| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:I am starting to lose faith in the NHS | |
| Posted by: | Arnold Saxton | |
| Date/Time: | 06/10/14 14:21:00 |
| Let me add my tuppenceworth to this debate. This morning, my wife, a wheelchair user, had a 9.15 appointment at a gynecological clinic at St. Mary's Paddington. The 27 passes the door, but in view of the early hour, I booked a cab, and we arrived on time -as did about 20 other patients. An hour later, all these others had been seen , and a fresh cohort was arriving, also being seen before us. After another half-hour, I complained to the Reception desk. Apologies, etc, and 'you'll be seen very soon, meanwhile, here's for a urine sample'. Of course, she was called whilst we were seeing to this, so another wait. Eventually we were seen almost 2 HOURS after the appointment time!! The apologetic consultant told us this happens every day. Yes, our NHS is wonderful,and I've had excellent treatment for a variety of conditions, ranging from cancer to a serious fracture.But I've been in wards that I would call Dickensian (at ChX), and it took them over six months of various tests for individual symptoms for a locum GP to say that I had anaemia, probably of the 'pernicious' variety. Once this was confirmed, excellent treatment, but I was very ill before that. Compare with our daughter's experience. She and her family live in a small town near Avignon. About 10 years ago, feeling very unwell, she saw her GP, who took a blood sample. This was analysed the next day by an accredited local chemist, and the following day she was in th eleukemia ward at the biggest hospital in Avignon. The treatment she received was exemplary; if a drug was not doing its job, she was moved on to another, regardless of the cost. Slowly she recovered, and has now been officially declared cured. In a parallel situation in GB,she would most likely have died I really have doubts about our NHS being both cost-effective and one of the best in the world.How many British cities the size of Malaga have a dedicated Children's Hospital, such as the one the little boy Ashya went to, when his parents took him abroad for treatment? And we don't have in this country the treatment his parents wanted, but we will send your child to the USA if we (who?) think he will benefit. And we still build hospitals with multi-occupancy wards, whereas a friend of mine in France was very peeved to find he had to share with one other person. As for 'free at the point of use', so it is, unless you need a dentist or an optician, and are one of the group that has to pay for medication. Grrrr! I apologise for the rant, but this morning's experience has pushed me into saying things I've been thinking for a long time. The NHS is marvellous in many ways, but... and don't say it's the fault of the present government, because most of my bad memories of the service go back a long, long way. Under-resourced it may be, but the NHS is rich in one field - that of patients' time and patience, though the latter may be running out, and in our case it did so this morning. |