They do check the messages, but you could try ringing the secretary of whichever consultant you are under to re-arrange it that way. Go through switchboard for the hospital.
Alternatively keep trying that number you have.
NHS=Negligent Health Service
- Thread starter 1664kronenbourg
- Start date
Alternatively keep trying that number you have.
Soldato
I don’t bother leaving any message on any hospital answering system anymore as lost count on the number of times I have left messages and zero returned calls
I've said before, my wife works on the main reception of a local small hospital and even she can't get through sometimes.
Still trying to convince my sister to dump the NHS investigations or at least do private in parallel as she’s still in agony every day, can’t eat properly, can’t work and nobody seems to care. No sense of urgency whatsoever.
I don’t get how someone so stubborn can not be more assertive with her own care. Sigh.
I don’t get how someone so stubborn can not be more assertive with her own care. Sigh.
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Associate
- Joined
- 13 Sep 2010
- Posts
- 2,251
not sure about price, but when my parents have been to Spain somewhat recently, they've been able to buy 800-1200mg ibupoforen/paracetamol over the counter
The NHS must be splurging some money at the moment as i've been passed onto a private hospital for consultation and an operation all paid for by the NHS due to the fact i've been waiting a year for a consultant to see me at my local hospital.
Win win for me as they're nice places and after the consultation this Monday i've got an op scheduled in 2 weeks.
Win win for me as they're nice places and after the consultation this Monday i've got an op scheduled in 2 weeks.
Soldato
I had my gallbladder surgery at a private hospital- NHS paid for in 2013. My GP put down the private hospital as part of the choose n book scheme. The NHS hospitals- only could give me an appointment on a day i couldn’t do. So loads of appointments at the private hospital. Saw the consultant ten days later with dad. He took his diary with him as had holidays etc.
“How about Thursday?” The appointment was on Friday. “You mean 6 days time” said I. “Yes”
If anyone is given the chance to have surgery at private hospitals NHS paid for - go for it! Free parking, your own room, free TV etc. Plus you aren’t discharged from the department until you see the consultant a few weeks later. Obviously can go home. So if have an infection on surgery wound, ring them up and they will give you a time to visit. Didn’t need that. Problem with NHS, they can’t find your records and they mess you about.
Though the private hospital 6 miles away. My parents would have been prepared to travel 5 times further.
Soldato
My colleague had her hip replacement at the same private hospital. She was in so much pain, had to reduce the number of hours worked, bought a second hand mobility scooter. Told her everything about my experience and it was the same for her.
Soldato
I just had this with a GP. I have on my med records that I need antibiotics when I show signs of a chest infection developing for preventative reasons (to stop a condition from worsening). Pretty important note, GP spent a while looking for it whilst I was on the phone to them and they said they could not locate that.
Good thing I have a copy!
win win in the short term. This is where the NHS is going - more and more referrals to private hospitals "under the NHS", less income for actual NHS hospitals therefore higher waiting lists, even more private referrals etc etc until it all implodes.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
Caporegime
It does feel ever and ever more inevitable. When the right job comes up I'm off to far away shores.
Medical training has gone nuts with the educationalist clown show, bottlenecks everywhere, noctors being brought in wholesale. What a mess. I don't think Labour have any appetite to sort it.
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Soldato
I think that "Political parties" are the biggest issue for the NHS, not Labour specifically but that every political party refuses to "touch" the NHS in a fundamental way and effectively change the current system and start again from scratch. It's a "kick the can down the road" problem that gets worse and worse with ever passing year, sucking up more and more money yet providing a comparatively worse service year after year in too many (but not all) areas and too controlled by political parties who have no clue what to do other than fiddle with little bits.
I think you could probably give the NHS a trillion pounds a year and that couldn't fix it as it's broken at its core, but I also think that no politician in a party which might realistically be in a position to actually run the NHS (Lab/Con at the moment) wants to touch the "sacred cow" because of the howls of "its the best thing ever, don't you dare touch our NHS" from people who would rather see it fail people than be re-organised/changed/ripped up and started again etc.
I personally love the core idea of "health care should be available to everyone irrespective of wealth" that the NHS was founded on, but I also recognise that the way that it is currently operating just doesn't work for enough people any more.
Soldato
On a day "you" couldn't do... and what was more important than your health on that day?
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Commissario
Or read books like "This is going to hurt" (I think it was).Don't watch the recent Panorama episode about private hospitals.
Private hospitals can spend the money on looking nice and having larger visible staff (often a lot of whom may not be medical), they have zero requirement to be equipped for a serious emergency, often few or no senior staff on site outside of business hours, and may have little or no bloods on site.
Basically they're fine as long as everything goes as planned, but the moment something goes wrong you'd almost certainly have been better off at an NHS facility where they are required to be fully prepared for emergencies as most private hospitals will be calling an ambulance to send you to the NHS once they realise something has gone badly wrong (it's not "economically viable" to have things like a full emergency staff, pharmacy, bloods, testing etc on site if you're only doing planned ops and births).
IIRC the private hospitals also often won't do the "difficult" ops, or the "experimental" ones, so they'll do your bog standard hip replacement, but they may not do the second one let alone a specialist one (in the NHS the really difficult ones are done at specialist units*, but almost any hospital can do the standard ones).
*For example my local hospital routinely does standard hip ops, but if it's non standard it's likely done at another hospital in the area where the consultant surgeon has a specialist unit that has a lot more equipment/parts**/staff/OR dedicated to it.
**To avoid the sort of situation where they start an op and realise that the part they were going to fit isn't actually the right size/suitable and don't have a full set of options on site (apparently something similar happened to my mother in the 90's, she was opened up on the table and they realised due to the previous op the planned replacement and plan b were not going to work, so had to get an emergency courier in from another unit that held the "regional" stores).
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Soldato
A concert.
Soldato
Christ on a bike!
Man of Honour
I read Letters of Response from Complaints every day at work and they have to be completed within 30 (or 28) days by law and I've never seen a patient or relative sent to the NHS Ombudsman.
Not saying your mate is telling fibs just my 14 years experience working in the legal side so they must be a right bunch of cowboys in Kent.