By Elliott Patrice – 

In my opinion, there has been a drastic downturn in the care the NHS can offer for the people of Kirklees.

Since the pandemic in 2020 and the country slipping into recession in early 2023, from my perspective, the quality of the service provided by the NHS has become the worst it has ever been.

This article will aim to explore this feeling and look at whether it is a fair opinion to have.

I’ll start by detailing the incident that brought this idea to the forefront of my mind, then look at how statistics look on the quality of the service. Then finally looking to speak to others about their experiences to see if this is something going on across Kirklees.

Back at the start of 2024 in February, my mother began having pains in her side. She went to the pharmacy due to a UTI but wasn’t given a DIP test. She was feeling extremely sick and after speaking with the pharmacist, an appointment ended with her finally being prescribed antibiotics to fight what they thought might be a UTI/water infection. After being given just a three-day treatment of antibiotics, she went back for the follow-up appointment in March 5th after the antibiotics ran out, but she was extremely weak and began violently shaking. After getting to the doctors, she was sent straight to the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

The infection had progressed and made its way into the kidneys. When she arrived at the A & E, she was told of an 18-hour waiting time, but was seen fairly quickly in Triage and examination. She was finally seen, but after being placed on a drip, told she would be admitted and given some information on what was going to happen, she was shipped back out to the waiting room. Now with a drip, she sat waiting for hours, first for two hours in a cubicle, but it was needed and she was back out in the waiting room. It wasn’t until late that night she was given a bed on 8 ward acute care around 10.30 pm. Where the care was fairly good. Nurses would ask if you needed anything, and they would tell you when they would be back. I mean most of the time they would be late, but they would get to the request. With how busy they all were it wasn’t at all a problem. We could all see how busy each nurse was.

On March 6th my mum was given a CT scan that showed swollen kidneys and kidney stones had formed due to the infection, so had to have Bilateral Stents fitted in surgery. Then my mother was moved to a different ward. Ward 22 urology. This is where all the main issues began rearing their head again. The nurses were rude and completely behind in their responsibilities. The ward was not nearly as clean as the other ward. My mum asked for some painkillers in the morning and it wasn’t until 4 pm that someone asked again and she was provided with some. In fact, she was only ever provided painkillers if she requested them, if not nurses would not provide them. Which I found to be extremely concerning.

The staff on the ward were mostly polite but very busy and less attentive. Two of the four nurses were students and after the surgery, she had to have a catheter fitted. After repeated attempts to get it looked at due to the pain she was experiencing, was ignored until later in the evening at 5.30 am 8th March. it turned out the catheter had been placed in wrongly, causing damage to the bladder and now they had to
wait for the swelling to go down. Leading to two extra days in hospital. On top of this the catheter was in for a day and a half longer than it was meant to do because nurses were not communicating and they couldn’t confirm whether it was or wasn’t meant to be removed. Instead of mentioning this to my mum, they just let her suffer. It wasn’t until she complained to the doctor that she was actually provided the care she needed.

Recently our local GP, the NHS Newsome Surgery recently implemented a one consultation, one problem policy, along with other One Problem per patient policies across the country. It’s a sign that GPs and the NHS are struggling with providing its community with enough appointments. Sometimes issues are interconnected and neglecting one thing to talk about another might lead to misdiagnosis and inaction on necessary problems.

This was just my mother’s experience though, arguably nothing would have been good enough in my eyes and I can’t separate my bias. So I thought I’d explore this further by looking at statistics, and then speaking to others in the community to see if they have had similar issues.

First looking at the experience people are having at GP’s you can see the massive drop off in how easy people are finding it. Since 2021 the percentage that found it not easy has doubled from 7% to 14%, with those that found it easy dropping from 83% to 72% in 2022 and 71% in 2023. With twice as many people finding it more difficult to deal with their GPs. It’s also harder to get through on the phone with 50% of people finding it difficult to get through on the phone down from 68% in 2021.

In terms of A&E, the way people have scored it out of ten has dropped since 2020. With 33% of people giving A&E a ten out of ten, dropping down to 23% of people in 2022. With people giving zero out of ten quadrupling from 1% up to 4%. A small percentage when viewed in isolation, but when comparing it against previous years, it’s definitely obvious that the quality of the A&E service is getting worse for people who experience it.

Also looking at these stats on waiting times shows you that more people are feeling they are having to wait too long. 41% of elective patients said their health deteriorated while waiting to be admitted to the hospital, though 51% said their health remained the same and 18% of respondents felt they had to wait ‘far too long’ to get to a bed on a ward after admission, which has increased significantly compared to 2021 (15%) and 2020 (8%), representing a 10- percentage point increase over 2 years.

These are just stats, they don’t show what people are actually thinking and feeling about the NHS. So let’s look at what people in the community have to say about their experiences with GPs and the NHS.

“I have no complaints only good things to say. Last year I went to see a consultant to discuss an issue I had. A genetic slow clawing of the hands. After the appointment, I had my surgery in under a month, the Follow-up appointment was excellent. Presently, my husband is awaiting allergy immunity suppressant testing.”

“I think what we need to remind ourselves is that it’s not Amazon Prime nor is it a command and demand service. I know the general feeling that ‘I paid in all my life I’m entitled etc.’ The reality is you don’t put in a fraction of what you take out. Every GP appointment etc. It’s sadly us the users who abuse the system People No longer take responsibility for themselves, I personally think if you don’t attend a GP appointment on time or cancel last minute, you should serve a penalty of 12 days from when you ring up. What I’m saying is when it’s serious or life-threatening it acts and quickly.”- Beverley Smith

“My experience of the Mount Pleasant Mediac Centre (MPMC) is that it’s the worst service. For appointments, they ask people to call at 8.00 clock in the Morning and when you call, even at 8 o’clock as they request, at the bare minimum you are waiting 30/35 minutes to get through. I try 3/4 times and it’s at least 30/40 minutes before I can get through to someone. Only to hear that I don’t get an appointment and I am told to ring again tomorrow.”

“On Tuesday 16/4/24 I went and booked an appointment, the lady booked me in and I got a text message confirming the appointment at 19.15pm at MPMC. I went there and the surgery was closed, I still have the text for proof. In the end, they admitted the mistake, but this was too much inconvenience for a patient and caused me trouble. Reception staff think they are doctors themselves and have more power than
doctors the way they act sometimes.”- A Patel

“After 2 NHS England investigations into the death of my partner, the case is now being investigated by the Parliamentary Health Ombudsman. the death of a previously very healthy man who, after a sports injury. He attended three hospitals and his GP (when granted appointments) over a period of 3 months. He died suddenly and tragically less than 48 hours after attending his GP surgery. He was told again and again that there was nothing wrong.”

“As it is they work at a glacial pace which is part of the problem. There is certainly an unwillingness to review practice and make any analysis of what went wrong and you have to be extremely brave and tenacious to pursue any complaint. The unwillingness to address when things go wrong and how the system does everything it can to make the complaints process as difficult as possible. It‘s now almost 2 years since my partner‘s death and they still haven’t come up with an appropriate explanation. If you’re not articulate and can’t use technology, you‘ve no chance!”- Anonymous

“Nothing is guaranteed anymore. My neighbour’s father suffered a stroke last year. He’s gone in an ambulance to A&E Dewsbury Hospital that night. He was told to sit in a hospital plastic chair & wait. Patients strewn in corridors waiting to be seen. They eventually left, the morning after, as it was too difficult to bare. God knows if he’s suffered another stroke which is common after the first one. Drastic Cuts to funding is the main cause of the collapse of our once wonderful NHS. As it is the cause of everything else around us. Nigel Farage urged Brexit. He promised over £390million would be available and given to the NHS yearly, if we left Europe. Ha!”

“We had to take my child to Dewsbury for appendicitis. Taken in straight away, great I thought. Did usual obs. But then injected my child with morphine! Forced off the stretcher after 4 hours of waiting, to make way for another patient. Creased over in a chair for a further 5 hours before we got seen by a doctor 9 hours later. Told it’s going to be a long day and waiting to shift over to Pinderfields for a scan. There are no facilities available at Dewsbury. We waited 18 hours before the transfer. Didn’t do the scan at Pinderfields till the next day! I was in shock as well as grateful I must admit.”- KK

“I think our NHS is great. Someone close to me had a stroke last Sunday. I drove them immediately to Huddersfield A&E and explained I thought they had had a stroke and within minutes they had been seen and moved to resuscitation as a precautionary measure whilst the initial treatment was underway. We were discharged that night with a 9 am appointment at Calderdale which confirmed a stroke and established ongoing treatment. The hospital was great, the hardest bit was getting past the GP receptionist to start their ongoing care.” – Anonymous

These are just a selection of some of the views and opinions that were shared with me. One of the things that was brought up a lot is the lack of funding to the NHS. People were quick to defend the good doctors and nurses who work so hard and some people, had excellent experiences of the whole system, but most agreed funding played a part in the reason for their bad service.

The recent rise in NHS funding (£3.3bn) was well short of the £7bn sum that NHS England said was necessary to cope with inflation and the cost of living crisis. Less than half of NHS England suggested was needed. The unfunded cost of delayed repairs to England’s hospitals has increased from £4.7bn in 2012 to £12bn in 2023. The 2023 budget failed to provide for this backlog. Buildings with Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete are now dangerously unsafe. This was brought to the country’s attention back in September 2023 when the Government had to close 147 schools across the country due to fears of their collapse, due to unsafe building materials being used in Britain’s schools.

Public health budgets have been cut by 24% on a real terms per person basis since 2015/16. 82% of the public believe that funding should be increased, primarily through taxation. Just 10% agree with current government NHS policies. There have also been recent talks about GP strikes due to the contact change.

GP leaders at the BMA have written to NHS England to say they are entering into a dispute with them over changes to the service GMS contract for 2024/25. “This contract dispute One of the main areas of concern for patient care is around the ongoing difficulties GPs have in recruiting more family doctors. Practices already have access to a funding pot that lets them hire more staff, but not GPs. The contract could have changed this. This would also have helped relieve cases of locum and salaried doctor unemployment across the country.” British Medical Association.

So what does all this mean, when it comes to the question stated in the title of this article? Is the NHS ok? Seemingly not, although not everyone has a bad experience with the NHS. Most will admit it’s not as good as it used to be, not even that long ago. Funding cuts have played a massive part in this. People do expect a lot from the NHS and there are elements of the system that have been abused, but this doesn’t quite explain how bad it has gotten. Funding is severely important, but is it too late? Has the system past the point of no return? My opinion is that it can still be saved, and with the right funding can be something our country is truly proud of, but with the way the government runs in this country makes me think this is more and more unlikely.

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