NHS collapsing....

It is very sad and also very scary. I dread having anything that requires a GP or hospital.

Sorry to hear you're still having heart rhythm problems. I hope you get to the bottom of it soon

What a shocking experience. My sympathies to you and your friend. It sounds like a serious management issue. Perhaps you should both report it. Clinical staff taking masks off when told to wear them is unacceptable, as is everything else you and your friend experienced.

Gosh, that is the exact opposite of the attention I received a couple of weeks ago. Went in as a day patient and ended up being admitted for four days. Nurses and doctors completely on the ball. I was thoroughly impressed (and relieved) as I had been watching /listening to the media and expected a nightmare from start to finish. Simply not true in my case and I'm mightily relieved

Tory policy worked in the case of the NHS,they tell us its a mess and it'll be sold off to American health providers .Thats what they have been aiming for for a long time .What a shame brexit helped them get rid of essential staff .
I had the best gynaecologist until Brexit and after being summoned to London to "discuss" his position he went home to greece .I'm sure there are hundreds or thousands more like him.

Our A&E is brilliant. My mam was taken there last week as her nose wouldn't stop bleeding (she's on blood thinners). They were incredibly busy and, yes, we had to wait but over the course of 5 hours she was seen by a specialist A&E nurse who took her history and blood for testing, an A&E doctor and and ENT registrar. The following day she was treated by an ENT consultant.

The problem with a lot of A&Es (and the NHS in general) is that the staff are overworked and underpaid. Money needs pumping into the system to employ more staff at all grades. The staff are worked to exhaustion and then expected to continue working. No wonder chaos sometimes ensues.

That sounds like a dreadful experience, I’m guessing the fact that junior doctors are on strike for three days has a great deal to do with the chaos, because they are the backbone of A&E departments and assessment units.

I said that to the Specialist Nurse Practitioner, who said that the junior doctors being on strike made little difference to their workload - I could not think of anything to say to that!

My DD, a nurse, told me that they had lost too many foreign, fully qualified nurses with years of experience due to Brexit.
Many medical staff don't want to work in A & E as it is far too pressured with far less staff than is needed.

Nothing at all like the experience in my local hospital. Brand new A&E dept, unfortunately had to be used by a dear friend over the weekend, care second to non she said. Newly installed MRI scanner, overseen by my lovely next door neighbour. Polish ENT consultant, German Gynae Consultant, some Spanish and Romanian, Portuguese , African, staff,although majority are local born and bred.
Sorry but I think many on here love denigrating the NHS, due to their left leanings and obvious bias against anything, or anyone, Conservative.

Who is denigrating the NHS?

Sorry your experience was so bad. I spent almost an entire day in A&E last week. They were very busy but I got excellent attention from Doctors and Nurses. Within 3 days I have had a CT scan appointment, a telephone conversation with my GP and am expecting to have a small op in the next 2/3 weeks. I had another call from a specialist reassuring me about the procedure and he said if I had any further questions speak to his secretary and gave me her direct number. All NHS staff and most impressive. I also have my 3 yearly mammogram coming up next month and possibly an ultra sound to see if my gall bladder is OK, which was picked up last week at A&E after a blood test. I very rarely am ill or need medical attention but I have to say there was nothing from my very recent experience to think NHS is collapsing.

Freya5

Nothing at all like the experience in my local hospital. Brand new A&E dept, unfortunately had to be used by a dear friend over the weekend, care second to non she said. Newly installed MRI scanner, overseen by my lovely next door neighbour. Polish ENT consultant, German Gynae Consultant, some Spanish and Romanian, Portuguese , African, staff,although majority are local born and bred.
Sorry but I think many on here love denigrating the NHS, due to their left leanings and obvious bias against anything, or anyone, Conservative.

I am not denigrating the NHS - just outlining what has happened to me with a very heavy heart. My OH and I spent many years working in the NHS locally and it is sad to see where things are on our area.

And my political leanings are irrelevant; but on that topic, why would "left-leaning" people wish to denigrate the NHS? Its current problems are there for all to see, whatever their political leanings. I know many conservative friends who are appalled at the lack of support for the NHS.

I am sorry to hear of your experience Lucky, I had the exact opposite experience about a month ago.

My GP phoned the heart professor for adice, which was given there and then.
The next thing I knew was, a few days later, that I received a phone call, telling me I was being admitted to the cardiology ward, bypassing A & E.
My care was exemplary and all staff wore masks the whole time I was an in patient.
I attend clinics at the same Glasgow hospital and masks are compulsory.

I find your experience shocking.
I hope you get the help and support you need.

Freya5

Nothing at all like the experience in my local hospital. Brand new A&E dept, unfortunately had to be used by a dear friend over the weekend, care second to non she said. Newly installed MRI scanner, overseen by my lovely next door neighbour. Polish ENT consultant, German Gynae Consultant, some Spanish and Romanian, Portuguese , African, staff,although majority are local born and bred.
Sorry but I think many on here love denigrating the NHS, due to their left leanings and obvious bias against anything, or anyone, Conservative.

The original thread started by Luckygirl recounting her frightening and unsatisfactory experience at her local A&E. Your comments about "lefties" denigrating the NHS are silly, and that's me being polite.

Sorry to hear about your experience Lucky. It all sounds chaotic and far from patient centred. I understand the anxiety AF can cause. I’ve had permanent AF for 8 years now. A cardio version worked for a month but reverted. I take blood thinners and I’m waiting for further reviews of breathlessness, so I sympathise and hope follow up is effective.

Freya5, your post struck me as minimising Lucky’s stressful experience. Your suggestion that anyone raising concern about the dire straight our NHS is in does so due to ‘left leanings and obvious bias against anything, or anyone, Conservative’ is frankly nonsense. It shows your own bias clearly.

HousePlantQueen

Freya5

Nothing at all like the experience in my local hospital. Brand new A&E dept, unfortunately had to be used by a dear friend over the weekend, care second to non she said. Newly installed MRI scanner, overseen by my lovely next door neighbour. Polish ENT consultant, German Gynae Consultant, some Spanish and Romanian, Portuguese , African, staff,although majority are local born and bred.
Sorry but I think many on here love denigrating the NHS, due to their left leanings and obvious bias against anything, or anyone, Conservative.

The original thread started by Luckygirl recounting her frightening and unsatisfactory experience at her local A&E. Your comments about "lefties" denigrating the NHS are silly, and that's me being polite.

On the one hand, I agree with you. Luckygirl's original post set out a sorry tale of individual ineptitude and administrative chaos on the part of NHS staff at a particular hospital - and you are quite right that she did not lay the blame on the Government. On the other hand, I agree with Freya that most threads on GN involving the NHS are soon overflowing with rants about "years of Tory under-funding" and "Tory plots to sell our sainted NHS off to bloated US plutocrats" etc etc. I think Freya5's use of the term "denigrating" is wrong, as it implies that the lefties are criticising the NHS. Far from it: they seize on anyone else's criticism of any aspect of the performance of the NHS and/or its staff as a heaven-sent opportunity once again to proclaim the NHS as "the envy of the world" and trot out the usual anti-Tory tropes..

Wow Bodach and Freya! How very unfair to comment like this on Lucky's very honest portrayal and reporting.

Lucky I am so sorry you are having such a tough time of it all- and thank you for telling us of your experience.

My DD2's MIL has had an awful experience last few days after a fall and major injuries. The report she gave us last night of how long it took for ambulance, and the huge wait in A&E, which was indeed bedlam- is truly scary. Nothing to do with left, right or centre!

The picture is, I think, very mixed!

In our family we have had both brilliant and awful attention. 111, paramedics, A&E and junior doctors saved my life but the after care has been very mixed. Different depts are run either superbly or chaotically.

I agree gsm. Managers need to be managing better.

Fleurpepper

Wow Bodach and Freya! How very unfair to comment like this on Lucky's very honest portrayal and reporting.

Lucky I am so sorry you are having such a tough time of it all- and thank you for telling us of your experience.

My DD2's MIL has had an awful experience last few days after a fall and major injuries. The report she gave us last night of how long it took for ambulance, and the huge wait in A&E, which was indeed bedlam- is truly scary. Nothing to do with left, right or centre!

Dear Fleurpepper
My comment on Lucky’s very honest portrayal and reporting was as follows: “ Luckygirl's original post set out a sorry tale of individual ineptitude and administrative chaos on the part of NHS staff at a particular hospital - and you are quite right that she did not lay the blame on the Government.” How is that very unfair?

Well - after 12 years in government, with the nhs is meltdown, it’s medical staff striking for better and safer working conditions, how can the government not be held to account?

I think that you'll find Freya, that most " left leaning" people are supporters of the NHS and take pride in Nye Bevan who started it. I can't comment on A &E, but my daughter's care during her high risk pregnancy has been exemplary. There is evidence of neglect in certain areas, certainly- the loos in the antenatal department are filthy.

This government should be held to account for what is happening right now. They are shilly-shallying over the obvious.
The obvious being they simply have to pay the nurses and doctors more and now. The crisis is now.
It has been created by government and they know the causes.
This government also knows they haven’t long to go now before they are ousted by the electorate.
When they are, it is in all right thinking peoples’ interest to ensure they hold any successive government to account for direction the NHS goes next.

Not investing in the NHS has consequences.

Who’d have thought?

The upshot of all the difficulties we are experiencing and that illustrated by the op is that …….

Life expectancy is growing at a slower rate in the U.K. than any other G7 country.

How anyone thinks that paying more to doctors and nurses would help us as patients is beyond me.We’d all like big pay rises come to that but it won’t help the NHS.
It’s true that standards vary wildly between hospitals and that’s always been the case.The reasons are complex.
I ned a procedure done that will mean a wait of around a year on the NHS so am using my meagre savings to get it done privately, it shouldn’t be this way but it just is.
To the OP, what an awful experience for you.