How do you rate the NHS?

How do you rate our NHS? It’s a tricky one isn’t it? I know people who have had some fantastic experiences in NHS hospitals – myself included. On the flip side, I also know several people who have not had such a great time at the hands of the NHS – again, I can include myself in this number.

Overall, I really don’t like to knock the NHS. In most of my 21, ok almost 30 years, I have received great care – fast appointments, correct and effective treatment, and caring and professional staff. I know we all moan about the cost of prescriptions, but really I think that most of us tend to forget what a huge amount of money the NHS puts into giving us FREE healthcare.

If you have read my children’s birth stories you will know how grateful we are for the wonderful NHS special care baby units. Without their care and support, my children might not be here today. But not everything was so rosy for me on the maternity and antenatal side. Due to understaffing, poor communication and pure lack of experience, the birth of Gemma was traumatic, terrifying and left me with post traumatic stress disorder. I won’t go into details, but let me just say that it was far from perfect.

That’s why I can’t say I was surprised to see a survey recently that showed that medical negligence claims have risen by 80% in the last 6 years. Now, I am by no means a fan of the recent ‘compensation culture’ but I do believe that claims should be encouraged where there is a genuine case to be answered. With more than half of the people surveyed in this study also saying they would seek private care if they could afford to, are we losing faith in the NHS? With the expected medical negligence pay out hitting £22.7 billion pounds as a this year, I fear that might well be the case.

I recently came across an article that states the NHS spends £700 of negligence cover for every birth in the UK – this figure seems a disproportionately high amount – in fact almost a fifth of all spending in the maternity area. With a well reported shortage of midwives and consultants on maternity wards, could this figure be set to rise even higher? I really hope not.

Overall, I think the NHS rocks – without the input of SCBU and the very experienced and caring nurses and consultants, we could be living a very different life today. But there are flaws, there is room for improvement. Instead of cutting money to the NHS, the government should be ploughing more cash in – to training, recruiting and maintaining the very heart of healthcare.

I would love to know what you think – would you, or have you, ever claimed against the NHS? Have you had a good experience you would like to share?

* This post is written in association with First 4 Lawyers *

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4 Comments

  1. January 16, 2014 / 9:47 pm

    I have mixed feelings about the NHS!

    The hospital where my eldest was born missed her heart defect ….Our local hospital where I had my youngest was horrible! When I was having a c-section the numbness wore off…Since then I have been left with a bad back….They also missed my youngests heart defect too….It was only when she jammed her fingers in a door and had to have surgery they noticed her heart defect!! This was at a big hospital in Newcastle! I think if they had done the surgery on her fingers at our local one they would of missed it again!! It also took them 4 years to decide that my youngest is deaf in one ear….

    I’m not the NHS’s biggest fan but both my girls were well looked after when they had open heart surgery and if it wasn’t for that they would both be dead by their teenage years…

  2. January 17, 2014 / 3:41 pm

    I think that the NHS is a great thing for the UK and we’re lucky to have it, but it’s definitely broken and in need of a bandage. As a Solicitor I see a number of medical negligence claims every day and it’s really saddening to see how many people have been at the wrong hand of such a great institution. What we need is for the Government to stop cutting funding and give the NHS a boost for training and staff.

    Laura , Tilly, Bailey & Irvine

  3. June 7, 2014 / 4:41 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

  4. June 7, 2014 / 4:50 pm

    Hey,Awesome post.I’d like to share a little point with you.The key and just center of a NHS hospital ought to be to give medicine to patients on the NHS. We would be extremely concerned by any moves which would see business wanders, which are regularly going to be paramount for hospitals on the grounds that they have to utilize them to raise income, would basically bring about the consideration of the hospitals being detracted from the center reason – to treat patients in the UK and rather be centered around these hospitals abroad.Thank you so much!!
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