NHS wait lists

[TheGoddessAthena]

How can the SNP have the brass neck to praise their running of the NHS? We all know how hard it is to get an appointment with a GP.

Two weeks ago I had a GP appointment about recurrent UTIs. She examined me and diagnosed a very minor prolapse (did you know 50% of women over 50 have one) and said I did not need surgery, but needed physio and she'd refer me. Just had a call from a nice NHS physiotherapist offering me a choice of two waiting lists as I am in Glasgow and equidistant from two centres. She said the waiting list was "quite lengthy". I asked what that meant and she said "Well put it this way, I'm currently seeing women referred a year ago". So I have a condition which will progress without physio, which if allowed to progress will have an impact on continence and quality of life, which may need surgery, and they will leave it a WHOLE YEAR?

Just as well I have the funds to pay to see someone privately - £84 well spent.

My mum was recently told that in her part of Scotland, the wait list for a hip replacement is 18-24 months. At least.

What a shitshow. I mean. Really.

The only surprising content in your story is that you are surprised. The Scottish NHS is taking ever more money for providing an ever worse service.

I agree. My mum had a knee replacement around 10 years ago - a few months wait, maybe 6months. She now needs the other knee replaced. She had to wait for nearly a year to see a consultant before she was even put on the 18-24 month waiting list! My mum is in her 80s - she has lost so much mobility now, her muscles are wasting and she will not get them back. It is appalling such a simple operation with such life changing outcomes is delayed and delayed until the benefit is so greatly reduced. So much money for vanity projects, no money for basic health care like replacement hips, knees and cataract operations.

Please think long and hard before voting SNP in May.

@TheGoddessAthena, im on the waiting list to see the sane physio department, its been 6 months now.
Where did you go private, im in Glasgow but would travel anywhere.

Still better than the English service according to those working in England … so that’s must be dire

think it’s very regional - appointments at GP same day, physio within weeks around here

other areas they can’t recruit staff and that’s a huge issue

I don’t care about the English system, what is happening there is totally irrelevant. The NHS is devolved and always has been. “Oh but it’s worse in England” is not a get out of jail free card. Our NHS is poor and that’s down to the Scottish government and their decisions.

I think WORKING for the Scottish nhs would be great. You’re paid a lot more than your English counterparts and there are 1.2 staff members in Scotland to every 1 in England if I recall correctly. It’s those on the receiving end of the ‘service’ that are suffering.

Ross Hall clinic, the one in Braehead. All arranged through the chat system in their website. £84 for the first appointment and I’m sure they said £65 ish for follow ups. Evening too which is better for many people. Named, female physio. (A woman woman not a woman under the ScotGov definition)

I was referred to dermatology in April 2023… I got given an appointment for December 2025, postponed 2 days before to January, Postponed 3 days before to February then got a text last week moving it to March. If it gets postponed again to April that’s 3 years of waiting.

physio is about 14 weeks here depending on the issue.

I think if I were waiting for standard physio that would be quicker, but this is the specialist women's health / pelvic floor physio team.

3 years is appalling.

This is not good, but my first thought was “a year, that’s better than I would have thought!”

Me, my husband, mother and uncle are all seeing private physios at the moment. Husband was told he wasn’t severe enough for nhs waitlist. Everyone else was told upfront that the list is really long (over a year) and “most people go private” - my uncle was actually encouraged not to even join the nhs waitlist!

The NHS is a complete shit show here. My son has delayed puberty. He’s 17 and still in age 12 clothes. It’s having a massive impact on him. He is on a waiting list to see a paediatrician but that is 24 weeks( we are just about there) but actually I think he need to see an endocrinologist which will probably take another 6 months! By which point he will have missed the boat and spend the left of his life 5 feet!
a colleague’s daughter had a major allergic reaction to nuts. It’s taken 2 years for a referral. It was a junior doctor that eventually saw her and didn’t really understand the seriousness and said she was doing fine! She got a phone call later from the overseeing consultant saying actually it was urgent and prescribed an epi pen!

I would suggest having a look at the NHS Scotland website as they have excellent videos of physio exercises for most conditions. They are far better than the English NHS website where you get a diagram that makes no sense.

@Sassisktwe get paid marginally more in NHS Scotland, than in England, but due to the higher rate of Income tax, we have the same take home pay. Can you imagine the mass exodus of experienced nurses and AHP’s if they paid us less than in NHS England? And working for the NHS could hardly be described as great!! Used to be, Agenda for Change did a number on us and mostly it’s more about data collection and making sure everything can be spun in a report, than actually having the time to care for our patients!

This is one of the reasons I am so shocked at people wanting to move or retire here! The NHS is struggling like most people wouldn’t believe. Most waiting lists are at least a year but things like gynae are 2/3 years for procedures (which let’s be honest is only going to get worse). The private contracts that the NHS have brought in are causing more problems than solutions and we’re all paying a pretty penny in tax towards it.

People who live in rural locations are having to fly to the mainland to get a dentist and the new round of doctors are honestly some of the worst I have ever seen! They are workshy and most have no common sense.

I am 27 weeks into a 35 week waiting list for orthopaedics in Fife. My accident was 51 weeks ago. Saw physio within 4 weeks but misdiagnosed so here I am. Still waiting.

It does feel like everything has worsened in access to health care. And yet still people vote SNP.

When my first dc was born (20 years ago) midwife referred me to physio because of diastasis recti, and I got an appointment in 6 weeks. Imagine that - proactive identification of a problem and prompt treatment! Would that happen now?

Also England does seem better on preventative health care in that there are post 40 health checks for example. I don't understand for example why cholesterol checks aren't offered to everyone of a certain age. Healthy life expectancy has actually gone down in Scotland. And in England there's the app to access results and appointments- ours is still several years off.

It's awful. 30-plus years of working in the NHS and I've never seen it so bad. My budget is cut year on year, patients are waiting hours on ambulances, not enough beds, not enough places for them in care, not enough investment in systems to prevent or alleviate this. Anyone who says it's better than England is talking through their butt hole. Quite why people continue to vote for this bunch of idiots I have absolutely no idea - they have ground NHSS into the ground.

Brilliant, thank you.

The wait list times on the nhs website are not accurate.
I was referred to oral surgery department as I have TMJ . Dentist has tried all the mouth splints but nothing makes a difference.
One side of my jaw constantly hurts and clicks and more than once its actually stuck and for a few weeks i had to push food through the wee gap. My Dentist thinks I need the joint washed out or a new disc put in the joint. He told me it was a 6-12 month waiting time.
I phoned a few weeks ago as its been over a year since i had a its taking a bit longer waiting list letter, and they told me I had ONLY been on the waiting list for 89 weeks ! Current wait time is 3 YEARS just to see a consultant.

NHS waiting times are so bad that where I am, there's now a waiting list to be seen by some private consultants!