Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

PasturesNew

I wasn't born in a hospital, nor have I ever stayed in one. Never broken anything. Had no kids, so no pre-natal, anti-natal, post-natal, blah blah blah stuff. I very very very rarely use the NHS at all, for anything. And I've been paying in for over 30 years now.

wageslave

LydiaJ wrote: »

My point is that where I am I don't have to sit among junkies. I sit in a kids area. I'm not suggesting that what you get where you are is OK, but even if they decide to change it, it won't happen instantly.

There's no point in going private, IFAIU, because private hospitals don't have A&E departments.

I dont want A&E. I want a doctor.

I assume going private will get me that.

I used to get that with the brat. A doctor.

But if I absolutely refuse to pay fifty quid a week for sweet F A

I have no objection to going private as long as none of my money goes elsewhere

Private treatment can't cost me much more that 200quid a month

PasturesNew

Here, if it's urgent enough to need somebody, but you don't think the patient's going to die in the next 30 minutes you phone the Doctor and the call goes through to the county-wide out of hours service. You then tell them what the problem is and they might decide you need to go to the local hospital (1 mile), which they fly in Doctors from Germany for. So, there you are, foreign Doctor who has just flown in from Europe (literally just for one shift) - and they then listen/look and decide whether you need a plaster on it, or if you need to get yourself 20 miles to the proper hospital. So you get in your car and drive there, make sure you've money for the car park - and you drop off the patient at the A&E bit or some relevant ward.

I've never had to drop a parent off at A&E, but have been up there 2-3x to chuck them straight onto a ward.

PasturesNew

There is a small ambulance station 1/2 a mile away, with 1-2 ambulances. So when I phoned 999 the other month they were here within about 4-5 minutes. And they then stayed 1.5 hours, one of the olds went into a hypo/hyper and it took that long to get them back to the land of the living.

It's a barrel of laughs here, with the 101 assorted medical ailments they've accumulated over the years

silvercar

wageslave wrote: »

I dont want A&E. I want a doctor.

I assume going private will get me that.

I used to get that with the brat. A doctor.

But if I absolutely refuse to pay fifty quid a week for sweet F A

I have no objection to going private as long as none of my money goes elsewhere

Private treatment can't cost me much more that 200quid a month

Calling a private GP to come to your house will cost you £50-75, that will mean attendance within half an hour and the immediate medicines you need. Always assuming there is one in your area.

Of course the GP won't have access to your medical records and it is unlikely to be covered by most private medical insurance policies.

Against that cost is the cost you would have for getting to the local out of hours GP surgery, any parking costs, cost of any prescription you might need if not exempt.

SingleSue

We generally get referred to an out of hours clinic in the next big town, an absolute waste of time for those of us here because we may as well just go to A&E in the next big town as it is actually quicker to drive to.

With youngest, his problems started during the day on a Sunday, phoned the out of hours number and saw a doctor at our little cottage hospital where they would arrange appointments in conjunction with the service.

First time around, got told he had a chest infection and to give him calpol (the doctor didn't take any notice of his peak flows). Day goes on, his peak flows get worse, ring the out of hours number again and pretty much told to go away as the doctor had already seen him 4 hours previously, so rang NHS direct as I knew he wasn't right..after some thought, they got one of their nurses to ring me back. She was most thorough and went through his peak flows, what his normal flows were etc and what exactly had made me call (the feeling of fast rising panic was the answer).

She called an ambulance.

On arrival at hospital, he walked to the children's area with the nebuliser mask on as the paramedics didn't think it was too serious...then they connected him up to all the machinery to check his sats etc....and mad panic commenced.

He was in intensive care within an hour...and I got told off for delaying despite all the calls I had made to the various services during the day...oh and he didn't have a chest infection.

The second time, same story (and same day of the blooming week) except this time the doctor didn't know how to take a temperature...I knew it was high, I had been giving him calpol, you could feel how hot he was but she said it was normal. She also declared his chest free of infection.

Same rising panic, same panic calls to NHS direct but this time no ambulance called but I was directed to take him up to A&E immediately. Same story on arrival, same panic when they connected him up and same result.

Intensive care within an hour...and amazingly the high temperature which I had picked up on but the doctor locally had declared normal, was back again....very very high in fact...and he also had a chest infection.

They have now advised me not to mess about with going through the above steps but to just ring the paediatric admissions unit and get him there as he goes down so spectacularly quickly and we might, just might, avoid him having to go to intensive care if we do.

LydiaJ

Wageslave

I'm not saying you shouldn't be able to get a doctor out to call. But it's not the answer to everything. It depends what you need when your kids are ill/injured and what's wrong with them. My experience of doctors is that they're all very well for non-urgent things, but most of the times I've taken my kids to A&E it's because they need something you couldn't expect a doctor to bring with them even if they did come to call. Several of the last few times I've been in A&E with my kids they've needed X-rays, or one time it was a four hour observation on an ECG.

OK, so ds has had significant injuries only just over a year ago, and late-nearly-ex had a history of congenital heart disease. Yes, I agree it would be lovely if you could get a doctor to come to your house in the night for a sick kid, but even so it wouldn't do away with the necessity for a decent separate waiting area for kids at A&E.

Oh, and I hope I never get my money's worth for my tax contributions to the NHS. If I did, it would be because I was seriously ill or injured. At the moment, all our taxes are paying for the specialist Parkinson's nurse to be there on the end of a phone so my dad can care for my mum at home. Next month, we'll all be paying for his knee replacement, another thing that will enable him to continue as carer so she can stay in her own home and have some quality of life. We all paid for the dialysis support for my PhD supervisor who had kidney failure and had to dialyse three times a week for years, and the rehabilitation my aunt had after her stroke, not to mention all the various treatments that Sue's kids are getting. I'd rather be helping to pay for all those than needing to receive them.

PasturesNew

Maybe the hospital has a separate waiting area for kids ... just nobody said so. If you don't know, you can't ask. Lots of assumptions are made by people 'in the know' about loads of things. It might have been tucked round out of sight - and nobody thought to say.

Maybe WS can give them a bell and ask at some point, for future reference. And if there isn't, then WS could start a campaign for one.

Nobody wants to sit with druggy/alcy/drunk/obnoxious/scarey scum.

StevieJ

Good programme on tonight called Justice, it is the first of a series of lectures from Harvard re the morality of murder.
I noticed the Asians were in the best seats, I bet they were keen and turned up early, work ethic you know It is on I-Player for anyone interested.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xz0pv/Justice_The_Moral_Side_of_Murder/

lostinrates

Malcolm. wrote: »

There are many who don't pay taxes, you're subsidising them. Whether they be in a position where they can't work, they don't declare taxes, or they have an offshore arrangement going on.

I as much as anyone have the right to complain about the level of nhs care. It really annoys me that people who contribute so much get sh1te service in return.

Malcolm...I don't begrudge supporting people who need care via NHS. I do kind of resent I can't get my stuff NHS but I could get anti depressants and IVF...one I don't need, one is not lifesaving.


How does Wageslave work ou how much she pays NHS monthly?