NHS=Negligent Health Service

adam cool dude said:
I couldn't get out of bed at the end of last month with severe back pain to the point that I fainted on the toilet from the pain. Luckily my missus was at home and drove me A&E.

Long story short is that because I didn't have nerve damage and I could feel my legs it meant that I couldn't be signed in as an in patient which would have gotten me an MRI in 24 hours. They gave me a high dosage prescription of Diazepam after I went back the second day because nothing worked from the first (Oral Morphine).

Good news is I am walking pretty much fine now but have had pins and needles in the ball of my foot since although it has started to ease in the past couple of days and has gone up to my left butt cheek so I guess that means the swelling is going down and Sciatic nerve is recovering. I have been cycling 3-4 times a week about 5 miles each time not because a doctor has been in touch but just winging it hoping that is the correct thing to do with "recovery" as no physiotherapy has been booked in at all.

Bad news is a month on later and still no news about getting booked in for an MRI scan so I still don't know if it is a slipped disc or the piriformis muscle. For obvious reasons I hope it is the latter. I will leave it till the end of the month then just book myself in privately if no luck.

2019 everyone knew that the NHS was struggling but you could still get by. Since Covid the whole system really is on its knees.
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Surely if you were in urgent need you'd get an MRI as soon as. Else it just seems that it's you that wants an MRI. Sounds like the issue is resolving itself (as does most back pain) so no issue.

I'm aware back pain isn't nice, it's the worse pain I've ever had. But you get over it.
 
do_ron_ron said:
The NHS has not failed but it is struggling due to deliberate Govt cuts and policy 'initiatives'. If the NHS got the money the Govt wastes on consultants to 'reform' the nhs, it would be in a better place. The current problems are just the sign of deliberate neglect by this hard right wing Govt who fanatically believe in free market. This is despite the constant failures.
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taB said:
I agree with tamzzy. It's gone but we haven't realised / accepted it yet.
Source: wife (radiographer of 20+ years). She doesn't realise it but I think it's only still limping on because of people like her.
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nhs is in its death throes now. the gov just doesn't want to have this conversation as it's not a vote-winner
 
do_ron_ron said:
The NHS has not failed but it is struggling due to deliberate Govt cuts and policy 'initiatives'. If the NHS got the money the Govt wastes on consultants to 'reform' the nhs, it would be in a better place. The current problems are just the sign of deliberate neglect by this hard right wing Govt who fanatically believe in free market. This is despite the constant failures.
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The labour government's are just as guilty
 
What is needed is reform we all know that but the management and government just carry blindly on. One example is exemption medication, my sister had epilepsy so she got all her medication free of charge, ( the epilepsy medication sure but even things like painkillers and antibiotics). Yet other conditions are not free when they should be
 
tonys said:
It does seem that the Scottish service copes better than England.
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Maybe because the SG talked to doctors and nurses leaders so they never went on strike whereas the English Health Sec seem to want a confrontation. The English doctors started striking in March

www.lewishamandgreenwich.nhs.uk

Junior doctor strike 13-16 March 2023 | News

www.lewishamandgreenwich.nhs.uk

That has got to be a lot of patients not getting treatment. There are problems in Scotland with the SNHS with vacancies unfilled.
 
tonys said:
What is needed is reform we all know that but the management and government just carry blindly on. One example is exemption medication, my sister had epilepsy so she got all her medication free of charge, ( the epilepsy medication sure but even things like painkillers and antibiotics). Yet other conditions are not free when they should be
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AFAIK over 80% are free in England. It would not take much to do like Scotland and make it 100%. Political choices.
 
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firstborn said:
Surely if you were in urgent need you'd get an MRI as soon as. Else it just seems that it's you that wants an MRI. Sounds like the issue is resolving itself (as does most back pain) so no issue.

I'm aware back pain isn't nice, it's the worse pain I've ever had. But you get over it.
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My point is go back 10-15 years and I would have had a scan and everything. I was wheelchair bound for two days btw. I couldn't walk and had to support my weight on the door frames just to get down the stairs to the hospital.

If I were single I would have had no option but to call for an ambulance.

For all I know I could be causing irreversible damage to my Sciatic nerve because I have a slipped disk that should have been operated on first thing but I will find that out when I manage to get an MRI which I have been waiting over a month just for a letter for an appointment.
 
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18 months to see an endocrinologist only to be told the blood tests I did 4 months ago in preparation are incomplete because they only took half the samples that were requested. Day off work the next day to queue in phlebotomy for 3 hours for the bloods that should have been done the first time around. Next appointment with an endocrinologist booked in for March next year.

The NHS is hilariously bad. I'm actually going to just go private now instead, appointment booked in for next week.
 
adam cool dude said:
It is also hilarious how some items are cheaper to buy from say Asda or Boots than direct from the NHS because companies are milking them for all they are worth.
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Exactly, the people that buy in don't seem to actually shop around for good deals. It's not their money after all.
 
tonys said:
My point is medication for on going life threatening conditions should be free, medication for everything else you pay for.
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I would argue that for certain things like painkillers they can be essential for quality of life and ability to function, but not for something that is "life threatening".

I'm not sure under what circumstances you're seeing them prescribed as IIRC around my way they stopped prescribing a lot of lower end pain relief years ago, but my mum used to get paracetamol on prescription (along with IIRC 2 or 3 other different types of painkiller) as her condition required the mix and short of popping into the chemist every few days it was the only way to get enough, as it was we'd always pick more up if out because the GP prescribed them in boxes of 100 (so the combination of buying and prescription meant she didn't have to go shopping every few days specifically for them and the gp was only doing one prescription for them a month).

I would also suspect that if you started charging for meds that were prescription but not for "life threatening" conditions you're going to add a whole new layer of complexity and cost to the prescription system, adding more work for pharmacists and slowing things down at a time when most of the pharmacists I've seen are already struggling to manage with the workloads, and as a bonus going to end up with people not getting medication that is for "non life threatening" conditions and those conditions turning into "life threatening" ones.
For example IIRC Omeprazole is required if you're on high doses of ibuprofen to help prevent stomach ulcers/damage to the lining, but as until you've got that stomach ulcer/damage it's not a "major" issue (and once you've got the damage it's hrder to deal with).
 
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