NHS experience

[Doggy Styles]

No doubt about it. The hospital did helpfully say that if my cyst got massive or my jaw fractured that I would be seen right away.

[KentPhilip]

And for anyone who's still following the logic that the market inevitably does things better than the state; try spending a day ignoring the Tea Party wingnut rhetoric and look at evidence for a change. The evidence from Europe is that socialised healthcare systems 1) work, 2) cost less for the consumer and 3) cost less for the taxpayer. Shove the right winged rhetoric up your arse and just hope there's a socialised healthcare system that'll send an ambulance to bring you to hospital where highly skilled government employees, possibly immigrants, will extract it safely and quickly and not send you an enormous invoice for saving you from your own abject stupidity.

That might well be true. Maybe it is because most people who work in healthcare are motivated by the desire to care for their patients, not money. So a socialistic model can work in that situation.

BTW I've certainly found the Netherlands health care system worked very well. When I got an eye infection in Den Haag I was able to see an GP who spoke good english, and off to an eye clinic in no time.
I was quite lucky; as I was rendered virtually blind, and over there on my own, my landlord had to take me to the doctor - I would have been in quite a pickle without his help..

[TimberWolf]

That might well be true. Maybe it is because most people who work in healthcare are motivated by the desire to care for their patients, not money. So a socialistic model can work in that situation.

Nurses and underlings maybe, but UK doctors have been seduced by money and are taking the piss IMO. I gather they are going on strike again.

[EternalOptimist]

Nurses and underlings maybe, but UK doctors have been seduced by money and are taking the piss IMO. I gather they are going on strike again.

no.
noooo.

we , too, have been seduced by money.
but we get it by NOT going on strike.

It's not the lure of money TW, it's the organisation, the sense of entitlement

[SueEllen]

Nurses and underlings maybe, but UK doctors have been seduced by money and are taking the piss IMO. I gather they are going on strike again.

Not all of them agree with the BMA and are interested in striking, and not all of them are members of the BMA.

BTW the best way to be taken seriously by doctors is to turn up to an appointment with your landlord/housemate/random work colleague/random neighbour NOT a relation, and get them to point out how they have noticed you have been acting oddly because you haven't been sleeping/eating/been able to see properly for days. If you look like you can live with your problem doctors tend to ignore you until it's an emergency.

[EternalOptimist]

BTW the best way to be taken seriously by Project Managers is to turn up to a meeting with a sympathetic colleague NOT a team member, and get them to point out how they have noticed you have been acting oddly because you haven't been sleeping/eating/been able to see properly for days. If you look like you can live with your problem Project Managers tend to ignore you until it's an item on the BBC news.

[TimberWolf]

If you look like you can live with your problem doctors tend to ignore you until it's an emergency.

I suspected my GP of watching how people got off their chairs from the waiting room into the surgery room while I was waiting, but maybe I was seeing things that didn't exist during my usual 3/4 hour wait for doctor appointments that have run late even by 9am.

[SueEllen]

EO I thought BBC news only talked about:
1. The current banking scandal
2. The weather

[TimberWolf]

I had my cyst and wisdom tooth extracted today. Such was the length of time taken to get to this stage that I felt the operation might get cancelled right until the moment I was being given the anaesthetic.

Turned up at 7:00 for my 7:30 appointment. At approx 8:15 was summoned for a few questions and a blood pressure test with a nurse and shortly after that went to the day ward. Saw my surgeon to whom I showed my ever faithful dental x-ray, and about half an hour later saw the anaesthetist who provided me with my anaesthetic options, which comprised: general anaesthetic. So I decided to go with the general anaesthetic option. About half an hour later I went in to theatre, which looked like an ordinary room full of people doing other stuff, and had a cannula put into the crook of my forearm, put on a mask, and a little while later the anaesthetic was introduced. I don't remember going under, all I remember is being told that I might feel the anaesthetic going in. And then I woke up in recovery room1 asking if the operation had been done. The time in between, about an hour, had disappeared.

No symptoms following the general anaesthetic. As soon as I had been wheeled back out to the ward, I tested myself with a game of Soduku on hard, and aside from my being a touch slower to complete it, made no silly mistakes. I also sneakily tried standing and everything seemed okay. Had a cup of tea and a coffee and a hour or so later signed myself out.

There's some barely visible swelling under the chin and no numbness and I still have the hindmost molar that the wisdom tooth cyst had been impacting, though whether it is still alive I don't know. It had been tested as 'vital' a few months ago, though I had been advised I might come out of theatre minus it. Even a few months ago the dental hospital doctor remarked that it was "hanging on somehow". Likely they will test it for life at the follow-up at the dental clinic in a few weeks time. I also didn't get any metal plates inserted. Result all round. Not sure if I need the Co-Codamol I've been given, but by the time I had walked home I felt a touch of pain creeping in, so took two just in case it reached annoying levels.

The actual hospital experience was close to 100% positive, it was just getting there that was the mare. About 5 months from referral and 2 or 3 years down a long windy* road since I first noticed something was up with a tooth, and 3 dentists later.

* as in twisty

[moggy]

well 5 months for something that is hardly life threatening isn't too bad.. just when you are waiting we all feel we should be seen sooner..

glad you can get back on the steaks now..