NHS three weeks to type up a letter

JamoLew

Sadly, over the years management staffing and budget levels have swollen and bloated out of control.
This has resulted in savage cuts to most front line services.
Unfortunately, this means cases have to be prioritised, hence long delays to none urgent cases.

alumende27

Unpopular as Annie's comment is, parts of it have some merit. Some of the processes in place are deeply inefficient, even if their hearts are in the right place.

I remember some years ago making a call to Hinchingbrooke Hospital, I got transferred 15 times including to the same people multiple times.

That said, generally the NHS, at least where I live now, are absolutely awesome these days and I've never personally encountered delays or cancelled appointments.

Were it always so, I had a friend who in 2001 had a lump in his throat, it took over six months from his first appointment to getting the news, on Christmas Eve of all times, that he had terminal thyroid cancer.

esuhl

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

You just need to be seriously ill to appreciate how utterly brilliant the NHS is. I was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer on 20th December. Six weeks on, after extensive investigations and tests, the tumour was removed keyhole, bowel reconstructed (no bag) and I am pretty much back to normal today. In a couple of weeks I will meet the surgeon to see whether I need further treatment. The care I have had has been absolutely brilliant in a hospital that "requires improvement".

My mum had bowel cancer, but was fobbed off for well over a year, despite (by the end of it) needing ambulances to repeatedly take her to hospital. Despite not having eaten for a fortnight, she was just given a saline drip and discharged the next day. This happened three or four times.

By the time they diagnosed her, she had a month to live and was so weak there was nothing they could do. She was "only" 60. If the NHS had done its duty, she'd probably be alive now.

NHS care is a very mixed bag. Surgery tends to be excellent, nursing occasionally negligent, and diagnosis can be appalling. Sometimes it's great, but people die prematurely far too often. It's hardly surprising -- the Tories are trying to kill off the NHS by starving it of funds.

Pennywise

esuhl wrote: »

NHS care is a very mixed bag. Surgery tends to be excellent, nursing occasionally negligent, and diagnosis can be appalling. Sometimes it's great, but people die prematurely far too often. It's hardly surprising -- the Tories are trying to kill off the NHS by starving it of funds.

I'd agree with it being a mixed bag. When my Mum had a hip replacement, it was all organised very quickly (just a few weeks on the waiting list), and the op itself went very well - couldn't fault the surgeon's team at all. Unfortunately, back on the ward afterwards, the nursing was pretty poor - she was diabetic and the nurses hadn't the faintest idea how to deal with that alongside the drugs etc meaning her blood sugars were completely out of control. Also agree with diagnosis problems, my father in law spent weeks in a "normal" ward whilst being fed on a drip, having scans/x-rays almost every day - it was weeks before they diagnosed a blocked bowel which the symptoms pointed to from day 1 - by the time he was operated on, he was so weak, he barely made it, and then they !!!!!!ed up the op leading to further surgery needed to repair the first botch up - he was never the same again. But it's nothing to do with the Tories, my family's poor treatment was in the noughties under Brown/Blair's spending spree - so it's not all down to money!

Robin9

It's no better when you pay the surgery. Due to my wife's illness I had to cancel a holiday and needed a letter from the doctor. £25 and 2 weeks later.

Delays are counter-productive as you then chase with visits and phonecalls .

Hoof_Hearted

Some sad stories here. Makes me realise how lucky I am. I would add that when you go into patient mode, it is easy to become passive, particularly if you are getting on a bit (I'm 68). However, I have a rottweiler for a wife and we decided to question everything and push back. If the appointment letter doesn't come, ring them and ask why. If a procedure is recommended, ask what the alternative is (in my case, death). I have to say that the surgeon I had took time and trouble to explain everything and showed infinite patience.

ljonski

Well said Hoof Hearted.

Undervalued

esuhl wrote: »

My mum had bowel cancer, but was fobbed off for well over a year, despite (by the end of it) needing ambulances to repeatedly take her to hospital. Despite not having eaten for a fortnight, she was just given a saline drip and discharged the next day. This happened three or four times.

By the time they diagnosed her, she had a month to live and was so weak there was nothing they could do. She was "only" 60. If the NHS had done its duty, she'd probably be alive now.

NHS care is a very mixed bag. Surgery tends to be excellent, nursing occasionally negligent, and diagnosis can be appalling. Sometimes it's great, but people die prematurely far too often. It's hardly surprising -- the Tories are trying to kill off the NHS by starving it of funds.

No more that the last Labour government did - arguably less.

It is far too simplistic to shout "lack of funds". The population is rising, medical treatments become ever more sophisticated and expensive. Often, to be blunt, that means that somebody lives a few years longer (great in a way) but during that time needs ever more support from the NHS. People are staying in education longer and, until recently at least, were retiring earlier. An ever smaller group have to pay for it all. A remarkably small proportion of the population are actually nett contributors. The others, even large numbers of "hard working tax payers", actually draw more from the state in their lifetime than they contribute. Health care, children's education, in work benefits, pension etc etc. Sooner or later the bubble will burst!

teddysmum

Robin9 wrote: »

It's no better when you pay the surgery. Due to my wife's illness I had to cancel a holiday and needed a letter from the doctor. £25 and 2 weeks later.

Delays are counter-productive as you then chase with visits and phonecalls .

This was a non-medical matter and doctors are not paid to write money saving letters. They also have to prioritise their time in favour of patients who are sick; letters like this being at the bottom of the pile.

Pennywise

teddysmum wrote: »

This was a non-medical matter and doctors are not paid to write money saving letters. They also have to prioritise their time in favour of patients who are sick; letters like this being at the bottom of the pile.

Charging for it, though, puts it back at the top of the pile. By charging, it should be done outside NHS time as the doctors etc are already paid by the NHS for a full day's work, so anything outside NHS work needs to be done outside NHS time.