The NHS.
When I started working in the NHS many older users clearly remembered accessing healthcare before the creation of the NHS.
As I have got a bit older I have had to use A&E a couple of times in the last few years. Both times I have been in severe pain and required the strongest pain relief, investigations and follow up. Today I had a flare up of an existing condition. Due to the severity of symptoms, symptom relief was given very quickly, I had to then wait for some results and some other bits.
I was taken to large comfy waiting area, it was pretty quiet (for A&E), was warm but not stuffy and if you wanted you (and whoever was with you) could help yourself to hot and cold drinks and biscuits. To be honest I was quite off my head but enjoyed not being able to do anything.
You were kept an eye on by staff who were available if needed.
I sat surrounded by mostly people older than me and I could not get over the moaning and the rudeness.
They were sat chatting comfortably helping themselves to the free drinks/biscuits moaning about how awful it is to wait (are you ill? do you want the problem you attended with sorted?).
That other people were being seen first (clearly with different issues or by different teams)
About previous supposed mistakes (“When I was here last I popped out to vape and the nurse wrote I was out so they didn’t call me for three hours” – like did this person not think to notify anyone they were back or enquire when they felt they had waited too long??) that were just lack of ability to take responsibility themselves
About immigrants getting seen quicker (except the area is basically 100% white, everyone waiting was white and the staff actually working and helping patients appeared a mix of ethnicities)
That they were sat in chairs not beds (Nurse asks new admitted patient “is this chair okay?” “I suppose”)
Getting staff do strange things (“I need my catheter bag emptying” Nurse points patient to toilet, Patient says I cant do that, Nurse empties patient’s bag, patient then asks nurse where the toilet is so they can open their bowels and gets up walks themself there..?!?!)
Talking loudly to people on the phone/on speaker phone and complaining more (“the GP sent me up cos of my tummy troubles, I hate waiting” continues to chat and moan like they can’t just leave)
(Girl tells partner to stop talking so loudly on speakerphone to someone else “what do they expect Ive got ADHD and Autism”, she points out others people are probably feeling unwell “so, Ive got ADHD and Autism” put on sick voice disappears “right F this Im going out for a fag” partner points out he is there with a suspected “hole in his lung” “Yeah but I need a fag”)
I work in a similar setting.
its constant.
“those people were definitely here after us”
(yes but you are a grown adult with a frankly non urgent problem and thats a baby that has bad breathing)
Booking in, “so about 6 weeks ago…”
Have you contacted your GP? “no but I need it sorted now, its not gone away and Im on holiday next week”
Have you taken any pain relief for your pain? “no”
Okay, so you likely have a soft tissue problem.
“so am I not getting an xray?”
you don’t need one
“what so I have sat and waited for 5 hours for that?”
Yes, I have diagnosed your sprain (which you probably could have sorted yourself at home if you had tried ice, pain relief and elevation).
Obviously I get a lot of it is fear and anxiety and I have no issue with that but its the entitlement and rudeness.
The service is free at the point of access. Even contributions through personal taxes and NI are just a small proportion vs actual comparison of how much it would cost if we billed for everything. Sometimes a single layer of a small dressing might be £12.
Then there is staff time, rent, utilities, procedures, investigations, treatments.
I remember 10 years ago if you were admitted and were not British to the nhs hospital I worked in at the time a CT scan alone was nearly £300.
Its worth noting too that insurance won’t cover pre existing conditions. They might agree a partial cover but in the US people with diabetes die, for example.
Its also worth mentioning that the NHS has historically been really great at increasing life expectancy and keeping people alive. It can negotiate great deals on new drugs, undertake really good quality research and does treatment wise, innovate pretty well. Half of the people sat moaning would have not have made it to their older ages without the NHS.
We know there are institutional issues (maternity care/midstaffs etc) which can be devastating but those issues would be much worse in private settings where it would not be seen to be in the publics interest/financial interest to expose them and change and are not part of a larger public finded organisation.
I think there is a lot to consider before slating what happens at the “coal face” when people are trying their best for you with a lot less year on year…..