Doctors

[BeoWulf]

Don't you just love the medical system.

They have little or no support for quite a range of issues. Getting one to come out to see you is like pulling teeth. Getting a appointment to see them unless you book 1-2 weeks in advance is nigh on impossible.

Yet they have walk in's for under 3's where you see 1 person actually take it up. If something is so blatantly underused, perhaps they ought to move the resources into other area's ie. a walkin for people in need.

Considering that the doctors appointments are usually in 15-20 minute slots, and the doctor chucks you out the door in 5, thats a lot of pay for a 10-15 minutes idling period.

It's bad when it takes social services to get you in the door on short notice. Go nhs!.

[Paulm@scan]

How bad would it be without NHS though?

[BeoWulf]

It's not so much the NHS, more who they are letting push them around. The government pokes around too much and things get way worse, masses of staff being let go etc.

Not a good thing.

[Paulm@scan]

True! things need to improve but what can we do, sit back a wait to watch them do nothing.

Better go to bed now work tomorrow lol!

[BeoWulf]

Heh, keep up the good work!, you guys rock.

[grizzla]

Both of the Doctor's surgeries i use (uni and home), and many others i am aware of require you to ring up on the morning you want to see a doctor in order to make an appointment. This is apparently in order to stop so many people from not turning up to an appointment without giving the surgery any notice.

[Kezzer]

I'm high priority with the NHS so I usually get a slot within a week.

Yay! But if you think the NHS service is bad, then you'd hate the health service from where I'm from. Medical fees aren't covered by the government, so a trip in the ambulance will get you a bill sent to your door for £120. That's just the ambulance alone though.

I'm glad I was in the UK when I last fell ill, it would've literally costed me around £6000 (ambulance, A&E, ICU, 24-hour specialised care for 3 days etc.).

As for getting fit into a slot, well all I can say is that there is a system, and it's in place to make sure everyone is fit in within 2 weeks I think. Again, unless it's life threatening then you can wait

[Andy3536]

Local hospital to me has tiolets that are never cleaned, pateints that don't see a doctor for days and the gell cleaners supposed to help the super bug outbreak there are placed out of reach of anyone in a wheelchair.
Those running the NHS have been incompetant for years!
Hope i'm not i'll for in the near.......and distant future!

[BeoWulf]

When it comes down to it, there are special conditions that mean you cannot give notice, and they have nothing in place to help. They USED to before all the reforms happened, you could actually get a doctor to come out, have phone appt's etc.

Andy3536, yep, wheelchair support is atrocious, our doctors has a ramp, but it has a really bad turn that you can't actually get a wheelchair around.. not if you'd like to keep your legs. In the actual surgery is a really heavy door that opens inwards. Not good at all..

[Saracen]

Maybe it's geographical.

The only times I've ever waited more than 48 hours to see my GP is when he's away or on holiday .... and even then, another doctor in the surgery has been offered as an alternative. Generally, I can get a next-day, or perhaps two-day, appointment with my GP, and can often get same-day if I go for a walk-in, rather than an appointment.

As for local hospitals, my experience is limited, but as far as it goes, I can't fault them. They've been prompt, and the staff superb.

Originally Posted by BeoWulf

Considering that the doctors appointments are usually in 15-20 minute slots, and the doctor chucks you out the door in 5, thats a lot of pay for a 10-15 minutes idling period.

My doctor takes, within reason, whatever time it takes. He seems to do 10 minute slots, but there've been occasions when I've been in a 10-minute slot for 30 minutes.

Firstly, he listens ...without jumping to conclusions. Then he either prescribes or investigates, depending on the situation, and he will also take time to explain what's going in, if you ask the questions. He doesn't waste time (because he doesn't have much to spare), but nor have I ever felt hurried or "checked out".

Also, it may be that after you get thrown out, your doctor may have follow-up work to do before the next patient goes in. He may have notes to write up, he may have a phone call to make .... and he may want to call up the next patient's records and have a quick review before he calls them in, especially if it's a patient with a long-term problem. Or he may have all of these to do. Just because he doesn't have a patient with him every second doesn't mean it's necessarily "idle time".

Oh, and if a doctor spends 30 minutes with one patient for a 10-minute slot, then he's 20 minutes behind. So if the next patient only needs 5 minutes, he's now only 15 minutes behind. I have no proof, but I can't imagine that whatever time slot they allocate to appointments is ever anything more than a rough guide. Any good doctor will spend time where it needs to be spent, but shouldn't be wasting time where it doesn't need to be spent. If yours doesn't do that, maybe you ought to change doctor?

[Ommid]

lol, im hoping to be a doc but everyone keeps putting me off moaning about the nhs

saracen sounds like you have a very good doctor! aint many of those around now

[Steve B]

aren't there plans for the Government to set up some kind of NHS task force, handing all control of the NHS over to them, so that they dont keep poking around in it?

[Saracen]

Originally Posted by Ommid

saracen sounds like you have a very good doctor! aint many of those around now

Yup .... and the worrying thing is that he's getting close to retirement age.

[nichomach]

Firstly, my wife uses the doctor more often than I do, but she usually phones in the morning and they give her an appointment for that day. If a local GP is unavailable, our local hospital also has a primary care centre where you can simply walk in, and whenever we've had to use that, we've been seen in a maximum of about 90 minutes. We've also used our local A&E with a similar maximum wait, and that was on a Friday night (drunk central!). In all cases, the medical personnel have taken whatever time it needed to deal with us, have been unfailingly courteous and professional and have never rushed us out of the door. OK, others may have had different or worse experiences, but bluntly, I'm sick of hearing about how terrible the NHS is when almost every experience that we've had with them has been good.

[Lee @ SCAN]

My new doctor is a vast improvement over my older one.

I went the other week for a long standing problem and while I was there because I hadn't been for over a year he measured me and weighed me, took my blood pressure, checked out a few other things.

Just got to wait now for the appointment to go and have some cameras placed in places you don't wanna know.

[nichomach]

Cue Joe Pesci:
Leo Getz: Where does it say that a gunshot wound requires a rectal exam?
Roger Murtaugh: Rectal exam?
Leo Getz: Yeah. With a telescope big enough to see Venus!
Riggs: I guess all they saw was Uranus.