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[78bex]

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.

[Terbs]

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.!!!!!

[henryd]

Well said nitro, i agree 100% with your comment.

Yes,so do I,well said

[05omegav6]

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.

[ted_one]

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. 

[the alarming man]

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

[05omegav6]

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

But it only exists because the local GPs put alot of time and money into making it happen...

[Kevin Wood]

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.

[Jusme]

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'.... 

[05omegav6]

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'.... 

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

[Gaffers]

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.

[05omegav6]

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?

[Gaffers]

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

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

[Gaffers]

Well.  Blow me down with a feather!

I just got an appointment for tomorrow morning.  There was a cancellation.

I am shocked.  Truely shocked.

[Terbs]

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.....