“One in four Britons do not believe that the NHS can care for them properly, new research into the public’s attitude to the health service reveals.
When asked “how confident are you, if at all, in the NHS’s ability to give you the care you need?”, a quarter (26%) said they were not confident.
While only 15% thought the NHS was not coping well with treating coronavirus patients, many more – 41% – believed that it was not coping well with providing other services.
Experts said that increasingly long delays for operations and GP appointments, Covid’s disruption to normal NHS services and longstanding staff shortages were likely to blame for the widespread lack of confidence in the health service’s ability to provide timely and effective medical treatment.”
I hate to admit it but even im considering moving to private healthcare next year.
I just can’t deal with always having to talk to a snarky receptionist to be considered for whether I need a GP appointment, I’m not divulging my health details to them, they can get knotted.
But also I’ve been waiting for two different surgeries, one of which is a repeat and each time the amount of effort it’s taken to get into the operating room has gotten more and more and I just can’t keep going “ok, it’s the NHS I suppose”.
Sadly it’s all playing into what they want to push their agenda but I can’t just keep waiting out of some sort of maligned loyalty to a healthcare system that simply cannot take care of me anymore.
“Come and enjoy our private healthcare. No waiting lists”, the siren voices call. The Tories have reduced trust in the NHS as efficiently as Trump did for voting, though more slowly, carefully and slyly, because they’re not Trump.
As I wait over 6 months for a urology appointment (so far, and still not heard from them) for continuously painful kidney stones, over 3 years for a dermatology appointment, and over 2 years for a rheumatology appointment, I have to say I’ve lost faith in the NHS. I don’t blame the NHS though. Or COVID. I blame the fucking Tories. It’s been getting steadily worse ever since they were put back in power.
Any kind of privatising/insurance model will likely lead to my death, though, as all my preexisting conditions will likely lead to me receiving no real health care. I don’t want to replace the NHS. I want it fixed.
In real life terms, ignoring media hyperbole.. I hear more horror stories about the NHS & how going private came to the rescue than I do the NHS saving people from suffering.
Not saying it doesn’t happen, my sister had the big C and the NHS saved her for sure, one cancellation that was rescheduled a few days later other than that smooth running.
My dad also had the C, his treatment wasn’t so good.. The operation went well enough but the aftercare resulted in an ambulance ( 6hr wait) and a 4am phone call as they kicked him out of the bed leaving him outside with a IV still in his arm, this caused alot of suffering on his part and we as a family assessed finances for private care, but he refused – he’s ok now, but the ordeal has without a doubt kicked off a decline in his mental state/well being after the fact.
A friend of the family had a heart operation, and was sent home prematurely she couldn’t look after herself so my mum offered her a bed/room this also resulted in an ambulance being called.
My friends sister has spent 3 years in and out of an NHS hospital with stomach pains & lots of girl problems in general eventually diagnosing her with endometriosis, and sent her home later that day – where she collapsed, went back, sent her home again, ambulance, 1 week in hospital, CT scans, xrays (after CT scans..) mri, another CT, rinse & repeat.. Decided she had some form of blood disease along with a few other diagnosis.
Fortunately for her, her boss who will go nameless but he’s very well off and he got sick of her being messed around paid for her to goto a private hospital where they did a different type of scan (transvaginal scan ?) , discovered internal bleeding caused by the previous hospital endoscopes which is what caused her collapsing etc, emergency surgery, a blood transfusion & independently diagnosed her with endometriosis & started her on a treatment plan in a day.
But, I don’t blame the NHS – I blame the government cutting budgets (yes yes ‘record investment’ but its still lower year on year than it should be) and the money wasted outsourcing/privatising sectors within the NHS that end up costing more & the ridiculous amount of management positions vs actual doctors/nurses, which is only going to get worse without the EU immigration & as American companies are getting installed in positions that dictate how the NHS finances are managed.
I’d have thought is was much higher to be honest. The NHS is overwhelmed and long past collapse.
This is in no way a call to get rid of it, more a call for more funding, but it’s absolutely not up to the job anymore. 10 years ago I went to the doctor for my terrible acne and was prescribed roaccutane for it. It’s pretty strong so they tried a couple of things beforehand but ultimately I was given a blood test and started t he treatment in a month overall.
Fast-forward to 10 years later, my partner is trying to sort her own acne and is trying to get prescribed the same drug. It is almost impossible. 18 months and 5 or 6 other treatments with “it’s not working? Let’s try it a bit longer and see” and she is still at square one in terms of actually sorting this problem out. It is utterly ridiculous and wholly due to 10 years or NHS cuts due to the tories and this drug being expensive. They simply do anything to not prescribe it anymore.
The big issue is though that this change in experience has come ever so slowly and was not noticeable to people. But if this change happened over 1 year instead of 10 we’d be up in arms at how ineffective and useless the NHS is. It’s simply death by 1000 cuts from the tories.
It almost like failing to properly fund the NHS for decades has provided the right environment for those wanting to privatise all UK health care. Maybe it won’t be all, but maybe it will follow the route that the dentistry took. Mostly private with a tiny handful of NHS funded places available on a first come first (under)served basis.
Anyone able to afford an extra £200 per month for health insurance?
Note: the £200 figure is one that I heard when I was talking to my wife about this very subject. I did hear it from myself, so it’s not trustworthy. Just looked some average figures and it’s between £55 and £100 per month. Add I’m running on spare parts, mine would be in higher. In the US if just die as it’s cheaper than destroying my family.
Count me in the 3.
Got sick, like seriously ill Xmas day.
Ambulance was there in minutes. Rushed through and into ED.
Every single person I encountered was a consumate professional, made me feel at ease, and was friendly above and beyond what they should have been. Especially working such a day they should have been home with their families.
God bless the NHS, the Ambulance Service, the Doctors and Nurses. You will never know how much you meant to me .
Even had a prisoner get treatment in the ED on Xmas day whilst I was there. No muss, no fuss, just a sick person needing treatment They truly are the best of us.
The NHS is great and special shout out to Medway NHS Trust Emergency Department for getting me home ASAP. (Gonna make an edit and say tested, treated, and made whole, before getting me home)
i had to wait 5 months for a replacement tooth on it but private was still like 3 so yano
I’m considering going private to see a dermatologist, because I’ve been waiting around for months. Waiting lists are just too long on the NHS.
The other big problem that I have is that the NHS doesn’t cover treatments that they deem to be not value for money, which screws over people like me with rare diseases who often require niche, expensive treatment.
Theres a new, fairly effective treatment for narcolepsy (sodium oxybate, AKA: Xyrem) that actually addresses the root causes of the disease rather than the symptoms, but the NHS won’t cover it because it’s too expensive. So I’m stuck on a much cheaper treatment of antidepressants and ADHD meds that don’t actually solve the problem, but (barely) mask the symptoms.
Meanwhile, a lot of private health insurance providers _do_ (at least on paper) cover Xyrem, (but obviously at the cost of insurance). Had I been on private health insurance when I was diagnosed, I might have been able to get them to cough up for it (a lot of Americans have been able to get their providers to do so) but as I was on the NHS, they wont cover it as my narcolepsy is now a pre existing condition, and the NHS won’t cover it because they don’t think it’s good value for money.
Thats what you get when its being sabotaged to push us towards private healthcare.
I dont trust the NHS to take care of any non emergency issue. Wait times make any issue you have into an emergency eventually because they are not being dealt with, which costs lives in the end.
However I do not want the NHS gone. I want them properly funded.
NHS for emergencies is great and luckily I’ve yet to have a poor experience with a doctor , nurse or actual healthcare professional
Its the internal admin that’s a big issue, endless being bounced around with letters not being sent and he said she said with bookings.
One day, I spent 2.5 hours in November on and off hold with my local hospital trying to reschedule an appointment. In the end I phoned the hospitals private ward line and got them to transfer me through in about 3 mins.
75% of Britons confident the NHS can care for them
I was lucky enough to get surgery I needed in summer. Was supposed to have a follow up call with the surgeon/consultant in December, never got the letter to give me the apt and every time I think about calling to ask for my post-op follow up call, I just figure ‘the problems I’m dealing with aren’t urgent, why bother?’. Even though I am dealing with problems that affect me regularly and should be investigated/treated. I just don’t feel like anyone in the system has the time or energy to care about my meagre problems.
Not helped by our local GP refusing to help my mother who had a painful UTI because he ‘had actual sick people to deal with’. She was in tears with the pain on the phone to him and you could tell he was so burned out he didn’t give a shit and didn’t feel like helping. We had to intervene and ask to speak to another doctor who prescribed antibiotics. It really affected her, and I’m wary of getting that treatment for my more minor complaints so I just leave it.
I’ve been using the NHS for the past decade due to my Health Conditions…
The NHS now is a completely different beast to that of today.
To begin with they didn’t have anywhere even close to the staffing issues that they have today.
This alone puts lives at risk.
Secondly the NHS doesn’t has anywhere near the amount of MRI, CT Scanners and Ultra Sound machines that they need.
I used to say that for Emergency Care the NHS is still amazing, unfortunately I can’t say that today.
A few months back I waited 12 hours for an ambulance as I had a suspected appendicitis.
Was told a number of times by 111 and 999 not to move and wait for a. Ambulance as moving my cause the appendix to rupture.
By the 12th and being told yet again the ambulance could be another 2 hours hour my wife said enough was enough and decided that we needed to risk driving me to hospital as my condition had gotten much worse.
Due to covid-19 she could even take me into A&E, fortunately there was a bumber of Police officers outside who very kindly help to put me in wheelchair as I couldn’t work and took me into A&E.
After the initial assessment I was left in a cubicle for nearly 4 hours before a Doctor saw me.
He immediately arranged for me to have a CT-Scan which showed my appendix was on verge of rupture.
I was told that remove it ASAP.
I had to wait another 10 hours in which time I had developed a high fevor and was constantly vomiting.
It was confirmed to me the next day that my appendix had indeed started to leak.
As somebody who has a Primary Immune Deficiency condition any longer and it would of killed me.
So no, I no longer have any faith in the NHS to be able to deal with any life and earth situation let alone on going health issues.
Its should come as no surprise to anybody that the level of service the NHS is able to provide has been significantly impacted after a decade of cuts by the Tories..
There are currently just hundred thousand medical vacancies within the NHS and it is constantly growing as more and more vital staff are leaving.
So thankyou to all those who have been voting Tories, maybe it will take the preventable death of loved to make you open your eyes.
Fuck this manufacturing consent laying the groundwork for privatisation bullshit article. I see you!
They should see what its like in the US. Same service but with extortionate costs.
They’re sabotaging the NHS so they can sell it off and kill millions with American style insurance scams
Fuck the Tory government. We need to invest in our NHS. The NHS needs to be growing to keep up with rising population
I’ve just started a new job with private health care cover. Never thought that’d be a perk I’d need in this country but I’m certainly glad for it these days.
Meanwhile 1 in 3 Brits vote for the party that destroys the NHS literally every time they get in office. Are English people a bit thick or something?
4 in 4 Tory politicians are confident that the NHS will NOT be able to care for the public, as they have destroyed/ de-funded/ sold off the NHS to make a fast buck for themselves at the cost to us, of untold suffering and a lingering death.
(Rishi was in talks with healthcare insurance companies in California earlier this month. Soon Expect to pay thousands for a broken leg or 20K to have a baby- as they are forced to do in the states.
And 5K just for the ambulance to taxi you to the -medical aid for cold hard cash only -hospital.)
However, healthcare companies with fair, competitive prices(if you are well heeled that is) will be able to take care of you for a few thousand a month, or you can just die. Should have thought about being poor before you got sick.
Why are thousands of people with pitchforks and flaming torches NOT kicking down the front doors of those responsible and braying for their head on a stick?
We are the crab in a cool pot of water, that only realises it’s being boiled alive, far too late.
They are literally willing to let us die to make money,
And they are not even trying to hide what they are doing.
I’m deaf. I have had to threaten to sue the NHS multiple times to get accessible appointments. I have had people announce my name on the tannoy, which I can’t hear. I’ve been marked as not attending and shoved right to the back of the queue. I’ve been given fucking phone appointments and told it’s OK as I can get my mother to interpret. I’m 24. No it’s fucking not OK to force me to disclose everything about my health to my mum. What if I was wanting an abortion? I don’t want to talk to my mum about that.
One doctor said “but you’re deaf” in response to my concerns about being potentially forced to disclose extremely sensitive information to my mum. 1) being deaf doesn’t cause sterilisation. Nor are all deaf people asexual. It may surprise you to learn that actually we can and do have sex, and get pregnant. 2) my deafness does not mean that I lose the right to privacy. I do not want my medical information disclosed to my mother. Therefore, as a doctor, it is *your job* to ensure my appointment is accessible to me. It is not my job to provide an interpreter or put up with bodge jobs and worse care. I will not make an exception.
I had a UTI that nearly cost me my life because services are so inaccessible. I knew what it was. I just needed an appointment with the GP. I tried and failed to get an appointment for over a week without success. 111 is entirely useless to me as it doesn’t have a text service. It has a shitty online questionnaire that tells you to book a phone call with a nurse. There are no walk in clinics in my area that don’t require calling and booking.
I ended up in A&E in agony. The infection had spread to my kidneys. I had a fever of 40.5C. It took a couple of days as an inpatient on IV antibiotics to recover.
I don’t trust the NHS to care for me. They have shown themselves to lack competence and common sense.
Not because the NHS itself is the problem mind you, but because of a decade or two of serious under funding and mis-management, née sabotage by our own government(s).
When they have managed to misdiagnose every health problem I’ve gone to them for, have incredibly condescending doctors and generally don’t give a shit about their patients, of course people will say this.
I attempted to get an adult diagnosis for autism 3 YEARS ago.
I waited almost a year for the referral to first appointment date.
Had two telephone appointments in 2 years. Its been a year and I haven’t even had a letter or a confirmation for another appointment or a diagnosis.
This is apparently OK.
Last month, alone, I paid over 1k in income tax and NI.
I can’t really see how the NHS works for me in value terms tbh. I’d honestly rather have private healthcare with actual contractual terms and a service level agreement.
Before covid it was a mess (nobody has to say ‘Tories’ to me, I know, and I don’t vote for them).
It’s the disorganisation within hospitals that is dangerous too. My friend had an accident and she had a number of issues with her care due to lack of communication between the staff (also staff struggling to actually understand each other). My friend’s mum wasn’t eating her meals, but the nurses would throw away the untouched food and record her as having eaten. Luckily, another patient reported what was happening.
This last part is a bit of a rant but I haven’t really spoken about it- when my nan passed away the paramedic crew were laughing and joking with each other as they sat in her bedroom trying to revive her. I know you have to find a way to deal with things like that, but have some respect in a dying woman’s home while her family are there FFS.
What annoys me is the NHS worship. Don’t get me wrong, I am extremely grateful for free health care, but it is far from perfect.
26 comments
“One in four Britons do not believe that the NHS can care for them properly, new research into the public’s attitude to the health service reveals.
When asked “how confident are you, if at all, in the NHS’s ability to give you the care you need?”, a quarter (26%) said they were not confident.
While only 15% thought the NHS was not coping well with treating coronavirus patients, many more – 41% – believed that it was not coping well with providing other services.
Experts said that increasingly long delays for operations and GP appointments, Covid’s disruption to normal NHS services and longstanding staff shortages were likely to blame for the widespread lack of confidence in the health service’s ability to provide timely and effective medical treatment.”
I hate to admit it but even im considering moving to private healthcare next year.
I just can’t deal with always having to talk to a snarky receptionist to be considered for whether I need a GP appointment, I’m not divulging my health details to them, they can get knotted.
But also I’ve been waiting for two different surgeries, one of which is a repeat and each time the amount of effort it’s taken to get into the operating room has gotten more and more and I just can’t keep going “ok, it’s the NHS I suppose”.
Sadly it’s all playing into what they want to push their agenda but I can’t just keep waiting out of some sort of maligned loyalty to a healthcare system that simply cannot take care of me anymore.
“Come and enjoy our private healthcare. No waiting lists”, the siren voices call. The Tories have reduced trust in the NHS as efficiently as Trump did for voting, though more slowly, carefully and slyly, because they’re not Trump.
As I wait over 6 months for a urology appointment (so far, and still not heard from them) for continuously painful kidney stones, over 3 years for a dermatology appointment, and over 2 years for a rheumatology appointment, I have to say I’ve lost faith in the NHS. I don’t blame the NHS though. Or COVID. I blame the fucking Tories. It’s been getting steadily worse ever since they were put back in power.
Any kind of privatising/insurance model will likely lead to my death, though, as all my preexisting conditions will likely lead to me receiving no real health care. I don’t want to replace the NHS. I want it fixed.
In real life terms, ignoring media hyperbole.. I hear more horror stories about the NHS & how going private came to the rescue than I do the NHS saving people from suffering.
Not saying it doesn’t happen, my sister had the big C and the NHS saved her for sure, one cancellation that was rescheduled a few days later other than that smooth running.
My dad also had the C, his treatment wasn’t so good.. The operation went well enough but the aftercare resulted in an ambulance ( 6hr wait) and a 4am phone call as they kicked him out of the bed leaving him outside with a IV still in his arm, this caused alot of suffering on his part and we as a family assessed finances for private care, but he refused – he’s ok now, but the ordeal has without a doubt kicked off a decline in his mental state/well being after the fact.
A friend of the family had a heart operation, and was sent home prematurely she couldn’t look after herself so my mum offered her a bed/room this also resulted in an ambulance being called.
My friends sister has spent 3 years in and out of an NHS hospital with stomach pains & lots of girl problems in general eventually diagnosing her with endometriosis, and sent her home later that day – where she collapsed, went back, sent her home again, ambulance, 1 week in hospital, CT scans, xrays (after CT scans..) mri, another CT, rinse & repeat.. Decided she had some form of blood disease along with a few other diagnosis.
Fortunately for her, her boss who will go nameless but he’s very well off and he got sick of her being messed around paid for her to goto a private hospital where they did a different type of scan (transvaginal scan ?) , discovered internal bleeding caused by the previous hospital endoscopes which is what caused her collapsing etc, emergency surgery, a blood transfusion & independently diagnosed her with endometriosis & started her on a treatment plan in a day.
But, I don’t blame the NHS – I blame the government cutting budgets (yes yes ‘record investment’ but its still lower year on year than it should be) and the money wasted outsourcing/privatising sectors within the NHS that end up costing more & the ridiculous amount of management positions vs actual doctors/nurses, which is only going to get worse without the EU immigration & as American companies are getting installed in positions that dictate how the NHS finances are managed.
I’d have thought is was much higher to be honest. The NHS is overwhelmed and long past collapse.
This is in no way a call to get rid of it, more a call for more funding, but it’s absolutely not up to the job anymore. 10 years ago I went to the doctor for my terrible acne and was prescribed roaccutane for it. It’s pretty strong so they tried a couple of things beforehand but ultimately I was given a blood test and started t he treatment in a month overall.
Fast-forward to 10 years later, my partner is trying to sort her own acne and is trying to get prescribed the same drug. It is almost impossible. 18 months and 5 or 6 other treatments with “it’s not working? Let’s try it a bit longer and see” and she is still at square one in terms of actually sorting this problem out. It is utterly ridiculous and wholly due to 10 years or NHS cuts due to the tories and this drug being expensive. They simply do anything to not prescribe it anymore.
The big issue is though that this change in experience has come ever so slowly and was not noticeable to people. But if this change happened over 1 year instead of 10 we’d be up in arms at how ineffective and useless the NHS is. It’s simply death by 1000 cuts from the tories.
It almost like failing to properly fund the NHS for decades has provided the right environment for those wanting to privatise all UK health care. Maybe it won’t be all, but maybe it will follow the route that the dentistry took. Mostly private with a tiny handful of NHS funded places available on a first come first (under)served basis.
Anyone able to afford an extra £200 per month for health insurance?
Note: the £200 figure is one that I heard when I was talking to my wife about this very subject. I did hear it from myself, so it’s not trustworthy. Just looked some average figures and it’s between £55 and £100 per month. Add I’m running on spare parts, mine would be in higher. In the US if just die as it’s cheaper than destroying my family.
Count me in the 3.
Got sick, like seriously ill Xmas day.
Ambulance was there in minutes. Rushed through and into ED.
Every single person I encountered was a consumate professional, made me feel at ease, and was friendly above and beyond what they should have been. Especially working such a day they should have been home with their families.
God bless the NHS, the Ambulance Service, the Doctors and Nurses. You will never know how much you meant to me .
Even had a prisoner get treatment in the ED on Xmas day whilst I was there. No muss, no fuss, just a sick person needing treatment They truly are the best of us.
The NHS is great and special shout out to Medway NHS Trust Emergency Department for getting me home ASAP. (Gonna make an edit and say tested, treated, and made whole, before getting me home)
i had to wait 5 months for a replacement tooth on it but private was still like 3 so yano
I’m considering going private to see a dermatologist, because I’ve been waiting around for months. Waiting lists are just too long on the NHS.
The other big problem that I have is that the NHS doesn’t cover treatments that they deem to be not value for money, which screws over people like me with rare diseases who often require niche, expensive treatment.
Theres a new, fairly effective treatment for narcolepsy (sodium oxybate, AKA: Xyrem) that actually addresses the root causes of the disease rather than the symptoms, but the NHS won’t cover it because it’s too expensive. So I’m stuck on a much cheaper treatment of antidepressants and ADHD meds that don’t actually solve the problem, but (barely) mask the symptoms.
Meanwhile, a lot of private health insurance providers _do_ (at least on paper) cover Xyrem, (but obviously at the cost of insurance). Had I been on private health insurance when I was diagnosed, I might have been able to get them to cough up for it (a lot of Americans have been able to get their providers to do so) but as I was on the NHS, they wont cover it as my narcolepsy is now a pre existing condition, and the NHS won’t cover it because they don’t think it’s good value for money.
Thats what you get when its being sabotaged to push us towards private healthcare.
I dont trust the NHS to take care of any non emergency issue. Wait times make any issue you have into an emergency eventually because they are not being dealt with, which costs lives in the end.
However I do not want the NHS gone. I want them properly funded.
NHS for emergencies is great and luckily I’ve yet to have a poor experience with a doctor , nurse or actual healthcare professional
Its the internal admin that’s a big issue, endless being bounced around with letters not being sent and he said she said with bookings.
One day, I spent 2.5 hours in November on and off hold with my local hospital trying to reschedule an appointment. In the end I phoned the hospitals private ward line and got them to transfer me through in about 3 mins.
75% of Britons confident the NHS can care for them
I was lucky enough to get surgery I needed in summer. Was supposed to have a follow up call with the surgeon/consultant in December, never got the letter to give me the apt and every time I think about calling to ask for my post-op follow up call, I just figure ‘the problems I’m dealing with aren’t urgent, why bother?’. Even though I am dealing with problems that affect me regularly and should be investigated/treated. I just don’t feel like anyone in the system has the time or energy to care about my meagre problems.
Not helped by our local GP refusing to help my mother who had a painful UTI because he ‘had actual sick people to deal with’. She was in tears with the pain on the phone to him and you could tell he was so burned out he didn’t give a shit and didn’t feel like helping. We had to intervene and ask to speak to another doctor who prescribed antibiotics. It really affected her, and I’m wary of getting that treatment for my more minor complaints so I just leave it.
I’ve been using the NHS for the past decade due to my Health Conditions…
The NHS now is a completely different beast to that of today.
To begin with they didn’t have anywhere even close to the staffing issues that they have today.
This alone puts lives at risk.
Secondly the NHS doesn’t has anywhere near the amount of MRI, CT Scanners and Ultra Sound machines that they need.
I used to say that for Emergency Care the NHS is still amazing, unfortunately I can’t say that today.
A few months back I waited 12 hours for an ambulance as I had a suspected appendicitis.
Was told a number of times by 111 and 999 not to move and wait for a. Ambulance as moving my cause the appendix to rupture.
By the 12th and being told yet again the ambulance could be another 2 hours hour my wife said enough was enough and decided that we needed to risk driving me to hospital as my condition had gotten much worse.
Due to covid-19 she could even take me into A&E, fortunately there was a bumber of Police officers outside who very kindly help to put me in wheelchair as I couldn’t work and took me into A&E.
After the initial assessment I was left in a cubicle for nearly 4 hours before a Doctor saw me.
He immediately arranged for me to have a CT-Scan which showed my appendix was on verge of rupture.
I was told that remove it ASAP.
I had to wait another 10 hours in which time I had developed a high fevor and was constantly vomiting.
It was confirmed to me the next day that my appendix had indeed started to leak.
As somebody who has a Primary Immune Deficiency condition any longer and it would of killed me.
So no, I no longer have any faith in the NHS to be able to deal with any life and earth situation let alone on going health issues.
Its should come as no surprise to anybody that the level of service the NHS is able to provide has been significantly impacted after a decade of cuts by the Tories..
There are currently just hundred thousand medical vacancies within the NHS and it is constantly growing as more and more vital staff are leaving.
So thankyou to all those who have been voting Tories, maybe it will take the preventable death of loved to make you open your eyes.
Fuck this manufacturing consent laying the groundwork for privatisation bullshit article. I see you!
They should see what its like in the US. Same service but with extortionate costs.
They’re sabotaging the NHS so they can sell it off and kill millions with American style insurance scams
Fuck the Tory government. We need to invest in our NHS. The NHS needs to be growing to keep up with rising population
I’ve just started a new job with private health care cover. Never thought that’d be a perk I’d need in this country but I’m certainly glad for it these days.
Meanwhile 1 in 3 Brits vote for the party that destroys the NHS literally every time they get in office. Are English people a bit thick or something?
4 in 4 Tory politicians are confident that the NHS will NOT be able to care for the public, as they have destroyed/ de-funded/ sold off the NHS to make a fast buck for themselves at the cost to us, of untold suffering and a lingering death.
(Rishi was in talks with healthcare insurance companies in California earlier this month. Soon Expect to pay thousands for a broken leg or 20K to have a baby- as they are forced to do in the states.
And 5K just for the ambulance to taxi you to the -medical aid for cold hard cash only -hospital.)
However, healthcare companies with fair, competitive prices(if you are well heeled that is) will be able to take care of you for a few thousand a month, or you can just die. Should have thought about being poor before you got sick.
Why are thousands of people with pitchforks and flaming torches NOT kicking down the front doors of those responsible and braying for their head on a stick?
We are the crab in a cool pot of water, that only realises it’s being boiled alive, far too late.
They are literally willing to let us die to make money,
And they are not even trying to hide what they are doing.
I’m deaf. I have had to threaten to sue the NHS multiple times to get accessible appointments. I have had people announce my name on the tannoy, which I can’t hear. I’ve been marked as not attending and shoved right to the back of the queue. I’ve been given fucking phone appointments and told it’s OK as I can get my mother to interpret. I’m 24. No it’s fucking not OK to force me to disclose everything about my health to my mum. What if I was wanting an abortion? I don’t want to talk to my mum about that.
One doctor said “but you’re deaf” in response to my concerns about being potentially forced to disclose extremely sensitive information to my mum. 1) being deaf doesn’t cause sterilisation. Nor are all deaf people asexual. It may surprise you to learn that actually we can and do have sex, and get pregnant. 2) my deafness does not mean that I lose the right to privacy. I do not want my medical information disclosed to my mother. Therefore, as a doctor, it is *your job* to ensure my appointment is accessible to me. It is not my job to provide an interpreter or put up with bodge jobs and worse care. I will not make an exception.
I had a UTI that nearly cost me my life because services are so inaccessible. I knew what it was. I just needed an appointment with the GP. I tried and failed to get an appointment for over a week without success. 111 is entirely useless to me as it doesn’t have a text service. It has a shitty online questionnaire that tells you to book a phone call with a nurse. There are no walk in clinics in my area that don’t require calling and booking.
I ended up in A&E in agony. The infection had spread to my kidneys. I had a fever of 40.5C. It took a couple of days as an inpatient on IV antibiotics to recover.
I don’t trust the NHS to care for me. They have shown themselves to lack competence and common sense.
Not because the NHS itself is the problem mind you, but because of a decade or two of serious under funding and mis-management, née sabotage by our own government(s).
When they have managed to misdiagnose every health problem I’ve gone to them for, have incredibly condescending doctors and generally don’t give a shit about their patients, of course people will say this.
I attempted to get an adult diagnosis for autism 3 YEARS ago.
I waited almost a year for the referral to first appointment date.
Had two telephone appointments in 2 years. Its been a year and I haven’t even had a letter or a confirmation for another appointment or a diagnosis.
This is apparently OK.
Last month, alone, I paid over 1k in income tax and NI.
I can’t really see how the NHS works for me in value terms tbh. I’d honestly rather have private healthcare with actual contractual terms and a service level agreement.
Before covid it was a mess (nobody has to say ‘Tories’ to me, I know, and I don’t vote for them).
It’s the disorganisation within hospitals that is dangerous too. My friend had an accident and she had a number of issues with her care due to lack of communication between the staff (also staff struggling to actually understand each other). My friend’s mum wasn’t eating her meals, but the nurses would throw away the untouched food and record her as having eaten. Luckily, another patient reported what was happening.
This last part is a bit of a rant but I haven’t really spoken about it- when my nan passed away the paramedic crew were laughing and joking with each other as they sat in her bedroom trying to revive her. I know you have to find a way to deal with things like that, but have some respect in a dying woman’s home while her family are there FFS.
What annoys me is the NHS worship. Don’t get me wrong, I am extremely grateful for free health care, but it is far from perfect.