NHS in Crisis?: Dying patient should have been seen in person - BBC Newsnight 

"You sound like your feeling abit sorry for yourself" omg the pain that family must feel. Horrendous. This is devastating

I'm dealing with the NHS right now and I could write 3 books describing the incompetence, miscommunication, carelessness, crossed wires, working at cross purposes...I am completely exasperated. I mean you just couldn't make it up. Lots of procedures and jargon but no one seems to understand the logic behind it.

When he mentioned the ear pain combined with his symptoms he should have been sent to an out of hours GP service or A&E.

This is really heartbreaking. I’ve been there when they don’t take you seriously and it’s impacted my life a lot at times, but I never thought I’d have to be grateful for still being here. I’m sorry for their loss 💗

As a hospital doc, who doesn’t fully understand the systemic pressures GPs are under, any person calling back repeatedly should be seen. Most people do not want to waste their time or the doctor’s. I cannot imagine what this dignified family is going through.

So so sorry for your loss. My doctor likes to see her patients, instead of on the phone. She is fully aware that people are dying because you can't diagnose a patient over the phone. Really sad that she dismisses his symptoms 🥺

That’s why I’m not a GP anymore. I was trained the telephone consultations are there to buy time until you see a patient. You can’t examine over the phone. That’s why GP indemnity is so high- getting it wrong and sued is expected in one’s career.

7:20 I was just about to say that the fourth call was absolutely shameful, but the NHS already condemned it. It was not just unsatisfactory. The nurse(?) did not even show any detectable concern for his pain. She was like, you feeling sorry for yourself? I know that that is the way people speak in some parts of the UK and she probably did not mean harm, but she did cause harm. Did she think somebody would call in four times if the pain was not genuine?

It’s shocking how the lady thinks he feeling sorry for himself, And even wants to rearrange his blood test appointment SHOCKING

My stepdad had a blood clot on his lung and his oxygen levels were 72%. When the Doctor arrived at the house he had the NHS call notes and the nurse had written on the top " Not sure this is urgent, patient sounds fine" thankfully the Dr had some integrity and ignored her advice and came to the house.

Did this nurse really say…”You seem to be feeling sorry for yourself?” I lived in London for 5 years and never wanted to get involved with NHS, but this is just repulsive! All of these nurses and doctors should be sued, stripped of their licenses and shown for who they are …heartless, unprofessional and useless!

So sad! Humanity should come first

Killing your patient is never acceptable.

Rip young man, and condolences to his family. This was a sad and avoidable death. 😔

Heartbreaking. Condolences to David Nash's family, friends and to everyone who cared about David.

This is sad and no excuse for denying him care.

Hope that nurse who told him "you sound like you're feeling sorry for yourself" burns in hell.

This is absolutely heart breaking !! It should never have happened. May he Rest In Peace 😢

Why didn’t his Family take him to the Doctor? Or to the ER.

I've been in a similar situation (as many of us here, I suspect). There are only two ways to go about this: If there is still time then a formal complaint letter to the practice manager sent as recorded delivery. I'd threaten them with my solicitor in the letter. Health providers usually become much more "cooperative" after receiving a formal complaint. If the matter seems more urgent (blood = urgent) then a trip to A&E. Ideally accompanied by an assertive friend or an outspoken family member. It is not just about surviving an illness, it's about how to not get killed by the failing system. My condolences to the family.

This is shocking and heartbreaking, I'm a nurse things have gone really down hill in the NHS. How patronising the staff sound. His family are right, this gentleman has been really let down. The NHS is no longer fit for purpose

I am a registered nurse in the cardiac operating room, and have worked in the emergency department a few years ago, so not a GP practice nurse, I picked up on him having an active ear infection on the first call. No patient EVER should be dismissed this way. You can not prescribe antibiotics with seeing the patient and examining them first. Appalling Malpractice! That poor gentleman, I could hear the stress and terror in his voice, my heart breaks for his family. Middle ear infections are exquisitely painful. Even in a pandemic is there any excuse for such a absence of care. There is obviously information we haven't listened to, but at no stage did anyone ask the appropriate questions to eliminate other possibilities, nor questions regarding his neurological status. Where that imbecile came up with the random idea it might be a urinary tract infection, needs to cease practicing and go back to med school to retake anatomy and physiology!

This heart breaking. R.I.P David. 💚

Left me 6 wks in March 2021. Fobbed off. Just by chance got the right antibiotic for an ear infection. Words fail me. I have a son in his 20s, the anger churns my stomach. They will see you if you pay private. What a tragedy, It is about time someone told us the truth of what is really going on with these GPs. This is terrible. So sorry to hear what happened. They have failed in their duty of care.💔

The state that we're in as a country is scary. This needs to get sorted! I've been waiting over a year and a half to get seen by neurologist so this lack of care is still going on.

Diagnosing urine infection with no evidence for painful swollen lymphnode on neck. horrible negligence

Never have I ever seen such apathy and non-compassionate medical people - all four people couldn't give a toss and just wanted to end those calls; all 4 put down the consult on their timesheet no doubt and got paid with those poor man's taxes that HE paid.

Rest in peace David I hope your family gets justice for what they have done to your son🙏🙏🙏

Everyone has the right to see a doctor, face to face. How on earth can you diagnose someone accurately by a telephone call, without seeing them and examining them. This is appalling and disgraceful, doctors need to step up, and do what they are paid to do. My deepest condolences to this family, and the trauma they are suffering at their loss.

Same thing happened to my grandad. Watched him slowly deteriorate. He had extreme pain in his belly and was constantly given antibiotics. His doctor wouldn't see him, it was always phone consultations. Even my mum sent a letter to the doctors saying that he needs to be seen. One night, he was rushed to hospital feeling unwell, they finally told him that they reckon he had a tumour in his stomach. That night he died. For almost a year, he was complaining about the pain his stomach. He spent half of his adult life in the Royal navy, the other half in the Royal coastguard. He served his County well and saved many people. And they just couldn't return the favour. He deserved better. The problem is the NHS is not funded enough. Resources can't keep up with the population growth and hospitals are just employing anyone, and nobody truly has a clue what they're doing. It's not difficult for a doctor to check past records, yet they treat every consultation like it's the first. Sad.

Why did it take 19 days for a blood test? Any nurse with rudimentary phlebotomy training can take bloods. This young man shouldn't have died. My heart goes out to his family.

That was not medical treatment. It was a fourteen days long torture. Those doctors should be jailed for causing suffering and death. They have proven to have been not just incompetent but cruel.

RIP David taken way too young!! Condolences to your parents and family!!🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️

system is not working this has to stop and new system needs to be in place, GP are not able to cope, we are not safe

Health is an important sector that government should prioritize financially

The GP service and NHS in general was bad before covid, its now bl00dy useless

My sympathy to the Nash's family. I worked for 33 years without being sick. Then all a sudden I started to get facial pain and was in excruciating pain and I could not bear the pain .Pain killers did not work . My face was swollen like a balloon.The medication my GP gave me did not work. So took myself to A&E . I got myself dismissed times and times again which was so hurtful. I am not one to complain for nothing.I knew what was wrong with me and I knew what treatment I needed. I went around for three months and was rejected again and was illtreated when I refused the medication I was given as I knew they were ineffective for me. Eventually after I was dismissed several times I broke down and cried and refused to go home. Was then sent for a a CT scan the next day. The scan showed that my sinuses were totally blocked and full of infection. Then was referred to an ENT specialist and had to wait 1 year for an operation. Not life threatening but was unable to do much because of the pain. On the day of the operation as the ward nurse had just wheeled me outsise the operating theatre she asked me if I was diabetic as my blood sugar was high. I said no. The anesthetist appeared and I was given the anesthetic and I was out as a alight. Had my operation .Went home the next day. Was never healed and still have chronic sinusitis. The right side of my sinuses do not feel right. At the same time I began to have join paints but my GP was good about it and referred me to the hospital for treatment some of the hospital staff were brillant. The first time I was seen was seen by a physiotherapist and the treatment she prescribed was brilliant. Then had the same problem a few months later in my right shoulder. This time round was seen by a doctor who dismissed me and my problem. I am pleased to say that I stood up to him and I asked to see the surgeon and did not see see the surgeon but got the treatment I had before and my pain was resolved. The second time round all the doctor had to do, was to read my medical notes and give me the same treatment. The dr tried to sweet talk me as he got in the lift with me on my way to the radiology department. He try to befriend me. For a long time I had been feeling ill , felt depressed and could not seem to take care of mysef. This went on for a number of years then I became stick thin ,had blurred vision , could not eat. Took myself to A&E. Having written all my symptoms on a piece of paper I gave it to the A&E doctor. She sent me for a peripheral blood test. my blood sugar was 32mmols. The nurse asked no question, knew nothing of my medical history, started telling me off for not taking my medication. I kept quiet. The doctor on the other hand wanted to send me home with a blood sugar of 32mmols.. I told her I needed proper test done to confirm if I was really a diabetic. Was kept in hospital for 5 days. My blood sugar came down on slightly after three days of treatment but the nurses did not report it to the doctors. On the ward round .the speciliast asked me if I am eating the wrong things and checked in my locker and found nothing. The specilist had the grace ask me what do I think they should.do. I suggested that may be they should change my medication .They did. My blood sugar went down considerably. I was discharged home the next day . Then it hit me that I may have been a diabetic for a long time. I remembered the nurse asking me four years ago if I was a diabetic on my opration day. I have lost two younger brothers who were diabetics and died of kidney failure and blood infection respectively. We still feel the pain of their loss. I am doing relatively well health wise. I still feel the hurt of being treated with indifference and uncaringness when I was looking for help. .Who to blame.? The goverment. if You complain to the relevant health authority, they still a way to find a way round it and you are made to be liar. you are either caring or uncaring or indifferent.You cannot treat a patient via a phone . A patient needs physical examination. A doctor is not a nurse. They do not have the same training. Every one is over worked. All were sressed and burnt out even before covid . Think of all the nurses who work 12 hours shift in the NHS to save money for the heath service. How do they have a life in this line of work? And the long hours the doctors work in the NHS. In my case I am glad I found some good health professionals and met some of the other kinds. Rest in peace David Nash. May God provide comfort to the people who love and are going to miss you. May the system change? May something good come out of all this.

Just listen to the last phone conversation between David Nash and the NHS representative at 5.0. "What do you mean at the back of your neck, you don't have sinuses at the back of your neck, usually" and "you sound like you are feeling a bit sorry for yourself". Yep, just what he needed when he was obviously struggling ....... sarcasm. That woman either needs more training and supervision or retrenchment into another position that does not require dealing with patients. Blessings to all of David's family and let's learn from this.

Bless his soul! Our deepest condolences, sympathies to his family.

I'm an ent surgeon. This is ridiculous. Practice nurse should not be involved with diagnosis. He needed a telemedical consultation and referral to ENT urgently for a face to face consultation. He needed a CT scan of his ear and skull base.

Poor guy

My sofa bound 71 year old mother had to wait for an ambulance for nearly 48 hours and subsequently had a stroke when she was finally on her way to hospital, she passed a week later.

I just can't believe how unconcerned how these so called professionals have treated him. Its absolutely disgraceful, nothing will happen they close ranks, my condolences to this family on their loss.🌹

My experience is that it's too difficult for a clinician to read all the notes that have accumulated regarding a given condition. My very elevated blood pressure related to a heart beat irregularity was not properly addressed for over 18 months until a hospital surgical procedure caused the anaesthetist to write a pretty stiff letter to my GP.

This is totally heartbreaking to watch ,all my thoughts are with David’s family

I got lucky; my doctor did my appointment over the phone and dismissed an infection and just prescribed an inhaler, but when I called back after a few days to say that the inhaler was making things even worse, he prescribed antibiotics (again, over the phone). Telehealth should NOT be a thing for anyone who has the ability to get to a clinic in person, it should only be a last resort for people who are too far to get to a doctor in person. The pandemic is not an excuse. Health/medicine is just too complex to diagnose with just a few descriptions of symptoms, especially when the descriptions are from laypersons like the patient. 🤦

Every caregiver he spoke to failed absolutely disgusting!!! The NHS sucks a young man died needlessly omg I can not even imagine the hurt his parents are going through, the amount of suffering would kill me as well!!

I would sue the NHS, that was horrifying to say the least,. My nephews sued the NHs when my sister died due to medical malpractice. In this case David needed antibiotics which would have saved his life, Denying treatment is unforgivable, If that was my son I would want justice.The only person who paid was this young man. rip David xx

The phone calls disgust me.

where was his family when her was feeling so sick?? somebody should have helped him to go to A&E straight away. RIP young man!!

As a doctor, I don't believe in distance consultation. We are trained to pick up signs by seeing, examining and touching the patient. You can't pick up signs of maybe a dangerous disease over phone. The patient had neck pain. If he'd been seen by a doctor, he would've recognised neck pain as a sign of meningitis. Poor man, my heart goes to his family. RIP.

This is a big issue these days

Let get the basics right: If you cannot confidently diagnose the problem to determine risk "remotely" then it has to be done "face to face"

I am so sorry and heartbroken that this has happened to the family.

I'm a Nurse in London and I'm moving to Europe this December.. Working as a Nurse in the UK is not worth it.. Pay is so little but staffing levels with a massive workload and pressure is just killing us Nurses physically, emotionally and financially.. The inflation just made things worse..

What am I missing here? The NHS in England does not allow someone to make an appointment to see their Doctor? I ask because I live in America and what I'm seeing here is inhumane.

Clearly an attempted murder. My question is if a dentist can see face to face, why can't a Gp?

It's unbelievable that they didn't give him a face to face appointment. My GP isn't great by far but even they reintroduced face to face appointments months ago.

My heart goes out to his family R.i.P

There should be no such thing as telephone consultations.

This is an extremely sad state of affairs. Listening to the calls is exceedingly disheartening. I am a GP and though I cannot speak to the specific circumstances in this case but telephone consultations are extremely difficult tools which are by no means any kind of substitute for face-to-face contact and are burdensome to most GPs because of the potential for getting things wrong.

One of many entirely avoidable tragedies. So sad that this gentle man suffered and died in this way. Condolences to the family and friends.

How sad makes me cry my heart ❤️ goes out his family R.i.P.

rip good man best wishes to family and friends

Absolutely depressing ! GPs even today are the same. On a good day, it takes at least 30 minutes to answer the call and then the begging starts to no avail. The stress of it all.

Poor guy. Something so minor if it was only caught in time. Disgusting treatment by the GP practice and he should have been encouraged to go to the hospital after the third call. So so sad.

I needed an endoscopy back in Sep 2020. I waited for 4 months and still not getting one. I travelled to a different country in Jan and had one.

And the uk gov wants to reduce taxes?! You need more not less to get things back on track

too many time wasters demanding to see doctors and the number of appointments missed is shocking. make them pay if they miss an appointment and prison if they refuse to pay.

this is so very tragic.

NHS needs to be dissolved. They do not help. Many experiences I've had, staff are not trained properly. I now usually go abroad for anything medical. Or Private in UK if it is super threatening

Heartbreaking

It's happening all the time.. very sad story. . My deepest condolences

That nurse must be feeling awful now.

GOD BLESS YOU DAVID, MAY YOU BE AT PEACE. MY SINCERE CONDOLENCES TO YR FAMILY. 🙏🏼

What's the point of paying for National insurance when we don't get anything from it?

This makes me so unspeakably angry. The nhs has held us to ransom for too long. Just disgusting.

The dismissive nature of GPs isn't new. I've been chasing a diagnosis for my quite serious GI issues for about 13 years now and still not much closer to a diagnosis. The symptoms have gotten more serious now and I've lost weight I've had tests done but once the tests are done, I'm forgotten about again and the cycle starts over.

honestly wtf..even 3rd world countries have better consultation standards than this.. this almost seems like a dystopian drama.. how is the nhs so bad in the uk?

There’s a clear need for a major malpractice lawsuit!

This story is behond sad and reflects well what's happening within NHS. The system is completely broken. They don't know absolutely nothing about what they are doing. Can be enormously frustrating to whoever needs it.

Disgusting I watched this This morning I pray his family find peace 🙏🙏

This has become normal practice for GPs these days. We will see more and more cases like this. Primary case staff are being paid an awful lot of money for doing the bare minimum. An inquest will happen and all that will be said is “we will learn from this”. GPs are an embarrassment to the NHS.

R.I.P. 🙏🙏🙏

SAD ABUSE OF THE MEDICAL PERSONAL, THEY SHOULD BE SUED . THEY KILLED HIM.THEY SHOULD LOSE THERE LICENSES

during Covid restrictions non of us could get help in time and face the facts that the NHS and GP's were not prepared for what they were facing during that time.

My heart goes out to the fella, sounds like delaying the appointment on this one appeared to have been a COVID precaution at a time where little was known about the spread of infection. Definitely something that needs looking into so it doesn't happen again, and I'm glad that's acknowledged in this report

The NHS is broken by design. It's really bad out there with GP appointments and A&E emergency waiting time just to name a few things wrong with the NHS service. Mark my words American style health insurance system is coming to the UK but rebranded as an NHS solution.

The title is correct except for the question mark. The NHS IS in crisis. As the healthcare professionals pointed out, our shortfalls in staff were foreseen many years ago and little to nothing has been done to address this issue- which is only one of the many holes in the sinking ship. There are going to be many more families who will suffer; more staff who will leave due to burnout, breakdown and moral injury; and more Davids- its clear to see what a lovely and kind person he was, such a terrible loss. It is absolutely tragic that we have reached this point. I am baffled as to why government and the wider public are still questioning how bad things really are when health care professionals have been screaming about it for over a decade.

This is shocking, for goodness sake what do you need to say to be seen and no continuity, terrible care, those “professionals” should be ashamed of themselves, no excuses, that poor man, his parents are so dignified I’m not sure I would be. I’m fed up hearing excuses.

If your GP refuses to see you, go to A&E. Never take no for an answer.

This is really heartbreaking. They clearly didn't look at the previous complaints and connect the dots. This is why if I ever have multiple things happening and multiple appointments, I will always make clear of the previous calls, empathise that this is now x amount of different symptoms. I would think they would of more than likely said come in or go to hospital or somewhere if that happened.

Something is terribly wrong somewhere. I am really blown away how this NHS is functioning. I am an Indian, who works for the NHS. Now you may have many opinions about India but having lived in India for 28 years, I can say the health care system in my state back in India is far far far greater than NHS. You can see even a specialist doctor in less than 12 hours. Now you may say that NHS is free, but you are paying NI right? The Brit’s one month NI is equal to India one year private insurance. Also remind you the private hospitals in India is 10x better than NHS. Sorry, I am writing this out of my frustration with the NHS, because the poor patients are suffering and someone somewhere is making lots of money.

“You sound like you’re feeling sorry for yourself” Gobsmacked!! 😡the system is appalling!! And nobody gives a damn..

The first consultation should of been by video call, beyond poor.

as a doctor from abroad. İ would be judged for the reason of malpractice not to determine the real cause. The process here is catastrophic for the patient. I wish my condolences for the patient's family. that must be investigated.

This is so sad! And I am sure there are many more people who have died this same way

Actually he is not the first and not the last . Everybody in England have this experience with the GP. They acting somehow to don’t phone again the doctor unfortunately. I am very sorry about David and his family.

This nearly happened to my mum and years later me. So much needs to change

Happy to take your money to pay for the nhs but don't expect the service you are legally entitled to. Even to this day try and get an appointment your on the phone for over an hour and they say all appointments are taken WTF. They treat migrants better than they do our own people