NHS delays have harmed my health & forced me to go private - it shouldn't be like this

This blog is written by Rebecca, a Just Treatment supporter based in Northern Ireland.

I am disabled and have a number of chronic illnesses and, like many people with multiple health needs, delayed treatment results in deterioration of my health and my quality of life.

Over the last six years I have been forced to go private a number of times to get the treatment I desperately needed. Depending on the treatment you need, NHS waiting lists can span years and if you are forced to wait, your conditions can often become life limiting. My own health has worsened because I simply could not access treatment.

As someone who needs to use the NHS regularly, I started seeing a rapid increase in waiting times even before the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, things have only gotten worse, and as someone who once lived in the United States of America, I know only too well where things are headed.

Living in the United States, I experienced first hand the dangers and costly implications of having a privatised health service, not to mention the constant fear and anxiety of the potential of bankruptcy and worsening health constantly looming overhead. If you are someone with disabilities and chronic health conditions, you face steeper costs for health insurance, and often your insurance provider will go against the advice of your doctor and refuse to pay for the treatment you need. When your conditions affect your capacity to work, you can often be left in a position where you are forced to go without the treatments and medications you need to survive.

A privatised health service doesn’t necessarily mean a lack of waiting lists either. The American healthcare system has been plagued by long wait-times for decades, with patients often being forced to wait weeks or months for basic healthcare appointments.

Now, living in Northern Ireland, I am deeply troubled by the state of our health service and the steep decline in access that I have seen just over the past decade. Northern Ireland has the highest per-capita waiting list in the UK, with around 1 in 4 people waiting for appointments. A report last year found that half of Northern Irish patients wait over a year for treatment. So patients’ lives are put at risk every day, and the long period of political instability in Stormont has meant that change has been very slow.

The greater privatisation of the NHS is also a serious concern of mine, and it puts increased pressure on staff who I know are trying their best. Long waiting lists and times are only getting worse and mean that those who cannot afford to go private are then subjected to a two-tiered healthcare system. I also know that whilst I am lucky enough to be able to afford to go private for some treatments when I desperately need them, I might not always be able to, and I am so afraid for the future — my own and that of everyone else.

The NHS needs to be better funded so that patients are able to get the treatments that we need, when we need them. Delays to treatment mean that the NHS are missing opportunities for early intervention and ending up with life saving treatment that is even more costly. Some patients and families aren’t that lucky, and die before they get treatment.

I have spent years under the American health system and know that privatisation isn’t what it is made out to be. When healthcare is for profit first and patients second, people suffer and die — not as a bug, but as a feature. We need to protect and invest in the NHS for everyone, but even more so for disabled and chronically ill patients who deserve to live fulfilling lives.