I very recently got a bursitis on my elbow. Sent a photo of it to 'ask my GP' ..... over a fortnight later I got a phone appointment! 
After I was discharged from hospital I received a phone call from my GP requesting me to attend an appointment that HE had made on my behalf. He wanted updating on what had happened to me as he’d received a letter from the hospital. I was polite to him but criticised the reception staff and said I blame them for preventing me to see the GP. His response was “I thought we’d got past all of that with reception but it sounds like I need to have another word with them”.
My symptoms incidentally were like having flu to begin with. A fever, sweating buckets but shivering and zero appetite. I genuinely thought I had severe covid so decided to ride it out. The truth was, a swelling around my spleen was putting pressure in other places, suppressing my appetite, so my weight dropped dramatically. Then bacteria in my blood caused blood clots, which decided to settle on two of my heart valves. I was struggling to walk as I couldn’t maintain my balance, until I finally collapsed.
The point being, if a GP would have seen me face to face, he would have instantly noticed that I looked shite and sent me to hospital. Instead, it dragged on until I needed heart valve replacements and a hole in the heart closing up. I was opened up and operated on so many times that I suggested that they fit a zip on my chest.
A warning to all, covid has clouded our thoughts when we feel unwell, so don’t dismiss illness as having covid or flu like I did. Shout, and if nobody listens shout louder until you do get an appointment, because I may be recovering physically, but psychologically I’m not. I still get upset when I recall the journey to the operating theatre, wondering if what I was looking at would be the last thing I’d ever see.
Author
Topic: The NHS discussion has started (Read 1459 times)