So, the NHS...

SexyGreyFox said:
Go to PALS in if you fail there go to COMPLAINTS.
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I'm seeing a GP on Wednesday. If this delay isn't justifiable then I will make a complaint. I'll also be ringing the surgeons secretary daily too.

Since getting my own BP monitor I've repeatedly scored as having low blood pressure. (I have stopped drinking coffee, reduced salt from my diet and lost some weight). My father in laws BP kit from the GP shows low blood pressure too so I'm pretty sure that I don't have high blood pressure.
 
Moses said:
Rang a dentist and got an appointment the same day (wasn't registered or anything)... but it's a six to eight week wait to have a broken wisdom tooth removed :-|. It has to be done at the hospital because it's a bottom one and the nerve complications etc necessitate a visit there, apparently. Seems mad there's such a bottleneck.
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That same thing in my board area in Northern Ireland will take 56 weeks on waiting list for assessment, followed by a further 8 months wait for treatment.
Accurate figures.
 
Moses said:
Rang a dentist and got an appointment the same day (wasn't registered or anything)... but it's a six to eight week wait to have a broken wisdom tooth removed :-|. It has to be done at the hospital because it's a bottom one and the nerve complications etc necessitate a visit there, apparently. Seems mad there's such a bottleneck.
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If you have insurance through work then that can cover it - my work policy didn't usually cover dental stuff but I just had to make sure the dentist noted that the teeth were impacted, the nerve issue and that he recommended just removing all 4 in one go... then it was an insurance job.

Went to see some French guy on Harley street who seemed to be the go to person for this, got it all done pretty quickly in a private hospital nearby. Edit actually I think the nerve issue was picked up on a CT scan the surgeon did first but regardless if you have the dentist say you need all 4 removed then you can get it done under normal medical insurance.
 
I can’t grumble after wife saw my back and said I had a few more miles on my back than she remembered I went to the docs to get checked out as she said it needed looking at and I didn’t really want to go as I felt fine glad I did now.

Doc had a look and said two of them looked pretty nasty and took some pics and sent to local hospital as an urgent referral had a letter a week later with an appointment the following week today.

Doc was helpul said they were defiantly abnormal and has put in an urgent request to have them removed, so just waiting for a date to have them removed.
 
Had to visit the GUM clinic earlier today, thankfully not for what it's usually used for but because I have a niggling bit of my eczema in rather sensitive place and it's become infected. And due to its location it just keeps on getting infected within days of antibiotics clearing it up. I just walked in with no appointment, filled out the paperwork and was seen by the triage nurse within 15mins who took down the details and said "Yeah, you'd best see the doctor". An hour later, after a quick consultation with the doctor, I was lying on a table in a position that could only be described as dodgy and submissive. :eek:
 
Malevolence said:
Had to visit the GUM clinic earlier today, thankfully not for what it's usually used for but because I have a niggling bit of my eczema in rather sensitive place and it's become infected. And due to its location it just keeps on getting infected within days of antibiotics clearing it up. I just walked in with no appointment, filled out the paperwork and was seen by the triage nurse within 15mins who took down the details and said "Yeah, you'd best see the doctor". An hour later, after a quick consultation with the doctor, I was lying on a table in a position that could only be described as dodgy and submissive. :eek:
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That wasn't Dr T. Fal was it?
 
The NHS cannot possibly a one shot fix all, some will lose and some will win ( me being a cancer survivor)
The pressure, people living longer and more people being admitted to A&E plus the cuts by councils on social care in the community has left a gridlock in hospitals. As earlier mentioned this has taken the form of hospitals having to cancel elective surgeries this losing money.

It’s an amost impossible task to balance the books and when you have to outsource in order to keep the wheel turning, a job I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

Things will only get worse and throwing money at it won’t solve the problem. The money should go back into the community so that patients can be discharged safely. Who wants to sit in a hospital for any longer than necessary. After 3 months I was as climbing the walls and would have sold my soul to get out. I feel for those who are still waiting for appointments but it’s a broken system which is a postcode lottery at best/
Having said that it still provides some of the best medical care on the world and the envy of many
 
Further to my earlier comments, I have moderated my view slightly having had some tests done which the specialist requested after discharging me, have now had a letter calling me back in - albeit three weeks time. The clinic it's for has got me slightly worried (TIA/Stroke) when previously they were looking for a trapped nerve. I mention the clinic anecdotally so please respect the CoC regarding medical matters, but three weeks is quite quick hence the concern but at least they are following up.
 
Malevolence said:
Had to visit the GUM clinic earlier today, thankfully not for what it's usually used for but because I have a niggling bit of my eczema in rather sensitive place and it's become infected. And due to its location it just keeps on getting infected within days of antibiotics clearing it up. I just walked in with no appointment, filled out the paperwork and was seen by the triage nurse within 15mins who took down the details and said "Yeah, you'd best see the doctor". An hour later, after a quick consultation with the doctor, I was lying on a table in a position that could only be described as dodgy and submissive. :eek:
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And a good time was had by all ^_^
 
My wife is due an operation for a condition she has been diagnosed with in Feb.
The approx wait is 9-15 months.

The condition she has so far has put her back in hospital for 5 days, on three occasions now (first 4 was 4 weeks though - took that long for them to diagnoses) , the expectation is that every 3-4 weeks she will end up on a ward to try to treat her condition until they do the op.
 
Yeah waiting lists are a good reason why private medical insurance is pretty useful. Though for risky procedures a big NHS hospital is perhaps worth waiting for (unless they also offer private healthcare options too, then you can skip the queue and have the safer option).
 
I have used my work supplied private health insurance for the first time recently and didn't enjoy the experience at all. Although i couldn't fault the consultant, care, facilities etc, the nagging thought throughout it all was, "am i covered for this" "that treatment sounds great, but am i covered" The experience of having to phone up to seek "permission" to get treated was not something that i would want to have to do as routine.

NHS is not perfect, but i have never worried about the cost or payment, only getting better.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
Did you seek legal advice?
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Too expensive, and too hard to deal with after what happened. We did file a serious complaint.

Essentially I am being a little dishonest, it was cancer that killed my dad... But before he received ANY treatment he had 3 biopsies' lost, 1 biopsy unsuccessful, two incorrect referrals and over 6 months waiting for anything to be done by the NHS to try and save his life.

After this huge wait, it took for him to turn bright yellow (severely jaundice) and collapsing and unable to walk until the hospital decided to admit him to a hematology ward.. after which chemo was started after one day...

Had my dad been dealt with seriously from day one I believe he would have had a far better chance of survival, it was later discovered that he had a "survivable" aggressive fast growing cancer. Given the over 6 months waiting time, the cancer was given enough time to grow and expand to the point it couldn't be cured.

Whilst on the wards we also had numerous incidents of chemotherapy based rigors completely missed by nursing staff, only noticed by me extensively reading possible effects of the drugs, and forcing the nurses to leave their biscuits and coffee nursing post to come and look at him... As well as an occasion in which a nurse nearly directly killed him by putting him on a Chemo drip before the mandatory 6 hours of saline solution for hydration.

Again I noticed, told the nurse she hadn't done the hydration... she dismissed it until I reiterated my concern, she then went to double check the records... Came back apologizing, saying she would have to file an incident report (in which she was disciplined).

Do yourselves a favor if you get cancer chaps, FORCE the NHS to take action, otherwise you will become a statistic.
 
Ugley_Matt said:
NHS is not perfect, but i have never worried about the cost or payment, only getting better.
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And that's gist of it right there.

It's there when you need it regardless of your ability to pay for your treatment, too many people take the NHS for granted. Folk just don't realise or stop to think that even fairly mundane treatments they take for granted, soon run into £000's. When they pick up the phone and call for an ambulance they don't have to question whether they are "covered" or not. Neither do they realise that the ailments and conditions that come to all of us at some point, can actually make you uninsurable under private health care. I've used the NHS and private health care via work, fortunately the experiences with both have been very, very good. However as I have long term heart problems I reached the point about 20 years ago where private schemes simply did not want to know at any price.

I'm not so blinkered that I think the NHS is without it's faults, but it's a huge organization that treats iirc something like a million people every 36 hours. They only get it wrong in a tiny fraction of the people they treat. That doesn't make it any easier if you happen to be one of those people. The outcome can lifechanging or worse, and it's heart breaking. It's right that we call them to book and work to make it better for all of us.

Only today it's in the news that the IT system has screwed up again and errors in recalling women for repeat breast scans may have cost hundreds of women their lives. It's hard to defend them when stupid things like that occur. If I were one of those would lost a loved one I'd be baying for blood.

I do think there's a case that the NHS has become a beast with many heads and treats things that are questionable. Folk rock up every weekend in A&E departments throughout the country because of drink and drugs, wanting no more than a bed for the night. If you roll up with a cut finger it takes a nurse to sort you out. If you rock-up drunk and aggressive it takes several nurses, security and even the Police to keep you in check. Besides the money side of it, it ties those resources up so they can't be elsewhere, so folk sit waiting for hours longer than they should. The NHS gets the blame for the long waits, but is it always their fault?
 
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terley said:
Too expensive, and too hard to deal with after what happened. We did file a serious complaint.
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First of all sorry for your loss.

Secondly it wouldn't cost a great deal (if it costs anything at all) because the Solicitor would use a Notice Of Funding which is basically an insurance.
If the incident was less than 3 years ago you can still go to a Solicitor and if you have a Letter Of Response for the Complaint admitting mistakes were made, then that is like a green card.
There is still a way to claim if it is beyond 3 years but I'm not sure of the process.
 
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