Little rant on the NHS

[UKMuFFiN]

Went to the doctors this morning 'coz he wanted to see how my feet were doing. It took 2 hours.

Out of that time, how long do you think I spent with the doctor? I'd say it was a maximum of 20...seconds!!

I got there at 9:55, thinking I was late for my appointment at 9:50, I went to the desk, said I was there and asked if I'd missed the appointment. "No no" She said, "Have a seat". Fair enough I thought. After an hour there were still people going into see the doctor before me so I went back to the desk.

"Uh, when am I going in then?"

"Oh, you'r next Nathan, your appointment wasn't until 10:50."

"...."

*In my head I was screaming "Then why on earth did'nt you tell me that an hour ago!?"*

So, I go in to see the doc. "Hi Nathan, how are you?"

"Fine thanks, the cream seems to be working."

"Ok then, yes, it looks better, keep using it until it clears up."

That was it, but he didn't mention anything about the sick note I was supposed to get, so I asked him about that, he asked me the dates for it, wrote a note down in my file, handed it to me and said to tell someone on reception and they'd get it for me.

Went to the desk, 5 minutes later "Oh, can i help you?" I gave her the file and explained. "Ok then just take a seat for a moment." After another 15 minutes of banging my head against the wall, she finally brings me the sick note and I get out of there pronto.

[badass]

Dont you just love labour's new advanced access!
Labour said everyone had to be offered an appt within 48 hours of asking. GP's do that by shifting other booked appointments around.

[kickstart 1]

Take it you've never done the hospital appointment then ? Ho ho ho set a day aside for that one !!!

[shelley bda]

That's terrible I have to say they are really good at my Surgery, i've never waited longer than 15 minutes for anything, and they'll usually come and explain if you have to wait longer.....

Never had a problem with Hospital appointments either, although waiting for the appointment letter can be a pain, just had a letter this morning for my youngest son, he needs to see an Orthodontist at Hospital to have teeth taken out and a brace fitted and the letter I was sent this morning said 38 weeks

[TamDigital]

In our neck of the woods, you have to phone on the day that you want to see the Doctor ... you phone either between 8.45am and 9.00am or between 2.00pm and 2.15pm. Of-course, the rest of the patients are phoning at the same time, so if you are lucky and get through, you might just get an appointment that morning or afternoon. Never used to be that bad, its very frustrating, especially if you have a sick kid.

[menthel]

That is why I am getting out. Labour have meddled with the health service too much and have destroyed doctor's training with their new system. Hence hello private sector with better wages and fewer hours. There will be no NHS in 10 years.

[badass]

Originally Posted by TamDigital

In our neck of the woods, you have to phone on the day that you want to see the Doctor ... you phone either between 8.45am and 9.00am or between 2.00pm and 2.15pm. Of-course, the rest of the patients are phoning at the same time, so if you are lucky and get through, you might just get an appointment that morning or afternoon. Never used to be that bad, its very frustrating, especially if you have a sick kid.

But you get an appointment offered within 48 hours of getting through to them!
labour!
They really have improved patient care in the NHS.

[frumpet]

Originally Posted by badass

But you get an appointment offered within 48 hours of getting through to them!
labour!
They really have improved patient care in the NHS.

Especially after the NHS had it's "best year ever"

[TamDigital]

Originally Posted by badass

But you get an appointment offered within 48 hours of getting through to them!
labour!
They really have improved patient care in the NHS.

LOL! But if you do get through here, and there are no appointments left, they tell you to ring again on the next rabid appointment grabbing slot. I just can't book advanced appointments any more

[villarule]

I dont think any of that is labours fault, purly down to the surgery staff.

I have to say this, because I HATE it when people start bitching about the NHS.My little sister (will be 3 in November) was born with a rare heat condition, where she basically doesnt have the left side of her heart. She was also diagnosed with a bowel condition, so basically she doesnt have one and her stuff goes into a bag now.

But the point is, the Doctors, Nurses and EVERYONE involved in her care, and the fact she is still alive to this day has been down to the NHS. She has had the treatment WHEN she needs it, and its always been to the best, NEVER any muck ups, infections (and she also has no splien,so she picks up infections and bugs very easily) and the people themselves have been great people.

So basically, when it REALLY is needed, the NHS know what they are doing. They have the equipment, staff and everything needed to do anything, and I have full confidence in them no matter what.

I think people are expecting too much of them. There are millions of people in this country that get ill. Unfortuantly, there arent millions, or even hundreds of thousands of people going into the NHS to provide first class care. Yes, when your ill, you want to be made better, and alot of the time, it does happen, though there are alot of people they need to help and things have priorites, and there are always people that ask for uneeded help, which wastes time and resources. The NHS IS stretched to the limit and IS poorly run, put the people who do the big stuff really know what they are doing, and the frontline doctors, nurses and surgeons, I have ALOT of respect for.

[menthel]

The thing you have to realise is that when it matters, eg you are really bloody ill and things have to happen, then they happen and always have. Its the niggly things that won't kill you that cause the problems and the pain. The NHS has been ruined by government (both conservative and labour) and we just have to wait for a government to be brave enough to tear the whole thing down. Anyways I am off to join a pharmaceutical company.

[TamDigital]

I don't think we should confuse the excellent health professionals we have with the NHS which is a state run service which encapsulates, utilises and abuses those professionals. I certainly appreciate their work, its ust getting to them and them getting the time to do it due to the constraints they are put under which bothers me.

[Atomic]

My experience of the NHS has been excellent.

I had a second collaps of my lung and was taken into hospital in an ambulance within 10mins of phoning for one.

Seen by a doctor who gave me some nice painkillers and waited about 20mins to see a specialist.

Taken into a ward that day and had an operation to fix it that night.

Can't fault that.

[notsobig]

I've been nearly waiting for 15years for my appointment for a treatment of wisdom teeth. And thanks to NHS, it's now fully grown

[badass]

Originally Posted by villarule

I dont think any of that is labours fault, purly down to the surgery staff.

=story about how the NHS staff are great=

How is it down to surgery staff when Labour make promises that it is simply not possible to meet with the resources tehy provide?
Labour tell everyone that they will be offered an appointment within 48 hours of phoning. There simply aren't the doctors or staff to do that aswell as allow people appointments when they want. So the surgeries work out a way of doing that. The only way is to prevent people from booking more than 48 hours in advance, that way they can offer everyone an appointment within 48 hours of getting through on the phone.

Just to make it clear, I'm not one that just blames Labour for the state of the NHS. The tories are equally to blame. Through their contracting out of cleaning and continuous underfunding, they set the NHS up to get worse. Labour then allowed it to continue getting worse by introducing a ridiculous amount of beurocracy so all of the extra money they have pumped in is wasted of people whose job is simply to justify their own existence.

For those with great stories of the NHS, those are great stories of the staff in the NHS, and if after surgery the patient didn't catch a selection of infections, then they are also lucky. Before cleaning was contracted out, the wards were emptied and fully disinfected regularily. They dont do that any more. That combined with the lack of other cleaning is whats causing all of these so called "superbugs" to spread through the hospitals.

[BEANFro Elite]

Well clearly its all dependant on where you live, but I live in London and I was involved in an "accident" in which the cartillage in my right elbow was squashed and the elbow itself got cracked a little bit.

The incident happened at about 9:30pm, I got home at about 10:10pm, my mum phoned a taxi and we went to the Whittington A&E arrived there at about 10:30pm.

I was in the waiting room until about 3:00am at which point I was seen by a doctor who examined my arm and identified what may be wrong and so sent me to the fractures department this took about ten minutes (3:10am).


In the fractures department, I spent about thirty minutes waiting here, had the x-ray (3:40am).

They showed myself and my mum the x-ray telling what my injuries were which as I pointed out earlier was a hairline crack on the elbow, right on the tip and the force on the impact had squashed the cartilage betweent he forearm and and the upper arm this all took about twenty minutes.

All done, it was now about 4:00am by now and we got a taxi home.


I'm not exactly angry with the NHS although this happened a good 5 - 6 years ago so things might be better or worse, I'll even go as far as saying its good that its so bad, so we're all more careful but I AM concerned for the elderly and frail etc. But surely, shouldn't we be more concerned about how how dirty our NHS hospitals have gotten?

Even though, it took all that time, that could have been a very expensive accident I had, x-rays aren't cheap you know and in case you were wondering, my arm is fine and I seem to be indestructable now