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*

I am really sorry to hear what your DD has gone through. No one should be assaulted at work but the people on this post are very obviously not the same type of people that act like this in a&e. The vast majority of people are not like this however we are all being tarred with the same brush and often belittled or treated poorly when seeking medical help.

The majority of people posting here are angry with the system, not the people. However that doesn't mean that all the NHS staff are angels. We all have similar stories of being majorly let down and it's the staff that 'treated' us that are responsible. A few PP have shared stories of how their loved ones have DIED due to negligence, theres absolutely no excuse in the world for this.

I'm not saying that's your daughter's fault but there are a lot of bad eggs in the NHS and it's very difficult to find the very few good eggs left, that give us the help we deserve and need. You seem to be excusing their experiences with the fact that she has had difficult incidents. That is not okay.

Newsflash, most public facing jobs encounter the same issues with violence etc, mine included. It does not excuse negligence in patient care.

@SpicyWater I don't actually agree with that most of the staff I've come across have been fantastic. The way the system has let me down is major lack of funding especially with my chronic health condition. The staff I've seen have even been apologetic for the fact they couldn't prescribe me the drugs I needed due to funding. I don't blame the nurses or doctors at all, it's the funding and the way the system works and isn't joined up I any way that I've had most problems with.

@SpicyWater

No one should be assaulted at work but the people on this post are very obviously not the same type of people that act like this in a&e. The vast majority of people are not like this however we are all being tarred with the same brush and often belittled or treated poorly when seeking medical help.

I agree. I've no doubt at all that front facing staff suffer abuse etc. No doubt that there are time wasters. But NHS staff shouldn't treat everyone as if they're an abuser and time waster and sadly that's what a lot of them do. They need to learn the difference. It's completely unacceptable to the majority of decent patients who have genuine illnesses/injuries and aren't abusive to staff.

Getting rid of a Diversity manager or 10, is not gong to magic up the billions needed to rebuild health care, neither is an insurance model going to conjure up 10s of 1000s of staff required to bring us up to European levels of healthcare.

I agree there’s not enough money and there aren’t enough qualified staff willing to work in the NHS. A European insurance model won’t mean the missing staff can be recruited. It is so bleak.

I disageee with you on implicating one political party over another. The problems are so much deeper than who’s in charge. And as no political party is prepared to reform it (political suicide) it will continue to be a right mess whoever is in government.

my husband and I were treated like needy pests, when he was dying in the observation unit.

’Go away. Your place is at the bedside, not the nurse’s station. He’s just a bit constipated. Leave me tf alone’. This was the message I had over and over.

christ knows how to get any attention in A+E where we were routinely ignored. Self immolation might have got someone to attend to us, but not for certain.

@Badbadbunny. I’m so bloody angry to have been treated like an abuser and time waster. At no point were we demanding or anything approaching rude.

Yes…

We’re very fortunate to have private medical insurance with DH work and we find ourselves using it more & more. The NHS in our area at least is often virtually impossible to access and the wait is just so long when you do get in.

This is known as working in a frontline job. Welcome to the public sector.

I was routinely sworn at and abused in various ways, when secondary teaching. It didn’t mean I thought it would be okay to be horrible to all the kids and routinely speak to them as if they were twats. Even when a small minority of them were.

I feel similarly to you OP. Its shocking

Our surgery removed eConsults because it caused more problems than it solved (having had to use it, I agree). For all those saying it's wonderful, for me it was awful, particularly filling in pages of forms just to say "i need an inperson review so you can take these measurements to reauthorise my repeat prescription for another 12 months". 🙄However, my surgery does have decent online systems so I can book regular appts online, or phone for an urgent one if I need to see someone sooner than several weeks out.
The specialist hospital dept I'm under and supposed to see regularly though is chronically understaffed for the number of patients. Even if the consultant has said I need an urgent review appt in 'x' time frame, I have to chase it up to make sure it gets booked. For normal situations I can literally wait years between "annual" reviews, but tbh I only chase if it's important.

We all need to email our MP every single time something goes wrong or doesn't work. If they don't reply keep emailing.
One of my dc had a fall from height resulting in a broken wrist. We were a long way from our home town. They offered surgery there or a referral to our local hosptal. They told us to take a photo of the xray on a mobile phone to take to our local hospital because the systems didn't communicate with each other.
The local hospital did another xray anyway, but they said they did it more quickly because they could see on the photo how bad it was. Surgery was the next morning.

Yet some Trusts can provide some access. Where I live now the Trust has its own app where I can see all my hospital letters, appointments, imaging, blood tests results.

I can access my gp record separately on EMIS but can't book appointments, can't see hospital info or letters or do an econsult. I can order rpt Px.

The nhs app shows me my gp record but not hospital. I can do a gp econsult on there. Hospital stuff should be on the nhs app but you have to click on something called Zesty, which takes you to " page not found".

One separate hospital website allows me to change my appointments and to book a blood test at the hospital.

I have had to learn to navigate them all because there isn't one that does everything.
So it can be done but it takes ages and a lot of navigation.
None of it helps with all the clinical stuff that goes wrong.
The stories on here are heartbreaking and disgraceful.

Hi Op sorry to hear about your frustrating experiences. I am in south London and I have managed to secure a decent response to my health needs - eventually. It has involved complaints to NHS England about the impossibility of getting through to my GP surgery (they have now changed the system to triaging online and increased the staff at the practice, so the service has improved- who knew?!); and complaints to the relevant department at the local trust after the 8th occasion they cancelled my appointment.

My experience suggests that a) more resources are slowly getting to the front line b) the system gets deliberately overbooked in an attempt to catch up on waiting lists, hence the repeated cancellations and rebookings and c) the squeaky hinge gets oiled. It’s exhausting and annoying, but it seems that being calm and relentless in pursuit of the appointment/referral and taking your complaint to the next level can get results.

do you know what kind of specialty you need? Is a big rheumatology department the right pathway?

are there any charities specialising in your condition that could help you advocate effectively?

The NHS is not fit for purpose. We’ve been forced to use a private gp as it’s almost impossible to see a doctor where we are. In France, every person pays a moderate amount into their health service and the service is beyond compare. No waiting lists if you need to see a doctor you see one. We have a friend who lives in South France and her practice sent a taxi for her as she was unable to drive in.

It’s very scary. I’m a chemo patient. When I don’t feel well ( temperature etc) I’m meant to ring the hospital hotline. The advice generally Is go to local a&e, or get myself up to The Christie (whom I’m under, but an hours drive away).

A&E have treated me well, but lord, the wait is on a different scale! Parked in any available “ space” until you get seen. Luckily they do test
for neutropenia quite soon after presenting.

I always pray I stay well!