Our health correspondent’s account of receiving an endometriosis diagnosis via text message struck a deep chord with Independent readers.
Following Rebecca Thomas’ account, our community has been sharing their own experiences of an NHS that feels increasingly impersonal and overstretched.
Several readers echoed her shock and distress at learning serious medical news through a message on their phone, describing similar moments of confusion and fear on reading diagnoses with no explanation or follow-up.
One woman said she discovered she had stage 3 kidney disease via her NHS app, while another was told of a terminal illness through a two-line letter.
Others reflected on how the human element of healthcare has eroded, with one reader lamenting that after 60 years of NHS care, they no longer even know their consultant’s name.
Several readers also expressed sympathy for doctors and nurses working under huge pressure, warning that exhaustion, underfunding and low morale inevitably lead to rushed and impersonal care.
Yet there was also recognition that digitisation can help, with some arguing that SMS or app updates are preferable to long waits for appointments.
Amid the debate, readers broadly agreed that compassion and communication must remain at the heart of healthcare, no matter how efficient the technology becomes.
Here’s what you had to say:
I found this out on my medical app
In August 2025, I was diagnosed with stage 3 kidney disease. I found this out on my medical app in the summary section – that was such a shock – and the month before I had a POCS stroke. Nothing else was added, no follow-up blood test, just left with that diagnosis.
I now have a follow-up blood test because I talked to a GP about just being left with the worrying two lines on the app. He said he has no control over what others write.
Pebbles
A two-line letter
Firstly, I have the Wales NHS app. It doesn’t work. NHS helpdesk says, “see GP’s reception”. They say, “contact NHS”. I have given up.
Secondly, my GP gave me my diagnosis of a terminal illness with a two-line letter from the radiologist.
Querying this got the explanation that no-one here knows much about this! Went private for an explanation and a referral to a specialist team. I have changed my GP.
Twlldupobsais
A scary business having health problems these days
I was born in the 60s with a life-long condition that affects my health, so I have had experience of the NHS for 60 years. I could name all the consultants that I have been under up to the past decade, when the service became far less personal.
Since Covid, I don’t even know my current consultant’s name and am not sure who to contact if I have difficulties. It has taken me four years to get my GP to take a deterioration in my mobility seriously, and another year before my referral to a specialist resulted in a first consultation. I am still waiting to find out if there is any treatment available, having now been passed between different consultants. In the meantime, my health has deteriorated quite substantially.
It’s quite a scary business having health problems these days. One is faced with a nameless, shapeless organisation that seems so stretched that it can no longer treat its patients as individuals.
Slamps
A text would have been kinder
Years ago, my mother got her diagnosis of terminal kidney cancer that had metastasised to the bones from a doctor in person. The doctor had zero empathy, was constantly looking at her watch and actually lied to her when she told her that she would pass on peacefully in six months. She died in agony three years later as the cancer was busy breaking her bones open from the inside. A text would have been kinder.
Pomerol95
Automated emails
We receive automated emails telling us our NHS file has been updated, and we can then log in to read any updates or information.
I don’t imagine that’s any more time-consuming than a text, but it’s certainly more confidential.
Nobodylistens
France’s digital appointment system
Here in France, after any test, scan or X-ray, I receive the results personally with short notes giving the technician’s summary. I then make an appointment with my GP (never more than 48 hours away) to discuss results and recommended treatment. France has a digital appointment system and is highly computerised, with a site listing my total healthcare costs, etc. I don’t understand why the UK doesn’t implement this. It saves so much time – and probably money.
SRKfan
Pressure and workload
I can’t comment on this case, but what the critics should bear in mind is the pressure some clinical staff are under. I have a son who is a consultant psychiatrist and regularly works a 50–60 hour week. He uses the app on his phone to record case notes as he drives between one case and another, which I think is unwise but is his decision (hence possible typos?). No one should have a workload like that, because it means the service given to patients is inevitably sub-standard – but mental health needs much more resources.
Barry Hughes
Paying to see a doctor
I had to pay to see a doctor after my local surgery told me there was no chance of seeing a GP. At least I was diagnosed within minutes and treatment planned within my time frame – but at a huge cost.
EnglishCastle
Damned if they do and damned if they don’t
Doctors are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
It may not be ideal but, personally, I’d sooner find out now by text than, say, wait a week for a face-to-face.
HoleyMoley
Terrible
This is terrible. Any diagnosis that is terminal should be given by an empathetic doctor. This doctor was obviously in the wrong job. The NHS is going to get worse. I hear stories all the time and I’m going through a health crisis right now where nobody can give me a diagnosis for the last seven months. Truly scary.
Skylazar
You cannot have it both ways
You can either get your non-cancer results by text and get referred straight away, or wait 4–6 weeks for an appointment to be told what’s in the text and to be referred on – delaying your referral and telling you what the signposted information is, which you can read yourself. You cannot have it both ways.
Nash
Not acceptable
It is not acceptable, and never has been, to be informed of an important diagnosis in any way other than face to face. Anything other is a serious slippage of standards and the doctor doing so should be ashamed. Care extends well beyond the physical and, when done well, is an art.
The hospital referral could have been made with no delay.
Tinworth
What’s wrong with a text?
What’s wrong with a text? I prefer that to arranging an appointment, making my way to the surgery, and then hanging around for half an hour or more to be told exactly the same thing.
Yystrckl
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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