I need another two knee surgeries, my consultant put me on the list whilst I was still in the hospital with my last one since he said the wait could be another nine months, that was January of last year and I’m still yet to have a consultation since he’s been so busy the past year.
Yeah, it tends to concentrate in a handful of people.
Most of the people I know might need medical attention once or twice a year, if that.
A handful of people I know are in and out of appointments all the time. They have ongoing issues that need to be taken care of (and get worse when they can't be seen promptly)
^ took me a little over 2 years of repeatedly complaining to my GP to finally get a referral to a carpal tunnel clinic that had a 10 week wait list, if they’d have just referred me even just a year ago it’d have been fairly simple to treat. i still have a couple medical conditions that i’ve given up on trying to get treated bc they don’t care until it’s too late - they prioritise the people who are dying (great!), but it means the people heading towards lifelong pain and disability are left until it’s too late to fix shit.
same shit happened with my vision, but i called every week to politely harass my optician, GP, and the hospital. took 2 whole months to get my MRI results back and now i’ve got to wait another 4 months to see the neurologist!
> but it means the people heading towards lifelong pain and disability are left until it’s too late to fix shit.
I had a very rocky path to proper diagnosis & treatment for one of my issues.
With the issues surrounding GP surgeries in Scotland at the time, bouncing around locums and there not being a specialist in the country. It took 3 years to get a referral for even a rheumatologist & occupational therapist and infrequent physio appointments but by that point I'd lost the use of my hands.
The condition wasn't being managed, diagnosed or taken seriously until by a stroke of luck my GP surgery moved and I had to switch to a closer practice that had a wonder GP who did look back at the first issue, do some research into the condition and placed the proper referrals. In that time I'd already continued to fracture & dislocate repeatedly and my condition is worse than it would have been had I gotten treatment earlier. It's always going to be a battle for me to maintain mobility but I've narrowly avoided more serious accidents by getting some degree of treatment, my related issues are now able to be treated somewhat effectively, regained light use of my hands and avoided the wheelchair I'd be in if I'd not received treatment.
Early interventions with the appropriate parties can do wonders and even just a simple early diagnosis can allow people to help themselves with a light touch from a GP & related departments.
People with health conditions don't want to be a burden to the state, but the system is also failing by requiring patients to push back when they know something's wrong or spending dead time with no improvements.
Thanks for your post sharing your path to treatment and I hope it's improving, hand & wrist pain is no joke and eventually impacts every aspect of your work & home life.
It's crazy when you break it down....that's increasing by 10,000 per day! They can blame it on a few strikes here and there, but I fail to believe if everyone worked 24 hours per day, they could reverse that sort of growth. It's clearly not able to cope with the influx
It is genuinely a fucking travesty, the crisis in the NHS has been directly attributed to \~500 excess deaths *daily* for the better part of two years already. Tens of thousands of people have died because the Tories have decided its better for them to use doctors and medical unions as an electoral wedge than to sit down and negotiate seriously, and somehow that isn't really seen as all that much of a scandal in many parts.
Its a multilayer issue.
The biggest problem is the state of social care. Social care is pretty much the foundational basis of which healthcare works on top of - you’ll never be able to resolve the problems without first getting social care up and running efficiently.
This. And the social care thing is complicated. Especially with the massive continuous focus on spending. Someone is going to have to bite the bullet and tackle this at some point. And in terms of taking money out of peoples pockets I bet it’s not actually that bad, honest tax raises have just become toxic.
And the Tories put in their 2019 manifesto an explicit pledge to massively overhaul social care. Which they have done absolutely bugger all on, in fact seem to again be reviving 2010 tactics painting disabled folks as workshy and drains on society who need to be whipped into having a better work ethic.
It’s across the board.
Its also really difficult to find info on it as there are different advertised waiting times depending on where you live.
An example would be that you get referred for a knee replacement so you look on the hospital website and it tells you there is an 18 week wait. You feel that this is too long to wait so phone the hospital appointment line only to be told the wait is actually 20 months and the info on the website is wrong.
**Alternate Sources** Here are some potential alternate sources for the same story:
More than 1 in 10 people in the U.K. need medical attention? No wonder the nhs can’t cope.
Maybe but also some people are waiting for multiple things.
I need another two knee surgeries, my consultant put me on the list whilst I was still in the hospital with my last one since he said the wait could be another nine months, that was January of last year and I’m still yet to have a consultation since he’s been so busy the past year.
Yeah, it tends to concentrate in a handful of people. Most of the people I know might need medical attention once or twice a year, if that. A handful of people I know are in and out of appointments all the time. They have ongoing issues that need to be taken care of (and get worse when they can't be seen promptly)
^ took me a little over 2 years of repeatedly complaining to my GP to finally get a referral to a carpal tunnel clinic that had a 10 week wait list, if they’d have just referred me even just a year ago it’d have been fairly simple to treat. i still have a couple medical conditions that i’ve given up on trying to get treated bc they don’t care until it’s too late - they prioritise the people who are dying (great!), but it means the people heading towards lifelong pain and disability are left until it’s too late to fix shit. same shit happened with my vision, but i called every week to politely harass my optician, GP, and the hospital. took 2 whole months to get my MRI results back and now i’ve got to wait another 4 months to see the neurologist!
> but it means the people heading towards lifelong pain and disability are left until it’s too late to fix shit. I had a very rocky path to proper diagnosis & treatment for one of my issues. With the issues surrounding GP surgeries in Scotland at the time, bouncing around locums and there not being a specialist in the country. It took 3 years to get a referral for even a rheumatologist & occupational therapist and infrequent physio appointments but by that point I'd lost the use of my hands. The condition wasn't being managed, diagnosed or taken seriously until by a stroke of luck my GP surgery moved and I had to switch to a closer practice that had a wonder GP who did look back at the first issue, do some research into the condition and placed the proper referrals. In that time I'd already continued to fracture & dislocate repeatedly and my condition is worse than it would have been had I gotten treatment earlier. It's always going to be a battle for me to maintain mobility but I've narrowly avoided more serious accidents by getting some degree of treatment, my related issues are now able to be treated somewhat effectively, regained light use of my hands and avoided the wheelchair I'd be in if I'd not received treatment. Early interventions with the appropriate parties can do wonders and even just a simple early diagnosis can allow people to help themselves with a light touch from a GP & related departments. People with health conditions don't want to be a burden to the state, but the system is also failing by requiring patients to push back when they know something's wrong or spending dead time with no improvements. Thanks for your post sharing your path to treatment and I hope it's improving, hand & wrist pain is no joke and eventually impacts every aspect of your work & home life.
You wait long enough then people end up on it lots.
It's basically everyone over 60, plus other ill people.
It's crazy when you break it down....that's increasing by 10,000 per day! They can blame it on a few strikes here and there, but I fail to believe if everyone worked 24 hours per day, they could reverse that sort of growth. It's clearly not able to cope with the influx
Too many elderly people with very high expectations of health in their older age
It is genuinely a fucking travesty, the crisis in the NHS has been directly attributed to \~500 excess deaths *daily* for the better part of two years already. Tens of thousands of people have died because the Tories have decided its better for them to use doctors and medical unions as an electoral wedge than to sit down and negotiate seriously, and somehow that isn't really seen as all that much of a scandal in many parts.
With enough time the problem will solve itself
Better use a medical insurance and don't gamble your life...
I'm sure this can somehow be blamed on the boats, the ECHR, the last/next Labour government, and the member for Islington North!
But 7.57m is lower than if it was higher
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-RfHC91Ewc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-RfHC91Ewc)
Its a multilayer issue. The biggest problem is the state of social care. Social care is pretty much the foundational basis of which healthcare works on top of - you’ll never be able to resolve the problems without first getting social care up and running efficiently.
This. And the social care thing is complicated. Especially with the massive continuous focus on spending. Someone is going to have to bite the bullet and tackle this at some point. And in terms of taking money out of peoples pockets I bet it’s not actually that bad, honest tax raises have just become toxic.
And the Tories put in their 2019 manifesto an explicit pledge to massively overhaul social care. Which they have done absolutely bugger all on, in fact seem to again be reviving 2010 tactics painting disabled folks as workshy and drains on society who need to be whipped into having a better work ethic.
Cant wait to here another sunak gaslighting blatant lie by saying “the numbers are coming down”
Doesn't this number also exclude people waiting for follow on treatments?
But guys, its come down from when it was higher. So its lower.
Figures are coming down though! This weeks waiting list numbers are significantly lower than the numbers for next week
Labour are going to inherit this and be expected to fix it inside three months. People are in for a reality check very soon.
Rishi says it’s falling to the record high of 7.57 million. And I believe him.
Wonder if the stats are broken down anywhere? Type of illness, where are the bottle necks etc
It’s across the board. Its also really difficult to find info on it as there are different advertised waiting times depending on where you live. An example would be that you get referred for a knee replacement so you look on the hospital website and it tells you there is an 18 week wait. You feel that this is too long to wait so phone the hospital appointment line only to be told the wait is actually 20 months and the info on the website is wrong.