our exaggerated ailments, you are kicked to the kerb and left to suffer.

I don't ask for much, I don't complain as I know how hard it is for the staff trying to navigate things on their side but I just don't think I can take much more of this 'treatment'.

What, if anything can I do to get the care that I need and deserve?

I purposely let myself suffer and let things linger much longer than they should as I just can't face the fight of trying to contact anyone or seek help. When I do seek help, I am often gaslight and treated like an idiot, because there's just so much deeply embedded misogyny in our HC system, that you have to reach critical levels before anyone will take you seriously.

It's just so bloody upsetting and I feel utterly powerless and unsupported from the people that are paid to help.

Anyway, I'd best get some rest after another long day of being failed by those that are supposed to help. Maybe my luckily finger will be the one that's selected on the chaotic hunger games GP call queue in the morning. sighs*

sign up to pharmacy2u there’s none of that messing around with repeat prescriptions, and you can get them delivered to your door

That's interesting. @StrictlyAFemaleFemale

In England, the highest income tax rate is 45%. We also pay about 10% in national insurance that is supposed to go towards health & pensions. So a high earner could pay up to 55%. Then there are local taxes that are applied per household

I'm a mid-earner and I pay about 25% including local taxes.

This worked for years but that system broke down somewhere along the line and I haven’t been able to reinstate it, although I have tried.

my prescription will only be issued if my blood test levels are in the right range, and it’s repeat blood tests that cause the prescription to get scrambled.

The blood tests seem a waste of time, because it’s impossible to speak to anyone about the results in any case.

Thank you for the recommendation and I will do, because it’s too much work to get the prescription from the GP to the pharmacy when I’m working.

Isn't that just risking your own health ? Can you not visit the surgery at lunchtime and request an appt face to face ?

My 79 year old mum fell about 8 weeks ago and broke her wrist, A&E x-rayed and put in a splint, virtual fracture clinic ring 2 days later say she needs to come in for a plaster cast as it needs more support. She goes to the appt to be told a Dr has reviewed the x-ray again and the splint is sufficient, all good so far.

However, her fingers are numb so she self-referred back to the fracture clinic. More x-rays reveal that the break has healed but in the wrong position and the only way to resolve the numbness is to surgically break and reset her wrist but she needs to talk to a hand specialist first. This was 10 days ago and she hasn’t heard anything from anyone. She’s rung the fracture clinic - no reply, no answerphone, PALS - no reply, no answerphone, no appt with the hand specialist and no treatment plan.

Complain via PALS. I work for the NHS. I’m bloody exhausted! No staff, no budget. Hope you get sorted soon. For what it’s worth I go the extra mile for my patients. I love connecting the dots for them and helping them feel heard. Take care.

No not possible as I'm at work and also they won't book appointments if you go in there.

Utter chaos , it’s no just funding , but the link between GP and ongoing referrals to consultants is completely broken. There’s no link up between departments the staff and A&E are completely frustrated, GP seem clueless as to how the system works.,
it’s about management and the system if they don’t put this right, we’ve got no hope,
personally I have in the last year and a half been bounced around the incorrect referrals various MRIs taken of the wrong parts of my body because the GP made a mistake it cost Nhs thousands just a complete nightmare of incompetence and bad management and nobody’s accountable,
if it was a private company, it would’ve gone bust just not okay. Somebody sensible has to address the system is putting pressure on the staff is leaving patients untreated who’s conditions are worsening leading to more expense beyond believable so broken and chucking money out it isn’t gonna work

Nope, our surgery don't have e-consult and don't have online appointments nor online appointment request forms. It's a "Phone up at 8am and wait in the queue to see if you're lucky" kind of surgery. Appointments not available at any other time.

I work in the NhS. I had to pay thousands of pounds to get treatment I needed to qualify for my "urgent" surgery. This included things like two private iron transfusions at £1600 which the nhs wouldn't pay for. They will only pay for oral iron which I can't absorb.
There were other items too.
I've finally had my surgery and I'm recovering but becsuse of the 14 month delay I now have a long term problem which means im also going to have to pay for special footwear adaptations as the wait for that is 2 years on the NHS and I need to get back to work soon.
Thank goodness my boss let me work from home or I'd have been sacked long ago. My job is clinical so I had to do other work mainly admin and online consultations.
I've asked my MP to take this to parliament.

Ours is exactly the same and as far as I'm aware, all the other surgeries in the town are too.

This is a major UK city.

I also had to go to the local hospital 12 miles away for a blood test because my surgey (five minutes from the house) don’t do them after 12 noon and I’m at work. Despite booking the first blood test of the day at 7.40am it was still 15 minutes late.

It’s chaos.

No other country has an NHS and they all manage with far better outcomes. I’d be happy to pay a bit for a service that works better than this. Our cancer league table standing is the same as Mexico’s.

I agree. We need to change to a different system asap, otherwise we WILL sleep walk into a US two tier system that none of us want. So many other countries have better systems than both the UK and US - we need to look at what kind of system works well in other countries and start to transition to such a system before the NHS collapses completely.

Totally feel your pain, it's absolutely awful. I was told I'd be seen within 6 weeks and it will actually be a year, for one issue. For something else recently I had such an appalling experience, that I gave up and just did my own research. Terrible. 12 years ago when I was being investigated for recurrent miscarriage the consultant told me and my partner to take my bloods ourselves to the correct department to ensure they wouldn't get lost, when we turned up they thought we were doctors, wtf!

DH has to go to different places for his blood tests depending on who wants them. The GP surgery will only do blood tests needed by the GP. Oncology will only do blood tests they require. The day treatment unit only do the blood tests they need. None will "tick the box" on the form for the type of blood tests required by the other, so instead on one appointment, one set of bloods and one set of tests, every sodding month, he has to go through it three times - three appointments (different places), three sets of bloods, three sets of test in the lab, etc. To make matters worse neither the GP nor oncology nor day treatment centre can see the results of the others' tests so none have the "full" picture. Some of the tests are triplicated as being the basic/standard tests, then each of the three tick further different boxes according to what their own dept requires.

Of course, if he gets referred to a different dept for anything (lots of side effects and other problems due to the chemotherapy), such as broken bones, muscle ache, new lumps, etc., then that dept also need their own blood tests as they, neither, can see the results from blood tests taken by other departments.

All this is the same town/trust (obviously GP is separate). The lack of integration is absolutely shocking and must be costing billions, not to mention the NHS staff time being wasted.

Oh my goodness this is absolutely ridiculous! Especially because all three places are the same NHS Trust! Kafkaesque springs to mind. The sheer complexity of it is mind-boggling.

It was worse when he was first diagnosed. Had full skeletal x-ray, full body MRI, CT scan, bone marrow tests, etc to diagnose his cancer at the local hospital oncology dept. They referred him to the next town's hospital, an hour away, same trust, to see a specialist to discuss a stem cell transplant to be done straight after his first six months of chemotherapy. First thing the specialist consultant at the other hospital did was arrange for a full skeletal x-ray, MRI, CT, bone marrow, etc as he said the first hospital hadn't sent through any results with the referral letter, and he couldn't access the first hospital's results despite the same trust. He said it was "easier" for him to order the same tests in his hospital than "bother" asking the first hospital to email them over. He actually expected OH to travel an hour each way, on four different occasions, for the same tests he'd already had done and of course, they couldn't organise two or three tests on the same day to reduce the time and travel etc! When we pointed out the stupidity of it, he didn't seem to understand the problem. Not only our wasted time, but the cost to the NHS must have been enormous as skeletal x-rays and mri/ct scans aren't cheap and the bone marrow extraction is a really painful procedure. We finally persuaded him how stupid it was and he eventually got the records posted over! It would have been cheaper sending the file in a taxi rather than doing all the expensive tests again!

I'm so sorry you're going through this - I am definitely completely fed up with the NHS too.

It's hard to know where to start - serious mistakes in my maternity care led to my first child nearly dying in a very traumatic situation. I then struggled for years to get proper help for the resulting PTSD and health/death anxiety, which is ruining my life. I still have not had proper help so have just given up. Fast forward to now, I have been experiencing severe abdominal pains and stomach issues for nearly 5 months - first appointment to investigate could take a further 6 months. Then if that's clear, it will be a fight for further investigation so that I am not just written off with IBS or anxiety. I cannot do any of my normal activities and I am living in constant pain and anxiety about what it could be. I don't have any other options and just really can't cope anymore. I also have a family member who has serious heart problems and she is waiting months and months to be seen. It is a very scary picture.

Our gp has got rid of the queue so you just get a message that all lines are busy. I tried for 3 weeks to get an appointment then gave up. It’s just impossible to get help at our surgery!

Just been through it with mother in law too. Had a serious chest infection but GP wouldn't issue antibiotics and stupidly suggested cough mixture! Two more GP appointments a week apart as she got worse, but still no anti-biotics and no prescribed medicine - just suggested a different cough mixture! She got so bad, we called out the out of hours GP in the middle of the night. He came, said it was very severe double pneumonia and arranged her to be blue lighted to A&E. She spent 48 hours on a trolley in an A&E corridor, being ignored - we were told they'd prescribe an anti-biotic drip and fluids, but it never happened - the hours passed by, we kept asking for the drips or any attention at all - she was completed ignored - no offers of any food nor drink, but she was too ill anyway. We had to take her to the toilet. It was like a war zone in A&E - people puking up in the waiting room and corridors, security and police breaking up fights. She finally got connected to drips after about a day and a half, but she was too far gone and it was too late. She died on the trolley just after they said they were finally ready to transfer to a ward!

We complained to the GP surgery and PALS, but got a stupid response that the GP's notes said she was improving which is why they didn't prescribe antibiotics - completely fraudulent notes as that's not what we said - we made it clear she was getting worse, otherwise we wouldn't have taken her back week after week, but the notes said we'd told the GP she was getting better. Makes no sense. Same with A&E response to complaint - notes said anti-biotic drip had been put in a day before it actually was - just complete lies to justify their cock ups.

I am so sorry you all had to go through that, there are just no words.

Yup. Our GP is the call at 8am for the appointment hunger games sustem. I’ve given up. I just ignore everything

@taxguru I’m so sorry to hear that heartbreaking story of your MIL. Her death sounds potentially preventable and the circumstances (un-medicated, on a trolley) extremely uncomfortable. How awful for you all.

My husband died in January 2025. He had a minor TIA on Monday but wasn’t kept in - just discharged with steroids on the same day. Stroke or TIA was never mentioned. He wasn’t monitored or followed up, it was as though the hospital could not wait to get him off their hands.

We went back the following morning (Tuesday). Kept waiting in great pain on a trolley in A&E all day long. No sense of urgency. Finally admitted to a ward at 10.30pm that evening.

Wednesday he was on an Acute Assessment Ward all day, again in pain. I didn’t see much evidence of Assessment and any assessment taking place (precious little) was not acute.

Thursday he was moved to a general ward. Casual observations when staff had time to do them. He was feeling and looking very, very poorly. Little wonder, when sepsis had set in by this stage and he was technically dying.

By 11.40 he had died in intensive care.

I still don’t understand how someone can present themself promptly to hospital on Monday, and then again early the following day, only to be largely ignored when finally admitted, and allowed to die a little more than 48 hours later.

But yaaay!! It’s the NHS! It’s free at the point of delivery!

So that’s all right then!