The shambolic state of the NHS

You may already know that the NHS is in a shambolic state. I do. Especially after the way they NHS have treated me lately. To explain how I feel, I am going to quote one of my latest Facebook statuses.

When I first went to the doctors, the doctor essentially turned me down and just prescribed me ibuprofen. She didn't even listen to all of my symptoms. She heard the word headache, gave me pain killer and then told me to get an eye test and then essentially told me to fuck off. So I did, I got an eye test, and that went fine - my eyes have got slightly, but not much worse. 

After my eye test, I feel better for a week. Ok then, I’m getting better then. Clearly not. The next week I became ill again, same old headache shit. This was two weeks before half term, and so I was hoping that I would be better by half term. How wrong I was, I was ill over half term and also on the first week back to school. I then went to the doctors, this time getting a much better doctor. He checked my blood pressure, my eyes, and my heart, all fine. He then asked if I wanted referral to Good Hope Hospital for a second opinion, ok then, I thought, good idea. 

So, over the next week, the headaches start occurring less and with less severity. I thought great, I'm getting better. It's like, I am still getting headaches now - and they certainly aren’t as bad and aren’t occurring as much as they were. Sometimes the painkiller works and sometimes it doesn't work, sometimes just having a drink with caffeine works. However, I am still experiencing other symptoms. Anyway, last Friday, I received a letter from my GP about the hospital referral, telling me how to book an appointment. Well, so I go to book an appointment and they gave me three options - Good Hope, City Hospital and Sandwell General. All three are fully booked and I have a minimum 15 week wait until I can get an appointment. 

The NHS is being destroyed, it's being starved of funding, people who need to get hospital appointments are unable to (and, in some cases, doctors appointments too). This needs to be sorted, and fast, because it's not fair. People have to suffer with increased anxiety because they are worrying about their health and can't be seen to.

As you can see, just from my story, that the NHS is in a terrible state - it's being starved of funding, waiting times are too high, and some of their doctors don't actually care about their patients. This needs to change, and quickly, because otherwise the NHS will be irreversibly damaged - and we don't wan't that, do we?