The NHS...

Never had a problem with it. My doctor was great when i * up my foot a while back. Only got * off once when i took a whole day off work for what i was told would be the operation but when i got there all i did was sign a consent form

Never had trouble seeing my GP, usually get an appointment within a day.

Dentists are the odd bunch.

 

Do what i do, don't go near them.

 

Interesting that you should mention this as this was also my opinion for years and one that I recently expressed to a clinical colleague. She had a different way of looking at it....

She suggested that for years the hospital wards had less numbers, so less pressure. But more crucially there weren't as many treatments for the various conditions. They were in effect providing basic treatments to patients and otherwise managing death.

Folks also didn't ask as many questions about their treatment as they do now, or make as many demands about options. They used to just go with what they were told... 'Doctor knows best'.

This afforded staff so much more time to get the basics right and possibly (?) present an illusion that the NHS was in better shape then than it is now.

That's all been turned on its head these days. People are informed, they can investigate issues online and develop a good understanding of their condition. They will complain. They will demand. These are not necessarily bad things.

And then there are the treatments and protocols. Both of which are much more numerous and complicated than they previously were.

The net result is that staff often feel harassed, vulnerable to complaint / mistakes, and are generally low on moral.

She further hypothesised that the 'matron culture' wouldn't address these concerns and could possibly make maters worse for staff (and therefore the patients)?

I don't know the answer, but I can see where she was coming from.

 

:smiley-laughing002:

Didn't go for a few years but then was forced back by my wisdom tooth pain.

It's so expensive

 

I typed a long big * answer to this and the site went down so to * with it I probably saved you all a very boring read

 

l'm lucky enough to have a good doctor in a good practise, immediate appointments and if he thinks you need it, arranges follow up procedures elsewhere. Only problem is he's a hun, don't annoy him too much about it in case he uses a bigger needle when taking blood.

Only time in hospital was for 6 days 4 years ago for keyhole surgery. Well looked after and the staff were brilliant.

 

For all those in Scotland, just think yourselves lucky you have the NHS the way it's run in Scotland.
It is 10 times worse in England.
A lot of the services have been privatised.
The 111 service, which i worked in, has 7 different providers which means that if someone wants help at different times she may get to a different provider each time but they are not linked to each other as they are private companies.
The staff who take the calls get lots of grief from callers but it's not their fault, it's the idiots who set it up this way.

 

I would have enjoyed reading it so ... :icon_mrgreen:

Although no rush as I need to go and do something else or I would reply to Scootz now as well , which I will do either later or more likely tomorrow ,once hopefully my internet is working and I don't have to use the 3G signal on my ipad to post which is pish being blunt.

 

Unfortunately it's pretty much that way here in the States already with the huge health insurance and Obamacare stuff. It's all complicated as * so I won't bore you with the messy details, but it's really ridiculous in all honesty. Unless I'm wrong as well I think the Tory's are wanting to go a similar way.

You're at the mercy of the health insurance company's "rules & regulations"; you have to practically be in perfect health before a lot of them consider you; it's health insurance yet something might happen to you that is not covered; when/if you're admitted into hospital they want you out ASAP because it's more money for them to pay out the longer you're in there (my wife's a nurse and she knows all about fighting with insurance company's); if your job doesn't provide healthcare insurance you have to go with Obamacare (although I'm not too sure of the ins and outs of that though). Me and my wife even have to pay $30 just to see our doctor.

For one of the richest - if not THE richest - country in the world the health care system is a mess. The NHS is probably a mess as well but it's still a lot better than what it is here in the States I think.

 

A&E is a shambles, and in more than one occasion the 'doctors' have wrongly sent myself or a family member home claiming that a bone wasn't broken when it was.

 

Do we have 24/7/365 access though? Really?

My parents are registered at a doctors outside Glasgow, and the hassle they have trying to get a face to face appointment!

It's a * routine and a half every time. First, you call the surgery, then they tell you that a doctor will call you back "later". No timeframe, just "later".

When said doctor eventually does call back he or she goes all * huffy if you dare to actually ask them to make an appointment to see you in person! It's a real inconvenience apparently!

Also, whenever I've driven my parents to the surgery the place is always * empty! When I was a kid the surgery would always be jumping with people, now it's a * ghost town, so they can't say that they're overrun.

Upon making it to the doctors office it's a nightmare being prescribed anything. My parents are old, and they don't fight back against illness naturally that well anymore, but trying to get some antibiotics? * *, you'd think the cost of it was coming out of that doctors pockets personally!

No, * antibiotics. Don't get better within a week, what to do is go home, drink lemsip and if you still feel * in ten days phone the office, at which point you'll go through the same procedure again and we'll consider giving you something then.

The service is * terrible, like most non-competitive, nationalised services.

 

Telephone appointment with gp = 5/6 days here.

 

You have to wait 5 or 6 days for a telephone appointment?

 

Of course you do... if it's serious enough then you will be seen at A&E or at the out of hours Doctors surgery.

Christ, imagine having to call the surgery and being told that a Doctor will call you back 'later'. Outrageous!

Could it be that the Doctor knows what's prevalent in the area at that time, or knows what is wrong from the description and feels that it can be dealt with via phone advice? It's not nice seeing someone we care for suffering an illness and we all want them to feel better NOW, but in most cases rest, commercially-available medications, and time to recover are all that's required.

Antibiotics - everyone wants them - most don't need them... not even the elderly.

I'm assuming your parents survived each of these contacts you have had with the Doctor? Makes me wonder how that happened given the * terrible service they keep experiencing?

Or maybe the Docs have a half-clue after all?

I do understand where you're coming from, and I think that there are areas of what you have said that could do with closer scrutiny. However, I can't help but also feel that there is a fair degree of that 'Me! Now! At my convenience!' culture that I alluded to earlier prevalent in your post too. Are you expecting too much? Are you putting further unnecessary pressure on an already pressurised organisation?

I'm just thinking out loud... and looking for debate on how WE contribute to the difficulties of the NHS.

PS - I genuinely wish your parents the best of health.

 

I understand from your posts that you may have some sort of involvement in the NHS, am I correct? If so, it would explain your slightly offhand replies.

You say that we get the service for "little or now't", and suggest that for that reason we should simply be happy to have a service at all. I don't buy into that.

Every working person in the UK pays towards that system via their tax. It was suggested a number of years back that someone on around £22,000 per year is contributing somewhere in the region of £800 per year to the NHS.

That isn't little or now't.

 

I do work for the NHS Dáibhí - not clinical though.

I see it's faults - and there are many, but I also see the costs of treatments and £800 doesn't buy you much medication, equipment, or consultancy time. It may be a lot of money to most folks, but it is genuinely a drop in the ocean in operational medical terms.

I've not had many personal medical encounters, but I've had a couple of small ops and expensive procedures, so know that if I continue to work in full employment to the day I die, that I spent my lifetime NHS contributions a long time ago!

I'm sorry you find my posts slightly offhand... I guess I'm just trying to provoke some introspection on what our involvement is in the difficulties that the NHS faces?

We all want the land of milk and honey, but do we expect too much? Illness and death are, after-all, everyday normal natural occurrences... do we just blindly chuck money at every instance of both to give folks the psychological comfort that everything that can be done is being done, or should the NHS clinicians continue to monitor what is being spent where and that it is reasonable?

I am perhaps being unconsciously defensive as I see a lot of abuse of the service from apparently 'normal' people. Not turning up for appointments, not taking medications as described (leading to waste and further appointments / prescriptions), people presenting regularly with ridiculously minor ailments and demanding to be seen as it is their right. Many of these folk fill up the appointment slots, and make it more difficult for others (perhaps more genuine people like your folks) to be seen timeously.

 

The worse thing the NHS ever did was hire me!

 

Did anyone watch the Channel 5 show: NHS In Crisis: The Live Debate?

Was a shambles. It was only on for an hour, they rotated the panel, therefore the audience was made up majorly from the panels. The panels included GP's, surgeons, doctors, politicians and a few journalist. On the whole they were well educate and clued up with regards to the problems. The majority of the audience were aswell, bar a few including CBB's very own Chloe Goodwin (or whatever she's called).

It was hosted by Nick Ferrari and he was terrible. The set-up was not ideal and because of the constant panel changes there wasn't any detailed exploration into the themes as to why the NHS was struggling. At first he attempted to bring up UKIP and blame immigrants - he was schooled on that though and the panel turned on him as did the audience, he seemed startled by this because normally the U.K public revel in blaming immigrants. They certainly didn't screen their audience well enough, unlike the BBC and Question Time. The audience was far too alert and educated, as you would expect from educated medical practitioners.

Ferrari also attempted to make the former Health Minister look stupid because the guy said we should maybe pay a little more tax and this should directly go to the NHS. Ferrari was about to say 'You're telling me that these people should pay MORE tax.' However before he could the audience were applauding the former minister (can't recall his name).

The panel and audience members on the whole blamed the government. They have reduced spending, certainly more than Germany and France. They have reduced beds, Germany and France have far more per person. They blamed in-efficiency, top level management (we don't need as many high-paid quango's). They also pulled Ferrari up on 'victim blaming'. Basically we need to stop blaming obese people - it's not their fault, the cost of covering obesity related illnesses is a drop in the ocean.

One of the doctors also mentioned that it could be a deliberate attempt in order to bring in privitisation. There is no need to fix something when it isn't broken. Therefore by reducing budgets, lowering the quality of the NHS and manufacturing problems, it allows the government to sell us the idea of privitisation and how it would benefit the NHS.