Me and NHS are costing each other a fortune

[JustDepleted]

Think I’m costing the NHS a fortune. It’s costing me a fortune too. I think they’re great if you have a tickbox ‘follow the steps from a-f for treatment’, but anything complicated or looking at the holistic picture or vaguely preventative (bar screening programmes) just seems inadequate.

Thresholds to get treatment are high. Often a diagnosis doesn’t lead to treatment even if it’s available. Different doctors tell you different things, misdiagnoses are not corrected. My notes state that I have panic attacks, smoke sixty (!) cigarettes a day and don’t have regular periods. Why can’t a note be added next to it to say what reality is?

Even silly, should be easy things - I was told I can’t be peri menopausal as I don’t have night sweats and regular periods. Bloods are fine. Except when you sometimes get to see them, they’re not. So they’re done again and the cycle continues.

Everything is such an uphill struggle. Health getting worse and worse and I think of all the appointments I’ve had and it just feels like pointless busywork. I don’t have the capacity to keep researching or going with nice guidelines or even trying to work out what bloods are actually telling me. I can barely keep track of my appointments.

Dd went into A&E. She slipped in the bathrooms and knocked herself out. Doctor refused to treat her because she said she was drunk. She was not drunk. Offered to take a breathalyser/have a blood test
At the time she was 17 and didn’t drink. The doctor made up some batshit scenario about her smuggling alcohol from the kitchen cupboard into the bathroom and when she collapsed on the floor it was to cover up the fact she was drunk.
Had to point out that I don’t drink so we don’t have alcohol in the house for her to have access to.

We had to leave without any sort of treatment. My worry is after that night her personality started to change and I always think about what damage could have been done.

Dd won’t go back to doctors because she now doesn’t trust them.

I was being treated by the nhs for something that was making me worse and worse.

It was only when l stopped attending l realised this.

I can’t say that’s been my experience both as a patient with a chronic neurological condition or as a member of staff. Yea I agree that the NHS has its faults and is incredibly shortsighted and lacks joined up forward thinking. But on the whole I’ve had and we give excellent care.

Also, sometimes, a doctor will order more tests, i.e. another x-ray or scan or whatever just to kick the can down the road when they don't know what's wrong with you, the idea being that someone else will see you next time who may have a better idea! It's utter madness!

I saw it with FIL when he was languishing in a hospital bed for weeks. A carousel of doctors day after day all ordering "something else" rather than making a diagnosis. It wasn't until a couple of weeks of it that we started a diary making notes of what doctors said on each day, what tests they ordered, etc., and it soon became clear that they were ordering things that had already been ordered and done previously. All to give the illusion of "progress" and delaying having to make diagnoses and decisions for someone else to sort out!

The same was alluded to in the whistle blowing book, "Whistle in the wind" by consultant Peter Duffy who was hounded out when he made formal complaints about a couple of his junior colleagues who likewise were into the "fobbing off" when they were on shift, to delay things for someone else to sort out another day (when they hoped they'd not be on shift!).

I have spent 7 year in absolute agony
Couldnt sleep because of the pain.

I was seeing a consultant at the orthopaedic hospital who diagnosed that I needed a new hip and I wasn’t going to get one for 20 years.
I had fortnightly physiotherapy for an hour at a time and every 6 weeks I would see this consultant. For 7 years. Eventually I couldn’t take the pain any longer and decided that I would go private and get a 2nd opinion and if nothing could be done then I couldn’t go on

I saw an osteopath privately. Within 15 minutes of her going through my history she said that hip pain can sometimes be deferred pain from my back (Consultant wasn’t interested in what happened he just wanted to know where the pain was) She asked to look at my back.
At that point she worked on my spine for the rest of the session and I saw her weekly for her to work on my back (after that first session I left feeling no different but about 3 hours later the pain suddenly left me and for 10 minutes I was pain free. It was amazing She referred me on to a private consultant and physiotherapist who actually did an MRI of my back and found I had been walking around with a slipped disc for 7 years. It took about 9 months - a year to be completely pain free.

At her weekly sessions which I continued till the physio took over, every time I went I got an extra 5 minutes of being pain free.

The cost to the NHS must have been in the 6 figures. All because they refused to pay out for a £300 MRI which I had offered to pay for myself

If your notes are wrong get them changed, put it in writing!

The NHS has a save the pennies attitude
Unfortunately because there is no joined up thinking and it doesn’t seem to be a place where common sense is encouraged
All these penny savings end up costing
£millions.

If dh had been sent for the test for bowel cancer when he presented with classic symptoms but was only allowed to discuss one symptom at a time it would have been a simple opp and an overnight stay in hospital. Instead of the multiple opps and 9 months hospital stay. (Don’t get me started on how they did chemo)

i have had quite a few dealings with the NHS in recent years and I’ve come to conclude that most consultants - not all - are patronising/dismissive and you have to push to get answers and even then they make you feel awkward for asking. I was moaning to DH about it and he said they are just looking at results on a page and not looking at the bigger picture. If you’re not at death’s door they’re not interested.

One consultant I see is amazing and listens - he takes a holistic approach. I wish they were all like that.

DH had bloods recently and his cholesterol was high (he saw on the app). The surgery hasn’t bothered to contact him about it yet and this was way over two weeks ago. He doesn’t want to take statins but that’s not the point.

I’m due to be on one of those mass meetings. I don’t have a log in. Have double checked letters, app, emails etc. Letter says they may write to you or email you with a link. I called them yesterday and was told it’s normally sent out in the morning. I’ve been back on hold this morning whilst someone chases it up. I’ll be put as a no show if it doesn’t come through in next five minutes. Irony is that sitting up and prolonged period on screen is something that is now very fatiguing and some days I can’t even read. Fatigue sets off other pain.

Absolutely this.

I'm so sorry your daughter had such a bad accident and was so dismissed by doctors.

I've had a lot of gaslighting from medical professionals over the years since I've had a head injury and post concussion syndrome a decade ago before being injured by an off label antipsychotic that gave me a permanent neurological involuntary movement disorder called tardive dyskinesia.

I don't trust doctors much any more either.

I’m so sorry.