NHS - good & not so good stories

[inkypinkyponky]

I have had some great experiences with the NHS for broken bones and appendicitis which i am really grateful for. However one incident 2 years ago has left me with PTSD.

I was having a severe psychotic episode, the crisis team were being useless. To cut a very long story short my husband had been struggling to keep me safe for 11 days. He had literally no sleep during that time as i didn't sleep. It got to the point i was not lucid at all and was fully hallucinating visually, auditory and even smell and taste. I thought everyone was trying to kill or hurt me. I was trying to climb out of upstairs windows and run out of the house naked. At his wits end he called an ambulance . The ambulance came the staff were lovely and took me in, they could see i needed help. My husband needed sleep so my mother in law went with me.

I have been told it was about 11pm when i arrived. My mother in law spent that whole time trying to keep me under control, trying to get me to keep my clothes on and not injure myself. The bits i can remember of the staff were that they were scolding me and telling me to behave myself (like i had control or choice about what was happening to me) they kept telling me there were people seriously ill there, but so was i just mentally!

Anyway around 2am my MIL went home as she felt she was making me worse as i was getting so upset with her. They were also relying on her to look after me instead of treating me. At one point i was stood on the bed and was falling backwards she was holding onto my hands to hold me up and begging the staff to help. 2 of them just stood and watched me fall off the back of the bed and bang my head.

So they drugged me up and i managed some sleep.. The next morning it all started again, they made me another appointment with the crisis team and prepared me for discharge. They called my husband to come get me.

By the time he arrived i was in the street being restrained by security staff. What had happened is they had kicked me out of the hospital with no shoes, no money, no phone and just in my PJs in January. One lucid moment i recall when i asked them what i would do security told me to start walking home. (15 miles) They were very rough with me, restrained me face down on a hard floor so i couldn't breath which is against restraint procedure

I ran off in my state down the road, i nearly ran out in front of a bus. luckily my delusions were telling me that if i didn't get within this 'forcefield of the hospital) i would die which kept me going back. Otherwise god knows where i would have ended up. It was that point my husband arrived with me being restrained on the ground as i had tried getting back in the hospital. The police were called who were fantastic with me and let my husband take me home

I was absolutely covered head to toe in bruises and swelling ( it is thought i fell down the stairs at the hospital at some point) The complaint is still going on 2 years on and has been an absolute shambles. I just want to be heard and have no other person with mental health problems treated in that way. They said i had behavioural problems it wasn't my bipolar or mania/psychosis. WTF .I'm a professional 32 year old woman who has never had behavioural problems ever, just documented mental health problems. Basically it was a Saturday night and they thought i was on drugs. Now im not saying i would have been easy to deal with but i was mentally very unwell and needed treatment and care. A vulnerable person should never be removed from a hospital according to their policies. What if it had been a 80 year old with dementia would they have done the same?

Sorry for the long post, this whole situation has left me with PTSD and with serious fears of hospitals and medical staff. I will never step foot in that specific hospital ever again if i can help it. Other medical professionals and psychiatric nurses i have told about my treatment are so shocked one even told me to go to the BBC. Staff are not trained correctly for mental health problems in that hospital and regularly assume people are drunk or on drugs when they are not. This same hospital allowed a mentally unwell woman who had just given birth to leave with her newborn baby and jump off a bridge killing herself and the baby ( The cctv showed they were busy chatting and eating to notice she was gone for quite a long time)

 

[veryfondoftea]

I worked in the NHS for most my adult working life until 4 years ago. In one position, my colleague and I reported my manager (a doctor) after months of her coming into work drunk and smashing her car drink driving and not doing any work. We were tired of holding the department together. The outcome? We both got put on gardening leave and had to sign an agreement (can’t remember what the type of agreement was called) and in exchange received a good reference and a pay off. The doctor remained in her job. Will add other experiences later!

 

[Purrrrrrr]

When my sister was in hospital with a brain tumour, two consultants had different ideas on her meds, one decreased her anti-fit meds and she had a huge fit that caused her to be paralysed all down her right side.

After that, I see some awful sights. She kept having fits and we would press the nurse buzzer and nothing, even though nurses were at the nurse station chatting... My sister was in the furthest ward in the furthest bed away, even though she was constantly having fits. Turned up one morning to see her sobbing with her breakfast in front of her they had put the tray on her table and left her to it. ( not the first time apaaprtily) bearing in mind she had no use in her right side and was right-handed. butter in a little tub, jam in a little tub, no way to hold the toast while she buttered etc. Hot tea etc WTF?

I went home got my bag and moved in and became her carer in the hospital.. She wanted to come home to die and so I had to prove I could lift her on my own from bed to wheelchair and back etc in front of consultants, Got her home ( sounds easy but it wasn't, it was awful and scary as they didn't want her to come home) She was so scared of being taken back into that hospital she made a DNR order and we had to have it with us all the time.

 

[Hybrid]

I’m infertile because 2 different NHS doctors couldn’t diagnose appendicitis, leading to a burst appendix, major surgery and massive internal scarring. I even asked if it could be appendicitis and was laughed at. There are some great doctors and nurses and some terrible ones, but I never automatically trust and bow down to them. I hate the way more and more NHS staff seem to assume that they don’t need to actually talk to you about what’s going on.

 

[Eirawen]

I have too many heart breaking stories to add to this thread, I still can’t bring myself to share them publicly. Although, just like in any profession there are good people and not so good people… I’m glad this thread exists because I feel as if NHS staff have become untouchable over the past year due to the pandemic. I feel like I’d have any bad experience it gets over looked and you’re seriously judged for speaking out.

I think that the saintly image of Nurses has been exaggerated for years but Covid has made it worse. I did not clap for them because yes their jobs can be hard but the are well paid and not all of them deserve the title of angels.

 

[under the ivy]

The key workers narrative has become tarnished in my opinion. There’s no doubting that nurses etc do a fantastic job, but I agree they have become a sort of saintly figure in society. Especially when unpaid carers, staff in care homes, people in supermarkets etc have become overlooked. What about the porters pushing poorly individuals on trolleys? Where is their thanks?

 

[gingerteacup]

I have too many heart breaking stories to add to this thread, I still can’t bring myself to share them publicly. Although, just like in any profession there are good people and not so good people… I’m glad this thread exists because I feel as if NHS staff have become untouchable over the past year due to the pandemic. I feel like any bad experience gets over looked and you’re seriously judged for speaking out.

 

[LaurieLaurie]

My midwife was negligent and missed my 3rd degree tear. It took 100s of appointments, formal complaints, a solicitor and 8 years for them to help me and then I had a couple of surgeries. I have to have further operations and regular appointments and I can’t have another baby.

 

[ElChanguito]

Yes, last year I had the shock of what they thought was an extremely rare kind of brain tumour found. The idiot of a consultant at my local hospital thought it was a great idea to get a student doctor to do my initial examination. For some reason the junior doctor literally despised me on sight and was so unkind to me, when I first went into her office she was sat at her computer in the dark and ignored me for ten minutes then yelled, “Oh my god you haven’t put the footplate down!!!!” on the chair I had sat on in the dark As she examined me she ran out of the room shouting, “I need to get the consultant!!!” which made me think they’d found abou ten more tumours (they hadn’t, it was just the one I already knew about). She did that at least twice. I was in so much shock I didn’t think to ask for the junior doctor to leave. (My father was terminally ill at the time and the day before had almost died and was actually laid up in the hospital on the day I was being examined - two massively stressful events in one.) Anyway the (absolutely terrible) consultant then took over and was like yeah, it’s probably cancer, don’t be shocked if the senior brain tumour specialist in the UK phones you in the next day or two. I burst into tears but all I could feel was the hostile presence of that junior doctor, I could literally feel her breathing on me as she stood over my shoulder as I cried. I can still feel it now, Angel of death vibes for sure. She was right in my personal space, I just wanted her to go away. When the consultant was examining me the junior doctor kept saying, “Keep your eyes shut” and “Don’t move!” It was so aggressive for what was a terribly sad situation. As I left the office I looked right at her and said thank you, she kept her eyes to the floor and never said a word, it was so uncomfortable! She should not ever be let around the public.

Anyway, they forced me, against my will, to attend a clinic across the other side of the country and thank god, it wasn’t a tumour but an old scar. They were so professional and friendly in that clinic, and it is a world renowned clinic.

i Almost killed myself because of what I experienced in my local hospital. They were so eager to tell me I had cancer that they totally dehumanised me. It was horrendous. I have a huge phobia of medical settings now.

 

[Eirawen]

I have worked for the NHS for nearly 4 years. Couple of years ago I worked as an admin on a ward for about 6 months. There was an obese young health care assistant on there who was a very bad influence in her young colleagues. She would usually take a rabid dislike to one of the patients and when that poor soul pressed the buzzer she would say "don't answer it, let the old bitch/bastard wait". This was within earshot of the equally lard arsed senior sister who was usually flirting with the junior doctors or chatting to her mate the cleaner who she used to go out boozing with On a positive note one of the older heath cares (whom I knew from school ) really cared for sick people whether she liked them or not and was often bleeping the doctors to come and give pain relief or whatever was needed. She is a gem but a dying breed I think.

 

[Lovegin]

My midwife was negligent and missed my 3rd degree tear. It took 100s of appointments, formal complaints, a solicitor and 8 years for them to help me and then I had a couple of surgeries. I have to have further operations and regular appointments and I can’t have another baby.

I honestly think that gynaecology and women’s healthcare in general in this country is absolutely terrible and we are let down day after day year after year, I’m lucky that I don’t have any “leakage “ problems after having a baby but no woman should have to put up with it and learn to live with it, I find that women are just expected to put up and shut up where Heath is concerned.

 

[Libbylulu]

In theory the NHS is a wonderful idea however in its current form it isn’t working. The amount of money ploughed into it year after year is staggering for it to have long queues, waiting lists, not updated equipment etc. Were it a business it would be shut down. It needs taking apart and putting back together to serve the people in today’s age. Other countries have a national health system and they work fine. No government would do this, they’d be slaughtered for even tinkering with it despite it leaking like a colander. I’m sick of hearing ‘our wonderful NHS’, people pay for it through high taxes, it’s not free so it should give people the health care they deserve.

 

[Kinvarra]

What’s with the mentioning of staff weight (on a couple of posts)?

I had a brief stint in a non clinical role and was amazed at the back room (admin and management) overstaffing and out dated processes. Seems to me that’s where the money is leaking. Streamline support and you’ve got more funding for frontline staff. I encountered some dreadful attitudes in said support functions - slow, slow response times (in a world I’m afraid to say was not especially fast paced) - appalling. I was such a bad fit I was paid to leave - over £10k and, yes, a good reference. I was there less than a year.

A real eye opener.

 

[Crusty Punk]

I was scheduled to have my tonsils out in 2002 when I was 18, I went to hospital, got my gown on and went for my anaesthetic, just before she was going to put me under, the doctor commented that I still had my knickers on under my gown and asked me to remove them. I asked why and said I wasn't very comfortable to do that, but his exact words were "how can I do the procedure with your knickers on?" I replied that he should be able to get to my tonsils from my mouth and the colour drained from his face. My paperwork at the bottom of my bed had been mixed up with someone having a hysterectomy!! If he would've mentioned that a few seconds later, I would have been under anesthetic and unable to defend myself, God knows if I would've had a tonsillectomy or a hysterectomy (I hadn't even been sent to the right theatre).
Unfortunately when I was 27 I developed a cyst on my ovary which was spotted too late (after 3 stays in hospital) and spread to my fellopian tubes and left me practically infertile, kids were obviously just never meant to be for me.

Im so grateful of the NHS, it does wonderful things, but I have gone private now as I struggle to trust it.

 

[fruitfriends]

Oh boy am I glad to see this thread. Hold onto your hats folks, this ones a doozy.
In 2016 after 24 years of constant tonsillitis and being fobbed off by doctors I was finally given the op to take them out. They messed it up really badly, fucking up my sinuses along the way. And I developed an infection due to their negligence. This was just before Christmas. Christmas Day I felt woozy but carried on, by 4pm I had a sore throat and chills, and then by bed time I was blacked out in pain with a raging fever. Husband took me to hospital Boxing Day, they sent me home after leaving me in a corridor for 12 hours with some paracetamol. I don’t remember the next 2 days, apparently I just slept and cried. I got dehydrated and my fever got so bad I hallucinated, husband called 111 and they sent an ambulance. I had sepsis and had gone into septic shock. At the hospital they saw blood results from Boxing Day showed sepsis but they sent me home. I had to have several lumbar punctures which were done by a trainee and messed up so badly. It ended up being 19 attempts before the doctor said enough is enough. The surgeon did it the next day with x-ray. I lost the sight in the top half of my right eye right after the failed attempts and it has never returned.
I had sepsis 4 more times in the next 8 months. The 5th time I was sent to the next closest hospital as there was no ENT at ours.
Here, a vulnerable person (due to MH), alone, miles from home and terrified of hospitals a shitty doctor came in and said there HAD to be a reason for my recurrent sepsis and infections. I tried to explain it was the bodged op, he said I didn’t know what I was talking about. He discussed my case outside with the other doctors and came back and told me I had HIV. Now, i know everyone is technically a risk but I am the furthest from a risk I feel anyone can be. My only sexual partner has been my husband, who was also a virgin. I don’t do drugs. I am too terrified of everything to take risks. He was adamant though. He took blood and said it would be confirmed within 2 days, and sent me home.
A week later I called my GP and turns out they’d lost the bloods. So I had to have them done again. And wait all over again. My anxiety got the better of me and I had a breakdown, convinced I was going to die.
Unsurprisingly I do not have HIV. I had complications from a bodged operation that left part of the chronic infection in my throat/sinuses.
As a result of the multiple sepsis attacks I’ve got brain damage that can’t be reversed, ptsd from my treatment, all my hair turned white, and I have a completely useless immune system.
Eventually I begged to be sent to a different hospital over an hour away. They did the op, removed the infection from my sinuses and throat, and all my problems have disappeared. Never had an infection again.
Just vision loss and other lasting effects left. But I 100% lost all of my faith in the NHS during this time.
I know I’m lucky. I very nearly died. But it all could have been avoided.
I shared this story in a fb group once and people said I made it all up. I really wish I had tbh. Scarred for life.

 

[Notworthy]

When my sister was in hospital with a brain tumour, two consultants had different ideas on her meds, one decreased her anti-fit meds and she had a huge fit that caused her to be paralysed all down her right side.

After that, I see some awful sights. She kept having fits and we would press the nurse buzzer and nothing, even though nurses were at the nurse station chatting... My sister was in the furthest ward in the furthest bed away, even though she was constantly having fits. Turned up one morning to see her sobbing with her breakfast in front of her they had put the tray on her table and left her to it. ( not the first time apaaprtily) bearing in mind she had no use in her right side and was right-handed. butter in a little tub, jam in a little tub, no way to hold the toast while she buttered etc. Hot tea etc WTF?

I went home got my bag and moved in and became her carer in the hospital.. She wanted to come home to die and so I had to prove I could lift her on my own from bed to wheelchair and back etc in front of consultants, Got her home ( sounds easy but it wasn't, it was awful and scary as they didn't want her to come home) She was so scared of being taken back into that hospital she made a DNR order and we had to have it with us all the time.

We had a similar experience with my Nan although not the fits, the food issue, leaving her in the toilet for 45 minutes (apparently she should have been grateful to be taken to the toilet and not left to piss in her bed). watching 1 Nurse run herself ragged trying to look after the patients while 5 other nurses sat at the station gossiping (all obese) My Dad put in a complaint and my Nan refused to go back to that hospital again so if she needed hospital treatment we would take her to our local hospital and claim she was staying with us. I refused to clap for the nurses, there are some absolute stars that work themselves to the bone but they are let down by too many lazy, fat, ignorant ones that don't get held to account.
Personally I blame the Unions, they protect staff like thi, completely oblivious to the fact that it is other staff that then have to cover the work, same problem in the Railway, almost impossible to get rid of lazy inefficient staff so the rest of us have to work twice as hard.

 

[Begborrowsteal]

- The mental health care waiting lists are abysmal. 9 months I had to wait for CBT. I was only diagnosed with BPD 2 years ago after going through various treatments with my MH.

It took 10yrs for me to get therapy for lifelong depressive episodes and BPD. 10yrs.

CBT is the generic treatment dished out. They should be offering you DBT for BPD. I got kicked out of the course due to being heavily pregnant though.

I love the idea of the NHS and what it is meant to symbolise and offer. I do not love the white-knighting of it. It is a huge organisation and should be held to account as any public sector organisation.

 

[HoGi]

My experience with the NHS recently has been terrible. Every encounter ends up with a complaint for some reason or another.

A few examples

1. I cut the tip of my finger off one morning. Wouldn't stop bleeding 111 sent me to A&E. Triaged, told it needs to be glued back on. Called through 30 minutes later. Doctor sees my finger agrees it needs gluing and walks off says someone will be along to glue it and leaves me in the bay. After an hour I poke my head out and see the doctor sitting at a nurses station with 5 other people not in scrubs so I assume they are all doctors/registers etc. I ask if he is coming back to glue my finger. He laughed and said that's not his job and a health care assistant will come along when they are free. I waited another hour for a HCA by which point he glued it but it had been so long it didn't take and eventually fell off. There was easily salaries of £500k sitting round that table, doing nothing, all with 7+ years of medical school but a HCA was being run ragged and I took up a bed in A&E for over 2 hours when he could have glued it in seconds and I could have left.

2. I have jaw issues. I have been sitting in the hospital after my appointment time waiting to be called through only to get a telephone call cancelling it. No apology just the caller saying "oh its noisy where you are" yes I'm in your bloody hospital waiting for my appointment that should have been 40 minutes ago!

3. I have health and welfare power of attorney for my dad who had dementia. He was taken to A&E from his care home. The receptionist refused to let me go through to him even though his dementia caused aphasia (loss of speech). Receptionist said she would ask the care home if I was allowed in, even thought I was legally appointed to make his health decisions. Eventually got let through. After a complaint to PALS they agreed it was handled completely incorrectly and said they would retrain reception staff on this matter and if I had the same issue give the name of A&E sister who would personally sort it out. 2 months later he was taken to A&E again and I had the exact same issue!!! When I said I had already had a PALS complaint about this and asked for the sister, I was asked if I had a copy of the letter on me!! I said obviously not as I didn't know my dad would be rushed to A&E and I assumed they would have been told after my initial complaint. The sister came out and sorted it after I refused to move until I spoke to her.

4. It's called the NATIONAL health service yet provisions vary by area. In my town you get ZERO rounds of IVF. 15 miles away you get three! It should be equal access nationally.

I could name many many more poor instances but I would be here all day and get too angry.

The NHS is broken. It needs serious reform and to be run like a business.

 

[FakeSmile]

My 3 week old (at the time) had to go to A&E in January and I can’t fault the care that he was given. My husband was COVID positive so I just assumed it was that in my son, but because he was so young they tested for everything it could possibly be just incase something was missed. I know that that’s probably standard practice but I was so grateful that it wasn’t just brushed off as COVID and taken seriously - although a 3 week old having a lumber puncture is traumatising for everyone involved!

We then had to stay in the short stay A&E ward overnight in a lovely private room where I had a bed next to my son and the nurses took care of him all night (he’d perked up massively by this point) so that I could get a decent nights sleep. I was so so grateful for this as I hadn’t slept properly for the 3 weeks he’d been born and with 2 other small children at home it was definitely needed!

 

[Gym&Tonic]

One thing I’ve noticed is how defensive a lot of NHS staff are when criticised, even if it’s justified. My local hospital has a dreadful reputation, and did pre Covid. It’s been featured in the national press several times because medical negligence. It’s dirty and generally badly run and has a lot problems. Every winter wards have to close due to norovius outbreaks. Some wards and departments are excellent, such as ICU and the cancer ward where I had my tests when I had my scare. But the rest... unsurprisingly they’ve struggled to keep on top of covid actually in the hospital itself and there was a rumour that one nurse went in to work when she knew she had it and spread it all over the place. At Christmas we had some of the highest rates in the U.K. not far behind London and places like that and we are just a town. Anyway I digress...

Whenever a story appears on social media that’s negative about the hospital you can guarantee a member of staff will appear and start ranting about hard they all work and how stressed they all and how we should be grateful etc. Even when someone has died due to medical negligence they pipe up and it’s infuriating because they don’t seem to be able to grasp that it’s not a personal attack on the staff as a whole, but there are clearly problems that need addressing and aren’t being. There is very much a cult around it and I think until that attitude changes then the NHS as a whole won’t.

Ive also seen staff begging for freebies on social media. ‘Oooh we need cream for our poor tired hands’. Despite the fact they have big tubs of emollient on every ward that’s free for all. And the worst thing is people actually give in and give them stuff.