The inability to contact hospitals

BUDFORCE said:
I don't think you realise how bad the NHS is getting, the clinical staff of the ground are doing the best they can, but it's a mess.

This not being able to get hold of anyone is effectively triage, they don't have the time more resources to treat the number of patients they have.
Click to expand...

Its like any company that is struggling and its 10x worse as its a publicly run company.

They have staffing shortages everywhere, the staff that are there are being overworked which is causing more issues with burnout and sickness. Its a public company so attracts far too many lazy so and sos who know their rights and that they are almost impossible to sack.

The burden on the NHS in general is higher than ever and the populations health is declining all the time due to lifestyle choices that we refuse to actually address properly. It will all be different in a decade I reckon.

The NHS needs to recruit heavily, bring people in from abroad, sort out the obesity crisis and modernise and centralise the whole thing. Its never going to happen.
 
I'm under audiology (Stafford general hospital) and ophthalmology (Wolverhampton New Cross) and never had a problem contacting these 2 hospitals. In fact, I think secondary care NHS is still excellent, even during covid.

The problem I have is primary care NHS. This is non-existent now and I've not seen a GP since 2016. If I call the surgery at dead on 8AM, I'm on hold for 20 minutes, only then to be told that all appointments for today are gone and I have to try again tomorrow. If I go online either by Patient Access or the NHS, there is a facility to book an appointment online but it will always say no appointments available. How the hell do you see a GP?
 
Pawnless Endgame said:
I'm under audiology (Stafford general hospital) and ophthalmology (Wolverhampton New Cross) and never had a problem contacting these 2 hospitals. In fact, I think secondary care NHS is still excellent, even during covid.

The problem I have is primary care NHS. This is non-existent now and I've not seen a GP since 2016. If I call the surgery at dead on 8AM, I'm on hold for 20 minutes, only then to be told that all appointments for today are gone and I have to try again tomorrow. If I go online either by Patient Access or the NHS, there is a facility to book an appointment online but it will always say no appointments available. How the hell do you see a GP?
Click to expand...
Wait by his car with a baseball bat under your coat is one way someone contemplated the other day ;)
 
beany_bot said:
Private health insuirance is now essential in my eyes.

That's not a political statement either way it's just a fact of looking after yourself.
Click to expand...

Yea I think it's very much heading this way, the problem I have with this is private health care/insurance has a cost, fine, but you have no option not to fund the NHS, so you are effectively having to pay for both.
 
BUDFORCE said:
Yea I think it's very much heading this way, the problem I have with this is private health care/insurance has a cost, fine, but you have no option not to fund the NHS, so you are effectively having to pay for both.
Click to expand...
Well exactly that.
In the US you have high wages and low taxes BUT you have to pay to look after youself.
In Norway you have very high taxes BUT the state looks after you.
Both forms are viable (If you have money). But in the UK we have low wages, high taxes, and terrible state services. It's the worst of both systems.
 
The phone systems in some hospitals can be difficult to navigate, especially when they don't put the department number on the appointment letters these days, at least that as been my experience.

I have a long term breathing condition due to my unfortunate odds in lifes lottery. But on the appointment letters I get it only shows the booking office number.

On the breathing machine I have it shows a general department number. But I only found out the specific number by being passed around the hospitals switch board for 10 minutes.
 
arknor said:
NHS IS CRAP, make a complaint and they brush it off too after months of silence
Click to expand...
Maybe but since Steve down the Alley round the back of the Asda can't do an appendectomy then the NHS is the next best thing.

But your still wrong.. The NHS is Brilliant.. Its the management thats CRAP
 
mattyg said:
Maybe but since Steve down the Alley round the back of the Asda can't do an appendectomy then the NHS is the next best thing.

But your still wrong.. The NHS is Brilliant.. Its the management thats CRAP
Click to expand...
It’s such a myth that hospitals are overburdened with managers. I myself am a manager of an nhs department, whilst also maintaining a clinical workload. It’s probably an 80:20 split clinical:management. Allot of management within services will be clinicians having to do both roles. Sure there are pure senior managers at a directorate/divisional/trust level, however they are a necessity and minority in comparison to the sheer numbers of staff within.

Op, if it’s been years then you’ve probably been discharged unless the service that you’re under has a clear patient initiated follow up pathway, which it sounds as though they don’t. Best bet is to be re-referred via your gp. (Or go private for initial consultation, just don’t try to pay via phone contactless).
 
Trifid said:
This is all well and good for the healthy, but what about those with pre-existing conditions?
Click to expand...

Hereon lies the problem. Private health insurance is great for those in good health but good luck when you get a long term health condition. Those who have pets will be able to vouch
 
beany_bot said:
Private health insuirance is now essential in my eyes.

That's not a political statement either way it's just a fact of looking after yourself.
Click to expand...

I will very much be looking for this in my next role as an extremely desirable benefit.

I had a health issue in September. Was put on urgent wait list. Told it was 70 weeks. By two different departments. Put in a complaint. But in mean time paid private (2.8k!) got a call back a week later saying it was 3 months. And I should never have been told 70 weeks.


But 2 separate people told me it was 70 weeks. So some system somewhere must have had 70 weeks. Was chaos.


We are certainly heading towards the USA system. There is an NHS, but anything serious you'll die waiting.
 
Last edited:
mattyg said:
Maybe but since Steve down the Alley round the back of the Asda can't do an appendectomy then the NHS is the next best thing.

But your still wrong.. The NHS is Brilliant.. Its the management thats CRAP
Click to expand...
But what do you mean "The NHS is brilliant"? The concept? The people? What specifically is brilliant? Because the concept is broken, and a nurse working in the private sector (often for less) is just as "brilliant" as a nurse working for the NHS in my eyes. Not sure what is brilliant about it? It's a very broken, bloated and massively innefficient state department.
 
beany_bot said:
But what do you mean "The NHS is brilliant"? The concept? The people? What specifically is brilliant? Because the concept is broken, and a nurse working in the private sector (often for less) is just as "brilliant" as a nurse working for the NHS in my eyes. Not sure what is brilliant about it? It's a very broken, bloated and massively innefficient state department.
Click to expand...
When you fall off a ladder and break something. What is the number for this private sector emergency service.
A friend in the US had a small Hernia operation. Her bill was $85k. Luckily she was insured....

So only had to pay $9k
I didn't say it was perfect.
 
mattyg said:
When you fall off a ladder and break something. What is the number for this private sector emergency service.
A friend in the US had a small Hernia operation. Her bill was $85k. Luckily she was insured....

So only had to pay $9k
I didn't say it was perfect.
Click to expand...
But when you have a small hernia operation in the UK the bill is still £85k. It's paid for our taxes.
I still don't see what specfically is "brilliant".
As someone with a "decent" job, comfortable but not rich, the healthcare I had in the US when I worked there was 100x better than I get in the UK on the NHS. Yes I needed insurance, but it cost less than the tax taken off me to pay for the vastly inferior NHS.
 
beany_bot said:
But when you have a small hernia operation in the UK the bill is still £85k. It's paid for our taxes.
I still don't see what specfically is "brilliant".
As someone with a "decent" job, comfortable but not rich, the healthcare I had in the US when I worked there was 100x better than I get in the UK on the NHS. Yes I needed insurance, but it cost less than the tax taken off me to pay for the vastly inferior NHS.
Click to expand...
Fall off your ladder and call your private healthcare company.
How many people in this country have to choose between food and Insulin.
Which part of the top 2% do you need to be in to afford total healthcare insurance in the US
 
Last edited:
mattyg said:
Fall off your ladder and call your private healthcare company.
How many people in this country have to choose between food and Insulin.
Which part of the top 2% do you need to be in to afford total healthcare insurance in the US
Click to expand...
It's far from perfect. But I still fail to see how the NHS (A goverment department after all) is "brilliant".
You keep saying "fall off a ladder". Fall of a ladder in the UK and wait 6 hours for an ambulance and then 36 hours in A&E before being seen.

How is this "brilliant"?
 
beany_bot said:
It's far from perfect. But I still fail to see how the NHS (A goverment department after all) is "brilliant".
You keep saying "fall off a ladder". Fall of a ladder in the UK and wait 6 hours for an ambulance and then 36 hours in A&E before being seen.

How is this "brilliant"?
Click to expand...
I called an Ambulance for a builder at my home last year.. It was here within 10 mins and he was back home 4 hours later.

No point quoting headline figures.
 
beany_bot said:
It's far from perfect. But I still fail to see how the NHS (A goverment department after all) is "brilliant".
You keep saying "fall off a ladder". Fall of a ladder in the UK and wait 6 hours for an ambulance and then 36 hours in A&E before being seen.

How is this "brilliant"?
Click to expand...

How is that true?

I've called ambulances at my workplace on quite a few occasions. It's never taken more than 10 minutes for one to arrive and the triage and treatment begins immediately. Ambulance crews aren't just delivery drivers.

I fell in the street a little while ago. Came down hard. I was running and got a foot caught in a cable someone had dropped on the pavement. Landed on my head. I was dazed and bleeding in the gutter. Someone called an ambulance. It arrived minutes later. I was triaged immediately on arrival.

Meanwhile in the USA the biggest cause of personal bankruptcy is healthcare costs and everything to do with healthcare costs a lot more than it does here because running healthcare as a business is inherently less efficient than running healthcare as a service due to the fact that it changes the intent from providing healthcare to making a profit. Despite the mismanagement of the NHS, it's still a better way of doing things.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom