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What is happening with our nhs

Guidelines have gone out that are telling hospital and consultants to do a minimum 25% of their appointments by phone/video.

Personally in my CCG care has been poor. I am lucky that the head of the CCG is our GP! He apologised to my husband for all the ups and downs we’ve had for him and his heart attack in May 2020. This GP has been exceptional but he only works there (obviously) two days a week as he also is a top man at the RCGP as well as our CCG. His heart care has been dire.

I have not had a f2f with my hospital or my consultant for diabetes for 2 years.
Not too unhappy with that, but I do question why they can’t see anybody when supermarkets, cinemas etc can.

The phone call method for Gp appointments is here to stay. I like that.
Hospitals having been told to cut out unnecessary, lesser need appointments and video/phone calls for a minimum of 25% and people are just not aware of this….
 
Apologies, for a totally off-topic post. I'll do 110 lines straight away.

@donnellysdogs - wonderful to see you around.
 
Well. Had great care when broke legs.
Hospital from initial A&E through to outpatients & physio

Then had pretty quick video consult when concerned about knee swelling

No doc appointments, though asked to come in fur HBA1c...which I deferred.

All in all ..pretty happy

Like to think those that do NEED to be seen, get seen.

For others the video/ call screening works, imho

Do think we all need to keep an eye on this Govt. that the sell off Is resisted as much as possible.

#SaveOurNHS.
 
richyb said:
I have not had a retinal screening for over 2years. Despite me having extreme laser treatment a while back.
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It sounds like there has been an error - with a history of PRP laser, you should have been priotised during the pandemic and seen more frequently than that. Phone your local diabetic eye screening service and ask about an appointment. The number should be on your previous results letter or enter your postcode here:- https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/other-services/Diabetic-eye-screening/LocationSearch/1911
 
I think it varies around the country. Our local tv evening news announced on behalf of south coast ambulance service that there was a typical 8 hour wait or even next day response. I would like to think they would triage but I wonder how many elderly and infirm people are put off by that. I did get reviewed by the eye clinic at the hospital in April after my March 2020 appointment was cancelled. The most disappointing is I cant get a telephone consult with my GP for 3 weeks to review my meds. I know our local GP surgeries have been busy at vaccination centres in the last few months. The trouble is we have to explain to the receptionist why we need the appointment and imo they are not qualified to triage. I need my digestive enzymes meds (due to Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency) adjusted so 3 weeks of discomfort and tummy pain while I wait isnt easy. I have gone on the Medicine website advice for prescribing for HCPs and have doubled my dose for my evening meal myself!
 
Your post has interested me donnellysdogs for a number of reasons. I have a severe telephone anxiety, so it would be impossible for me to do a phone or even a video appt with anyone. Like yourself I have also wondered why on earth we now cannot see our GP'c face to face. I have seen consultants at Ophthalmology appts and have seen my Optician for eye examinations, so why not my GP, who incidentally I have never met since relocating here 13 months ago. I worry that I cannot have any routine diabetic examinations due to my phone anxiety and if anything were amiss then how would I know/deal with it.
 
Obviously some appointments need to be in person but not as many as pre pandemic.
Doctors surgeries and hospitals are, by their nature, full of unwell people with the potential to pass on their conditions to other around them, not just covid-19 but also flu, colds, D&V etc. So minimising the number of people they come in contact with is a good thing.

Supermarkets are still open but less people are going. My 80 year old parents had never had a supermarket delivery or click and collect a year ago but now they say they will never go back.

I wonder if we had a choice of face to face or telephone appointments, what the split would be.
As I mentioned, telephone appointments are much better for me and, for me, much more time efficient. As I work a lot on the phone, I have no problem with talking to HCPs remotely, but understand some people will find this difficult.
 
My local services in SE London are in complete disarray. Getting to actually see a G P takes great perseverance and our local hospital only seems to be dealing effectively with people whose life is threatened. Clinicians are fine but admin is haphazard and communication between departments random. It was like this before Covid but had got worse since.
 
In my local newspaper this week there was a story of our surgery having protesters sitting in the doorway complaining of the terrible service , you can't see a GP for love nor money ordering prescriptions is a nightmare , I was hanging on the phone for 75 minutes last week enquiring about my booster jab only to be told at 62 and type 1 for 46 yrs I was not a priority and to phone back next month , I couldn't get a flu jab because of the same reason so made an appointment with a local pharmacy but when I turned up on time was told there was not a trained pharmacist on site so couldn't have it done , It does worry me where our NHS is going and it is a " NATIONAL" health service so the service should be the same wherever you live but it does seem a bit hit and miss at the moment , But we do hear some good stories so perhaps I just live in a bad location !
 
Where do you live, roughly?
 
People should be protesting to the MPs, not a surgery. Don't people realise the government makes the cuts in funding and controls how many people can be trained, and how many overseas workers can be here. How stupid to target a surgery.
 
You can book a booster 190 days after your second jab. You should receive a text or email like this when you are eligible.

You are now eligible to receive your COVID-19 booster vaccine. Visit https://www.nhs.uk/book-covid-booster or call 119 to book. Choose a time and a place that suits you.
 
bulkbiker said:
NHS funding has gone up by a huge amount over the past year.

Is £212 billion still not enough?
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You are an intelligent man. You know that covid had needed massive amounts of extra funding, and so do the measures needed to get waiting lists down due to the NHS being underfunded for over a decade, plus the treatments put on hold due to covid.

If I go to Tesco and buy £100 worth of food, and have £50, they will quite rightly refuse to accept my payment as enough. If i then add £20 to my offer, its still not enough.

The question is not how much money is being given, but how much is needed to undo the decade of underfunding, and move forward with enough funding to pay for what it costs.

Quite apart from the huge rise in costs and numbers of people needing treatment, some of which is due to underfunding for a decade in other areas.

I am not getting into a discussion about the reality or otherwise of covid as some perceive it. This funding issue is basic maths, not rocket science.
 

I don't want to get into a discussion about the numbers, but, in my view, if the NHS slimmed down a few layers of it's hierarchy and bureaucracy it could be helpful. It seems like nobody can move - except to try to find someone to sign off whatever they want to do.
 
what has that got to do with my factual comment about where we are now?
 
In addition to your points...

If you stick the amounts into an inflation calculator (simplistic I know, but I don't have time for a more comprehensive analysis) the rate at which core funding has increased (excluding Covid) has not tracked with inflation, as such in real terms the budget has declined.
 
Good point!!! I had forgot about that bit.
 
Just to add to my previous post. Today I had a monthly eye injection at my hospital which I am grateful for but the waiting room used to be about 20 or so people for day surgery, now its 4 or 5 anytime I visit. Today I got chatting with an elderly woman waiting for her husband after cataract surgery and she mentioned she had a fall on Monday and hurt her back and was in such pain they called an ambulance. There were 22 ambulances queueing and a long line of patients on foot queueing to get into A&E. after 5 hours she was triaged in the ambulance, told they had so many serious cases she would be sent home to get rest, gentle exercise and take mon prescription painkillers. They said they had stabbings, strokes, heart attacks and serious injuries. They also said most of the pedestrian patients had come because they couldn’t get to see their GP. This lady was calm and said she was a long retired nurse and had never known the NHS so broken. Yet our Government pretend its all just fine. Hardly!
 
lucylocket61 said:
what has that got to do with my factual comment about where we are now?
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I feel it's not all about the amount of money thrown at it, but there are arguments to suggest the is bloated in management areas and somewhat scant in areas delivering clinical services. Biggest bang for buck and all that.
 
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