I witnessed how fucked up the NHS is

[Bloom15]

Last night I had an asthma attack and got a taxi to the nearest A and E. it was like a scene from a zombie movie!

I was rushed through triage and given 2 nebulisers and some oxygen, along with some steroids. After I was stable I was told to wait in the waiting area. It was mostly full of people on drugs, drunks and people asleep on the row of chairs surrounded by multiple carrier bags. I am not trying to disparage these people as they were also patients and needed to be seen. Just describing the waiting room at 11pm on a Bank Holiday Monday in a city centre a and e department.

After 6 hours I still hadn't been seen by a doctor but had to leave as my DS was staying over at my parents and they were dropping him off at 8 am as they were going on holiday. My DH was stuck in Newcastle following a stag break and couldn't get home at 4am. Usually I could have stayed.

Now I am at home with a tight chest (DH rushed home early but a taxi from Newcastle to Liverpool at 5am was too much money). I tried to call my GP for an appointment to get more steroids but after 45 minutes of ringing from 8 there were no appointments left.

This is not the fault of the doctors, nurses, other staff, any patients. This is the fault of this government dragging the NHS to the brink. Please vote them out in May

@Rowgtfc72 that is a shocking story ☹️. My Dad was in hospital in 2020 during Covid with a severe infection. For 2 months he was alone with no visitors allowed, frequently unable to get to the loo, no one answering buzzers, not once in 2 months did anyone clean his teeth, comb his hair or help him to shave. Despite multiple chaotic exposures to Covid, he never caught it. Thanks to extreme persistence from my brother, he was able to spend the last week of his life in a hospice where he received his first teeth clean and shave for months and treatment for his terrible bedsores 😢

I'm so sorry for you and for your family. 😞

• funding. Very complex- I see so much money wasted every day, that simply flinging money at the NHS won't fix it. It does need more money, but there needs to be an urgent review to look at what current funds are being spent on (in my opinion)

This in spades!!! the waste the NHS is shocking, management are generally crap and been promoted way past their skills set, people being paid £100k for “transformational change” bullshit that never works. It is far too top heavy. The procurement system is shocking and a huge waste of money most of the time, I understand the reason for it but it’s shocking. There’s obviously other things but looking at costs needs to happen. managers need to manage units not just sit on their computers, get on the A&E floor and direct staff properly and safely.

Yes it’s shit. But look at Labour run wales NHS: they’re fucking diabolical.

It’s a mess regardless of which political party is at the helm.

NHS Cardiff is advertising for an
A&E CONSULTANT at just under £38k
A highly skilled professional with at least 15yrs post qualification experience. Who will carry the responsibilities of a full A&E dept on their shoulders, for £38k. Fucking joke

Full time??

Yes

Absolutely agree. I’ve had 13 months of terrible experiences with the NHS. Negligence several times over. It’s not the doctors and nurses skills it’s the whole infrastructure. It’s not working anymore

If they start billing the people who come
in pissed, that might help? I have to say I get very angry when I have been in A&E with a serious emergency and it’s full of people drunk from a Friday night bender who have then started punching each other. If they faced and £200 bill the next day they might think twice .

its tragic what has happened to our NHS but it is being abused and people who really need help are not getting it.

The people I blame is all the drunks and druggies, who haven't taken responsibility for themselves or end up getting into fights die to bunge drinking/drug taking. That said, i have sympathy for those with genuine addictions, just not the friday/sat night twats brigard that waste vast amounts of NHS resources. If only there were a way to fine them/make them pay, in a way that doesn't prevent the most vulnerable from reaching out for treatment.

I waited for 12hrs + in A&E under a labour government more than once. It wasn’t any better.

It surely can't mean a medical consultant? Don't they mean a consultant in terms of external business management? Unless it's very part time.

That’s a junior doctor post, with research responsibility- not a consultant. I’m rusty in the terminology but I’m sure that’s not a consultant role, nowhere near.

I stand corrected then, thank you

You want a better NHS but you also want to treat junior doctors like sh*t. Wasn't it you who said they shouldn't be allowed to leave the country to work abroad and they shouldn't dare to strike for a pay rise? Maybe you personally are just getting the NHS you deserve?

It’s like a registrar as they used to call
it - I’m not a medic but work in HE and have previously been working in a medical faculty. My knowledge is rusty but it’s that stage before you become a specialist on the way to eventually becoming a consultant.

Doctor pay is shit though I agree with that, earn a pittance until you are years and years qualified.

I would hope so she could have died

You can get a prescription privately if they won’t. We have a supply of steroids for my son in the event it flares up… from private GP

I hope you are ok now. If you were well enough to go home I don’t understand the problem. My mum was 24 hours on a trolley in A&E last year and nearly died. It was hellish in there. Another woman had her clothes off in front of everyone. My mum had to piss on the floor because there was no one to get her a bed pen. In the end they sent her home to die saying they couldn’t cope with her dementia.

That is absolutely horrendous and I am so sorry.

I'm not sure "it's not possible to fix 14 years of deliberate underfunding of both the NHS and the educational systems that generate its staff overnight" is a very compelling argument for letting the Tories have another term to make it even worse.

things have become unmanageable. I am genuinely considering moving to live elsewhere because care is so bad. and the truth is even if someone can afford private care, there are no private hospitals offering an emergency service.
I have worked for many years in the NHS, I am a firm believer and supporter of it but now with a chronic condition which unfortunately will get much worse and ultimately lead me to needing a lot of medical input, I just don't think I can live in the uk in the long term.

The NHS is a money pit. It needs more than money to fix it. And it isn’t due to non-medical managers either. The medics can be as bad as any with their empire building. You don’t get training in running a multibillion pound business in medical school.

All these stories are just awful and I admit I am dreading getting any older. It's an actual fear of mine as things won't improve and only get worse I think.

You could try America…