Patients whose treatment was canceled up to four times ‘don’t blame doctors for strikes’

Patients have waited months for a life-changing operation after a young doctor’s strike was called in England this week, but they say they don’t blame the caregivers.

Tens of thousands of NHS doctors will leave England at 7 am on Tuesday and will not return to work until Friday.

The disruption to the strike was felt for up to 11 days, with the NHS association warning that up to 350,000 NHS appointments could be canceled and staffing issues could affect patient safety.

Supporting doctors’ right to strike, some of those waiting for important appointments speak up I that they are afraid to wait for months.

Tom Goodall, 34, Bournemouth

I have been waiting for surgery since October 2022. Now he has moved four times.

In November 2020, I became ill with sepsis, which led to serious health problems. I went to the doctors several times, and they could not understand what was wrong with me, I lost four stones (25 kg), I could neither walk nor sit. My mother came to London, where I was then living, and took me to Bournemouth. The doctors gave me some morphine and scheduled an appointment for the next day. I have had two surgeries and would order a third. I have lost some muscle mass and as a result I have difficulty going to the toilet and had to have a nerve control device installed. There are four segments on the device and one has stopped working, so this process is to get that part of the device working.

My doctor told me last October that they could definitely book an operation next year. I thought it was early this year. I got a call in January to set me up for the 15th, then they put it back a week later and it was canceled again on February 22nd, two weeks before my surgery. This week they said again that it will be rescheduled for May. I have no life since November 2020. It dictates everything. For example, if I want to socialize, I never know how long I can go outside or when I will have to shorten the evening. Therefore, it is very worrying that it continues to be pushed aside.

I don’t blame the workers at all when they strike. I can see how hard they work, the NHS saved my life. I wouldn’t be here without her. When I was at the station, I saw people working 14 hours a day. They just want to earn wages that match inflation and the cost of living. It is shocking that the government gossips about key workers and then slanders them for going on strike.

Zoe Kennedy, 49, London

I have unexplained uterine bleeding that I experience every day. I had an emergency referral in May 2022 and everything was going very well, but it took ages to arrive at any follow-up. My second was due in August 2022 and since then I have not been able to make an appointment. In March, I was told that I would have to reschedule the meeting to April because of the strikes, which have now been rescheduled for June.

I think women’s issues are often overlooked in health care. My GP was great and said he wants to make sure I get seen by a specialist but if it was an emergency I might be seen and now it seems impossible. It just doesn’t seem like gynecology is a field that gets a lot of attention or priority right now. I know it’s hard to judge if you can’t compare it to other areas of healthcare first hand, but I was able to get to a single appointment a lot faster.

The state is to blame here. They expect people to provide public services for free. I work in local government and we have faced similar issues, we are not a charity and we should be fairly paid for our work. I have seen many of my colleagues go into the private sector and I can’t blame them, there is a cost of living crisis. It’s not a strike issue, it’s a funding issue. Access to NHS appointments has always been a problem, the situation has become much worse due to Covid when the staff was exhausted. We cannot provide quality services if we cannot finance them.