Had stents x4 in 2018 following me walking into an A&E with a burning sensation in my back. As a Registered Nurse, I knew there was a problem bit still had to wait x5 days for stents to be fitted in my LAD which was 95% blocked. I have other blockages but have had to push for follow up appointments ever since. The state of our health service is dire, I speak from both a healthcare professional and a patient perspective. Protect the NHS during this pandemic...don't make me laugh. I need protection from incompetence, multiple tiers of ineffective management ,overpaid Consultants and inaccessible GP's. Give me back my mandatory contributions that I have paid throughout 30 years of nursing and I'll go private, at least they are somewhat accountable, the NHS is accountable to no-one ( except the CQC, who are equally ineffective) which is how they get away with mismanagement and squandering public funds.
NHS broken before pandemic: Had stents... - British Heart Fou...
NHS broken before pandemic
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You might find this newly formed group helpful.
Hi, you are clearly not clapping hard enough! (sarcasm)But, yes, you raise some good points but from my point of view the "service" I have received from the NHS has been excellent. From what I can see (like most public sector organisations) the higher up you go the more ineffective and removed from reality they become. I wonder if this is to do with pushing incompetent personnel into other "desk based - out of the way" roles (cheaper than firing them I guess) and making the organisation top heavy. The NHS should not be a political tool and at the moment it is to tied into it. Stopping outpatients, surgery and GPs closed or on line will bite them in the proverbial (I think negligence claims will increase) in the coming months (non covid deaths will sky rocket) Free point of care healthcare an excellent idea, and thank goodness. Constant lack of funding, a lack of direction, poorly paid drs and nurses, wastes of money will only push people into private healthcare - is this what "they" want??? I'm not sure what the answer is but I know the front line staff are up against it and I respect them for it. Just my 10 pence worth.
Hi Smarticus, Far more than 10pence worth of comment here - especially that the NHS generally provides excellent service for most people and that the front line staff are really up against it. And yes some have said that "they" (whose names shall not be mentioned) do want to privatise, to sell off the NHS so that "they" can make more money out of it. After all, its the taxpayer that will pay for it as it is the taxpayer that will pay for everything that is being spent by our Government through this pandemic. No! It's not coming out of our Chancellor's own pocket. So agreed - we do need to 'clap harder' - or rather provide broader support beyond a clap in the street e.g. Stand up for the improvements the Service needs to be able to help them do an even better job . Anybody know how best to do that? Any forum we can usefully discuss this away from healthunlocked to keep this forum for mutual help for our own personal health concerns?
Absolutely agree! Please keep this forum for health matters otherwise it will degenerate into a political discussion and all the unpleasantness and acrimony that will incur.
I can relate to your viewpoint.
I think there are definitely broken ‘parts’ to the NHS which neglect patients and need attention/fixing.
However, I also recognise there are pockets of heroes, dedicated and caring staff who do an amazing job despite the broken parts, for that reason I can’t be sweeping in my view about the NHS, because if it wasn’t for them...
Yes, I have at times felt hypocritical ‘clapping for the whole of the NHS’ thinking about some of the staff I’ve met who lack the integrity and professionalism we should rightly expect, so when I have clapped, in my mind it is ONLY for the heroes working selflessly, they know who they are and I have been very lucky to have had some of the best look after me when needed at the most critical junctures of my treatment in recent years.
I sincerely hope the NHS can be rescued, decades of political ‘tinkering’ from PFI’s to decentralisation to GP’s given control of NHS budgets has created a dogs dinner of a confused mess.... sadly not what Bevan would recognise today from what he envisaged when he founded the service over 70 years ago.
It’s a minor miracle the NHS is still functioning and has not already suffered a fatal cardiac arrest. ☹️
Agreed and share your hope that the NHS can be rescued. Is there any organisation actively looking to rescue it in an objective, non-political manner? Would have hoped the medical professional organisations, unions would be doing that? Seeing some good stuff from some of them but are these being listened to?
Even though the NHS is talked about as one organisation by those in power, and the public believe that is the case... the reality is the NHS is a ‘cottage industry’ of lots of autonomous organisations, this makes it near impossible to tackle the NHS and its challenges as one entity, its almost been deliberately set up to never succeed so it gives rise to this idea of fixing it with a competitive marketplace to drive up standards, but which frankly undermines providing the same level of health care for all and creates problematic issues such as the post code lottery and service disparity.
Just take one aspect and imagine the many many ‘Chief Executives’ that now exist each running one of these NHS fiefdoms... add to that the teams of Directors and Managers each NHS organisation employs and you start to get a sense of where some of your valuable taxpayer money is being wasted...
No wonder then when you have countries like the US wanting to offer us a trade deal but ‘taking over’ the health service vis-a-vis NHS as part of that equation and lowering our standards to import food stuffs such as chlorified chickens.
I’m not a woke liberalist but do believe in protecting and safeguarding the things that make (or had made) our country respected around the world... we are losing that status on the world stage sadly.
Sorry, went off on a tangent. To answer your point, it will really take someone brave, with conviction and the right values to ‘nationalise’ the NHS to what people think it is (but currently isn’t). I really don’t see that person in power anywhere when contracts to help in the effort to fight covid for example are being given to pub landlords, jewel traders based overseas and neighbours of politicians!
Oops... went off on a tangent again, sorry!
Honestly I was shocked with the attention both my son and myself had in in 2018. My son had scepsis twice and he had incredible attention with one to one nursing . The sort of attention you pay a lot for if you go private. With me I needed a heart bypass and because I was anemic they kept me in hospital for nearly two months before they could operate. I had loads of tests and was monitored throughout . I am sorry about your situation and to see the NHS from your perspective. I can only give my experience but other people may differ and not had the same treatment. I had never had surgery before and dreaded the whole experience. However the NHS saved our lives and we can only feel gratitude
It’s a very contentious issue and you raise some very valid points. Like many public organisations (the Police, the Fire Service for example) I feel that there can no doubt that the NHS has been systematically run down by overpaid senior managers who are quite content to take their gold-plated pensions, knowing full well the effects of their actions. I have always kept myself very fit and active, and have paid the price for this over many years through the NHS misdiagnosing or missing injuries through complacency (broken wrists and finger joints, snapped tendons, damaged hip after being hit between two cars - the list goes on). It is only thanks to this poor service that I pushed the issue over my heart problems. I am in no doubt whatsoever that had I not pushed for further tests in regard to my bicuspid aortic valve and aneurysm that I may still have been awaiting surgery. I now have a mechanical aortic valve and an aortic root graft. On the plus side however I have to say that once the NHS took my heart problems seriously the service was exceptional. Since my operation in December 2019 any follow up service has also been first class. I am not a bitter person and I understand the pressures many, many dedicated NHS staff are under. However I have learnt to research and politely question any decision.
I too had the wrong diagnoses for 2 years. Told my chest pains were muscular and because I was very fit I left it at that. I had about 6 Ecg’s and all came back normal. Also my blood test were fine. So it was difficult for doctors to know where they were. I think if you have an hereditary situation it would help to have more rigid tests like an angiogram to check out the state of your arteries for instance.
Of course the NHS is accountable there is a whole raft of legal experts who specialize in suing them.
Pleased to see somebody has posted something like this even if perhaps not the role of this forum. Gives opportunity for anybody to share where we can go to discuss and more, importantly, help drive for the improvements in the NHS that are needed. And agreed, its been evident for a long time that major improvements are needed for the NHS to continue and " incompetence, multiple tiers of ineffective management, overpaid Consultants and inaccessible GP's" may be symptoms of the system failings. But have been saying for last 30 years since going to the States that we do not want their form of private medicine - okay for those that can afford it but terrible for those that can't and unfortunate if you have to stay with a bad employer just to keep health cover. And here - Private medical providers are heavily subsidised by, dependent on the NHS and return their patients to the NHS when they are not profitable so don't think your NI contributions would cover that if it were truly private. As for CQC, GMS etc what about Royal College of Nursing - asked my sister about that last week and that was interesting. Anybody know of anything that's being done, that we can perhaps contribute to to help what is essentially an administrative, managerial, political issue rather than medical support for which this current forum so valuable.
Absolutely true.
Can you please clarify.You imply that the Covid pandemic is not a problem?
Do true! Particularly about such an ‘expensive’ specialty as Cardiology.
Hi all, as this post is straying off-topic and has the potential to become quite contentious, we're going to turn off comments.
For anyone experiencing delays to treatment, the BHF has some useful resources. A few links below:
bhf.org.uk/informationsuppo...
bhf.org.uk/informationsuppo...
Really hope this helps.
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