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

What happens if you don’t have insurance?

Also, I was watching the Theranos thing recently and Stephen Fry’s character stayed in a job he morally hated due to the health insurance.

I think that’s awful.

I think the NHS problems are deeper than the service.

Eg, if students can train for free we might get more medics.

If we have better housing, addiction services, elderly support, less poverty the NHS would have less pressures.

We need a societal overhaul which just won’t happen. The social contract is broken

Oh dear...

Ha ha! They would probably say another 4 hours

I think you are right. I just hope people will have the patience to let things begin to work. Having said that, if the NHS goes down the same route as the dental service (so called) we will really be in trouble in SWCornwall. I tried as far away as Exeter and Plymouth to find an NHS dentist with no luck and finally resorted to sticking my crown back myself. You are right, it's going to be rough and I don't envy the incoming government at all.

@GKD You can still see a doctor, you have to pay though. That’s how people accrue medical debt.

The Affordable Care Act made a big difference in that people can now purchase health insurance through their state, rather than through their job. Your insurance premiums are subsidized if you’re low income. I agree that in the past, people did stay in jobs they hated due to the benefits, that’s why the ACA was so important.

It’s certainly not a wonderful system here and I’m really surprised to hear that US conglomerates are administering GP practices in the UK as @YourPinkDog said. I can see them making a mess of it.

My sympathies are with the Lib Dem’s and they’ve been great in local government. They communicate well with the electorate and listen and seem genuinely interested and energetic. But I’m scared that if lots of people vote Lib Dem that it will split the opposition vote and allow the Tories to sneak back in.
I’ve now got a number of age related health issues which really need to be assessed eg heart, lungs, auto immune issues which impinge on eac other and the individual specialties in the past have just tried to pass the Buck to their clinical colleagues. Getting a GP appointment is virtually impossible. Getting to the nearest hospital is nigh impossible as there is no direct public transport and I am unable to walk more than 3 or 4 yards without becoming breathless and panicking and taxis would cost £50 for the round trip. (I live in a large town but the local hospital was closed for all but minimal services and our Tory retiring with knighthood MP was unable over about a 20 year periods to get a planned district hospital built within easy access to the surrounding towns.

I totally get you on this. I feel like a turkey voting for Christmas voting for Labour. It feels like they're totally missing the mark and the assumption that everyone who sends their children to private school is uber wealthy and will be able to absorb 20% is so wrong. We sacrifice loads to afford school fees but I do fully appreciate how fortunate we are. But we have to get the Torys out as the way the have destroyed this country with their arrogance and infighting is appalling. I've also just had a 6 hour wait in A&E which was a real eye opener. So if it means I have to vote Labour so be it, this election is about so much more than me. I have emailed Labour to voice my concerns, not that they'll listen 😄

Maybe if we had ‘friends of the unions’ in power we’d have enough doctors, nurses, hospital staff (as well as teachers, social workers etc) and the NHS wouldn’t be in this mess.

@BruFord thanks.

Considering so many are living on the breadline, cannot afford decent food/energy etc or live without benefit top ups, I personally feel that making ppl pay healthcare insurance or PAYG will just exclude many from healthcare.

leading to wider social ills as ppl self medicate.

https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/01/us-healthcare-giants-takeover-of-uk-gp-practices-lands-in-high-court

😂😂😂😂

You didn’t, in fairness, witness how fucked up the NHS is: you witnessed how fucked up A&E departments are. In our local (London) 10-14 hours is the normal wait time and there are a LOT of patients waiting whilst handcuffed to police officers. The waiting list for non-urgent operations are also a nightmare, as we all know. BUT - once you are past the waiting and into the system, the care given is still top class. And Mr Starmer has stated that he will ‘fix’ the NHS by making the staff work evenings and weekends. Has to be one of the stupidest things he ever said. So far.

I’m glad you are better but Labour in Wales aren’t tories and the health service here is shocking.

Neither are the SNP and it is worse than England in Scotland too.

"How is any government of any colour responsible for druggies, drunks, the morbidly obese etc?"

In any society there will be people who become addicted to drugs alcohol etc. blaming the NHS crisis waiting list etc is misdirection , just like blaming it on illegal immigrants on boats

Lots of the issues you mention are very highly correlated with poverty and deprivation. Obesity is far more common with people who end up buying cheap processed foods. Drugs and alcohol are well known mechanisms people resort to when suffering with poor mental health.

So many people these days are exploited by zero hours contract fire and rehire then told the country has productivity problems because we are too lazy.

Do you honestly see no connection??

@Walkden I agree with you about poverty and deprivation correlating with higher instances of addiction, obesity and other social problems (although these are obviously not exclusive to any single group).

For any government to successfully improve the NHS, there needs to be a far wider look at societal issues as a whole- without tackling social services and wider public health issues, any changes in the NHS are likely to be limited

I see those hypocrites the Tories say they are creating more GP practices. Funny they see the need now, when practices have been closing recently, due to no staff and lack of funds.

Of course, they'll staff them liberally with nurses and associates physicians, and you'll be seeing those unless those staff or the receptionist decide that a doctor is necessary. Another way to smash the NHS:

Tories pledge new GP surgeries in community care boost www.bbc.com/news/articles/cv2289vk0n1o

@marmaladeandpeanutbutter there are already 45,000+ nursing vacancies in the UK so I'm not sure where the nurses will come from either.

I'm rather concerned that I have not seen any well thought out proposals from any parties regarding NHS improvements so far.

When I went for a scan 3yrs ago, two people (not Asian) couldn’t speak English, one had an interpreter, one was waiting for theirs to arrive- we all had to wait our turn, rather than take me in first until they were sorted. It is only going to get worse- these interpreters charge a silly price per hour!

Stop paying for non life threatening NHS treatment? So you only want the NHS to cover accidents and emergencies and everything else to be private?

Sending you & your family a hug

@Mt61 thank you 😊