Is the NHS good at everything?

Like most people I find some parts of the NHS are great others are very poor indeed and disappointing.

Our GP surgery and the staff are poor as is the attached pharmacy. 7 working days for a repeat prescription, minimum 2 weeks to see a GP.

Addenbrooke's hospital were really good on communication, time of appointments and very streamlined every time we went. Staff seemed happy in their work even though it’s a very busy hospital. The surgeons who operated on my son in a 10 hour operation for pancreatic cancer were brilliant because initially they weren’t sure if it was operable.

6 months chemo followed at our regional hospital and whilst the staff in that dept were kind and polite and clearly well trained, the Consultant was a waste of time and should not be in such a position. Son also used a smaller local hospital at times for pump removal, bloods etc and they were excellent.

Husband’s two Strokes and aftercare have been shockingly poor and that is a disgrace. I can’t even talk about how poor it all was.

Primrose53
My DH has had hardly any aftercare after his stroke, we got care workers for a few weeks after he came home after 2 months in hospital, they just walked in ticked some boxes and promptly left again. Has all been down to me and close family. But mainly me. Right now I have chronic back and knee pain and feel tired all the time, but the GP can’t see me until October 29th. Would be nice, as a full time carer to have a little care myself but it isn’t happening so am just taking hefty painkillers and carrying on regardless.

Fallingstar

Primrose53
My DH has had hardly any aftercare after his stroke, we got care workers for a few weeks after he came home after 2 months in hospital, they just walked in ticked some boxes and promptly left again. Has all been down to me and close family. But mainly me. Right now I have chronic back and knee pain and feel tired all the time, but the GP can’t see me until October 29th. Would be nice, as a full time carer to have a little care myself but it isn’t happening so am just taking hefty painkillers and carrying on regardless.

Sadly a lot of people have told me this too Fallingstar. So sorry you are in a lot of pain. I am pretty OK for my age healthwise (apart from Golfer’s elbow in one arm and Tennis elbow in the other.) but that is now …… I could wake up another day and feel rotten and of course we are all aging fast so not sure how much longer I will be able to do all this. We just never know what’s around the corner!

A major stroke is totally life changing and there SHOULD be more support. It is a disgrace.

TakeThat7

The NHS used to be great but not now what was wrong with doctors seeing patients now you might get a doctor on the phone and then begrudgingly oh you might need to come in for an appointment

When I want an appt with GP I phone reception and ask for either a face to face appt, a telephone consult or a zoom consult. It's entirely my choice and for straightforward information/ test results I prefer a telephone consult. Phone consults have been available here since long before covid. If there's something I need a DR to see or examine, its F2F.

The only time I asked for an appt " soon, today if possible" I was offered one an hour later.

It probably was never envisaged that it would be expected to provide cancer treatments for up to 5 years at a time and open heart surgery. It's doing increasingly expensive work for increasingly old patients. Something's gonna give. Andy Burnham says let's make it easier to get care so people won't be in hospital beds who don't need to be there. But if people are not choosing the care profession he's not going to get very far with that.

Wow butterandjam I would give my right arm to have a GP practice like that.
Lucky you!!

Having had the misfortune recently to spend 4 nights in a NHS hospital I would agree that emergency medicine is great but wards are terrible. As a coeliac I found the food shocking. My discharge was delayed as the paperwork kept being missed. I returned home feeling dirty, very tired and extremely hungry.

Successive Tory governments wanted the NHS replaced by private health insurance so they ran it down into the ground. We are all living with the results. Except the rich, who pay for better treatment.

watermeadow

Successive Tory governments wanted the NHS replaced by private health insurance so they ran it down into the ground. We are all living with the results. Except the rich, who pay for better treatment.

Nonsense.

M0nica

It all depends on the bit of the NHS you deal with. DH has complex heart conditions. We have dealt with two cardiac units and both have been superb, likewise the paramedics we have dealt with, but A&E just sent him home saying didn't seem much wrong, not sure what the problem was. A fortnight later paramedics raced him into cardiac and he had a pacemaker fitted the following day to treat heart failure.

I have told the tale of my misdiagnosed strokes many times and DD ending up on the critical list because a her GP first forgot a crucial test and then refused to see her again. ON the other hand, when she was seriously injured in a road accident everyone was superb

Also a night nurse who slept for 4 hours at the desk and then was on the phone to friends and family for the rest of her shift. I was in too much pain to sleep and was expecting to go down to theatre every minute, so watched her all that time from my bed.

The NHS is like the curates egg, good in parts

That’s very true, good in parts.We have received great medical care and awful medical care and negligence at times, seen very good hardworking nurses and some useless lazy blighters as well.

Primrose53

watermeadow

Successive Tory governments wanted the NHS replaced by private health insurance so they ran it down into the ground. We are all living with the results. Except the rich, who pay for better treatment.

Nonsense.

I really don’t think that’s true at all watermeadow the NHS has had a ton of money pumped into it year after year.
Too many people needing medical attention ( population too high) and older people living longer have put a strain on it.

Disagree, it’s not nonsense and well known that some political parties, ie Farage, look towards an American form of health provision which would not suit us in the UK one tiny jot.
As for tons of money, it’s not a profit making business, it’s a public service for us all, which needs money to be ‘pumped in’ to keep it going.
Having a US system would be everyone’s worst nightmare.

We definitely have a better system just now than the USA version that Farage and Reform envisage for us.