I am absolutely fed up.

Magenta8

Have you contacted PALS (The NHS Patient Advice and Liaison Service) ? I know GPs are getting frustrated by the number of referral requests that are being "bounced" so it probably is not the GP's fault.

There is also a free helpline run by the Patient Association.

Thank you. I hadn’t thought about PALS, and didn’t know there was a helpline.

I had sore Achilles tendons after lockdown - weeks of wandering the house in flat shoes/slippers. Not as serious as a tear, of course, but restricting. I found that wearing low heels eased the discomfort considerably.

I remember my MiL being told to wear heels after an Achilles tendon injury.

Surely after 6 months with no improvement, tests and physio should be the next logical step. When you break a bone you have a fairly good idea of when you will be getting back to normal but muscular pain is not so clear cut. I really feel so sorry for you as constant pain is debilitating on many levels. Can you ask for a second opinion? I would have a try if I were you. The comments concerning Streeting on this thread are echoed by many of my friends. They also feel that being elderly means being near the end of the queue. It's a depressing thought. I wish you well.

Just a thought with this warm weather. Are you able to get to a pool? Might be nice to pootle about, supported by the water?

I know exactly how you feel. With my bad knee I can walk around the house but struggle to walk once outside ( although still don’t understand why being outside makes such a difference). Yesterday I was hobbling round the garden. When I went inside my partner said he’d taken the dog for a walk but when he tried to tell me he was going out didn’t know where I was. I went ballistic saying where the hell would I be, you know I can’t walk anywhere. I’ve even started dreaming about going for walks ( had one of those dreams last night and didn’t want to wake up). Can’t help with the technicalities of referrals etc ( not having much success with the NHS myself) but offer my sympathy when it comes to being housebound. I’m very very irritable.

Someone said they felt sorry for the staff of our wrecked NHS ( a deliberate policy of the Tory government) My midwife daughter left the NHS as they were unable to give the necessary care to mums and babies.
She became an independent midwife and gives wonderful care now but it’s a difficult life, on-call much of the time so unable to plan anything, go anywhere or even have a drink. It also carries enormous responsibility which costs enormous insurance.
We are on the slope to private health insurance, where vast profits will be made out of sickness and the poor will go to the wall, as in America.

I can't believe the horrendous treatment you have received.

By now I would have thought there would have been a smidgeon of recovery so I hate to say it, is there something else wrong which was missed?

I would return to your surgery and ask why the scan was refused. State you can't afford a private scan and see what he says,

Secondly, you could ask to see another GP at the surgery. Do you know of any who may be more sympathetic?

Thirdly, but this is a very last resort. Go to A&E , ham it up, saying the pain you are in now is worse, and you don't know how it happened. Maybe turning over during sleep? They are duty bound to for some tests and not show you the door. If the treatment is unsatisfactory, ask to see who is in charge.

I know this is a bit hard core and many may disagree, but you have your life to live, now, not in 4 years time when waiting lists are fewer.

I suggest you get in touch with PALS. Just keep on about your health being very affected and your mental health is now serious . I also suggest we all contact our local m.p. With full details of what is going on for any of us caught up in the N.H.S. , which we have been told for decades is the envy of the world!! People in this country are brain washed haveing that repeated. We are definitely not the envy of the world. The NHS is too big and unwieldy and I cannot imagine it ever being manageable. Look to Canada and Australia. They don’t have private medicine, seems to work o.k.there.

And I agree with Charleygirls suggestion. You have been driven to this due the state the n.h.s. Is in. It is not right you are in pain and effectively house bound and seemingly will carry on being so as no one cares! Plenty of time wasters in A n E and you have a genuine reason so try that route. Good luck.

Charley girl the OP already has a sympathetic GP. She said that he is as frustrated as she is.

May I ask those of you who are unfortunate enough to have injured your Achilles tendon, how you did it?
It sounds a particularly nasty injury with a long recovery time.

I know it’s something that tennis players are prone to.

I share your concerns about reducing waiting lists. What is also happening now is getting people to agree to have follow up appointments by phone rather than going to hospital and actually meeting your Consultant. I don’t agree with that either.

DH has bladder cancer (now in remission) and he has had a phone call almost every week with either the consultant or one of his team. It was strange and a bit inhibiting at first, but we got used to it and now it doesn't bother us. It was hard for DH to admit openly to feeling pain, so I had to embarrass him by mentioning it first, but when he saw that the doctor took it seriously and explained what was happening he started to open up. In the early months we had a meeting to discuss the results from the latest scans (every 3 months) but we don't anymore.

The team make over 40 telephone calls in a day to people receiving treatment, fitted in around other duties. There is no way they could see that many people. We were told at the beginning we could have a meeting instead, but the one time we did that we had to wait nearly two hours because the team were tied up with an emergency. It now suits us to have the half hour telephone call rather than driving 2 hours, finding parking spaces and waiting around at the hospital.

Aldom my apologies. I missed that, but he is in a position to ask questions.

watermeadow Much as I dislike the Tories I have to point out that it was not just a deliberate policy of the Conservatives to dismantle the NHS. Tony Blair and his New Labour party did quite a lot of damage too between 1997 and 2007. The policy of outsourcing in house services was supposed to cut costs but in practice it increased costs. It also led to inferior services and extensive job losses.

I am trying to get my head round the fact that you were refused a scan and physio.

My 15 year old GS has had a similar injury and has been scanned, offered physio and supported in every way possible.

This is pure ageism at work and it is a disgrace. They see it as OK that you should be left with your life severely curtailed but not a young lad like my GS. The fact is that at our age we lose condition very quickly and just hobbling around at home with no exercise or rehab is very hard to claw back from and can set a downward trend.

I really do think you should go to PALS and make a strong complaint.

I have a raft of problems and have had long waits but I have not felt written off in this way. I feel that people are doing their best for me, even if it is hard for them to deliver.

Can you afford a second opinion or some private physio? I know this plays into the disgraceful backdoor privatisation of the NHS, but at our age we do not have time on our side.

I was referred to some sort of NHS specialist physio service at our local hospital and the physio there has been the one ordering scans and nerve conduction tests for me. She also makes contact with my GP and makes suggestions for ongoing referrals that are not within her remit. She takes an overview of it all which I find very reassuring.

Please do not let this just ride - it is so very wrong.

The suggestion for A&E is absolutely not what it is for - and I know Charleygirl knows this - but it might be a way forward. People are being forced into this. They will make an onward referral to get you out of the way (!), but even that does not help if the referral is refused as seems to have happened here.

There are many people our age who are out and about flying off on holidays, playing golf and goodness knows what - why should you just be written off?

JenniferEccles I was playing a tennis match on an old fashioned hard court. I served and pushed off to run to the net and there was a noise like a pistol crack which stopped play on the next court. I thought I'd been shot just above the heel. The bruising a couple of days later went from my foot to my knee. It's common injury with tennis and squash player but you can do it just taking a miss step off a curb. It was easily diagnosed as there are a number of physical tests which can check for injury and I didn't need a scan, they didn't exist in the late 80's!
It got sewn together and I went through a long process of rehab and eventually was able to play tennis again and run 10K without issue but I have never got the calf muscle back and have one leg thinner than the other.
Aged nearly 60, I put a hole in the scar tissue getting on a rather frisky horse that decided to move. It was a very cold day and I think that is what contributed to it. Again I didn't have a scan, a physical examination was enough. I have a hole in the tendon that I can put my finger in! It was painful but heel lifts and taping the heel up enabled me to do most things I wanted to do and did a lot of physiotherapy via my GP which helped enormously.
tbh it still gives me pain and I just treat it using RICE, ie rest, ice, compression and elevation, it's annoying but there is no quick fix for this injury. If I were in OP's situation I would make an appointment with a good physio and get advice on how best to treat the injury. Most tendon injuries take much longer than broken bones to heal and patience is key. If my achilles is painful, I rest it and let it settle, it's a massive tendon that takes a huge load and if it goes again completely, I won't be able to walk and mobility is very important to me.

This is a reflection of the nhs currently and personally, I’d go back to the gp and ask exactly why at least physio isn’t available. Or is it available but you have to go on a waiting list? If they say you must wait, I’d ask specifically what I can do in the meantime, so what exercises are suitable, how much motion and rest you should aim for. If you read up online, it seems you probably need to immobilise it for a while so what does the gp say about that. So put them in the spot with a little pressure. It’s true that it could take a year to heal but you need medical advice during this time.
The nhs is awful really isn’t it. My son dislocated his shoulder a year ago and although they put it back, he has had problems since with restricted movement and pain and they only can offer a steroid injection…..but….he has had to wait many months and still no appointment. I despair.

Once again the OPs post shows how millions are wasted.
How? Because we have a reactive not proactive health service.
Theres no telling what damage is being done to the OP.
Hopefully the issue will be fixed. Then if someone looked at the cost of every Dr visit, hospital visit the cost will show it would have been cheaper to treat the patient properly in the first place
Long story short.
This happened to a friend of mind. Two years backwards and forwards to Dr/ hospital.
That good old standby IBS was put forward every time.
One day ( I was with her) her bowel packed up completely.
She was vomiting her own excrement.
Blue lighted to hospital, 11 hour operation, 3 months in hospital.
If someone had bothered to investigate thoroughly they would have found that scar tissue from operations years ago had wrapped itself around her bowel.
Horror stories are happening every day because of this short sighted way of dealing with our health.

Every day I watch a German channel ( DW)
A few days ago there was a long piece on their health system.
I could have cried at the end when I think that our NHS budget is £246 billion!!!!! 11% of our GDP.
Something is seriously wrong 😡
This a a long read. It explains the German health service.
Read and weep 😥
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK298834/

petra

Every day I watch a German channel ( DW)
A few days ago there was a long piece on their health system.
I could have cried at the end when I think that our NHS budget is £246 billion!!!!! 11% of our GDP.
Something is seriously wrong 😡
This a a long read. It explains the German health service.
Read and weep 😥
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK298834/

My late MIL was German and she could not believe how long patients waited here to even get seen at hospital. She used to say that you saw your Dr and got into hospital the next day for your op! She also got a very generous pension from Germany even though she left there as a young woman.

Flippinheck I am sorry that you are in this predicament. Just to say you are not alone. My son who lives in the UK, received zero help from his GP. when in severe, debilitating pain.
He had no choice other than to seek private care, fortunately provided by the company he works for. He quickly got a appointment with a consultant with an MRI the next day, a diagnosis, treatment and follow -up appointments.
My son said, 'It's a different world Mum. Promptly seen, diagnosed, supported and treated".
It's how the NHS should be isn't it.
Very interesting post and link Petra. Thanks.

Thanks for explaining how you injured your Achilles tendon foxie48
The sound you described when it popped must have caused a lot of concern on the tennis court especially as it sounded like a gunshot!

I’m pleased you made a good recovery though.

As you said, it’s easily done by just missing our step on a kerb or uneven ground. A lesson there for all of us!

watermeadow

Someone said they felt sorry for the staff of our wrecked NHS ( a deliberate policy of the Tory government) My midwife daughter left the NHS as they were unable to give the necessary care to mums and babies.
She became an independent midwife and gives wonderful care now but it’s a difficult life, on-call much of the time so unable to plan anything, go anywhere or even have a drink. It also carries enormous responsibility which costs enormous insurance.
We are on the slope to private health insurance, where vast profits will be made out of sickness and the poor will go to the wall, as in America.

Oh watermeadow you ring some bells with your post. I worked as a ward clerk on a busy maternity unit and could never understand why those at the top think babies keep office hours. Our staff ratio on weekends, bank holidays and after 7pm every evening was always down to the bare bones. We lost many promising midwives because of the sheer pressure of NHS rulings. 17 years I worked there yet nobody who is in a management capacity was able to see it. Madness.

petra

Every day I watch a German channel ( DW)
A few days ago there was a long piece on their health system.
I could have cried at the end when I think that our NHS budget is £246 billion!!!!! 11% of our GDP.
Something is seriously wrong 😡
This a a long read. It explains the German health service.
Read and weep 😥
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK298834/

You are right, something is seriously wrong. As an ex-employee of the NHS with one of my jobs having to order for a busy Maternity department I was always staggered at the waste of money that is allowed to happen. There is no freedom to search around for the best value for money as suppliers have to be authorised by the NHS. Once this happens, their prices sky rocket. For example, a packet of 6 suture needles which cost £4 before NHS seal of approval now costs £11. I was asked to order 6 metal gestational wheels for wards and clinics. The approved supplier had them priced at £49.99 each. Out of curiosity I looked on Amazon. The exact same thing for a fiver! I had no choice but to use the NHS supplier costing my department £300 when they could just have easily been brought for £30. A thorough root and branch assessment needs to be undertaken by a top businessman, don't let politicians anywhere near it. I guarantee they could save £b's. Complete mismanagement by BOTH main parties for decades and no sign of it stopping.