Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Terbs on 08 April 2015, 15:55:21
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Yesterday, we got called back from Dorset...problem with the Mother in law. Had to go into Stoke Mandeville for tests on her heart and lungs. She has had infections, but doctor (GP) said its not the infections, its her heart. So 3.00pm ambulance called. Mother in Law refusing to go to SM, threatening to do herself in rather than go there. We were in Swanage....and after rather fierce phone calls between swmbo and her mother, her mum agreed to go, providing we came back !!!!
So we travelled up last night at midnight, which was a bitch as they kept closing the motorways M27 and M3. Ended up on the A34 to Newbury, and backtracking.
Anyway, after contacting m-I-l's neighbour, it transpired that the ambulance turned up at 10.30pm. It also transpires that there were no ambulances available in Bucks, Oxon, and most of Berks.
For those who know their geography, this actual ambulance came up from Didcot To High Wycombe to take her 20miles north to Stoke Mandeville (Aylesbury) Whaaaaat.........
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Sounds about right :-\
Hope she's being looked after...
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Thanks for your remarks, Al.
After all that, SM have conducted tests, and its not her heart, contrary to GP, it is the afterpart of the chest infection !!!!!
She was sent home this morning....
Was it all worth it :o
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Mother in law has told us to go back to the caravan. Sister in law is coming up. Just had a call from sis in law.....she won't be coming up, she has just fallen down the stairs, has broken her arm and is waiting for an ambulance. I hope it ain't coming from Didcot to Swindon.......
What is life doing to me !!!!!!!!!! ???
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What a milarkey. Hope you get back to the caravan and have some R and R.
What a problem with a not joined up health service.
Old people are part of a time bomb that will destroy the NHS. We all know that there more and more old folk living longer but not enough money and resources to manage them. If I was a doctor I too would err on the side of "get an ambulance". GPs don't have the resources to handle old people despite trying.
The only solution is to charge for basic services. Labour will NEVER do that. It would be the kiss of death for the Tories to do it. So Britain rambles headlong towards a health disaster with each party blaming the other e.g. "South Staffs".
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What a milarkey. Hope you get back to the caravan and have some R and R.
What a problem with a not joined up health service.
Old people are part of a time bomb that will destroy the NHS. We all know that there more and more old folk living longer but not enough money and resources to manage them. If I was a doctor I too would err on the side of "get an ambulance". GPs don't have the resources to handle old people despite trying.
The only solution is to charge for basic services. Labour will NEVER do that. It would be the kiss of death for the Tories to do it. So Britain rambles headlong towards a health disaster with each party blaming the other e.g. "South Staffs".
Yes.
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Is it not how ''the old people'' are to blame for being a burden on the NHS,let me just say this...my dad is 90 years of age and is dying from terminal cancer, and I resent any remarks in reference to laying the blame on people like him and Terby's mom.My dad still pays in to the system, as he made provision through paying into his company pension scheme and he still gets taxed quite heavily for being prudent.He also fought for his country...so let's not forget that he like a lot of you was a healthy young man who started work at fourteen years of age and worked hard all of his life and was still working full time until his mid seventies.I myself probably fall into the old person category being sixty seven .....but guess what? yes I'm still working and paying into the system, and incidently I don't go down to the town centre and get pissed out of my head and end up in casualty causing no end of problems to decent people. Also I don't drive like absolute nobhead, unlike a lot of ''young people'' who bed block the orthopaedic wards after coming to grief after wrapping themselves around the nearest piece of street furniture or another innocent road user.........shall I stop now?? A little bit of respect for our elders won't go amiss...but of course there's so much arrogant shite uttered from those superior beings who are so naïve so as to think that they won't ever be in a similar situation ..perhaps sooner rather than later may well be the case.....so think on!!
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I wonder how many ambulances between those two towns were actually stuck outside A&E waiting for the triage nurse to fudge their waiting time stats >:(
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Seems like it happens on a regular basis,but the politicians will give that one a swerve ::)
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What a milarkey. Hope you get back to the caravan and have some R and R.
What a problem with a not joined up health service.
Old people are part of a time bomb that will destroy the NHS. We all know that there more and more old folk living longer but not enough money and resources to manage them. If I was a doctor I too would err on the side of "get an ambulance". GPs don't have the resources to handle old people despite trying.
The only solution is to charge for basic services. Labour will NEVER do that. It would be the kiss of death for the Tories to do it. So Britain rambles headlong towards a health disaster with each party blaming the other e.g. "South Staffs".
that last comment is total rubbish my friend as my mums G.P and my nan G.P are great (different PCT's)...it is not the old that is a major drain on the NHS resources....and you are right health tourists and immigrants should be made to pay for all their treatment no money no treatment and that is VERY easily policed....but then living in Spain you wont need to worry about the 'Health Time Bomb'
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I retired 10 years ago, but still fund the NHS via my "Road Fund Licence" contributions - YES, I still call it that because that is exactly what it was designed for before Churchill got greedy and misappropriated it for other purposes. WE contribute £50,ooo,ooo,ooo to this fund, yet see only c10% of it back in road-related services.
Ron.
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The situation here is that all the main resources at The huge Wycombe General have been closed and moved to Stoke Mandeville or if you are really unlucky..Wexham Park.
Last night a 'blue light' ambulance arrived at Stoke Mandeville and had to wait half an hour to book in. !!!!!! The mileage for ambulances in our area now is colossal. Chap a few doors from me has just quit as a paramedic (and he is bloody good) because the system is crap, recruitment is virtually nil, and morale crap. He said, 'I just can't take any more.' He now has a job as medical escort to deported immigrants. He says money is top dollar, flies everywhere at government expense. Hotels paid for, etc etc.
Further to Chris's mum finaly getting to Stoke Mandeville last night at 11.00pm......she spent all night hooked up to some machine in A&E because they had nowhere else to put her. We could not contact SM due to the phone always engaged. So Christine went 20 miles to SM, went to A&E ,,,,,,but they could not find her mum. Each was asking the other...nope....is she in the discharge lounge?? Naturally, Christine asked 'Where is that' 'Don't know'....followed by discussions with others as to its whereabouts. Finally Chris got a 'I think its' answer, so set off, asking nurses on the way. Found it at the other end of the hospital. Peered through the doors and saw her mum, went in.. two nurses chatting away, ignored Chris for ages, then asked what she was there for. 'To take my mum home' They were not interested really as another couple were raising cain, as they had been waiting ages for some tablets, which the pharmacy could not find, then found some but wrong strength. Chris gathered her mum and made a quiet exit.
Please don't vilify the old folk....most had done ten times more in the building of this country, both physically, and monetary than half the scumbags today ever will. I have said before, my mum served in the forces in the war, being stationed in London all through the blitz. Just go to SM A&E and look and listen. You will soon see and hear where the majority of 'patients' are from.
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Well said nitro, i agree 100% with your comment. :y
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My gratitude to Nitro and Terbert for their very good posts, saved me from having a 'rant' as I'm totally p*ssed off with the 'OAP bashing'.. Listening to that prat Milliband continuously stating, ' we are talking about the future, not the past'... Without a past there would be no future. We worked, 'proper worked' for little pay and many hours, we paid our dues, but now we are an 'easy target' for all the moaners who are not yet OAP's. but, your time will come. Can't forget last year when I had my heart attack, the staff in A & E could have seen to me quicker if not for the two pissed thirty somethings causing hell. I'm sure it must happen, but i have yet to see drunken pensioners raising hell in a hospital.. So bloo*y angry I better get off... >:( >:(
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Oh dear, my comments have been totally misconstrued.
The point I am making is that the elderly are and will get a worse deal as the NHS becomes ovwhelmed by an ageing population. It cannot manage as more and more folk live longer and thus have ailments that wouldn't, have Been they years ago as they would have been ded already.
I most certainly am NOT vilifying any old people. Sadly our family has a litany of Old people who have been let down by the NHS . One is ww2 war vet who has lived a charmed life only to be let down in his nineties. I think it is a well known fact that the bigt amount of NHS resource is spn o he elderly.
Mrs V spent five months recently in Scotland chasing her aunt fom hospital to hospital.Care received reasonably good but she was bed blocking for months .Why? No care available at home. And that is my point. These folk have worked hard all their lives, lived/fought through wars and there isn't the money to care for them. That is the time bomb.
So I am not vilifying old people and I was actually empathising with Terbert having been in a similar situation many times In the last ten years and more. I have just read your last post and can identify with that scenario too. Just one example of a process that needs fixing. As I said earlier no party will do it as free NHS is sacrosanct. I hope all goes well for your MIL
Living in Spain (as I do) is an irelevance. I still have lots of relatives and friends in the UK. I am guessing that you also believe the small amount paid in WFA to expats is/was a waste of money.
Health tourism? Your elected government could under EU law put a stop to it .Immigrants to Spain do not get healthcare unless they can prove they have the funds to support themselves. End of. My take in Britain is that successive governments needed all the immigrants they could get.
I can tell you stories of both good and poor GPs , doctors and care staff.
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Hope your Mum is feeling better
My Mum`s health is a concern now following a small stroke. She needed medical assistance Saturday night. We called the out of hours 111 service about midnight & someone said a doctor will call us back within 6 hours. They never called us back. >:(
After a sleepless night I called the district nurses service at 8 am on sunday morning & good as gold a local nurse called us at 8.30am & was on the doorstep at 9 to sort my Mum`s catheter.
The 111 service is shite, How many elderly folk are out there struggling on their own :( God help them.
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Varche, my friend...I was not having a personal go at you, far from it.....my comment was aimed at the population under pension age generally.
I don't want to turn my thread into a pure political one, but I suppose its pure nature decrees it as that.
How can it be sensible in a town like High Wycombe, with a very large population, and a hospital that was extended, taking over the Wanderers football ground, and the London Transport bus garage, and special systems installed, purpose built A&E, heart units, Maternity units all to be closed and everyone having now to go 20 miles to Stoke Mandeville. Although it is known for its spinal unit, and apart from the JS problems, it is old, scattered over a wide area, and now treating patients from a vast area. The parking is sh1t, just for a start. The fuel cost for ambulances must be huge.
Yes we have an ageing population, yes they rely on NHS. It is a whole social thing. Many younger people would help care for the elderly relatives, but the days of a wife being home and being able to look after others are long gone. I know with my kids. They are working all hours just to survie themselves.
I have nothing against immigrants working over here. But I think all should have applied for a position and been vetted, sorted housing etc, etc. I do not agree with this health tourism, handouts, open door policy. GP's can't cope, schools can't cope, the housing infrastructure can't cope. The amount of houses required now will never be met. Where the hell are all these immigrants still coming in going to live. And they have families, and they get old. But the minute you say these things, you are tarred a racist bigot. But it is pure fact.
But no-one seems to see this in politics. Their nests are feathered. The live in different circles. It is easy to play with peoples lives when it does not affect you.
The only winners in all this will be the companies who make ambulances!!!!!!!!
And, as if thats not enough, we have just had a call from the care home, where my 94 year old mum has been moved to another room cause hers is leaking. And we are not talking an old building...ten years at most. Probably a few backhanders, knock them up quickly, show the populace we are doing something, by the time things go wrong, we will be doing something else and deny responsibility. Now why did a vision of Tony Blair just flash past my eyes.!!!!!
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Well said nitro, i agree 100% with your comment. :y
Yes,so do I,well said :y :y
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There are two factors to the NHS issue, and neither is immigration, (sorry UKIPists ::))
Firstly, due to woeful inefficiency it costs significantly more to run than it should. Central government can only afford so much, and with budget cuts across the entire public, and private sectors for that matter, it should come as no surprise that an organisation as inefficiently run as the NHS is being hit hard. As an example, if a consultant wishes to make real budget savings, he might look to buy various items directly from suppliers at a fraction of the retail price. However, he is forced to buy the exact same items from NHS Supply Chain. These items then cost more than the retail price to cover the costs of central storage and distribution. Senseless...
Secondly, there are now at least two, possibly three, generations of British families who expect the state to pick up the tab for their inadequacy ie the twenty somethings with four kids from four different fathers, 22-23 years old, no real inclination or ability to hold down employment, subsidised rent, food and benefits. Those kids grow up thinking this is normal, and follow the well trodden path resulting in an ever expanding population of people who believe that they are entitled to everything as a birthright without ever contributing a penny to the system. There are some immigrants who fall into this category, but 20,000 welfare migrants are a mere drop in the ocean compared to entire towns of families who have been sucking the system dry since the seventies.
As for health tourists, they only receive free treatment if they are actually entitled to it, and it should be a mark of national pride that people are prepared to travel here to receive some of the best treatment available in the world.
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Being able to get a doctor's appointment is the first logical step to that treatment.....and guess what!! not much chance of that here in sunny Wo kingham. ::) :-X
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ah see different PCT again you can usually with our GP surgery get into see them...although we have 1 male 1 female you have to take who they have free....but then again if you need a doc should not really matter...although then saying that I have heard of horror stories of neighbours in other surgeries not being able to get an appointment :(
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At our surgery, if you try and get a sameday appointment first thing, then it's twenty minutes to speak to someone, who will then decide if you need to see the Doctor or not, if not, you get a call back fairly swiftly from a doctor to discuss your ailment... phone after ten, and quite often you get an appointment within the hour...
It was a new purpose built surgery, comprising of four old surgeries being combined into one, with a pharmacy, short term respite facilities for anyone returning from hospital and needing rehabilitation, has 8 or so GPs and ten nurses. And the best bit is that it falls outside of East Surrey Hospitals' reach, so usually sent to St Richards in Chichester... which is nice :D
But it only exists because the local GPs put alot of time and money into making it happen...
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At our GPs you can't book an appointment in advance. Go for something routine and I find it easier if I can book it a week in advance and then fit work around it. No way. Phone them up first thing in the morning and it's "He can see you at 11:30". ::)
I suspect it's to keep some statistic or other in line, showing that they have such low waiting times, but not necessarily what the customer wants. Therein lies the problem with the NHS. Too many statisticians and Microsoft Excelists whose salaries would be much better spent on doctors. ::)
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I had to laugh.... Phoned for an appointment with my doctor, was told earliest 3 weeks, but was offered emergency appointment that morning, waited just 5 minutes to be called in to 'MY Doctor'.... ;D
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I had to laugh.... Phoned for an appointment with my doctor, was told earliest 3 weeks, but was offered emergency appointment that morning, waited just 5 minutes to be called in to 'MY Doctor'.... ;D
Right so either you had summat to discuss with your GP, which could have waited three weeks, not that long in a lifetime, or you genuinely needed an emergency appointment... it is pure chance that the emergency doctor for the day was your GP...
As a rule, they share the surgery workload, that's why it's a wait for a guaranteed appointment with any given GP... in the short term they are already booked to be seeing other people/holding other surgeries ::)
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Dont get me started on GPs. I need to be referred for two separate things which the GP has already tried to sort out and now it is beyond his abilities which require specialist help.
Can I get an appointment to see him, or any GP? No. next appointment is 3 weeks away. Oh and because there are 2 issues I need a double appointment!
I can go for an emergency appointment but these are not emergencies, until I can no longer walk or have a complete stoma from my back in to my gut at which point I will be in A&E.
When I said that their practice did not meet my needs I would be looking elsewhere (I know most places are in the same boat but I needed to put pressure on them) to which I was told that someone would call me back tomorrow with some appointments that had been rescheduled.
No phone call. ::)
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The receptionists are a separate issue... they generally go to work for a chat, so rarely focus on the task in hand ::) hence messages get lost in translation and rarely passed on, hence no return call. Sods law, yours is the one that doesn't get written down :-\
Have you a facility to email your GP, or rather, does your GP have the facility to receive (and reply to) patient emails? Ok it might take a day or so for a response, but it might be better than waiting 3 weeks :-\
Tother thing, emergency GP appointments are a bit of a misnomer... for example, if I get a sinus infection, then I need a prescription, actually seeing the doctor isn't necessary as I know what medication works, so usually only takes a two minute phone call to sort out. Same for repeat prescriptions.
First port of call when I had an occurrence of gout was A and E as it felt and looked like I might have sprained/broken my ankle... xray was clear, so dismissed as a sprain... ten days later I still couldn't stand on it, so went to GP using an 'emergency' ie last minute appointment. He looked at it, arranged blood and urine tests with the nurse, two days later called back for follow up with GP for results... classic gout, prescription issued, job jobbed. If it happens again, then again a phonecall should suffice unless the GP wishes to see me first...
Fortunately I don't have much cause to use my GP, so my from my dealings with them, the local surgery is just fine for my needs.
Sounds like you might have to call their bluff though :-\
Does you employer have anything in place that you could use as an alternative?
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Actually the surgery know that I am ex Med Corps as I have called them on a few things they have done, such as the receptionist making clinical decisions over the phone ::) The email I fired off to the Doctor who runs it was full of medical management jargon as well as CQC regulations and procedures. Know when I go in or mention my name I get that "oh, it's you" type of welcome ;D
That last interaction only got to the we will call you back after I mentioned my name ::) and I honestly believe they forgot. Oh well I have to call them back ;D
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Well. Blow me down with a feather!
I just got an appointment for tomorrow morning. There was a cancellation.
I am shocked. Truely shocked. :o
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You have both hit the spot when you mention receptionists.
The trouble we have had with M-I-Ls surgery is beyond belief, even to the stage of the doctor saying M-I-L must not go to the surgery because of her health issues, and he will always come out. That stops dead at the receptionist and we had to take her to the surgery.
The doctor came out of his surgery, saw M-I-L sitting there half dead, and went ballistic at us for taking her there. We explained why, and he turned on the receptionist with a vengeance.
When mum was at home and her dementia was getting bad, I had a call from her, hysterical. She met me at het door, her clothes were covered in blood, it was on the floor, everywhere. I phoned the surgery, but I hit a brick wall with the hitlerite there. So I got some of mums bloodstained clothes, went up the surgery and threw them on the desk and raised hell. I demanded to see the doctor, and within half an hour he was with mum. I appologised to him, but he said I did the right thing, he had transferred his few patients to another doctor..
As Guffer....when I say my name now, I seem to get better attention..... ;)
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My parents surgery operates an Internet online appointments service. No good for them of course being elderly.
Does anyone else have such a service. ?
The third world country I live in has a centralised , for each province (like a very large county) and you can phone or book via Internet and get a choice of times. We have always got a next day app - even for our elderly relatives visiting from UK. The surgery also has a nurse so many days a week for dressing changes and other low value work. If she thinks you need doctors advice on something she shoehorns you in between apps. You also get a call from the central office if you do NOT turn up for your app to give you a rollicking. I know because I needed my dressing changing and was a bit worried about the colour of the skin etc. Nursey intercepted me and said it was OK so I "missed my app"
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Well. Blow me down with a feather!
I just got an appointment for tomorrow morning. There was a cancellation.
I am shocked. Truely shocked. :o
Best book another appointment to discuss the effects of said shock ;D