NHS - good & not so good stories

[GobShyte64]

A few years ago I was pregnant. I was bleeding like I was miscarrying every day, but the baby was still there. Was in and out of hospital for most of my pregnancy. Nothing worse than putting a woman who's at risk of losing her baby on a ward with all the mums and their new babies. Whilst on that ward, listening to the new mums soothing their babies, my waters went. I went downstairs in the labour wards to be started off as my contractions had stopped. I gave birth to my daughter at 21 weeks and she was alive for 44 minutes. I had 2 midwives with me who were lovely. There was a locum on at the time - he came in to see that I had had her, and that she was breathing, and then he came in again when she had died. Then he wrote on a form that she was born dead. The midwives couldnt understand why he had wrote that she werent breathing when she infact was. So because of this, she had to go and have an autopsy. But there was a backlog so she was in the fridges for about 3 weeks. Autopsy said she was born alive and then died so I got a birth certificate and a death certificate. Her death was logged as extreme prematurity instead of late miscarriage. Then there was a little backlog at the funeral home which couldnt be helped as it was easter weekend at the time. I went to see her at the chapel of rest and it was grim. The lady at the funeral home was nice and was trying to warn me but in a nice way saying you know, she really needs to have her funeral now. She had started to decompose. I couldnt wait to cremate her. The thought of her rotting away in them fridges because 1 doctor made a mistake and said she was born dead when she clearly wasnt.

Any other experience I have had with the NHS has been good though. I've never had to wait too long and always been seen on time. Their mental health services is a bit shit but i've learned to bury that. If I have ever gone with the kids, which is hardly ever, we've always been seen pretty quickly.

 

[veryfondoftea]

I find the NHS infuriating. It could be (and sometimes is) so wonderful but it’s going to fail because it’s not run as a business. Money wasted every day, antiquated processes. It’s just not good enough. After leaving the NHS four years ago for the private sector, the difference is startling.
Another role I was in, the manager took a dislike to me, and would ask me to photocopy patient files for 8 hours a day (this was not part of my role) it continued for some weeks until I decided I’d had enough and requested that I do other jobs too. She took me into a room and called me an uppity little bitch that thinks they’re too good for photocopying. I stood up for myself and said I won’t be spoken to like that and went to HR, when I told them what had happened and said I won’t go back, the HR woman told me she knows another manager looking for someone and said she’d set up an interview for me. I interviewed and got that role, but the nasty manager went to every single one of my colleagues in the new team and told them they’d regret employing me. Luckily for me, she had a bit of a reputation as a cow already and they told her they’d make their own minds up about me and everything was fine. The nasty manager is still at the hospital, in a very senior position.

 

[chocolatepanda6]

In my experience of various elderly relatives my partner and myself being in hospital I would say it’s the exception you get any nice staff and most of this was pre covid . I have to say some of the people I know from school and around my town who have now entered nursing makes me terrified to be in their care some of the nastiest thickest bullies I’ve met now work for the NHS . But if you say anything about the NHS people go on as though they’re all heroes and angels even though they are doing a job they chose to do .

 

[Lovegin]

I work for the NHS and I have a few things to say on the topic.

The good:

- A lot of services are hideously underfunded and dangerously understaffed. With that in mind it's often a miracle that good, consistent care is given and so many have great things to say.
- Many services run on staff goodwill alone, unpaid hours, going above and beyond etc.
- The vast majority of staff get into the job to try and help, often in completely unworkable circumstances, but they still try.
- Your clinician expertise isn't going to be any better if you go private as NHS clinicians also work privately and standards are the same. You are essentially just paying to be seen quicker with nicer surroundings.
- Bottom line is you get free at the point of access healthcare, which is amazing.
- I can honestly, hand on heart say nearly every person I've ever worked with, works hard and tries their best to help every single day.

The bad:

- There is so much money wasted on stupid things.
- It is practically impossible to get rid of bad/dangerous staff, they just are 'moved on' to a different area.
- Whisteblowers are in my experience not protected and are gotten rid of.
- Upper management (those who have never actually worked as clinicians) do not give a flying fuck about the quality of care, they just want patients out the door.
- Staff are worked until breaking point, have dangerously high caseloads and will absolutely be thrown under a bus if they make a mistake because of this.
- The sheer amount of abuse and pisstaking that goes on from the general public is astonishing.

Unfortunately, in the decade I've been in the NHS the bad is increasingly outweighing the good. Myself and my colleagues are asking ourselves why we keep going more and more often and I've seen so many skilled, dedicated clinicians leaving in large numbers. Honestly, unless you've worked for the NHS with all it's faults and pressures you can never understand it.

If you're having a poor experience, 9 times out of 10 it's because there simply aren't enough staff or resources to deliver the standard of care you deserve.

The NHS is an amazing thing. AMAZING. We should never take it for granted. If it were run better, appropriately funded, dangerous staff could be removed and people didn't take the piss, it would be perfect.

The trouble is you could pour trillions into the nhs and it wouldn’t make an iota of a difference, it would be in the same shit, until you start weeding out the bad apples nothing will change

 

[Lizzie Mintdrop]

When my dad was dying his GP was fantastic, as was the community nurse that came to visit him. I want to point this out for balance because when he went into hospital, it was completely different.

He was admitted to an allocation ward and was, admittedly, a difficult patient as he didn't want to be in hospital. However, he couldn't sit up or move very much at all and they gave him drinks in a plastic cup with no lid or straw. I brought in a cup with a spout for him to use, this somehow ended up on another patient's table and then ended up in the bin so I had to bring in another. One day I gave him some milk just before I went home, when I got there the next day, the milk was still in the cup, now sour, I was so upset that nobody had given my dying father a drink in 12 hours. One nurse told him to f*ck off but he couldn't tell me which one because he didn't know her name.

He was moved to another ward but no one told me so when I got there his bed was empty, I thought he had died! I got a call from my dad one evening, he was saying he was in pain and then he hung up. I rang the ward to ask them to check on him, the next day I asked another patient if my dad had been attended, they told me no. I spoke to his Macmillan Nurse about getting him more regular pain relief, she was brilliant and spoke to the ward nurses straight away and arranged it with them. The next day I got there and my dad was clearly in pain, he still hadn't been medicated, I asked a Sister to arrange it, it was a further two hours before they brought morphine and midazolam. One day I got a call saying the consultant needed to speak to me urgently, when I got to the ward the consultant told me, in the middle of a busy ward that my dad was reaching his last days/hours, they didn't even give me the dignity of taking me in a side ward. I was struggling to hear and understand the consultant because there was so much activity going on around me and he had a strong accent. I already knew my dad was dying but to tell me how close it was in that way was heartless.

Every single day that he was in hospital he was left in his own mess, I would visit every morning and find he had soiled himself and my sister visited most evenings and he would be needing a change again, he was in hospital for three and a half weeks!

The next day he was supposed to be taken to as hospice, however, they didn't tell the ambulance service that my dad had ascites and needed a special trolley to go in the ambulance so it was delayed. The next day he was taken to the hospice, when I got to the hospice his glasses were missing, I rang the ward and they said it was my dad's responsibility to ensure he had his belongings, (I had packed everything else up the evening before but he still had his glasses on) he didn't even know his own name at this point so I don't know how they expected him to do a checklist of his belongings. Thankfully, the lovely hospice staff recovered his glasses from the ward.

I completely understand that NHS cuts have greatly affected services and hospital staff are overworked but they never once showed any compassion for my dad, me or my family, in fact, they were heartless. My dad's social worker was lovely, as was his Macmillan nurse and all the staff in the hospice were amazing but the NHS hospital staff were disgraceful!

 

[Youre a wizard Harry]

Touch wood, I have never needed hospital treatment. I do have a number of mental health issues and my experiences are very mixed. Getting a good GP is very much the luck of the draw; I've had some good and some terrible.

I have worked in contract roles at the NHS over the years and it was a real eye opener. Consultants being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds a week, some utterly shocking. One awful old bitch used to go up to people's desks with detritus and rubbish and say 'Darling could you put that in the bin?' Hundreds of thousands spent on 'hot desking' when the antiquated IT systems could barely cope. It needs a massive overhaul but I think most are too institutionalised, it will never change.

I have had similar with seeing a GP for mental health. The GP I have now is very good, but I remember the first GP I went to because of my anxiety, I told her one of my problems was phone anxiety and I couldn’t make phone calls. She gave me a leaflet for the local mental health services and told me to ring them

 

[LittleMy]

When I was overdue with my first baby, I was booked in to be induced. My waters broke around midnight and I was in intense pain, so much that I couldn’t do anything but shuffle around the little curtained area around my bed. I couldn’t lie down, I couldn’t sit, nothing. The midwives on the ward basically did nothing for me, kept fobbing me off with codeine. I’d been violently sick in the bathroom, couldn’t keep water down, and it wasn’t until my partner was allowed in at 9am the next morning that anything was done.

I was shivering, I felt ill, I even told him that I thought I was dying. He kept on at the midwives to do something else for me but because I was only 3 cm dilated they wouldn’t take me to the delivery suite or give me anything else for the pain. Eventually one midwife took pity and lied that I was at 4cm just so I could go to the delivery suite. Once there I was put on gas and air immediately, then when they realised I was burning up they were doing everything they could to lower my temp. I had drips in, IV antibiotics, ice packs all over my body and a fan pointed at me the entire time.

I got to 8 cm dilated but by that point my heart rate was through the roof and baby’s oxygen levels had dropped. I was taken to theatre and put under GA to have my baby cut out of me. I am so glad that the night shift staff acted so quickly in getting me to theatre for the c-section because if they hadn’t my baby wouldn’t have made it. He had to be resuscitated at birth and was very poorly for the first couple of weeks of his life. It turns out that I had developed sepsis while I was in labour. I still blame those midwives for leaving me all night after my waters had gone and doing nothing to help me.

Luckily the rest of my experiences with the NHS have all been fairly positive. When they get it right, they really do, but when they fail it can be devastating. I don’t agree with putting them on a pedestal either. As a healthcare worker myself (not NHS) they are not all angels.

 

[nurseren]

I’m an ICU nurse. I have worked in the NHS since 2007; I started as a kitchen girl, then a cleaner, then a healthcare, then a nurse. Being a nurse is the entire core of my being and I am so proud. However last week my Grandpa was admitted to my A&E in my hospital and discharged home with stomach flu. He died 24hrs later.

I’ve lodged a huge complaint against my Trust, the GMC and the NMC. I was with him and asked for XYZ, and said was it ABC. Was told I was worrying. Turned out I wasn’t.

I handed in my notice today. Granted I’m moving from the area, but I can’t work for them anymore.

 

[Notorious PIG]

I had lots of great experiences with the NHS but when I had the biggest problem of my life, I couldn’t help but feel let down.

For 13 years, starting when I was 24/25, I had an excruciatingly painful condition in my face, which required brain surgery. I spent 10 of those years under the NHS, being fobbed off by about 25 per cent of doctors (especially my gp, who was incredibly nasty and dismissive towards me) who dealt with me, made to feel like a time waster, an inconvenience, a burden, and no closer to getting the brain surgery I desperately needed. Their MRI scans (multiple over the years) showed nothing wrong, so I was put on cocktail of hardcore painkillers for ten years that didn’t work very well, just made me fat and tired.

So after those years under the NHS, I met my husband, who got me private/semi private health care in the US and in Belgium. Single MRI scans in both countries immediately showed exactly what was wrong and I was offered surgery within a month of first consultations (I had to stop treatment in the US as we moved to Belgium). I was also never treated like dirt at any point.

In 2019 I had my brain surgery under the Belgian system, and have my life back again. I’m pain free, slim again, not tired all the time, take no painkillers whatsoever and if I want to have a healthy baby I have that option. I will never get all those years back that I lost, but I am pain free now and I just can’t believe how lucky I’ve been. I have a large scar on my head but I wear it with both pride and gratitude.

I’m happy that NHS treatment works out great for others. But personally, I hope I never have to deal with them again. I need 100 per cent support along the whole way.

 

[gingerteacup]

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.

I can respect your opinion, but I do not think nurses are paid enough. But yes, wholeheartedly agree, this glorification of them needs to stop.

 

[bowtiesarecool]

My birth experience wasn't great to be honest...

I was 2 weeks overdue so got booked in to be induced. Went in at 8am... by 10am by waters had been broken with the knitting needles but babba was in no hurry to make an exit, so by 11.30am I was given the IV hormone to induce the labour.

By 3.30/4pm-ish I was in full blown labour - had pethidine which was useless so made do with gas and air. My midwife was awful - she was determined that I was gonna give birth before she finished her shift at 5pm (she even openly said this) and cranked up the hormone admittance. She was telling me to push when I wasn't in contraction. I was crying, telling her I couldn't push but she was adamant.

Anyhow... baby didn't come before the end of her shift (HA!), a new midwife (and poor trainee) took over, and baby arrived at 6pm. By this point I had a 3rd degree tear (likely due to pushing out of contraction). It took them 3 hrs to decide I needed surgery (during which I was still losing blood), at which point my poor husband was left on his own with a 3hr old baby. I had to have surgery, performed by a pregnant surgeon (who probably had nightmares over what was to come!). Oh and they forgot to put a catheter in for surgery so on the way back to the ward I unknowingly pissed myself as for the surgery I'd been given a spinal block so couldn't feel a thing.

Came back to the ward around 10.30pm to a very freaked out husband, who had been left in charge of a newborn without being checked upon once (luckily she had slept... they think the pethidine knocked her out). After being changed from the pissy incident, I was then left with my newborn until 6am by myself - baring in mind I'd had a spinal block so couldn't move.

My nether regions were knackered from the birth, and it took seeing 4 doctors over 6 months to be referred for physiotherapy. Physio told me that to have another child would increase the pelvic damage - but after that birth experience, it was never gonna happen again.

11 years later - well, I can't sneeze/laugh too hard or drink too much alcohol as I have a tendency to pee myself.

Basically my experience was the one the books don't tell you

 

[Gemz27]

Worst was my first born. They were understaffed massively, midwife kept disappearing. I'd been in labour 21 hours, I'd been pushing for 2 and a half hours with the midwife dipping in and out. After baby finally came out, she was absolutely huge and my vagina was mashed!! She said she needed to stitch me quick as was very busy, she bodged me bad and I was screaming in pain, when asked why it was hurting so much she said it does take a while for anaesthetic to work but she didn't have time to wait. I then had a blood clot after and a doctor who was wiping his snooty nose on his sleeve told me to stop being dramatic while he torn my stitches and put his arm up me to remove the blood clot. I literally wanted to die and felt like I meant absoloutely nothing to them.

Good - my 2nd and 3rd, they were fab. My 3rd was a planned c section as I produce gigantic babies and I was so scared, I burst into tears when I walked in theatre and everybody downed tools and came over reassuring me etc and put me right at ease, the care was fantastic and I felt like an actual person with feelings rather than how I felt with my first.

 

[tskiry56]

The NHS saved mine and my sister’s life nearly 33 years ago when we were born 11 weeks early! I had a collapsed lung which they only discovered when my sister pulled a breathing tube out which set the machines off so they checked on us and realised my lung had collapsed and I had a brain haemorrhage !!

The NHS also helped me just over four years ago when I used to work for them.
I had walked into work after dropping my son off to nursery with blood dripping from my head. I sat at my desk but couldn’t hide the truth anymore and broke down and told my colleagues my then partner had attacked me.
My colleagues took me to A&E where my head was steri stripped. If I didn’t go to work that day or go into A&E I never would of left an abuser or admitted the truth to anyone.

I was grateful that while I worked for the NHS I was able to be there and see both my grandparents while they were very poorly. I went to see my grandad after work and later that night/next morning he passed away.

Although there can be a lot of negativity surrounding the NHS I’ll be very grateful for them giving me the chance to live.

 

[MrsJones83]

Most of my family have worked for the NHS at some point (we live near a big teaching hospital) and I’d be one of their biggest supporters, but they really failed my son.

He was only 13 months old so he couldn’t tell me what was wrong. He had a fever but no obvious symptoms, after a few days his fever was reaching 41 degrees so took him to the GP, checked him over but they said he was fine “probably just a virus”, keep alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen.

As soon as medicine wore off his fever would peak at 40 degrees again, he turned a really nasty grey colour so I took him to out of hours, “he’s fine, just a virus”. I was adamant he wasn’t fine, so I took him back to the GP. “He’s fine”.

After a really, really bad night, after 10 days of a 40 degree fever, I took him to A&E. We were there for about 11 hours, they took bloods & swabs, took urine, then sent us home with antibiotics for an ear infection. They said to call them directly if he didn’t improve in 2-3 days:

3 days later he still hadn’t improved, so I called them. They got his notes up and told me to bring him in ASAP. The markers in his blood showed he had Sepsis. Nobody had checked his results until now.

He was in for 4 days on IV antibiotics, it turned out he had a urine infection which had been left untreated, and he now has permanent kidney damage from the infection. He goes for checks up on his kidney function every 6 months (kidney function should be 50/50, his are 57/43). One is much smaller than the other due to scar tissue.

Moral of the story- trust your instinct, if you think something isn’t right, keep pushing.

 

[Youre a wizard Harry]

After being in and out of hospital for several weeks with a mystery virus which caused a lump, my mum was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She had a pet scan, was told it hadn’t spread and was told what type of chemo she’d be having and how long the treatment was likely to take. She started making plans for being off work and other preparations. A couple of weeks went by and she still hadn’t been told when her treatment would be starting. The consultant called her back to hospital and told her it was highly likely she didn’t have cancer and it was a virus. They denied telling her that she had it, instead saying they had said it was a possibility. A week later it was confirmed that she didn’t have cancer.

She was traumatised by the whole experience, and several years on is scared of having further tests when she goes to the doctors in case the same thing happens again.

However, the care she received whilst in hospital prior to the misdiagnosis was great and on the whole I do think the NHS is fantastic.

 

[90sGal]

Being made to eat cornflakes the morning after having tonsils out. And not being discharged until I had. Didn't matter that I sat sobbing. The nurse kept filling my bowl with fresh cornflakes until I ate. I refused.

Had planned C section at 10.30 in the morning and the consultant saw me mid afternoon and gave me some more pain killers. He said if you need more in the night please ask. There is no need to be in pain and have updated your notes to say you can have more he told me. Night midwife refused. Said the consultant was too busy as was in surgery (I assume they need it to be authorised and given by then) it was a looooong night. I've got quite a high pain threshold but by 3am I managed to get out of bed and slowly walk to.find her. I was sobbing. Anyone that has had a C section knows its painful!? Especially in first 24 hrs. Midwife basically grabbed me by the elbow and marched me back to bed. Said ill get you some paracetamol. New shift came on at 7.30 and within 20 minutes I was dosed up. They drew the curtains round me said they would do the next feed and for me to get some sleepThey said the Midwife was wrong. I should have complained.

1st baby was during the 'we won't speak to you about bottle feeding' era . My boy wouldn't feed properly. I had a 3rd degree tear and post op didn't even produce any colostrum. He lost weight wouldn't feed we ended up being in hospital for 5 days. I had all and sundry pull my boobs and squeeze me to get him to feed. I was treated like some kind of meat. Anyway 4th day midwife said to me I shouldn't be telling you this but maybe try a small bottle of milk. We did...he guzzled it down and we didn't look back. 5th day due to be discharged blood results finally returned. Said I needed a transfusion. I refused just wanted out of that place. Felt like an absolute failure and struggled to bond with my boy for a while.

Thanks for listening xx

 

[eyeballs]

I have started working for the NHS 3 months ago, before that police for 15 years.
I cannot believe how disorganised it is. The technology is dated, so understaffed, the pay is terrible, literally zero training, so easy for mistakes to be made. I am embarrassed to be working for the NHS, but I just do the job I’m paid to do best I can and leave.

 

[Blurp]

My friend of many years died last year. She had excruciating back and shoulder pain for months, couldn't sit, couldn't lie, couldn't eat, but the GP refused to see her because of Covid-19 and just kept prescribing paracetamol over the phone. Eventually she lost her voice and her husband kicked up enough of a fuss that she was sent to ENT where they found that she had secondary cancer. She died about a month after that. The doctor appeared at the house in the middle of the night at the request of the police to certify her death but he couldn't actually be bothered to see her when she was alive.

In contrast, I live just over the county border and my gp surgery saw me when I had terrible stomach pain, albeit in full protective gear. On the other hand, the secondary care in my area is far more crap than hers.

 

[Notworthy]

How is this acceptable in 2021 ! Is disgusting. The NHS desperately needs reform, if it collapses it is nothing to do with covid. That's just their convenient cover story
There is plenty of money to be spent, just in the right places. They need to be giving out attractive grants and pay to staff the NHS properly. Build more hospitals. There will be some cost to get it to running properly. Bring in business men without any alterier motive apart from making the NHS a success so everyone gets the care they deserve
Im very grateful to have the NHS but just looking at this thread people are being let down and worst off traumatised and bereaved.

Pay is not the issue, unaccountability is the issue, nurses have to work hard because too many on their team are getting away with sitting sround doing nothing so the ones who care work twice as hard to cover. I learned the hard way that giving people a payrise doesn't mean they work harder, if they're lazy, you're just paying out more money for the same shit. Accountability and the ability to sack people for being drunk/high/incompetent/lazy/dishonest, you know all those reasons people lose their jobs in the private sector. Once that happens then we can talk better pay.

 

[jstrawberry1234]

When my dad was ill with cancer he was in hospital multiple times with multiple problems before he died. He had a DNR put in place without speaking to any of the family about this. Apparently he consented to it even though he was completely out of it with sepsis and didn’t even know what day it was. They didn’t wash him properly just a wipe down with a flannel despite sometimes he was there for up to 6 weeks. They also sent him home the Friday before a bank holiday Monday (presumably trying to clear the wards) without doing any checks. This lead to him being at home despite being very immobile and they never checked to see whether he could climb the stairs. My 5’2 mum had to try and carry my 6’2 dad up the stairs with help from me (19 at the time) and my sister (16 at the time).