NHS Choices 

Rang NHS 111 after I experienced difficulties with some medication I was prescribed from an outpatients department. The call handler seemed completely out of his depth and couldn't provide the necessary support I required whatsoever. I was then passed from pillar to post via telephone to a useless out-of-hours GP who couldn't give me a straightforward answer either. He replied most of the time saying "I don't know". Don't get me wrong - the NHS does a lot of good indeed but they really need to review the support and training given to NHS 111 professionals including call handlers. Appalling patient care no thanks to the farce that is NHS 111.

I called up the NHS helpline in regards to getting some advice for my boyfriend who is suffering from severe depression. The woman I was speaking to on the phone was so rude and disregarding of the fact that I was begging her for help on what I could to do help him and she said she couldn't help me because he had to be in the room talking to her too. This was totally unacceptable and I explained to the woman that he was in not fit mind frame to be sat talking and I wanted to help him to which she replied "nothing I can do then". The NHS are an absolute joke and should be ashamed of themselves for not helping those in need. There's no quick fix to depression and I can't just google what to do because it's not a physical condition.

I phoned twice last night about my baby and still didn't get a call back it is absolutely disgusting especially regarding a child

Customer ''reviews'' online for GP surgeries and hospitals ''fake'' - REAL reviews giving real picture not been put up) new organisations been set up to OUT bad care and BAD surgery BAD consultants and GPs that are been hidden from UK public) many families and friends put up perfectly reasonable reviews never posted by NHS. Also NHS not refunding people on low incomes) and making it very difficult for them to do so outrageous private TV company to Investigate) all the above)

My beloved son Ryan Immanuel Stokes was negligently prescribed prozac by Dr Osonuga which killed him after taking it for only 6 days. My son died from a severe adverse reaction on 28th December 2003 after celebrating his birthday on Xmas day.

My family has since left this surgery because of the ill treatment and lack of compassion we received since our loss. The surgery showed no remorse and support and we felt an air of resentment towards us from the whole team at the surgery obviously because they were feeling guilty of foul play.

That evil woman Doctor Herzmark in particular was very cold and condescending when I saw her after the inquest and I will never forget her cruel words to me "It will pass."

What kind of a woman says such thing to another woman that has just lost a child was beyond me? I even wondered if she was a mother in the first place or how she would feel if the same tragedy happened to her?

Well! Doctor Evil it is almost 14 years later and the pain and the memories of that fateful day are still fresh as yesterday in our minds and we have vowed to seek justice for Ryan which will expose Manor Place Surgery for their incompetence and fakery!

I have called 111 on many occasion and have nothing but praise for the staff. Yes there are a lot of questions that feel pointless but it's there to make sure you are safe and sound :)

Had to call NHS Direct 111 today for my son who was having some serious issues. Spent almost an hour on the phone being assessed and subsequently referred to a Clinical Nurse who subsquently referred us to the MH services. They told us they would call us back within 10 minutes with some advice and support. An hour later that call never came!

Called NHS Direct again to follow it up, only to find they had no record of our call on their system at all! What an absolute joke! Then had to go through another assessment and referral to another Clinical Nurse who then told us to call our local CAHMS Team!

When does someone get the urgent help they need? When they harm themselves, or someone else?

Its an absolute joke. All our family were born in this country and have paid our taxes and NI for over 40 years but still no help. Take my advice. DONT BOTHER! Go direct to A&E and wait, you will most likely get better help and support there! Good luck to you all.

My parnter as been told by her local doctors that she can have weight loss surgery she tryed diets of all kinds and havent worked shes been to gyms n that hasnt worked she went to doctors on monday and while she was there the doctor says if he can see she needs it and she meets the creterior and he said i will speak to another doctor and ring back at dinner tome the same day but that didnt happen next day still no phone call so she phoned them this morning o they said i will get him to ring you at dinner that didnt happen either 430pm he rings and says she does not meet the creitior but two days ago she did so she says what do i have to do put another 8 stone on and be tiddled in dietbeatis before you will do anything i thought the nhs was to stop things like this from happening shes been asking for nearly six years and they keep putting it of surely something has to be done

The NHS is not a heath service as I rambert I phoned up once and I had to goto the hospital as I was having a asmara Atc told them I couldn't take penasiline and the dc give me 250 mg and told to take as mean as I can till the chest infection went away then I was admitted back as I had a bad reaction ie brain ear tatsion unfortunately I hit the person that tried to help witch when I was told because I am very sorry for down to the NHS not informing the hospital regarding my condition and information it was years ago and it's still fresh in my maind

Genuinely awful . The mental health system is actually sad and evil. They help you with money but actually shrink guys genitals in half and almost give you diabetes . Half the people I know in mental health have the diabetes whatever form and you can lose limbs from a pathetic cut. It has genuinely ruined my life . All it has done is shrink my genitals and I've been laughed at because supposedly I was going to grow breasts from the doctor . It has genuinely ruined my life . I complained for years and they just ignored me . I didn't even ask for help .bi simply went for a hormonal joke. By the way all the mental medication is hormonal. It is so bad

They ignore any review they have control of . Any genuine review . And if you post a review via Google they delete their review on their website . Not allowing anyone to review .

I'm not actually joking . It's really sad . From a pathetic doctor or doctors . That I have the same idea as since being a little kid. Just wanted a opinion . Then they make you take hormonal drugs . Which to be honest have not done anything what so ever . I don't even know what it is for . They refuse to explain . Be really careful unless you want your bits shrunk in half and be permenantly embarrassed or lose a limb from a paper cut. I can't believe the NHS do this sad stuff. All the physical stuff for example A and E Is amazing how they help . I think know they do this on purpose as they refuse to explain why I'm supposedly ill. They also refuse to explain why I'm better . It's abusive and has ruined my life . Permenantly damaged.

I'm sorry I write this . I am categorised as severely disabled and very very ill. So I can say that it hasn't helped or done anything useful at all.

Disrespectful, unplate ,unhygienic and no really helpfel. I really don't think that they care about the job or the person all they care about is getting pay at the end of the day my mum is supposed too be seen be the district nurse but the don't wash or clean her legs they wrap then up without cleansing them and the banner just drop of the same day we phone up too get another appointment but the refuse to see he because there done properly if there done properly the wouldn't drop off and here son wouldn't have too redress he legs the same your district nurse at Hoyland medical practice at crap and need retraining.plus the front desk women how book people in needs retraining for customer service.
Hoyland nhs services is laysesy and some real nhs management needs too come in and rebuild the shame and crap they are putting on the NHS
If no one sort my mums care out I will be going fever because this is against her human rights and the care of nhs services crap the government is a total let down if this continues her legs will need too be amputated because it is a bad infection and she is a diabetic and nhs is letting her if they don't help her we will have too go fever about this issue.
if the district nurses and the GPs did the job this week I wouldn't have had too call an amblance an have my mum rush too a&e my got put on all different drug too make her better then got put on acute medical unit in Barnsley hospital and then got moved too ward 19 but then we got a phone call at 8.30 in the morning too get all family in that my mum might not make it when we got there the doctor and nurses ect came too speak too use and told use what was happening basically my mum had a kidney infection ,water infection ,grade 3 burns and sers infected ucles and she has too have a blood transfusion and she might have too be moved to intensive care later that day she was moved too intensive care and blood transfusion .my mum is sers ill she isn't out of the worst but we have her out of intensive care know and on ward 20 but when she arrived at 4pm the left her with out water for 2hour so that 4-6 yea I know there push flueds in her but you still get dry and there was no water on the side too give my mum and this barnsley hospital your supposed too give peffessional care at amazing standard

I am a teacher and so am often ill with bugs and other issues. I came home on friday night after work and was promptly sick all the way through the night with the worst headache imaginable. I never get migraines so began to become concerned I might have a head problem which was also causing the vomiting. After non-stop sickness for 48 hours my fiancé called 111 and described my symptoms. The person on the phone demanded to speak to me, and I tried desperately to explain to my fiancé that any light or sound my burning my eyes and I couldn't speak to them. In the end they wouldn't take no for an answer and my fiancé had to hold the phone up to my ear as I vomited continuously. They told me I should just stay in bed, even though a lot of my symptoms were consistent with meningitis. At the end of the phone call they told me 'try some light exercise'. I nearly laughed could not believe they were asking someone who had been vomited for 48 hours, could not keep down food and water should go for a run. Awful service.

NHS direct - go through algorithems set of questions describing your symptoms - they cannot see you, touch you, or hear well what is happening so they are taking a ''guess'' as to what service you may or may not need-
guessing when you or your familys lives could be at stake - it is nonsense at best dangerous and potencially life threatning at worst- designed to take ''pressure'' off A & E - we all PAY FOR A & E if these ruling bodies want to keep flooding the country with more and more people let them deal with the consequences -think of yourselves and get seen where hopefully you might have some ''chance'' of medical care you deserve not stuck on a phone deteriorating............personal experience - family member told to book gp appointment couldn't get one for two weeks - was in fact in sepsis almost died. please go to A & E.

Have used NHS on quite a few occasions with issues I have come across with my children, issues I felt were not necessarily 999 worthy situations and I have always found the service to be helpful, comforting, reassuring and thorough. Would certainly continue to use them.

My partner rang 111 last night whilst I was rolling around in pain crying despite taking ibuprofen with codeine and paracetamol. Pain in my upper and lower jaw radiating to my ear constant throbbing with sharp shocking pains. I was put through to a nurse and pharmacist because I'd intentionally taking ibuprofen an hour early because I could not take the pain. They advised on dosage and told me to go to the emergency dentist in the morning giving me two local dentist contact details. I went to the first dentist soon as they opened. The receptionist was not very happy there details had been given out by 111 because although they are open on weekend it's for there own patients. She gave me a list of emergency dentists but none of which where happy to see me. The second number 111 just rang out. We googled emergency dentists and found a local dentist happy to see me ( my own dentist emergency line had wanted £350 just to review ) the dentist assessed and there was no dental problem he felt the problem was my trigeminal nerve. He advised to see out of hours gp so again I had to deal with 111 they ran through the script not interested in the dentists thoughts. At the end of the scripted unindividualised consultation the operator said she'd pass all my details on to my local hospital and they'd get back to me in 24 hours. I began to cry I was in so much pain it was then the operator started to treat me like an individual she said she was sorry but she'd passed the case on to the hospital but she'd get a nurse to call me back. Thankfully the hospital called me within an hour and the out of hours gp saw me within a couple of hours he diagnosed me with trigeminal neuralgia ( used to be known as suicidal disease because of the severity of pain ) I was prescribed carbamazipine so hopefully that will start to help soon. Whilst I am aware that the 111 script is intended to help the advisor spot life threatening conditions there are many very debilitating conditions that cause severe distress.

I placed a call this evening to 111 and found the service excellent. I have used this service several times now & on every occasion the support has been amazing. Thank you NHS Direct

I phoned them when I had huge abdominal pain and they put me through to a doctor. He asked me if I could describe the pain and I said it was like the worst case of indigestion I ever had. He was great and adviced me to take the maximum dose of some medication I had and if it didn't get any better to call them back. The pain got worse so I called them back and spoke to an operator who asked me if I had any pain killers in the house. I informed her that I had some ibuprofen and when she found out I had a hyatus hernia basically had a go at me for taking them. I told her that I am allergic to paracetamol and she wasn't interested. This was in the early hours of the morning and she told me to get in my car and find a 24 hour chemist to get some paracetamol, I told her the pain was so severe that I couldn't drive.On a scale of 1 to 10 the pain was going between 8 and 10, I told her this and she told me to get a taxi to take me to the chemist. This was the worst advice I could have been given especially as I told her the doctor had asked me to call back if it got worse. I went to see my GP as soon as they opened and he sent me straight up to the hospital where they discovered that I had gall stones that had blocked the bile duct and put me into liver failure.

got sent around in cricles. waited more than a year. discovered then my spinal discs were out of place. sent me around to different departments. kept getting teh departments wrong. this went on for another year. i then made the wisest decision. Gave NHS the middle finger.

NHS direct is literally a life saver. We phoned them when my little boy was taken ill and they were incredible. I know much of what they say is scripted, but there has clearly been a great deal of thought put into the questions, the order they ask them and their responses so the caller does not panic. Ultimately we didn't need to do anything and David did return to health, but we could have made the problem a whole lot worse had NHS direct not been their to ally our fears.

i had an appointment in hospital for my back injury and i couldn't find the physio department as i was asking some member of staff but they where on their phone and busy with their hobbies,then i found the therapy center but unfortunately i run late as i was looking for it,the receptionist and other physio staff where arguing that because i was late they couldn't let me take my session but argue took about 20 min as my session was the same amount of time 20 min to half an hour,they said that they are finishing and going home but their manager when range me said some thing different and they where giving appointment till even later(8 pm)
this service is just really unprofessional as NHS is never to look after public.
their staff are very poor trained,god saves us with this service from them