None of this is the fault of the staff who do their best under extreme stress. The fault lies in the overly bureaucratic framework it operates in. The Scottish Household Survey revealed that in 2024, just 61% of Scots said they were satisfied with the quality of health care received.
I am one of the 39% who is not satisfied. From the continuing struggle to get GP appointments to my partner waiting over two years for a kidney removal procedure – my complaints are numerous.
Forever waiting on a doctor
From waiting six plus hours to see a doctor in A&E, to the endless struggle to speak to a GP, it is soul destroying. You call your GP practice at 8am in the morning in lots of pain, desperate to be seen by a doctor. Your heart sinks as you are placed at 10th place in a queue. If you are lucky enough to speak to a member of staff, you then have to tell them what’s wrong with you. To me it always feels like you’re having to beg to be seen by a doctor. It’s exhausting! Staff always sound completely worn out and really unhappy that you’ve called. You’re then told a doctor will call you sometime in the next six hours. The whole experience is deeply impersonal and demoralising.
There’s been so many occasions where I just ignore a pain because I don’t want to go through the indignity of interacting with NHS Scotland.
My partner’s endless wait for a kidney removal
My partner is suffering from a constant kidney infection. Instead of removing the kidney they keep prescribing her antibiotics. Two years ago she developed sepsis due to a blocked kidney. Instead of removing the kidney, they put a tube in her back called a nephrostomy. Something that’s only meant as a temporary solution and not a permanent fixture.
It’s horrendous seeing my beloved partner being dragged through hell by the health service. I long for the day that she gets the toxic kidney removed.
This needs to change. Patients can’t be expected to live like that when a simple operation to fix it is available.
NHS Scotland in crisis
NHS Scotland is simply not fit for purpose. Is it any wonder people are turning to the far right for answers? People are desperate. People are fed up living in chronic pain and not being given any workable treatment options.
People are fed up being asked to wait on endless waiting lists as their quality of life deteriorates.
Scotland is not a poor country; our health service should be much better. Politicians can list excuses, but none of that helps those waiting in agony for treatment.
Commenting on a report by The Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland which warns that workforce wellbeing in Scotland’s NHS is at a crisis point, Scottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said:
The workforce is at breaking point, while experienced doctors and nurses are retiring early because of burnout and frustration with a broken system.
Meanwhile, patients are facing agonising waits in emergency departments to get help, years to get hospital procedures, and many are now spending their life savings to go private.
Hundreds of thousands of Scots are languishing on NHS waiting lists for help they desperately need – many of them waiting for years on end.
There are nearly 820,000 ongoing waits across inpatient, outpatient and diagnostic waiting lists in Scotland.
Putting the single-sex space argument into perspective
The lack of real-world awareness is staggering. The gender critical women cry murder about not wanting to share spaces with trans women, yet you’re lucky to even get a seat in A&E. People are suffering up to 12 hours in A&E and they want the hospitals to fork out millions on putting in place segregation. They are demanding hospitals segregate trans women without a single thought for the crisis facing our health service
Instead of fighting for better healthcare provisions for women, the gender critical are wasting time and everyone’s money on pushing for unnecessary trans-segregation.
Surely women’s health and well-being are more important and urgent.
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