Been said before on here but our NHS is amazing given how under resourced it is.
Hurt my foot last week following a stupid unclipping/toppling error. It wasn't getting any better, a nurse friend saw the bruising and swelling and suggested I get it checked out. Online 111 also suggested I go to the local Urgent Treatment Centre, so off I went yesterday morning.
Monday morning was never going to be a quiet time, and it was rammed. Took about an hour to get triaged, then another 3 hours before my "sore foot" reached the top of the priority pile, behind fragile looking elderly people, crying toddlers and those obviously needing stitching back together, so the triage system was working.
A very sympathetic nurse had the unpleasant task of looking at my foot. We agreed it was swollen and bruised. We established in the course of a game of "Does it hurt if I press here?" that I was ticklish, and that when she pressed "there" it really hurt. She wanted me to get "there" x-rayed.
She obviously wasn't too worried as it was a long walk to the x-ray department, and I wasn't offered a ride in a wheelchair. They zapped my foot from various angles, then sent the pics back to the nurse faster than I could limp all the way back. She confirmed that there was no sign of a break "there", and sent me off with instructions to rest it, elevate it etc.
All the staff were calm, professional, cheerful and sympathetic in the face of patient numbers at or beyond capacity.
Yep. My dad had a health scare just before Christmas.
GP - Referral - Tests - Minor Op. All done inside 5 weeks.
It varies. Broke my hip and pelvis last year. Wheelchaired in, hours before xray. Nope not broken. Couldnt stand. Sent away with morphine and in wheelchair with crutches.
Went back 6 weeks later, hours and hours. Xray, nope not brolen. Are you sure, having explained my physio thought i had a fracture. Finally got CT scan. Shit hit fan. How can you walk, you could be dead, you must have a very high pain threshold. Kept in overnight whilst another hospital decided to chop the top of my leg off and put in a new complete hip. They decided not to as a bit late now. I will need a new hip at some point in the future as the socket was fractured in numerous places. I have a 3d copy of the CT scan and its scary.
Wife then tripped a few months later. A&E were good, in and out, no breaks. Off you go. Letter arrived two weeks later. Ah you've chipped a bone off your ankle. She's still getting bother a year later.
They were great when I broke my spine. I was in for seven weeks. Inpatient stuff is good, but once discharged I was on my own. The hip incident has been an eye opener. Literally had no treatment. Had to complain and just got a three page letter saying sorry. Apparently my fault as Im not a melodramatic and was trying to stand when told to.
My sister has also had a crap time with getting treatment for breast cancer. Lots of delays.
I don't like to slag off the NHS as they do an amazing job and I would hate it if it was taken away from us. I've had some really good experiences for me and my 2 kids, but I'm still a bit sore with the way my sister was treated at the end of her fight with cancer this time last year.
It really seemed like they either didn't know what they were doing or weren't really that bothered. She was kept on the wrong ward for far too long with the wrong medical staff for what she was actually dying of, while they insisted on trying to treat her for other things...
The NHS IS amazing, but it also needs serious help.
You aren't wrong MCTD though the cracks are showing these days and I don't blame the NHS one iota,I really don't.
I was diagnosed with Chiari Malformation in the 90's after losing sensation in left arm and hand, getting electric shocks down the arm when sneezing etc, neuropathic pain, poor balance hence the daft falls on the STW adventures. Decompressive neurosurgery to at least arrest the condition which mostly worked.
Fast forward to now...
Been waiting almost exactly one year to see a neurologist as losing sensation in feet and calves and getting electric shocks down arm again when coughing. I'm terrified to be honest as I'll never get that sensation back and it's possible I could lost motor control too. Walking is already becoming an issue as I can't feel the floor under my feet or get "off balance warnings" from the bend in my toes.
There was a time when if I got a new symptom, which can happen with Chiari Malformation, id be under an MRI machine in a few weeks but those days are gone.
It's not the NHS I blame but I suspect my situation isn't that rare and it's all due to the political choices made by the last government which makes me a bit angry too be honest.
The NHS IS amazing, but it also needs serious help.
Very much this, step daughter was in hospital all weekend & they were fabulous - luckily nothing as serious as suspected but great to know we're able to take all necessary measures in case it was.
But end of life care seems to be a lottery 😞
You aren't wrong MCTD though the cracks are showing these days and I don't blame the NHS one iota,I really don't.
I agree, the cracks are showing for a variety of reasons, and more people are no doubt suffering as fossy reported.
They are seriously underfunded and I'm not knocking them. Ive had a shoulder repaired in the past and I was very well looked after when I broke my spine.
I never go to A&E unless necessary. I went with my pelvis as I could not stand and needed checking as I was due on holiday a day later (3 hour flight). Unfortunately, as a cyclist, we get used to getting banged up and can tollerate pain much better that average fault. The CT scan I have is 6 weeks after the accident (its incredible to see) and the cracks are huge. Whole left wing into socket, two big cracks on front of socket, then two more on both parts of the pubic ramus (the loop/sit bones). It wasnt seen as the bones hadnt separated. The consultants were shocked how bad it was, and I'd flown for 6 hours and been back to work for those 6 weeks.
Unfortunately the three months on crutches wrecked my good shoulder's bicep tendon and rotator cuff. 9 months down the line with NHS and private physio and its useable now, but like a bag of spanners (crunchy). Im going to leave it be as it's OK on the bike.
I know doubt the NHS will be fab when I need my new hip as they are great at big stuff.
I think it might help if you split the targets of our praise/anger.
1) The NHS hospitals, doctors, nurses, and medical staff that provide the service are amazing.
2) The NHS, as an organisation providing that service, has had so many cuts, reorganisations, and is so emasculated that it's barely fit for purpose.
#1 is amazing, #2 really is a number 2.
Many of my friends who work in the NHS have had enough and have left early or are leaving asap. Most retiring early. In early I mean aged 55ish.
All that job experience is gone forever.
My experience with the NHS is about 5/10 with the basic of care given (due to staff shortages), however in the physio dept the treatment has been superb, only problem is the long waiting times to see a therapist and to start any treatment, by then you've possibly damaged yourself. I ended up paying for treatment as physiotherapy for my broken and dislocated arm needed to start at 2-3 weeks. At the time there was a 13 week wait at the NHS local hospital.
I ended up paying for treatment as physiotherapy for my broken and dislocated arm needed to start at 2-3 weeks. At the time there was a 13 week wait at the NHS local hospital.
I remember something similar. I had a medical condition that needed urgent attention in the next 2-4 weeks. After that, it would be inoperable and life-changing. I was then offered a telephone consultation 4 months in the future. I was fortunate to afford private medical care, but this shows the problems that have manifested themselves within the NHS due to lack of funds and coordinated planning. Point two, out of my two points in the post above.
Edit postwd twice
I was going to post a similar thread - haven't got round to it.
As per my other topic - I've been in and out with a broken leg these last couple of weeks.
A&E were an amazing bunch of people - they must have been fed up to the backteeth of people who'd gone over on the ice for "necessary" reasons, let alone those who'd gone out for pleasure, but they all seemed to be runners, so "got it". I got deprioritised a couple of times while they dealt with lifethreatening cases (the guy with a heart rate 4 times mine was a bit special!) but they kept me in the loop
Likewise - orthopaedic, once I was in their system, the surgeon was on it - very straight talking, which some people might have an issue with, but we were fine with. Said he'd try and get me in for 2 days, time, got it done true to his word and I now have a lot of shiny metalwork.
They delivered a shower chair in 24 hours; physio starts tomorrow, 10 days after the op - the system here seems to just work.
The ward experience was rather more suboptimal - while there was no "lack of care", there definitely was a language barrier with a couple of the nurses which caused some confusion and a whole lot of bureaucratic/systemic inertia slowing EVERYTHING down - the first stay, we could have freed up several beds a solid 12 hrs quicker if they'd have pulled their fingers out. Simple things like collecting prescriptions from the pharmacy and getting them to the ward were 3hr tasks...
That said, 24hrs after the op (on a Sunday), I had a chat with the ward head nurse and said "what needs to happen to get me out of here" and he reeled off a list as long as your arm, quite a bit of it sequential - but he chipped away at it - I have a feeling he was good at gaming the system and by mid afternoon I was on my way out.
But then I do feel part of it is the attitude of the patient - there were 6 of us on the ward. 3 of us - me, a runner, and a guy - triathlete/motorbike racer who'd been in a car accident and was in an absolute mess (7 weeks in and 52 hours of surgery so far) who all in a strong place. Car guy in particular was an inspiration about how mentally tough he was - he WILL get better and he WILL be doing trialthlons again I'm, sure of it. 2 of the others just sat there and needed help with everything, the last guy (probably the youngest) was wet as owt, constantly moaning and groaning, hitting his call button every 2 minutes and going into a flat spin as soon as anything wasn't "just so". 3 of us will feel the NHS did us pretty damn well. 1 of us will no doubt have had a "terrible" experience because he wasn't waited on hand and foot.
The food though - dear god that was minimum standard...! Enough to make you want to get better and get out of there tout suite!
I did have the option to go private. First consultation I could secure locally was 17th FEBRUARY! They then tried broadening the distance I was prepared to travel and got a 3rd Feb consultation in Donny. This guy's secretary called me up to talk to me about my spinal injury. "Wait. What. You do know I've got a broken leg...?" "ah.... Ummm..."
So thats 2:0 to the NHS in my book!
2) The NHS, as an organisation providing that service, has had so many cuts, reorganisations, and is so emasculated that it's barely fit for purpose.
I work in the NHS and can confirm this.... But also that those in charge seemingly make bad decision after bad decision, never paying any attention to their lessons learned. The short-term-ism is ridiculous. Don't pay for that, don't employ that person, don't invest in that.... Just one more month, another month not paying someone, scrape through again, scrape through again, look we've saved another few quid. Oh hang on, now we need to invest millions to fix the sh1t show we've created instead of just paying people in the first place.
Year after year, it's the same old thing. Cut back the service, trim that down, lose that person, save that few quid, then bang, service collapses and a load of external resource at twice the price needs bringing in. Time and again.
But it's good to see that despite the horror stories, some people still get a good experience at the front end.
2) The NHS, as an organisation providing that service, has had so many cuts, reorganisations, and is so emasculated that it's barely fit for purpose.
I work in the NHS and can confirm this.... But also that those in charge seemingly make bad decision after bad decision, never paying any attention to their lessons learned. The short-term-ism is ridiculous. Don't pay for that, don't employ that person, don't invest in that.... Just one more month, another month not paying someone, scrape through again, scrape through again, look we've saved another few quid. Oh hang on, now we need to invest millions to fix the sh1t show we've created instead of just paying people in the first place.
Year after year, it's the same old thing. Cut back the service, trim that down, lose that person, save that few quid, then bang, service collapses and a load of external resource at twice the price needs bringing in. Time and again.
But it's good to see that despite the horror stories, some people still get a good experience at the front end.
The same problems exist in the wider public sector as well, though the effects are not as obvious.
I think it might help if you split the targets of our praise/anger.
1) The NHS hospitals, doctors, nurses, and medical staff that provide the service are amazing.
2) The NHS, as an organisation providing that service, has had so many cuts, reorganisations, and is so emasculated that it's barely fit for purpose.
I'm going to agree and disagree, on the experience of my Mum. I won't go through it again, I put it in another thread a while back but she went in with a broken femur, died 6 weeks later with infected full thickness pressure ulcers and an infected leg where the plaster wasn't well fitted, bones had moved and pierced her skin into an open fracture. That went undetected for quite some time we believe.
So 1/ wasn't very good at all because ward staff and doctors missed many opportunities and prompts from the family, had incomplete records so failed to recognise the deterioration that was obvious to us, and (though hard to prove) falsified records on several occasions.
How much of that is because of 2/ and there weren't enough qualified and capable staff to be doing proper checks that can prevent the sort of death my Mum endured. Hard to answer that - fact is that the ones that were there failed my Mum badly.
I am still incredibly angry now, it's over 2 years since she died but only 3 months since the coroner's inquest, because of the shit management investigation that I had to reject three times.
There are two main issues in the NHS
1) Underfunding over decades
2) poor quality and insufficient management
NHS england also wastes a huge % of its money on the remnants of the fake market creating extra bureaucracy and a lack of co operation
Year after year, it's the same old thing. Cut back the service, trim that down, lose that person, save that few quid, then bang, service collapses and a load of external resource at twice the price needs bringing in. Time and again.
Working in GP primary care world my biggest issues are: (in no particular order) Work force crises and burnout. GP workloads are unsustainable, I don't know why anyone would want to do the work frankly. The demand load from aging and increasingly unwell population is getting crazy. We're paid (roughly) for seeing patients something like 3-4 times a year,, the average for most of the older population is probably double that already, and younger ages aren't far behind now. Aging infrastructure, GP buildings by and large, aren't fit for purpose anymore, and there's no money to do anything about it. Lack of support/joined up thinking/working from secondary care, and lastly the bureaucratic workload/burden coming from quangos/ regulators/ICBs/regional and national bodies that add little to no benefit to overall level of patient care.
The same problems exist in the wider public sector as well, though the effects are not as obvious.
Yep same, I am a working for a "service provider" in the public sector, have done for most of my working life (including the NHS), and I can absolutely say there are very rare moments when that set-up provides better outcomes, but what it does do is provide corporate profit, suppressed wages, and an unwillingness for the service provider to do anything above the contract terms, improvements that could be easily implemented are just cast aside because its not in the contract and the customer doesn't have the budget to pay for it (even if it pays for itself in the medium term).
The corporate structure of middle managers, only caring about cutting costs on the next quarterly report is destroying public service, and chewing up and spitting out good people in the back offices as much as the front lines.
GP buildings by and large, aren't fit for purpose anymore, and there's no money to do anything about it
I don't really understand how they did it but my GPs recently moved buildings into a state of the art refurbished building. they always have on day appointments and the receptionists are nice and helpful. they also offer all sorts or additional services
I took my wife to a&e on thursday with breathing issues, shes had a chest infection. I went to book her in was told 6 hours to talk to someone at a min. I went back to her and there were 2 nurses with her and a sats machine and they already had her hooked up. She was the taken through staraight away and put on oxygen. Within another 10 minutes they had taken bloods and various other bits plus given her a massive dose of IV antibiotics. I think this stopped it being an ITU visit. she comes home later having had double pneumonia.
Ive delt with the NHS numerous times for self inflicted bike moments, ilnesses wotnot within my family and its never been perfect. One time was horrific and someone did propperly f*** uk possibly causing a misscarrdge (miss interpreted infection test result) but on the whole they have been amazing especially considering what they have to work with.
It needs saving.
Our GP surgery is trying to provide 'preventative care'. This comes in the form of classes, mental health meetings, efforts to encourage people to eat properly/diet/lose weight, in other words quite a bit of work goes into helping people to be healthier, fitter, more active.
I'm pretty sure these activities and meetings are free, however the take up from the general public (their patients) isn't good at all.
For example hubby is in a certain age group, he was offered boxing classes by our GP surgery, at the village community hall, the take up isn't very good. Hubby says there is an average of 7 men there per week. In our road alone there are at least 6 men who go to our surgery in this age bracket, they will have been contacted and offered these classes, but you can't lead a horse to water.
My experience recently has been good. I was knocked off my bike back in August, ambulance turned up promptly and while I was in A&E for maybe 8-10 hours there were never huge waits between different steps, other than at the end when I was waiting to be transferred to a ward at a different site.
I found that it would have been helpful for some stages of the process to be explained a bit more - they worked, but as a non-habitual NHS user I felt a bit in the dark. Virtual fracture clinic worked to get me an appointment with the one consultant who had experience with my very rare fracture, but at the time I wondered why no-one was going to see me in person for over a week. I did end up getting private physio before the NHS referral came through, but once it did I found it was useful for the physio and consultant to be able to share notes with each other as opposed to my private physio who probably hadn't seen my particular issue before and just did generic shoulder rehab.
At the four month point X-rays revealed that it hadn't united so I was offered surgery. A bit of a delay due to christmas, and it's a rare injury so they had to order specialist hardware meaning I couldn't take the slot 2 days after my fracture clinic appointment. They then offered me one 2 weeks later which I couldn't do due to something at work which was worth delaying a bit for, and I'm now scheduled for next week (again, it would have been faster had it been a more common injury, but my consultant didn't want to pass it over to one of the other surgeons, so I waited for a slot with him).
I just wish everything was on the same app - I'm up to three now!
but my GPs recently moved buildings into a state of the art refurbished building.
There's projects going on without a doubt, I used to be involved in commissioning them. The issue is most GPs own their buildings, its both a source of value and investment, and like all property an endless money-pit. I think a good deal of of my time is spent dealing with the issue that modern medicine vs 19thC buildings creates.
but you can't lead a horse to water.
I have in the past started all sorts of classes, groups and activities, from walking groups to meal planning, to food advice and meal planning, some start well and tail off, some just aren't popular at all.
The issue is most GPs own their buildings, its both a source of value and investment, and like all property an endless money-pit. I think a good deal of of my time is spent dealing with the issue that modern medicine vs 19thC buildings creates.
Its a practice owned building I am pretty sure, they sold their victorian building to move into this one which is a victorian building as well but with a completely new interior including lifts, automatic doors etc etc
To me one of the big issues with GPs is that they are independent contractors. Some are well run, some are badly run, some are large, some are small. I think if they were emplyees of the NHS consistency would be much easier to achieve
My practice has around 10 GPs most part time I think so I guess some economies of scale? What I do know is the service from them while clunky at times bears no resemblance to the stories I hear from others
The total UK health expenditure for 2024/25 was approximately £242 billion, as a country we have an increasingly sick/aging population and we really need to find a way of getting more people to look after themselves
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn00724/
I think if they were emplyees of the NHS consistency would be much easier to achieve
I hear this every now and then. I think there's pros and cons. In reality the 'independent contractor' status is a bit of a convenient fiction anyway. We are already told when how and where we can offer services - you only have to look at the often daily instructions that were handed to GPs over the COVID outbreak. It's not like NHS workers aren't themselves massively stressed and unhappy that becoming one seems like a good plan anyway.
I think lifting some of the financial worry would be good for GPs, but the business side of running a GP isn't that difficult - it's mostly time consuming, and overheads are fixed (if currently v expensive), and most GPs are salaried anyway.