Useless NHS

[j00ni]

Do you want to know something funny?

I've been doing work experience in an NHS surgery. Nearly all of the "New Patients" joined in the last few years are foreigners; obviously immigrants.

The NHS will collapse eventually.

What's funny about that? All the immigrants registering will have to be legally recognised to register, so I don't see your problem. The whole point of the NHS (for better of worse) is equality of treatment for all - or would you prefer some sort of ethnic screening prior to treatment?

 

[frosty03]

Either way its a lose lose situation.

In the 80s/early 90s there was a huge shortage in doctors, (maybe earlier?) and we needed to fill it, as medicine uni applicants were so low (in those years the grades needed to do medicine at uni were ~ CCC at Alevel).

In the last 5/10 years however the competition for medicine has rocketed, and there are lots more graduates and the entry grades are now AAA/AAB with huge selection processes blah blah blah.

With more English doctors, and a now surplus of immigrant doctors (who are equally competant and qualified may I add) the NHS has two choices...shaft the homegrown talent, or shaft the immigrant talent it has been previously relying on. Ah well

How about not shafting anyone at all? It takes 5 years to qualify from med school. The number of graduates are well known by universities and the number of posts are known by the department of health. With proper planning, there should have been a gradual decrease in the acceptance of foreign doctors. The DOH has once again messed it up by not planning properly, realising it too late, panicing that the huge wave of unemployed will be bad for voters, and decided to take the easy option.

Once again, management messes up, people get shafted. Bear in mind, doctors mess up, people die. Guess who the NHS values more these days.

 

[Samtheman1k]

If there's one thing I've found with the NHS, is the more you persist, the more likely you are to get treated.
You don't get given treatment, you have to DEMAND treatment.

But surely it's the doctors who should DEMAND treatment??? Afterall, I wouldn't 'know' what's wrong, just that it flaming hurts! Surely the doctors should recognise something isn't right and DEMAND treatment...?

Is that not what they get paid for?

 

[The_TailGunner]

if you think the nhs is bad, try the irish healthcare system. it sucks...bigtime.

my gf gets kidney infections all the time, and the nhs rocked for getting them sorted. didnt matter where in the country we were either...call the local walk in centre, drive over, see doctor, get scrip, get handed the medication, go home. all in under an hour. cant fault it tbh.

the irish systrem- go to gp, hand over €50-80, get some tests taken by a useless locum...the tests cost extra...wait an age for the tests to eventually come back, then nobody calls you with the results so you eventually call the gp to find out that you have a kidney infection...well, duh! we knew that! we told you that two weeks ago dammit! go to gp, get scrip, pay ludicrously huge price for medication...and after all that, your health insurance pays maybe half the costs...if you are lucky. and all the while my gf is off work because she is ill and in pain.

private health care in the uk is a rip off too...i had bupa with my job, but they only covered things that could be fixed 100% with an operation. so they dont cover things like my sleep apnea...so im paying...but they "dont cover" the only thing that is wrong with me. useless ****s.

so all in all- props to the nhs..they do an amazing job considering they are hampered by crap management and mismanaged funding.

 

[SKILL]

Recently I had a nice stay at the NHS, on the 2nd July I was involved in a motorbike accident. Got a broken leg and damaged ligaments in the left leg and a gash with skin missing on the right leg.

Was on morphine funnily enough and slipping in and out of consciousness so don't really remember a huge amount of the first couple of days, but in general what I do remember of the stay was very good. Nurses were all polite and helpful, kept me full of painkillers so the pain wasn't too bad, and generally apart from bed bound for most of it it wasn't such a bad 11 days

There were only one thing I feel I should complain about, and that is that a week after the op I was pretty much ready to leave, physio's had said it'd be fine, Occupational Health had said it was fine, my bloods were fine (I was, and still am, on blood thinners due to blood clots in the lungs), but the spineless woman who was the 'senior doctor' of my consultants team (the consultant himself wasn't in) refused to let me go because she 'didn't like the look' of one of my wounds, so had to wait till the next day for the consultant to laugh at the wound and say it's just a graze

Overall it was a decent showing by the NHS though

 

[Visage]

Recently I had a nice stay at the NHS, on the 2nd July I was involved in a motorbike accident. Got a broken leg and damaged ligaments in the left leg and a gash with skin missing on the right leg.

Was on morphine funnily enough and slipping in and out of consciousness so don't really remember a huge amount of the first couple of days, but in general what I do remember of the stay was very good. Nurses were all polite and helpful, kept me full of painkillers so the pain wasn't too bad, and generally apart from bed bound for most of it it wasn't such a bad 11 days

There were only one thing I feel I should complain about, and that is that a week after the op I was pretty much ready to leave, physio's had said it'd be fine, Occupational Health had said it was fine, my bloods were fine (I was, and still am, on blood thinners due to blood clots in the lungs), but the spineless woman who was the 'senior doctor' of my consultants team (the consultant himself wasn't in) refused to let me go because she 'didn't like the look' of one of my wounds, so had to wait till the next day for the consultant to laugh at the wound and say it's just a graze

Overall it was a decent showing by the NHS though

It seems that 99% of people have a decent experience of the NHS. Its just human nature to focus on the 1% that dont.

Every experience I've had of the NHS has been first rate. Of course they make mistakes - show me an organisation that size that doesnt, but they deserve nothing but our praise.

 

[JollyGreen]

But surely it's the doctors who should DEMAND treatment??? Afterall, I wouldn't 'know' what's wrong, just that it flaming hurts! Surely the doctors should recognise something isn't right and DEMAND treatment...?

Is that not what they get paid for?

Are you mad?
It's the exact opposite (with GPs anyway, probably other doctors too to lesser and greater extents).
GPs are the gatekeepers to the resources of the NHS.
From what I've seen it's not a case of "Hmm, better get that x-rayed", more..
"Well, you didn't come in to A&E, so it's probably not too bad, here have some painkillers"

 

[Minstadave]

Are you mad?
It's the exact opposite (with GPs anyway, probably other doctors too to lesser and greater extents).
GPs are the gatekeepers to the resources of the NHS.
From what I've seen it's not a case of "Hmm, better get that x-rayed", more..
"Well, you didn't come in to A&E, so it's probably not too bad, here have some painkillers"

Yeah right left and centre Doctors are being made to ration treatment and minimise expenditure, they don't have much managerial role at all anymore.

Doctors will arrange the appropriate treatment, and fight for it where its needed most, but the huge demand means waiting is envitable and the service will have its limitations.

 

[frosty03]

Yeah right left and centre Doctors are being made to ration treatment and minimise expenditure, they don't have much managerial role at all anymore.

Doctors will arrange the appropriate treatment, and fight for it where its needed most, but the huge demand means waiting is envitable and the service will have its limitations.

Sorry, but you are all wrong. It has swung the other way now. Doctors make the decision to treat and what to treat on best evidence and patient needs. They are often undermined by managers who say you cant give this, cant do that, because of financial considerations. Very often, managers with NO medical training will suggest "alternative" treatments, and the docs have to protect their patients from these nutters. Sad thing is, there is a purpose to this madness, since we cant give the best treatment to everybody as it'll bankrupt the NHS in a week.

 

[Tommy B]

What's funny about that? All the immigrants registering will have to be legally recognised to register, so I don't see your problem. The whole point of the NHS (for better of worse) is equality of treatment for all - or would you prefer some sort of ethnic screening prior to treatment?

My point is simple. Labour are letting in too many immigrants, and services like schools and the NHS simply cannot support the ever-increasing number of people demanding such services.

 

[HangTime]

There were only one thing I feel I should complain about, and that is that a week after the op I was pretty much ready to leave, physio's had said it'd be fine, Occupational Health had said it was fine, my bloods were fine (I was, and still am, on blood thinners due to blood clots in the lungs), but the spineless woman who was the 'senior doctor' of my consultants team (the consultant himself wasn't in) refused to let me go because she 'didn't like the look' of one of my wounds, so had to wait till the next day for the consultant

There's an old saying - Better Safe than Sorry. To be fair, would you rather the NHS kept you in for a day longer than necessary, or kicked you out the door wihtout a second glance in a dazed state saying "we've done our bit now, i'm sure you'll be fine guv'. What with the 'compensation culture' we live in, I'm sure some senior medical staff think twice before discharging cases they are not sure about, for fear of the patient regressing and kicking up a fuss.

 

[SKILL]

True, it is better to be safe than sorry, and I can see the problem with 'compensation culture', however she herself said that she thought the consultant would be fine with it, but wasn't willing to make that decision herself. It was only a minor annoyance but i'd been there for 10 days at that point, I just wanted to get out of there asap

The wound in question was a 'graze' just below where i'd had some skin loss, wasn't weeping or anything just didn't have any much skin over it, looked exactly the same the next morning and sure enough the consultant took all of 3s to make the decision that I was well enough to be discharged