NHS wait times?

KaHn said:
So for something you consider to be in serious pain and you didnt go to A&E straight away and waited 2 month to see if it got better?

The GP system is very flawed, if you want to complain about coughs and splutters you're going to have to get in line behind the rest of the hypochondria nation.

If you want to go see a specialist straight away then you will have to pay for it as they will be a waiting list for the NHS based on severity.

KaHn
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i never go to GP till its reached a far amount of time. 99% of the time its gone in a week or two. if it went in a week or two ive just wasted the GP time, this is how i feel. Rather let people in need have there time. however when it started in late dec. two weeks got me in to january + few week wait to see the gp...

i broke other arm a few years back (elbow and wrist) and at certain times it makes that feel like childs play
 
Xordium said:
Those immigrants in the main have poorer skills and therefore provide worse care. Maybe the question should be asked why it is not a more attractive profession for native people? The answer is hardly rocket science.
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I am not convinced, the Filipino nurses that the nursing homes in Northern Ireland are full of tend to provide excellent work and very good service. As compare to my experiences of entering these homes over the course of 15 or so years, care standards from the nurses improved with their influx, and only deteriorate with reduction in staffing levels. Most local nurses wouldn't want to nurse a nursing home, and prefer community or hospital work.
I mean specifically nurses, trained nurses, not the staff who 'care' or those who manage.
 
I had a massive panic attack which manifested itself with all the symptoms of a heart attack, I got treated within 30 seconds of getting through a&e doors I was attached to a ekg machine and on oxygen within a minute.

Moral of the story, if you go a&e with a little cut or a broken toe expect to wait whilst those who actually look like they might have something badly wrong with them get seen to first.
 
I've been in A&E for a broken coccyx, tonsillitis and a painful kidney infection. Got x-rayed for the coccyx after a few hours and told to sit on a rubber ring. Tonsillitis, they said just go home and take paracetamol, was a bit disappointed they didn't give me anything but they said they don't take them out anymore unless it's a real serious problem. The kidney infection, I was in for a few hours in bad pain and got given Calpol. Can't say any of them were particularly bad experiences, I waited a long time but that's part and parcel of A&E nowadays.

I've only been admitted directly to hospital once and then was when I had meningitis in 2011. The nurses were fab, as soon as I pressed the buzzer they were there helping me out, were very responsive when I asked for things. The only issues I had whilst there were the food and the waiting time to be discharged. I was only waiting for my prescription and ended up waiting 5 hours.

All in all though, I'm still here today to talk about it so I can only compliment the NHS. As much as you hear the horror stories etc. But then I guess if you're bothered about waiting times etc you can always go private.
 
Oh and the time I had a mole on my leg that changed and got bigger and changed colour and my doctor referred me and a plastic surgeon agreed to remove it. They were really quick at getting me in for the appointments and for the surgery and the consultant I spoke to was great, explained what they would do in detail etc. Unfortunately it was a different surgeon on the day and he did it differently to how I was told it would be done. The consultant plastic surgeon said because it was on my calf they would probably have to do it in two goes so they didn't take too much skin out and make the cut tight and stretched when they stitched it together. On the day though the surgeon did that exact thing and after 2 weeks the dissolvable stitches were gone and the skin had started to knit itself back together again, and I stood up and felt an almighty pain in my leg, when I looked, it had all ripped back open and there was a hole in my leg and I could see the fat etc in it. I didn't have a problem per se with this, although the surgeon hadn't completed the operation as I was told it would be done, it was done none the less.

The thing I did have a problem with though was that I went to the local doctors surgery which has a out of hours sort of walk in centre. I went and the nurse was really snotty with me and said "Well what do you expect me to do about it?" I was like "well you're the medical professional, I can't walk round with a hole in my leg all the time", and she said "well I can't stitch it back together or close it up". I had to basically demand that she covered it up because she was adamant I was just to walk around with it open. In the end she put some of those sticky butterfly stitches on and left it open a couple of cm's and then put a plaster on. I've still got really papery thin skin in the area and no nerves where the scar is. Can't complain that much really, the only complaint I would have made would have been the attitude of the nurse at the end.
 
I've seen a few complaints about hospital food. I've only eaten hospital food once and it was superb, though that was probably due to the fact that I hadn't eaten anything for quite some time (general anaesthetic, so they like you to be empty, and the op was delayed a little for some reason). Hunger is the best sauce!

General anaesthetic is odd stuff. Subjectively, in an instant you move to a different place and time. It's like a weird form of time travel.
 
atpbx said:
Great for emergency treatment, car crashes, broken things, burns etc etc.

Entirely useless in my experience for treating anything that isnt immediately life threatening.
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This is exactly my experience, had severe cut to my hand from a glass pane, seen to straight away, no probs, long term knee problems, misdiagnosed for over 6 months, and treated poorly when finally found, my knee's went from, simple operation that would likely have completely fixed the problem with 6 weeks recovery, to took so long to spot it, my knee caps had become jagged on the inside due to wear and tear, and have since healed with so much scar tissue, its painful as hell, has been for 15 years, and will be for another 1-70years depending on how long I live.

Thats ignoring, shocking inability to diagnose/treat depression and various other things. Also had shoddy treatment from the local NHS dentist :(

Terrier_Jimlad said:
You're moaning at 7 weeks wait? The maximum wait on the NHS for "standard" things is 18 weeks before the trust are penalised, most trusts aim for 8 weeks tops.
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Yeah, being in pain for 7 weeks is great, because someone arbitrarily set a random acceptable waiting period.

Some people wait more than 18 weeks but its for something that is a minor problem, or VERY frequently, something that cleared up after 2 weeks but they never bothered to cancel a referal, when you're in pain, 7 days is too long, let alone 7 or 18 weeks.

Thats one of the biggest problems, incredibly poor determination of what is urgent and what isn't, and more importantly, in my experience and many people who I've heard have had the same, is a GP being all but useless, unable to guess at the seriousness of so many problems that many people who need quick treatment end up waiting ages.

GP's, basically every single one I've come across, is crap. AS for the amount of money in the NHS and doing well for what they have, rubbish. There are extraordinary amounts of waste inside the NHS in department after department. Overpaid managers who haven't got a clue what they are doing, consultants(not the doctor kind) getting extortionate fee's to come in and "fix" a department, while actually achieving nothing. Constant reorganisation, constantly hiring new more expensive managers to fix things, and they never do. The "paperwork" side of the NHS has been expanding both in personel and cost to a degree that is completely detrimental to patient healthcare.
 
xarr said:
Pray tell. Genuinely.
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You have to do a degree that is non-transferrable to another profession.
You have to do a degree that is in very little way relevant to what you are going to be doing.
You have to do a degree that in no way prepares you for your first job.
You have to do a degree that requires you to work shift work, finish work one day at 2200 whilst being in the next day at 0600 all the while doing written work.
You have to do a degree and watch all the other students get long holidays whereas you don't.
You have to do a degree that leads to a professional qualification that isn't always recognised as being sufficient abroad (eg Canada and the USA).

You start on an okay wage for a graduate except there are no jobs anymore.
You have no career pathway unless you go into management the high post are that few in number that the prospects are strictly deadman's shoes.
The wage progression is virtually non-existent for what people do.
To get advanced you are expected to complete post-graduate work.
To become a sister you are now looking at them asking for Master's qualifications.
So let's place that into perspective new sisters coming into post are now being educated to Masters level, have extensive experience on that, have numerous other qualifications, are expected to manage say 20 graduate level staff and 20 non-graduate level staff, cover shifts on a moments notice for ... 30k. The chances of getting that chance are slim though.
The job is by an large shift work - which is not a nice rolling rota like the other emergency professions get it's an ad hoc panic to get enough staff situation where people are expected to work an early, late, longday, night, night, early etc and that is not an unusual patter.
Massive risk of injury at work both due to the nature of the work and the short-staffing levels and complete lack of basic equipment to make the job safe.
Significant risk of being assaulted in certain areas eg AE, psych, dialysis, etc ( I personally know of one person who is now in a wheelchair from assault by patients - they hit me over the back of the head with an metal bar whilst i was trying to resus him, I know plenty of nurses in pain with knackered backs, another mate has a messed up face because 4 blokes thought they had waited long enough when drunk in AE and picked him up and put him head first through a fishtank, etc)
To cover the shortened doctor's hours nurses now have to cover a great number of their jobs which they are poorly prepared to do and not numerated for.
The one good aspect the pension has been slated and destroyed by attitudes so prevalent on these forums that bear little resemblance to reality.
Having to tell people the kids, mum, dad, wife, husband etc are about to die is kind of soul destroying.


So what you have is a bunch of idealistic people coming into the profession that are burning out and leaving within 5 years, just becoming jaded and cynical, hiding in no-end jobs, etc and the only people who are willing to do such a **** job are people from abroad.

And to top it off you have people going meh NHS is **** easy life gold plated public sector pensions. Yer right - if you live long enough to get the pension.
So when people say they have a bad day at work think did you have to do something like try and save some mum's new born babies life only to fail and then have to see that look of absolute horror in her face - a look that will remain forever, have you had to have a young boy looking over their shoulder at you as you send them back with a father you know is abusing them and yet social services won't step in - those eyes pleading to save them stay with you throughout the night, etc.

On the plus side though you do get to eat a load of chocolates I suppose! I would say though I think they have destroyed the profession and the NHS so much in the past few years it's most like unrecoverable. An awful lot of people in post now are not deserving of the rewards we should have given them freely many years ago.
 
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dfarrall said:
Dont like it? Go private. NHS are doing their best with the little money they have unfortunately.

Cant say iv had anything more than an hour wait in A+E
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I was just about to write pretty much the same thing. So i may as well just quite this.
 
To answer your questions xarr:

More useful than your average media studies/video game design/history/geography degree though.

- Not really more useful than history and geography both of which would open up a pathway into teaching where as a nursing degree would require more work. The other thing being that the better places to do nursing are the poorer performing universities eg City, South Bank etc therefore are less applicable because at the end of the day most will see a Russell group History 2:1 over one of the above mentioned institutions Nursing 1st.

I don't think there is any degree that prepares students for their first job.

- Most jobs don't expect you to perform out of the blocks so unsupported.

Working time regulations might have something to say about that.

- There is an exception clause and at the end of the day the shifts have to be covered as there are professional stipulations.

You can't have long holidays and prepare people for work?

- Correct which is a problem. The training gives a professional and an academic qualification upon completion. A very big problem because there is the constant battle between acceptable professional standards and academic standards - remember the challenge that got drugs tests moved down to a 40% correctness pass rate - lol so you can mess up 59% of your doses and pass - one way to stop national overcrowding I suppose!

But there are plenty of places that it is recognised and this applies to many professions.

- Yes but is it recognised where people would really want to go ie the big 4 - US, Canada, Australia and NW - some classifications are only recognised in 2. And such treatment is not reciprocated. Doesn't apply to you mind.

If you have half a brain then there are plenty of jobs. They might not be in your dream job but how many people get where they want straight out of university?

- Jobs in nursing? Really NHS jobs says very different. The posts are being cut back and there are plenty of nurses qualifying now to then go and stack shelves. Hardly an ideal situation as there skills are insufficiently developed to be able to afford such a break.

Education (in and out of hospital), research and nurse specialists/consultants arn't a valid form of career path then?

- They are and equally short in number and remove the skillbase from the front line.

Like most professions?

- Yes, but they'd pay more than 30k per annum that's for sure. Let's take a public sector example - sister paeds - same number of staff as a headmaster, same budget as a headmaster, over a year responsible for the same amount of people - now compare the top and bottom of the payscales ...

But it's only 37.5 hours a week and (if you work long days) 13 shifts a month!

- Yes it is but how many of those days off are spent getting a wage up to a decent standard, recuperating from those switching shift patterns, .... There is a big difference between working 37.5 in an office on a 9-5, 37.5 on a set balanced shift pattern, and 37.5 on a staggered shift pattern with massive variation. This shows in the expected life expectancy or lack of it!

Glad you enjoy the job though. That's what makes the system so good and why a) I always stick up for nurses and b) always say this country has the highest standard I've ever seen. Nothing against South Bank and City - they are two of the best nursing provider fullstop but tell someone out in the general world that's where you got your degree from and they will roll their eyes. I suspect most adult nurses in London like yourself would have gone through them maybe and those incidents I described were in London, Whittington, Newham being the major culprits.
 
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I've just waited 12 weeks to get referred to a physio and another 3 weeks until my appointment.

It's not a debilitating injury so it's not the end of the world. Still quite a long wait though!
 
I love it when people complain about the NHS, having had no experience of healthcare in other countries.

I ruptured my appendix whilst in South Africa.

Rushed to a private hospital, which was all well and good, but before I would even be looked at, my dad had to stump up a £2k deposit.

Total medical fees for the op and stay in hospital was £4.5k. Thank god for travel insurance!
 
dfarrall said:
Dont like it? Go private. NHS are doing their best with the little money they have unfortunately.

Cant say iv had anything more than an hour wait in A+E
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yeah they must be.. about 80% (slight exaggeration) must go to those fat cats that sit on their arses all day...
 
Xordium said:
You have to do a degree that is non-transferrable to another profession.
You have to do a degree that is in very little way relevant to what you are going to be doing.
You have to do a degree that in no way prepares you for your first job.
You have to do a degree that requires you to work shift work, finish work one day at 2200 whilst being in the next day at 0600 all the while doing written work.
You have to do a degree and watch all the other students get long holidays whereas you don't.
You have to do a degree that leads to a professional qualification that isn't always recognised as being sufficient abroad (eg Canada and the USA).

You start on an okay wage for a graduate except there are no jobs anymore.
You have no career pathway unless you go into management the high post are that few in number that the prospects are strictly deadman's shoes.
The wage progression is virtually non-existent for what people do.
To get advanced you are expected to complete post-graduate work.
To become a sister you are now looking at them asking for Master's qualifications.
So let's place that into perspective new sisters coming into post are now being educated to Masters level, have extensive experience on that, have numerous other qualifications, are expected to manage say 20 graduate level staff and 20 non-graduate level staff, cover shifts on a moments notice for ... 30k. The chances of getting that chance are slim though.
The job is by an large shift work - which is not a nice rolling rota like the other emergency professions get it's an ad hoc panic to get enough staff situation where people are expected to work an early, late, longday, night, night, early etc and that is not an unusual patter.
Massive risk of injury at work both due to the nature of the work and the short-staffing levels and complete lack of basic equipment to make the job safe.
Significant risk of being assaulted in certain areas eg AE, psych, dialysis, etc ( I personally know of one person who is now in a wheelchair from assault by patients - they hit me over the back of the head with an metal bar whilst i was trying to resus him, I know plenty of nurses in pain with knackered backs, another mate has a messed up face because 4 blokes thought they had waited long enough when drunk in AE and picked him up and put him head first through a fishtank, etc)
To cover the shortened doctor's hours nurses now have to cover a great number of their jobs which they are poorly prepared to do and not numerated for.
The one good aspect the pension has been slated and destroyed by attitudes so prevalent on these forums that bear little resemblance to reality.
Having to tell people the kids, mum, dad, wife, husband etc are about to die is kind of soul destroying.


So what you have is a bunch of idealistic people coming into the profession that are burning out and leaving within 5 years, just becoming jaded and cynical, hiding in no-end jobs, etc and the only people who are willing to do such a **** job are people from abroad.

And to top it off you have people going meh NHS is **** easy life gold plated public sector pensions. Yer right - if you live long enough to get the pension.
So when people say they have a bad day at work think did you have to do something like try and save some mum's new born babies life only to fail and then have to see that look of absolute horror in her face - a look that will remain forever, have you had to have a young boy looking over their shoulder at you as you send them back with a father you know is abusing them and yet social services won't step in - those eyes pleading to save them stay with you throughout the night, etc.

On the plus side though you do get to eat a load of chocolates I suppose! I would say though I think they have destroyed the profession and the NHS so much in the past few years it's most like unrecoverable. An awful lot of people in post now are not deserving of the rewards we should have given them freely many years ago.
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I like this post.
It oddly describes a great variety of NHS posts and jobs, without meaning to.
The other thing you missed, the job deals with the public. The public at their worst, the public in pain, the public in anger at their pain, and often the public after a long wait, in anger, at their pain, none of which is the persons fault (although in many case, might be directly the patients fault - which makes them more mad, as they have no one to blame but themselves).

There is nothing worse in any job than having to deal with the general public, all of them, not the nice normal social ones, but them all, the fat ones, the horrid ones, the ones with undiagnosed mental illness, the smelly ones, the hideous ones, the demanding ones. Anyway, I'll move on.
 
Mark A said:
Did you get this sorted? I had a similar experience, but I went to the doctors and then had to make my own way to the hospital. Had the ECG, X-ray and blood tests and then got discharged at like 1am as they didnt find anything wrong. Then had a 24 hour heart monitor as an out patient and they didn't give me any results after that and said they had no record of the test when I phoned them :rolleyes:. So never did find out why I have palpitations.
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Same situation - I might go back to my GPs shortly as I had some more recently and it gets quite frustrating, but I went through the same process as you with nothing found.
 
Have my NHS Orthopaedic Consult this morning, to discuss the possibility of a spinal fusion (60% chance of paralysis!) with the same chap I saw privately. Hoping the answer is still Yes, now I no longer have Bupa Healthcare and the PCT will be footing the bill...
 
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