Is the NHS good at everything?

I agree that the NHS is good for emergency care (if you can get an ambulance to get you to a hospital), but for general GP services, there is still much to be desired.

I ve got nothing but praise for it both emergency and routine have been good to me, and my doctor’s surgery is excellent. Since they changed to the emailing for appointments as opposed to sitting on the phone for half an hour. On the two occasions I ve felt I needed a GP I had my appointment and/ or medication within a few hours of emailing them

Perhaps I’m lucky, can always get a GP appointment, am asked if it’s critical or routine and then either wait a day or so or maybe up to two weeks.

I have see 999 and 111 for ascent or calling an ambulance. It’s always fine, with 15 minutes for my husbands heart attack, 1 hour for my pancreatitis and up to 6 hours sadly for my mothers fall.

It’s understaffed and under funded

-Bluebelle we don’t have email, but we have an extremely efficient and effective app, which covers literally anything and everything.

I think we have to accept that many age related chronic conditions can't realistically be cured. We know our own bodies best in later life and have to find our own ways of managing sometimes.
Having said that, I have recently had a tremendously helpful appointment with an NHS physiotherapist who has made me feel really hopeful that one of my conditions can be alleviated.

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

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

I have spent the last eight days under the care of our local hospital Emergency Service. Did not want to become an in-patient, I have been going to their special ward for Emergency Day care every other day, often for several hours. I cannot fault, in any way, whatsoever the wonderful care I have been given, both medically and socially. Mug of tea given almost as soon as I arrive there (proper earthenware mug), and bicccies, and when i am have been there most of the day given sandwiches,

All the staff from receptionist, through all nurses and doctors were gentle and kind.

Have now been discharged from them although will now need further meeting with my Endo team regarding the situation which caused this emergency.

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

Nearly everything I've received from th NHS in the last two years has been fine.
I've had excellent new hearing aids, a detached retina followed by a cataract operation, a stent in an artery followed by cardiac rehab.
But my 18-day stay on a,surgical ward after a botched operation was really horrible. Most of the nurses were callous, pain relief sparing.. The wound took six weeks to heal, necessitating almost daily visits to the GP nurse.

I disagree - I had a hip replacement in January which went brilliantly (in a private hospital but on the NHS)

I had a pre-op last Wednesday (23/09) followed by a phone call on Thursday to book me in for consent form signing and chat with the surgeon on 08/10 followed by Thumb joint replacement on 12/10 (again at the same private hospital which is lovely but on the NHS) - I literally cannot fault the service I've had for elective surgery

Personally I have no complaints, and both GP and cardiac unit were very good with my late husband, but my daughter has experienced long delays waiting for follow up appointments and xrays for a minor matter, whilst the various enquiries into maternity services have revealed appalling lack of care and avoidable deaths. Mental health services are generally inadequate, but much of this is down to staff shortages and underfunding.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!