Is the NHS good at everything?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Our local hospial is definitely not good at orthopaedic, when I broke my hip I had to wait 3 days flat on my back for my operation, no food or drink in case a space became available in the operating theatre. The hospital is a large hospital with only one dedicated orthopaedic theatre!

Out with brother 82 years and he was to me displaying heart attack symptoms. Took him myself to A & E booked him in, had to move car, only allowed 20 mins parking. Came back, yes, in the throws of heart attack. Admitted to ward. Told his wife and a daughter about it. They arrived and took over. Two says later visited to discover he was showing signs of stroke. Went to nurse station to discover no medical person had visited him since early morning. This was now 2 pm. Domestic had delivered meals but had no contact. Furious doesn't describe it. I wouldn't count on NHS even in an emergency now.

Have had cause to visit A&E within last few months and cannot fault the care. It was a very long wait to be seen not helped by queuing at reception hardly able to stand for around 20 mins while the receptionist was speaking to a garage about her car!
Unfortunately the local GP surgery has gone from excellent to abysmal. I really don't know how ill you have to be to see an actual GP, all appts are with a nurse, a nurse practitioner or if you're lucky you might see a trainee GP who reads the screen and repeats what you've already read on google and offers no solution. If you ask a question they have to leave the room to consult with presumably a GP. They come back with an answer but then have to do the same again if you have a follow up question. Prescriptions are supposed to be available 72 hrs (used to be 48hrs) after request but often take over a week before they are ready.

You are lucky. I finally got a telephone appointment a month ago. Drs suggestion didn’t work. Rang surgery for a face to face appointment telling them that the telephone appointment hadn’t been successful and have to wait over four weeks to see a doctor. Two surgeries merged but seem to have even less doctors available. Don’t reallly know any of them.

I saw a GP yesterday who ordered urgent blood tests.
I had to go to a diagnostic centre today to phlebotomy.

The surgery hadn’t put the request form in.

I sat in the waiting room and called the surgery to ask them to email the request form, I was caller 15.

It took over an hour for me to speak to a human, the receptionist at the diagnostic centre spoke to the surgery on my phone and had to tell them what to do, she said this happens a few times a day, it costs time and wastes appointments.

The NHS possibly needs more efficiency.

As I said earlier, can`t even get a repeat , necessary, prescription signed by a doctor for 5 days... the so called simplest of tasks or should be.

TakeThat7

It's not been the same since co vid You could still get doctors appointments Now you walk in a surgery and the waiting room is empty or nearly empty where have all the doctors gone It was a five hour wait at the walk in centre in town a few days ago if you had to go there instead and as they said an even longer wait at A and E Is there a massive shortage of doctors or what The phone at 8 am idea is awful you can be on the phone for 8 am and not get an appointment What happened to booking an appointment ahead why has that gone

Yes, I recognise all this and I date it back to Covid, too. I've only seen two GPs in the last 6 years. Every other time when I've turned up for a rare and hard-won appointment, I've been allocated to a pharmacist or "nurse practitioner" (who almost always has to run & ask a GP for advice anyway). The chance of getting an advance appointment is, I'd say, about 1 in 5 - and it's always a wait of at least 2-3 weeks. Usually I've just had to tough it out by myself. One memorable time, I phoned unsuccessfully for 8 consecutive days before being given a date 5 weeks into the future - by which time I had 2 other things I needed to see a GP about too. Since I only had a 10-minute consultation, I had to choose which one was the most urgent; the others went untreated.
I don't think it's the fault of the coalface workers, particularly. It probably boils down to an NHS that's been consistently taken for granted and starved of cash and staff, combined with ageing facilities and an ever-growing number of people being treated for a huge range of medical problems (some of which should probably never have been put on the list of things the NHS must treat free of charge - we can probably each come up with our own list of those.
The warning signs were there donkeys' years ago but few people who could do anything actually have. It's a sad fact that, of the people with the power to put the NHS right, too many are prepared to cover their own backs rather than straighten them and take some hard decisions.
Having said all that, I would hate to be one of the people who will eventually have to do that or see our health services crumble to dust on their watch!

DrWatson

As readers will have gathered, the NHS can do pretyy much everything well - but NOT everywhere!

YOU may have a great GP, no waits, others despair of getting seen! Some hospitals have great depts for certain problems, may not be so good at everything?!

A&E is a constant issue, in many locations, thx to so many attending who are NOT really an accident nor 'emergency' (having had to have several sessions in there -- this is quite clearly the case, just look!).

Perhaps what I'm told is the French method might help, you pay a fee to get seen, then claim that back later?

The French system is more complicated than that. Yes you pay your GP in cash, the visit is registered on your health card and you get almost all of that money back into your bank account automatically. Unless you are on a low income you pay a monthly top up insurance (ours was about 350€pcm) which pays 30% of most treatment with the health service paying 70%. Serious conditions are funded 100% by the health service. Money goes to fund the Health Service by the equivalent of National Insurance.
Many referrals and especially urgent ones come via your GP, but you can also find a cardiologist, dermatologist of your choice, for example, via an online system.

I hear what everyone is saying, however, this may seem a small point, but I put my order into my local surgery for repeat heart medication and 5 days on it is still sat at the surgery awaiting a doctor to sign the form and send it to the local pharmacy for me to collect,, I am no spring chicken.Just saying.

The staff that are actually working are usually covering more than one persons workload because when nhs staff leave, they are usually not replaced, leaving those who remain expected to pick up the extra work.
This happens frequently and I am grateful to those who remain in post despite the extra work and try not to be too critical.

It's wonderful if you have a child born with severe and complex needs.
The treatment, the support, and the comfort of knowing that there's no worry about costs for these very expensive matters is amazing.

As readers will have gathered, the NHS can do pretyy much everything well - but NOT everywhere!

YOU may have a great GP, no waits, others despair of getting seen! Some hospitals have great depts for certain problems, may not be so good at everything?!

A&E is a constant issue, in many locations, thx to so many attending who are NOT really an accident nor 'emergency' (having had to have several sessions in there -- this is quite clearly the case, just look!).

Perhaps what I'm told is the French method might help, you pay a fee to get seen, then claim that back later?