Where do you get your health advice from?

Snaggles

GP/Healthcare professional

I'm a fan of NHS Direct too, I've rung them several times and always felt reassured by the advice given. When they've told me I should see a doctor asap, at least I know when I make the appointment that I'm not wasting their time. Wish they could help me get rid of my dodgy ear though - none of the advice works!

RibAd

Other

I couold nearly have clicked all the boxes! Generally, if it comes up in discussion with someone I'll want to know more. If I think I have a medical worry I'll research it online with my medical insurance company database and maybe check their nurseline.... I dont often get sick (thankfully!) but often if it's something relatively minor I'd pop into the local pharmacey as they've always been very knowledgeable, but anything more I'd consult my GP....

Errata

Have to agree with Sterling and Aurora on NHS Direct. Call handlers! Decision trees! Common sense - nada.

changkra

Website

Sterling_geezer wrote: »

Where do you go for health advice? I'm a GP and I am always curious to find out where patients get their health info from. Sometimes people come out with some very odd theories about their health and it would be nice to know who to blame (joking!).
I know its not strictly moneysaving but I guess if you consult a recognised source for your health info then perhaps time (and therefore money) could be saved?

I have Fibromyalgia so I get allot of info off the net, in fact i'm educating my doctor who is actually very good.

changkra

Website

potogold wrote: »

Nhs Direct are a total waste of everybodys time. I work in an Accident & Emergency Dept, and we also have Gp OOH based in with us.

The calls that patients make to NHS Direct, can take up to two hours to filter through to the OOH Gp.
In the two hours that have elapsed the patient could have been given an appt, been treated, had their Px dispensed, and been back home tucked up in bed!

I once phoned NHS direct up due to my wrist giving way whilst i was ironing and i dropped the iron and ended up with a nasty burn at the top of my leg and on my stomach as well, because i have fibromyalgia it flagged it and they said i had to go to A & E, the skin wasn't broken it looked like it had in the oven too long. Anyway i didn't go i remembered i had some burn blot in the first aid box so i used that instead, but they did save my friends husbands life so they are very good in some areas.

Mrs_B_12

I get info from all sorts of places but would always look in several places if I wasn't getting it from a professional or NHS site. I've worked as a healthcare assistant in a chemist shop twice between having kids so I know that a pharmacist and their staff are trained to deal with a lot of everyday things too.

Eels100

Books/Journals

I'm a vet so I'm fortunate to have a pretty good understanding of mammalian physiology and medicine, and I can usually make enough sense of my own symptoms to decide for myself. I use reference material and will research on the internet but I prefer recognised journals as sources, as opposed to relying on personal accounts and forums. These can evidently be a great source of help and support for those with chronic disease but as was once pointed out to me, anyone can set up a website, but your publisher would want to verify your knowledge before shelling out on printing a book!

The NHS direct website is fair enough but the telephone system is ridiculous, I've known nothing but bad reports about the entire system (and many of my clients threaten to phone me instead of NHS 24 should they need medical assistance!).

Sterling_geezer

I'm sure I read somewhere that they would be getting rid of the telephone NHS direct. Good thing too.
Should save the NHS a few quid (I reckon they could do with Martins help!)

Alex_of_Swansea

Other

I'm a nurse, so I tend to just ask people in work for advice. To be honest, I've had bad experiences with NHS direct - which is odd as I know many nurses who work there from whom I'd happily ask advice. But having a friend suffer a 'classic' heart attack (central chest pain radiating down left arm for 8 hours) and being told to take ibuprofen kind of put me off contacting them. I could go on with stories, but that's for another time.

Errata

Interesting that so many posters have a negative view of NHS Direct. I'm pretty sure research was carried out on users' satisfaction with the service which went something like: immediately after using the service users rated it very highly but when asked again six months later they rated it less highly.
Perhaps there is a design fault in the service? Or the service is designed to meet the needs of the worried well?