The NHS and its current state.

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Richard Frost
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The NHS and its current state.

Post by Richard Frost » Fri Aug 05 2022 5:42pm

Why are waiting lists so long?
Even before Covid-19, demand for NHS healthcare was far outstripping supply: there were 4.4 million people on waiting lists in England in early 2020. But the pandemic made things much worse: about 2.4 million NHS operations were cancelled in England and Wales in 2021. GP appointments were greatly restricted. There are now 6.6 million people – over a tenth of the population – waiting for treatment. Around 332,000 have been waiting over a year – 13 times the comparable number from May 2020.
https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/science- ... dium=email
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Re: The NHS and its current state.

Post by macliam » Fri Aug 05 2022 6:38pm

Richard Frost wrote:
Fri Aug 05 2022 5:42pm
Why are waiting lists so long?
Even before Covid-19, demand for NHS healthcare was far outstripping supply: there were 4.4 million people on waiting lists in England in early 2020. But the pandemic made things much worse: about 2.4 million NHS operations were cancelled in England and Wales in 2021. GP appointments were greatly restricted. There are now 6.6 million people – over a tenth of the population – waiting for treatment. Around 332,000 have been waiting over a year – 13 times the comparable number from May 2020.
https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/science- ... dium=email
So, several things

My GP retired 2 years ago, I never met his replacement but he then left the practice and was not replaced..... Since then I have had one callback from "a GP" last November - he was not registered with my practice. It was a pointless conversation but got my prescription renewed. I then reported an issue to my GP practice last week and supplied a photo for a callback. I was asked to go in to see another of the practice GPs. That took all of 5 minutes...... so GP interaction, minimal. however, having had a flu-jab in January, I have now been sent aninvitation for another! This all feels like tick the box.

I had a CT scan as part of my post-cancer monitoring earlier this year. It was carried out in the hospital carpark by a "provider" using Filipino nurses. I then had a colonoscopy a few weeks back - again it was suggested I attend a mobile unit in the carpark, same setup. However, in the end I was seen "in house" - but even then over half the nurses in the department were Filipino agency staff - none of the EU nurses who were there at my last visit are still in the UK. So a good wodge of NHS funding is going straight into Providers/Agencies.... no doubt American. Plus the monitoring seemed to be tick the box.

Now I have received a letter about my ongoing monitoring. A new process has been introduced, which apparently seems to suggest that I'm monitoring myself! A blood sample envelope was included in the letter, but no reference to it or suggestion of where to get the test done..... I've read the letter several times and I'm sure if you know the system they are talking about, it makes sense, but I don't and it doesn't. Left to me to call them up and find out what it actually means....

Then on to Dentistry. I finally saw my dentist in November. I needed treatment. It took 3 months and 2 cancelled appointments to get it in February, but I was then referred to a dental surgeon due to a broken tooth. That was finally dealt with in June! Now one of the teeth treated in February has broken... so I reported it as an emergency and I get to see someone (not my own dentist) on Monday.

I fear to God that I should have a recurrence of my cancer..... I know the staff on the ground are doing what they can, but there's obviously a big problem across the NHS and there's precious little attention being paid to the individual.

Then we hear that 70,000 extra people paid for their own elective surgery last year (not cosmetic, necessary and valid for NHS treatment) because the timescales being quoted were years away! All of the experiences I've had would "encourage" you to go private...... and it's hard to believe that it's not a deliberately engineered situation.
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Re: The NHS and its current state.

Post by Richard Frost » Fri Aug 05 2022 7:37pm

I have found it impossible to get an NHS Dental appointment in Eastbourne since I moved here two years ago. About 10 years ago I had two sets of dentures on the NHS top/bottom £400. The top set broke recently So I had to go privately. The bottoms were now ill fitting so decided to have both replaced at a cost of £1100 that + other treatment needed cost me £1550

About three years ago at the start of the pandemic I noticed I was having hearing problems in my left ear impossible to get an appointment at the GP so went to Specsavers for a hearing test. I got round the charge by booking an appointment for wax removal, they say that if it does not need doing they will give a Hearing test FOC. I knew my ears were clear of wax. Result was a severe loss in my left ear. Specsavers wrote to my GP who referred me to ENT. 18 month wait for a CT Scan further 6 months to wait for an appt with the ENT surgeon. Who looked in my ears and said nothing we can do here, I will refer you to Audiology another 6 weeks for a mould to be taken and then another 4 weeks to get a NHS Hearing Aid.

It is nigh on impossible to get a GP appointment even now. It needs a full inquisition from the receptionist and then am lucky if offered an appointment with a nurse. Occasionally a call back.

I consider myself relatively lucky, that I do not have to interact very much with them.
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Re: The NHS and its current state.

Post by macliam » Sat Aug 06 2022 8:30am

As you have said, one of the issues is the time gap in getting various things done on the way to a solution..... this is not weeks, but months. I have had relatively good dental health until the pandemic, a bridge due to traumatic loss years ago, a fair few fillings and a couple of crowns. Since the pandemic started I have lost one treated tooth, which completely brooke before I could see a dentist; lost a crown, which took so long for an appointment to reattach that now they want to remove that tooth - and now this front tooth that has collapsed after eventual treatment. At that appointment in February, I had a full head x-ray taken, so it seems crazy that no issue was apparent that could cause a total collapse of a tooth.The outcome is that I am now facing huge changes in my dentition, not due to health issues, but due to delays in preventative treatment....

Given the ridiculous costs charged for private dental work, we are being driven back years in terms of dental health - which, as most medics will tell you, is an indicator and driver for overall health.
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Re: The NHS and its current state.

Post by macliam » Sat Aug 06 2022 8:44am

Today is big Sis's 80th birthday. She should have been in Disneyland Paris, but her granddaughter took sick and they had to cancel!

80, not bad for someone who had cervical cancer at 38, bowel cancer at 57 has a chronic underactive thyroid yet insists on smoking more now than when she was younger! As someone who stopped over 25 years ago, I do tut-tut ..... but what's the point, she's lived this long!

The other big thing is that she has no memory or behavioural issues, still drives, still gets out and about,
meets up with her friends and has her family close by. Would that we all could be in the same position - I have over 12 years before I'll know!

Anyway, I'll be travelling down to see her soon....
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Re: The NHS and its current state.

Post by blythburgh » Sat Aug 06 2022 10:41am

@im indoors also had a scan at our local hospital using a mobile unit from a private firm. Foreign people, none British though I am sure they were fully qualified. But although covid was still rife and at the hospital it was face masks and sanitise as you move around the hospital masks were not in evidence and no sanitiser available.

We have both been diagnosed with hearing problems. Mine is due to measles as a child, his has come on in recent years and I am sure the headphones he wears at times are partly to blame. Very quick and efficient service at the local hospital.

And I am not surprised to hear the big increase in foreign NHS staff. We went to a cafe earlier this summer and the lovely waitress said she was a student and was studying medicine. She was surprised when I replied "oh you are going to be a doctor, good luck with your studies." People usually think she is studying to be a nurse as she is a pretty young woman. She said at school there was one person of colour in her class. At Uni she is the only white person in her class, the rest are all paying students from Africa and India.

But yes, we will train our own staff say the Govt.
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Re: The NHS and its current state.

Post by expressman33 » Sat Aug 06 2022 5:39pm

macliam wrote:
Sat Aug 06 2022 8:30am
Given the ridiculous costs charged for private dental work, we are being driven back years in terms of dental health - which, as most medics will tell you, is an indicator and driver for overall health.
I am with a dentist that does NHS and private work , I am NHS and when I went yesterday I was told again that I would probably need a deep clean ( Band 2 ) in 6 months time , I asked why he couldn't do a scale and polish now ( Comes under Band 1 ) but he said it was post Covid guidelines not to do a scale and polish BUT I could have it done with the hygienist if I went private and paid an extra £43. JUST MONEY GRABBERS.
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Richard Frost
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Re: The NHS and its current state.

Post by Richard Frost » Thu Aug 25 2022 6:37pm

Hospital bosses warn on Truss plans

Health chiefs have warned that they face “impossible choices” under Liz Truss’s plan to divert £10bn a year from the NHS to social care. The hospital bosses said the Tory leadership hopeful’s pledge to remove cash earmarked for the health service will “slam the brakes” on efforts to tackle record waiting lists. An extra £36bn has been set aside for health and care spending over the next three years, of which less than £2bn a year is due to go towards social care, but Truss has announced that she will divert the entire amount for older people’s care.
https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/957746/t ... dium=email
Why the entire NHS system is ‘on its knees’ – and what should be done to fix it

The NHS “horror stories” keep coming, said Rachael Bletchly in the Daily Mirror: the 62-year-old Shropshire woman who spent ten hours on a path with a broken leg waiting for an ambulance; the family in Cornwall who had to build a makeshift shelter for their injured 87-year-old father as he lay outside for 15 hours waiting for paramedics. These are just two of many such

There are currently some 6.7 million people waiting for NHS treatment. Hospitals, meanwhile, are full of patients who can’t be discharged owing to a lack of care-home beds or community services to support them. This means that there’s no space on wards to transfer patients out of A&E, which in turn means that ambulances are queuing outside hospitals for hours, unable to offload patients and attend the next emergency. The whole system is “on its knees”.

“For much of its 74-year history, the NHS has stumbled from crisis to crisis,” said Ian Birrell in The i Paper. But this one feels “different, more existential”. The Covid pandemic has brutally exposed long-standing problems with the service, driving it to “breaking point” and prompting a dramatic loss of public confidence.
https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/science- ... dium=email

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