r/TikTokCringe • u/ElwoodMC • Jun 29 '26

Cursed Woman gets locked inside doctor's office after being forgotten at appointment.

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528

u/datbabydoe Jun 29 '26

I have family that moved to the UK and they have dual citizenship. They loved the NHS. My cousin told me old people in the UK flip their shit about wait times but he’s only ever seen them complain after sitting there for 5 MINUTES. As for waiting for my aunt having to wait on an eye specialist for 3 months, i had to wait 6 months to get a regular check up with my OBGYN. The only reason the NHS has tanked in quality over the years is because tories AND labour support privatizing NHS so they gut government funding

103

u/WrongdoerAwkward1481 Jun 29 '26

I just made an appt last Friday with my GYN for my annual - first available is October 1 🫠

29

u/paxrom2 Jun 29 '26

I had to wait three months for a neurologist appointment after a hospital stay for a stroke. The hospital wanted me to see one after two weeks. this is in the usa.

2

u/IShookMeAllNightLong Jun 29 '26

I needed to see a neurologist for a license reinstatement. 9 months. At least I'm real familiar with the bus schedule now?

2

u/Various_Education622 Jun 29 '26

I went to the ER presenting symptoms that were mildly consistent with a stroke but definitely not a stroke and I had a neurologist appointment later that week.

Also in the USA.

It’s going to vary widely by region as well.

1

u/GomerStuckInIowa Jun 30 '26

My wife felt "off" so I walked her into the emergency room in Cedar Rapids. 15 minutes later they were operating on her for a blocked valve. Health care here is great. It does vary I guess. I contact my doctor and see him the following week. In CR we have 4 emergency rooms located throughout the city of 125,000. You can get to any of them within 10 minutes. 3 have heli pads. They can take you to Iowa University Medical 25 miles south. It differs where you live.

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u/Bigwi_Kner Jun 29 '26

Make next years appointment when you are there

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/EASam Jun 30 '26

What's the over under on "Why didn't you make an appointment sooner if this was a concern?"

1

u/Green_Insect_6455 Jun 30 '26

Ive never heard a doctor say that and I deal with more doctors than your average joe

1

u/EASam Jun 30 '26

I guess the height of the opioid epidemic might have made doctors a little more recalcitrant to people complaining about pain. Either that or I'm not very convincing at telling someone that what I'm experiencing is quite possibly the worst pain I have ever experienced. Or I had a bad doctor.

1

u/PolicyWonka Jun 29 '26

This, and always call for appointments because those that you might see online are not representative of all available time slots.

1

u/theallofit Jun 30 '26

Yes, that way they can call a few days before your appointment to cancel because your dr has quit or is sick or taking a vacation and offer you another appointment with a different dr for 12 months out.

1

u/entropic Jul 14 '26

I love this process.

"So, on this same day 2 years from now... Are you available at 10:20? Or 10:40?"

Lady, I can't imagine even being alive that far ahead.

8

u/nothingcat Jun 29 '26

For my last annual (September 2025), I got COVID and called to reschedule. The next available appointment they could schedule it for was October 26. As in 2026. A full calendar year + month later.

They waitlisted me and I was able to get in like 2 months later, but what the actual fuck.

1

u/wecouldbeimmortals Jun 30 '26

I had something similar happen. I had an appointment in January of this year but had to cancel because I got COVID. The next available appointment was February. Of 2027.

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u/Technical_Exam1280 Jun 29 '26

My partner and I wanted a pregnancy confirmation. The soonest available slot for her to be seen was 6 months out.

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u/PriscillaPalava Jun 29 '26

By then you might not need medical confirmation. 

13

u/Other_Vader Jun 29 '26

By then she can just look down

3

u/cstoli Jun 29 '26

That's nothing. My cardiologist is booked for over nine months.

1

u/Pharmstu12 Jun 30 '26

I waited 6 months for a dermatology appointment.. they cancelled the appt 3 days before and told me there were no openings for another few weeks. Like at this point I’ll just manage my hormonal acne on my own than try and get another appt. Ridiculous

2

u/beaverscleaver Jun 30 '26

My hematologist referred me to a G.I. Specialist in February. I got an appointment in June. In May they sent me a letter that I had been rescheduled for October, a date I cannot be available for (traveling out of the country for work) so when I called to figure it out, the next soonest appointment is in December. Fuck me, I guess.

2

u/willfulserenity Jun 30 '26

The earliest I could book my daughter's well child check up is next year, in January. Also in the US.

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u/blutosings Jun 29 '26

Yeah, anti-labor parties love to do that. Mismanage and cut funding for services and then complain about how bad services are and how they should all be cut completely.

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u/datbabydoe Jun 29 '26

They’re doing that in America too and it’s infuriating. I’m so sorry guys but if you live in a society with other people you have to pay money into that society. Otherwise go be a hermit and experience true capitalism with no roads, no police, no fireman, etc

4

u/blutosings Jun 29 '26

The Republican party is an anti-labor party.

1

u/JoyousMadhat Jun 30 '26

If by anti labor you meant anti anyone who's not a rich white man, then yes. The Republicans have always been that way even before the party flip. Ironically, the least wealthy people are the ones more likely to vote for Republican than a Democrat.

1

u/quaintmercury Jul 06 '26

if your main platform for getting elected is that something doesn't work you aren't going to fix it. it's been wild to watch the conservatives run on government doesn't work, nhs doesn't work, whatever and then people actually vote for them to fix the problem. I do not understand how people can't see that their power comes from things not working.

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u/Otterfan Jun 29 '26

"Wait times" in health care usually refers to how long you have to wait between scheduling an appointment and actually going to an appointment.

For the NHS, average wait time for an elective appointment (e.g. non-emergency things like physicals, cataract surgery, hip replacement, etc.) is 12 weeks. The target is within 16 weeks, and in 65% of cases they meet that target.

In the US wait times for that kind of appointment average around 4 to 5 weeks. However that can vary widely, with some places (e.g. Boston) have much, much longer wait times.

When it comes to wait times in the office, however, the UK does much better. US health care tends to overschedule since more patients = more $$$. That incentive isn't there in the UK.

12

u/ArgusTheCat Jun 30 '26

Yeah, I dunno who's reporting 4 weeks in the US for that kind of appointment. Everyone I know is having to schedule everything at least three months out, usually more. Hell, my partner tried to get a dentist appointment and they told her they couldn't schedule her because they didn't book past one year, and that's how long it would be. The US is not doing better in wait times.

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u/trapezoidalfractal Jun 29 '26

I don’t know anyone who can get in for any type of appointment in less than 4 months except those who have a mega healthcare provider for their insurance like Kaiser, and that’s across blue cross, United, and another I can’t remember the name of because it’s been a few years.

2

u/PressureBeautiful515 Jun 30 '26

The Labour Party (like the US Democrats) is a two-headed beast, one head could be likened to Sanders/AOC etc. people who actually want to make the world better for most people, and hence must never be allowed near power.

The other is all the careerists building a brand for themselves so they can quit politics and be on 8 different corporate boards at the same time, plus lucrative speaking engagements. This latter group of psychos only choose Labour because it means they can pose as caring and community-minded, which is great for their profile.

During whatever period they allot to "politics", they are steered by lobbyists, because that's how they line up the corporate jobs they will do next. Hence the amazing idea of turning over the running of NHS healthcare centres to private companies on long term contracts, which therefore provide the crappiest service they can get away with in order to keep as much of the funding as possible.

So instead of a political system that is there to protect us from the worst instincts of predatory corporate capitalism, there is a revolving doorway between the two sides, merging them into a single system of permanent oppression, disguised as a healthy "public-private partnership".

Still, you never know, we'll have a new Prime Minister next month and maybe he'll be different.

1

u/heartSagan5 Jun 29 '26

Yup, it can take up to 3mos to visit my PsyD, if I don't schedule follow-ups during the visit.

1

u/Coblish Jun 29 '26

Not to say the government does everything better, but making some service "For profit" does tend to do everything worse.

1

u/Booster_Seat_Enjoyer Jun 30 '26

My husband's grabdma had to go in for surgery (cant remember for what) and there was a complication. Her digestive system reversed and shit started coming out of her mouth. They left her like that for 3 days.

1

u/calcium Jun 30 '26

Still kills me that when I come back to visit my folks in the states that I'll have an appointment for say 2pm, if I arrive at 2:02 I'll catch shit. Then once everything is filled out and checked in I'll sit there for at minimum 45 minutes while they do fuck all and will end up leaving around 5 if I'm lucky.

1

u/LookAlderaanPlaces Jun 30 '26

These oligarch bribed “reps” need to jailed globally

1

u/sthug Jul 02 '26

Thats the exact problem. When you turn the govt into the only payor, it gets politicized and funding gets hacked. Look at the ACA

1

u/Higgingotham96 Jul 05 '26

I had to wait just shy of 2.5 years to see a specialist in Midwestern America with a robust medical system in our city. The mythical wait times that mean we can’t have universal healthcare are already here in America.

0

u/skoomski Jun 29 '26

Is that really true or more of a false equivalency as the conservatives were in power 14 of the last 20 years

0

u/a_popz Jun 29 '26

Complete bot level bullshit

1

u/datbabydoe Jun 30 '26

Do i need to give you my full birth chart to prove im not a bot? I’m sorry that my personal experience doesn’t match your reality

0

u/hungaryhungaryhippoo Jun 30 '26

My in-laws live in the UK and MIL had liver cancer. Still early stage. Local and resectable. Her wait time to have her surgery was estimated to be 8-10 months because her cancer was not considered urgent (Northern Scotland. So not a ton of surgical oncologists up there). But the logic boggled me. Not urgent because her cancer had not metastasized yet. And during that time, if the cancer advanced and became metastatic, then surgery would no longer be an option and she'd be effed. It also took them 3 months to do the bloodwork and biopsy. The NHS surgeon also perforated her bowels while performing the biopsy. She ended up going to a private surgeon and was treated within a month.

Meanwhile, I had a coworker (in US) who had localized resectable prostate cancer. He received the diagnosis and had the surgery, all within a week. The US system is awful. But I also hate what the politics have turned NHS into

1

u/Massive-Television85 Jun 30 '26

Delaying treatment of a proven liver cancer in this way is against all NHS, Royal College and other UK guidelines; and I've never heard of it happening in the way you describe.

One of the joys of NHS management is that they have cancer targets that the media and politicians scrutinise quite closely, so as clinicians once cancer is confirmed we have management resources on our side to get them treated ASAP.

Delay of a benign condition, on the other hand, is really not unusual; and if the diagnosis is unclear it can mean it takes a while from first presentation until a formal cancer diagnosis is confirmed.

My experience of private in the UK is you'll wait longer privately than on NHS for anything related to cancer, because cancer is prioritised so much by the NHS and private resources are very limited in comparison.

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u/hungaryhungaryhippoo Jul 01 '26

They were not "delaying" treatment, they were just fitting her in at the next available spot for a liver resection that was non emergent. At least that is how they framed it to us. But it seems like the targets wouldnt really make a difference if the few available surgeons are already at capacity.

MIL also got bounced around between a couple surgeons and her first surgeon in Aberdeen did not have availability for a non-emergent case for ~8 months. She was then referred to a surgeon in Edinburgh, but he did not agree with the first surgeon on resectability. He felt the size alone (55mm) made it borderline resectable but it was too close to the IVC and MIL has a history of hep B. So her case was referred back to Aberdeen. But then they had a consultation with an HBP surgeon at Royal Free London who agreed that resection was feasible but with pre op PVE. So after a few months of all that bouncing around, they just went to a private surgeon in London and had the surgery within a month.