Anyone else feel like the NHS almost doesn't exist for them any more?

[story]

There has been a huge drive in my area to raise awareness regarding prostate cancer. Personally driven by the surgical urology consultant - a black man. He does a seminar, open to tge public and his leaflet comes through my door.

Also over the last five years or so I have definitely noticed an increase of black men coming in for a RALP (Robot Assisted Laparoscopic Prosectomy) and other prostate related procedures.
So awareness is increasing.

Like you, in the last 5 -ish years I’ve noticed Black men increasingly unconcerned about getting their prostate checked. The change seemed quite sudden.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Finally heard from a doctor, six weeks and change after first asking for an appointment to see one. The doctor had glanced at my x-ray, decided there wasn't a problem, and told me in a text message that was misspelled to the point of being unreadable that I should either see a physio (seen two already, neither knew what was wrong) or just go away.

Asked again for an appointment to see a real actual doctor in real life. 15th October is the next one.

I get that the doctors are busy. I know that's not their fault. But they get paid a fuckton more than I do for comparable hours and workload and I would never have so little professional pride or basic decency as to send someone a misspelled text message to tell them about something that's profoundly affecting their life. Especially if I was telling them I can't be bothered to do anything about it, despite that being the job for which I get paid the aforesaid fuckton of money.

 

[ghost boy]

Finally heard from a doctor, six weeks and change after first asking for an appointment to see one. The doctor had glanced at my x-ray, decided there wasn't a problem, and told me in a text message that was misspelled to the point of being unreadable that I should either see a physio (seen two already, neither knew what was wrong) or just go away.

Asked again for an appointment to see a real actual doctor in real life. 15th October is the next one.

I get that the doctors are busy. I know that's not their fault. But they get paid a fuckton more than I do for comparable hours and workload and I would never have so little professional pride or basic decency as to send someone a misspelled text message to tell them about something that's profoundly affecting their life. Especially if I was telling them I can't be bothered to do anything about it, despite that being the job for which I get paid the aforesaid fuckton of money.

Wasn’t in text talk was it?

As in: Cum 2 Surgey asap

 

[ghost boy]

Why?
Because the principle of universal socialised healthcare is to make healthcare free at the point of delivery. That should, of course, apply to any medications or treatments prescribed and did, until Gaitskell ditched it to spend on the Korean War instead.

How would a few years payment on UN aide to Korea affect the establishment of an ongoing, taxed service offered to the public?

 

[brogdale]

How would a few years payment on UN aide to Korea affect the establishment of an ongoing, taxed service offered to the public?

Wasn't aid, but rearming. In essence prescriptions free at the point of delivery, were victim to the age-old internecine, factional warfare within the LP essentially using the myth of household economics to stymie socialist policy.

The NHS had been established by the post-war Labour government in 1948. By 1951, there were already heavy pressures on health spending. In addition, after the Korean War broke out in 1950, Britain decided to rearm. In his budget, the Chancellor, Hugh Gaitskell, sought to balance his budget by imposing charges on false teeth and spectacles. Two cabinet ministers resigned in protest – Aneurin Bevan, architect of the health service, and Harold Wilson, the future Prime Minister. The crisis provoked a running battle between Left and Right in the Labour Party which lasted for over forty years.

Source. (Bogdanor = no socialist)

 

[brogdale]

Though, in truth, it was austerity advocate, Stifford Crapps, who first attacked the notion of full socialised healthcare, free at the point of delivery, in 1949:

By 1949, proposals were already being made to try and dilute the truly free notion of the NHS, fearing that the overspending seen in its first year would be permanent, a fear that would prove unfounded.

The then-Prime Minister Clement Atlee, under pressure from Chancellor of the Exchequer Stafford Cripps, introduced in the NHS Amendment Act 1949 a one-shilling charge for each prescription, but the opposition to its introduction was intense.

Its biggest critic, and the one that managed to block prescription charges, was Nye Bevan himself, who threatened to resign if they were brought in.

In 1951, in the wake of the Korean War, Hugh Gaitskell and Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison brought in the first charges for prescription glasses and dentures, and true to his word, Mr Bevan resigned in protest.

The next year, Winston Churchill introduced a universal charge on prescriptions.

 

[Elpenor]

Still think of all the guns and bombs they got for the money

 

[mentalchik]

Finally heard from a doctor, six weeks and change after first asking for an appointment to see one. The doctor had glanced at my x-ray, decided there wasn't a problem, and told me in a text message that was misspelled to the point of being unreadable that I should either see a physio (seen two already, neither knew what was wrong) or just go away.

Asked again for an appointment to see a real actual doctor in real life. 15th October is the next one.

I get that the doctors are busy. I know that's not their fault. But they get paid a fuckton more than I do for comparable hours and workload and I would never have so little professional pride or basic decency as to send someone a misspelled text message to tell them about something that's profoundly affecting their life. Especially if I was telling them I can't be bothered to do anything about it, despite that being the job for which I get paid the aforesaid fuckton of money.

This is more or less what has happened to me.....if i hadn't tearfully insisted on seeing a GP that day after being shrugged off and left not knowing what to do i would never have seen the GP i did who was the first one to actually fully examine me and realise that i actually had something serious going on and who also told me that my MRI and x-ray made no sense ( they botched it) and referred me to the ortho dept at the hospital.

 

[SpookyFrank]

This is more or less what has happened to me.....if i hadn't tearfully insisted on seeing a GP that day after being shrugged off and left not knowing what to do i would never have seen the GP i did who was the first one to actually fully examine me and realise that i actually had something serious going on and who also told me that my MRI and x-ray made no sense ( they botched it) and referred me to the ortho dept at the hospital.

I absolutely hate making a nuisance of myself but it often feels like you have to do it to get anywhere. I worry about those who aren't able to advocate for themselves.

I hope everything works out for you.

 

[GarveyLives]

Anyone else feel like the NHS almost doesn't exist for them any more?​

One wonders how the friends and family of The Late Marina Young feel about the issue.

Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire has ruled that a disabled woman who spent 39 hours on a chair in a busy A&E waiting for a hospital bed died due to neglect, and has also issued a prevention of future deaths report, ordering the hospital to make changes to stop similar deaths occurring in the future.

The Late Marina Young was suffering from an asthma attack when she was taken to the Royal Preston Hospital, in Lancashire:

(Source: The family of The Late Marina Young) ​

A&E doctor 'refused' to see woman before she died

(Source: as stated in image)​

A spokesman for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, which runs the Royal Preston Hospital, said:

‘The Trust would like to offer its sincere condolences to the family and friends of Marina Young and apologise for the failings identified in our own investigation and the Coroner’s report.

‘We welcome the independent scrutiny of the Coroner and are committed to the further actions and learning identified in the inquest.’

 

[brogdale]

One wonders how the friends and family of The Late Marina Young feel about the issue.

Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire has ruled that a disabled woman who spent 39 hours on a chair in a busy A&E waiting for a hospital bed died due to neglect, and has also issued a prevention of future deaths report, ordering the hospital to make changes to stop similar deaths occurring in the future.

The Late Marina Young was suffering from an asthma attack when she was taken to the Royal Preston Hospital, in Lancashire:

(Source: The family of The Late Marina Young) ​

A&E doctor 'refused' to see woman before she died

(Source: as stated in image)​

A spokesman for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, which runs the Royal Preston Hospital, said:

‘The Trust would like to offer its sincere condolences to the family and friends of Marina Young and apologise for the failings identified in our own investigation and the Coroner’s report.

‘We welcome the independent scrutiny of the Coroner and are committed to the further actions and learning identified in the inquest.’

Appalling, and probably an appropriate point to remind ourselves that for 2/3 of it's entire 76 year existence the NHS has been controlled and funded by administrations that have explicitly governed in the interests of neoliberal capital.

 

[not a trot]

fingers crossed for you

Had the camera up the bum procedure this morning, all went well, and no concerns. Gotta say, staff were brilliant.

 

[gentlegreen]

A surgeon at a crisis-hit NHS trust used a Swiss Army penknife to open up the chest of a patient because he claimed he could not find a sterile scalpel.

Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton

Police are separately looking into at least 105 cases of alleged medical negligence at the trust and considering gross negligence manslaughter and corporate manslaughter charges.

Brighton: Surgeon operated with penknife he uses to cut up lunch

A surgeon is alleged to have used a Swiss Army knife because he could not find a sterile scalpel.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[LakieLady]

My GP is normally pretty good but the system they use for booking appointments is bizarre. I saw a GP last week who said I needed to book a blood test at reception on my way out. The receptionist looked at the computer and said they didn't have anything for a month (for a blood test FFS) but that she could see there were appointments available next week on the NHS app but that she was not able to book one for me. So I took out my phone and booked an appointment while standing there. I assume if I hadn't registered for the NHS app or didn't have a smartphone, I'd have had to wait another three weeks

I think digital exclusion is a real issue in accessing the NHS.

I've seen how it works with Universal Credit: a lot of people only have a phone for accessing the internet and it's difficult to navigate because software was designed for use on a computer. Uploading documents is a nightmare from a phone, it's hard to take a decent pic of (eg) the several pages of a tenancy agreement and then upload them successfully, and very often they then get a reply saying it's illegible and can they resend. Same applies to uploading evidence when doing online PIP applications.

My surgery prefers patients to use the NHS Anima app, although you can request an appointment through the surgery's own website. I used it for the first time yesterday, and it's bloody laborious; you have to go through screen after screen of irrelevant symptoms with no guarantee that the thing that concerns you will even be in the list.

It worked well for me though, I sent the request at around 10am yesterday, the surgery phoned me around 2.30 and I saw the doc at 9.30 this morning.

 

[GarveyLives]

Anyone else feel like the NHS almost doesn't exist for them any more?​

"Even in Romania, older people wouldn't be treated like this."

So says the niece of an 86 year-old ...

"An 86-year-old woman who had suffered a suspected heart attack waited 25 hours in a hospital corridor for a ward bed - before giving up and going home."

Gran, 86, suspected of having heart attack waits 25 hours in St Helier corridor

 

[brogdale]

Where we are, FFS...

 

[Eric Jarvis]

I recommend looking at the bios of the trustees on NHS trusts. It's telling how many over the entire country have a military, banking or retail background.

 

[Looby]

I’m generally really happy with my GP practice and been seeing the same doctor pretty much all my life. When I’ve needed urgent help I’ve got it, even in lockdowns.

The fucking system is shambolic though and creates so much more work than it saves.

I have a number of prescriptions. Some can be ordered 4 weekly and some 8. Until I log in to order them I might not realise some are due for review (all at different times) and I can’t order them without a GP appointment so I run out. I will also have meds to order from the CMHT soon. I have ADHD and am so overwhelmed with the admin involved.

I send a form detailing my ongoing neck/shoulder issues. They ask what I want and if I have any specific questions but didn’t answer them and send me an appointment by text.

I call as you can’t reply to the text and I can’t do that appointment and spend 30 minutes waiting in a queue to change it.

I need blood tests and my B12 (which is late because I can’t keep up with all the appointments).
When I tried to book I was given two separate appointments because there is no-one who can do both things. It was such a battle to get both on the same day in the same place and when I got there, it could easily have been done in the same appointment. I then tried to book the GP follow up from the bloods and the appointments weren’t open.

Then I get a call today to book the bloods I’ve already had done and the follow up and when I called back I couldn’t get through. It’s just so shit!