This post is going to be dedicated to the care I received from the NHS after being diagnosed with an overactive thyroid in 2013. I know in recent years that the NHS has come under scrutiny and many people have worries about receiving heath care from it - I know I did. So let's get into my experience of receiving care on the NHS.
When I was diagnosed, I was lucky in that my GP got every test done quickly and I had a diagnosis only two days after seeing her. At the time, my local hospital, Whittington, had a very long waiting list to be referred to the endocrinology department but UCLH had a much shorter waiting time, which is why I went there. On a whole, the care I received there, in my opinion, wasn't good. After a couple of months, I was no longer being seen by my consultant but by more junior doctors who did not accurately record our meetings so I was being told different things every appointment and I honestly felt that my best interests weren't being looked after. Even when I stated to these doctors that someone else had told me something different to them and I was worried about certain issues, I felt dismissed and that they just called me in to change my dosage and get me out the door.
I told the last doctor that I saw that my eyes were getting worse (I suffer from thyroid eye disease) and he responded with "they look fine to me", which I thought was disrespectful as the whole appointment was him refusing to listen to my concerns. I had seen my face change slowly for the worst for about two years at that point, longer than the consultant had told me I would have to struggle with my thyroid in the first place. I told this doctor this and he said "well, I could refer you to an ophthalmologist". He said it like I was asking for too much but according to NHS direct, anyone diagnosed with thyroid eye disease (which I had been) MUST be referred to an ophthalmologist asap! This was not the case with me, I had to beg for it and he didn't even fulfil his promise. After calling the hospital and going in to see them, I was met with the same rudeness and total disregard for my wellbeing from the receptionist.
At this point I was very discouraged but my GP reassured me that she was looking out for me and referred me to Moorfields Eye Hospital herself. She also raised a complaint with the hospital but the result of this has been made unknown to me. However, the care I received from Moorfields has been good in my opinion; the doctors have given me more than enough information on my care and even alternative options to control the symptoms of my eye disease. I am still a patient there and will be seen in August to discuss the next steps to overcome this but from what I am aware of, my eye symptoms were made worse by the fluctuations of my thyroxine levels as a result of my endocrine team not being able to stabilise my thyroid.
In regards to my thyroidectomy at ULCH, after having my surgery scheduled, I was pretty much left to my own devices. It was only after having an accidental appointment booked by the hospital to see the surgeon that he noticed no one had checked my thyroxine levels since two months prior. It was a blessing in disguise as I wouldn't have been able to have my surgery done with an unchecked thyroid. In addition, there were problems I received on the day of my surgery which I spoke about in my surgery story, but my overall care from the nurses during my stay was top notch. They checked on me often and made sure I was comfortable. If I had any questions, they answered it to the best of their abilities and made the effort to reassure me that I would be okay. I even started crying on the last day (I was very emotional) and my nurse made sure to calm me down and try and reassure me that my symptoms were normal and treatable. An issue I had was my discharge process as my surgeon told me I could go home but the nurse seemed to have other information and told me another doctor, who was not in charge of my care, had to come and talk to me before letting me go. Again, I talk about this in my surgery story so I won't go into it in too much detail, but I was sitting around for hours. Also, I was not given much information on how I should care for myself at home and, having waiting around for hours, I forgot to ask many questions to my nurses.
I've suffered a lot with UCLH over the period of 3 years and I'm not happy with the overall care I received from the hospital. However, the NHS on a whole I think took care of me well as my GP and the doctors at Moorfields all explained things very well to me.
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