NHS collapsing....

Oreo- we are short of doctors and nurses. Maybe that's why you have such a wait for your procedure? Can you suggest a way of recruiting, and keeping, good medics if not to pay them more?

Oreo

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.

Eh? I don't understand why it needs explaining to you.

I am guessing different parts of the country are having very different experiences. Here in the deep South our local A&E is overwhelmed a lot of the time and staff are leaving in droves. We have vast amounts of building and one Drs surgery that is regularly closed leaving people with nowhere to go. I hear from my DD1 in Scotland that their local A&E was more or less empty on two occasions last month, unheard of here.
I am sorry you had such a rough time Lucky it is upsetting and frightening.

Nurses were never well paid in the past, they weren’t in it for the money.Actually they are quite well paid now tho.
Same goes for junior doctors, they had prestige and knew how well paid they would be soon.
We all need to pay more NI there’s no way round that if we want better services all round.Other European countries pay more in taxes than we do, this government won’t put up taxes and prob Labour won’t either.It’s unpopular but needs doing.
I needed a small op about 16 years ago and had to fund that myself too or face a very long wait.

Pensioners don't pay any NI. Are you suggesting that those over pension age should pay some kind of health tax?

Hope your condition improves Luckygirl after your recent experience. I have just recently been looked after by staff at our Walk-in centre. I was very impressed they were on the ball and looked after me very well.
It's next door to our surgery but we are not allowed to physically see a doctor since lockdown began. Every time I rang up the surgery I was told I would wait a fortnight for a phone consultation. The three doctors at the practice have been there all the time but everyone is being advised to go the Walk-in.

I’m not a pensioner.
Many grans aren’t!

My fear is that, as so many people experience inadequate treatment, some who really should go to A&E decide it would be better to 'wait and see if things settle down' and sometimes they do. I must admit to having been a case in point when I tripped and fell headfirst, incurring some rather bloody grazes and a very sore head. DiL suggested A&E but I thought a (minimum) five-hour wait in a crowded waiting room would make me feel worse. As it happens, I recovered, albeit with two spectacular black eyes which have since subsided and the scabs from the grazes have fallen off, leaving no evidence. Was I wise? Probably not.

Oreo I agree about paying more NI and yes we do need to grow up about funding. Also the electorate should inform themselves about how the system works (or doesn’t)
Living or just existing now costs BIG from the moment we open our eyes of a morning, even before we flick the kettle on to boil a mug full of water for a drink.
Even if we live alone and are not in debt. Even before we get on the expensive bus(es) to work…if they haven’t cut your service
Even if we only eat one meal a day. Before that there is council tax to pay, there is rent to pay. Both are about to rise next month because the councils have no choice.
Then there is the BBC and the requirement to have a license and their constant threats of visits to your home before you’ve even moved in.
Then there is the need to have an internet connection now.
Even to contact DWP, and in many cases to just do your job
How and why some parents (still mainly mothers) bother to go to work I don’t know ..when some earn just enough to pay the childcare so they go to work , often in dead end jobs with little scope for moving up the ladder, and earn just enough …to pay someone else to do what you probably want to do yourself.
When junior doctors (they need to find a new title for them because it is a misnomer for some) are actually worse off now in real terms than back in 2008 then what hope for the modest ambitions of others who haven’t gone to university.
YOUR life could literally be in their hands.

Oh and I’m not a pensioner either, a few years to go yet.🧓🏻

Someone on Question Time said that in the short term the NHS needs a huge cash injection. After that, it needs a plan for the future. My DH has recently had an emergency operation. Once he received the diagnosis, the treatment was wonderful but the lead-up to it was appalling - ambulance failed to arrive so we used a taxi, hanging around waiting for nursing staff to appear, the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. We are beginning to lose confidence in the NHS.

‘We are beginning to lose confidence in the nhs’
I’ve got a solution, let’s be like the USA, private health care for the advantaged, poor service for the disadvantaged.

No let’s not😟

Iam64

‘We are beginning to lose confidence in the nhs’
I’ve got a solution, let’s be like the USA, private health care for the advantaged, poor service for the disadvantaged.

Poor, or NONE!

I’m afraid you may be right, but surely in the uk there would be cover for the dispossessed, the mentally ill who live on our streets…….. ah.

I've been in A&E twice recently (in Cornwall) due to extreme breathlessness. The first time my doctor booked a CT scan and inserted a cannula at the surgery so I didn't have to wait long in A&E. The second time was on Monday when I had to call an ambulance, which came within minutes and, in spite of the doctors' strike I was given marvellous care and attention, even though A&E was packed. I'm so very sorry to hear that many others are struggling to receive such good care.

I have spent the afternoon at our local hospital after being referred 2 weeks ago for am urgent appointment.
All went well and staff were professional and friendly and I was very grateful that I didn’t have long to wait.

The Nhs is on its knees and the current government have been deliberately running it down for years.
We are so lucky and hope it remains to serve the people.

Oreo

I’m not a pensioner.
Many grans aren’t!

You wrote all, so I assumed you meant "all", including pensioners.

How are you doing Lucky?

Luckygirl3

Had to go into A&E again today with heart rhythm problem - I have never seen such chaos. Right hand not knowing what left hand is doing.

And the clerk and nurses in the unit I was in were not wearing masks and coughing all over the place - a higher nurse came in and told them to put them on - which they did, until this nurse left, then they all took them off again.

I think they were reading the wrong notes when they saw me - talked about a knee x-ray which I have never had; and said they have no record of me having AF - I have been in their coronary care unit with it in the past! - and am on blood thinners for it! And they could not find my recent echocardiogram result - which I had in the same hospital!

I said it might be better if I left as the problem had settled - as it often does. But I had had a heart rate between 130 and 160 for several hours when I rang 111; and I had a long AF episode 3 weeks ago, so I wanted to get it settled this time. But I could not go unless I discharged myself and did not want that on my notes.

A local friend from the village was in there - she has had sepsis and only recently discharged after months in hospital and finishing up with a permanent colostomy. She is still on high dose antibiotics to try and prevent the sepsis returning. She is being looked after by district nurse who did a blood test and found she was seriously anaemic and arranged for her to come in for a blood transfusion today. When I arrived she had been waiting several hours - and by the time I left several more hours later she still had not had the transfusion - and had been told she must not take her antibiotics (which are vital in her case - she nearly died several times of her sepsis) as they would have to get the pharmacy to prescribe it for her even though she was only in as a day case. The district nurse has told her to take them in with her and take them on time.

There was so much more chaos that is indescribable. What a dreadful mess it all is.

I am trying to get some proper advice as to how to manage this arrythmia in the long term but getting an appointment with a GP round here is virtually impossible. I have a phone appointment booked for next week 5 weeks after I rang and asked for it.

It is all so sad.

Hi Luckygirl, I suffer from SVT episodes and am on the waiting list for cardiac ablation, which I think can also be beneficial in AF. Have had a couple of admissions to A&E and doses of Adenosine, which is effective, but a bit scary! Maybe I’ve been lucky, but all experiences have been reassuring and positive here in South West 😊

How are things going Lucky? Did you find out your toe too?

I’m sorry your experience in hospital was so awful x

Not sure what paddyann54 means - the NHS is devolved in Scotland and has been since 1999, so I’m not sure she can blame the Westminster government for NHS Scotland’s shortcomings. The NHS in general in Scotland is the same as anywhere else in the UK - it varies from area to area. A&E in my area is quite good, GP surgeries not so much, some mums have to travel 60 miles to give birth, on one of the worst and most dangerous roads in Scotland.

I hope you get some answers and the right treatment soon Luckygirl

We've found that the administrative systems are completely chaotic - I wouldn't know where to begin with the lists of administrative errors we have encountered which must cost the NHS money and the medical staff additional stress.

12 years ago (I think it's been 12 years), the Labour Party warned that electing a Conservative government would result in the ruination of the NHS. What a pity some people weren't listening.

We have similar issues here. The vast sums paid for insurance only give you a shorter queue but the specialists are the same people. The private hospitals have better food but the care is the same and really, who cares about the food when you are ill? I think we pay higher wages but then the cost of living is probably higher by the sounds of things. We do have sun, though!