My experiences of the nhs : good and bad
* I received excellent care when I had my son. He was born a little premature and via C section. I had an excellent midwife “Bev” who really did a great job. I was assigned to Bev as soon as I was aware of the little urchin and I saw her at least every two weeks until he was a couple of months old. She provided continuity of care. I would not have been so happy if I had to chop and change and see lots of different people.
*My GP practice (consists of 4 doctors and 2 nurses) makes a promise to see you that same day if you ring by 12 noon. They have never failed and have always seen me almost immediately if I have rang about the urchin. My Mom’s practice is very different and a wait of 2 weeks for non emergency appointments is not unheard of.
*My Dad had laser eye surgery and was amazed with the results.
*My Mum is having carpal tunnel surgery on Tuesday and has not had to wait at all. However, she did have to wait around three years for a knee replacement.
* I got fed up waiting for ADHD diagnosis for the urchin (2 years) and after lots of complaining I eventually paid a private consultant. My MP complained on my behalf and this resulted in an investigation where my complaint was upheld. Since then, the service from CAMHS (child adolescent mental health services) has been very good. This gives me the impression that complaining is perhaps futile unless you have someone important in your corner.
*My sister died aged 28 when they failed to diagnose heart valve failure. She kept getting fobbed off at her GP’s when she went feeling poorly. Told her to go home, take some paracetamol. It was only when she was rushed to A&E that the problem was discovered. It was too late.
* They killed my Dad. Well, indirectly. He had bowel cancer, which was a very non aggressive type that would not likely kill him for 10 years. He went into hospital for a routine biopsy to check progress and caught C Diff. Oh he didn’t die immediately – but he never left hospital. He spent months in there, deteriorating, but finally left with a series of strokes. It would have been an almost guaranteed compensation claim. My Dad was vehemently opposed to claiming against an already stretched nhs service. He thought the principal was wrong. He said the nhs needed money going into it and thought the growing culture of claims to be wrong and greedy. He wasn’t being naive. He was a well read man and took an interest in politics. He was not a religious man, but a man of principal and he used to say you shouldn’t waiver your principals just because you smell cash!
I mention this as negligence claims on the nhs are becoming a problem.
Compensation paid to people whose illnesses were not spotted or were detected too late soared from £56 million in 2009-10 to more than £98 million in 2010-11.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9316982/NHS-compensation-to-misdiagnosed-patients-rises-to-98-million.htmlThat is just the figure for misdiagnosis. You have to take into account all the bungling scalpel slip up’s and the shortage of leeches. The total amount is a whopping:
NHS facing £15.7bn for rising number of clinical negligence claims
The NHS faces a £15.7 billion bill to settle a rising number of clinical negligence claims, a report by MPs disclosed last night.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9065534/NHS-facing-15.7bn-for-rising-number-of-clinical-negligence-claims.htmlThis is one seventh of the total health services annual budget.
I wonder if £15.7 bn would go a long way to fixing the broken nhs? It seems a crazy situation. Mostly, negligence claims are blamed on staff shortages and lack of resources. So if we spent this money rectifying the shortfall then surely there would not be such a need to claim compensation?
My reason for listing my experiences above is to illustrate just what a ‘lottery’ the nhs service provides. Facts and figures and graphs and data are useful but i think actual user experiences sometimes make understanding easier. As you will see services are so varied. You could receive excellent care in one dept, but a few miles away it could be really awful. If you require surgery – it might be next week or two years away. If you make a fuss and a big noise you might get seen quicker. You might not.
I have no reason to jump up and down and shout about how great the nhs is. It is clearly very broken, but I have seen it in worse condition.
For me, I believe in the founding principles of the nhs. Absolutely. Therefore I am glad we have one. Albeit broken. No matter how mismanaged it gets it will always be worth persuing. It is worth saving.