THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

mardatha

In the end, you can present your local Health Authority with any amount of bills, but they sure as hell ain't going to pay them.
And if you sit in A&E and start screaming blue murder then you're liable to be sedated and taken to the local psychiatric hospital..

moneyistooshorttomention

We are all in a difficult situation right now. Personally - I see it as a situation where we all need to understand where the other person is at right now and, if they've been forced to try and find another way to deal with things to the Normal Way = then that's How It Is.

Doveling - yes...I'm worrying about my parents again. I'm worrying about my best friend. I'm worrying about myself personally. You got that one in one:T. There have been a couple of recent incidents that have Hit Home - one of them being that it occurred to me yesterday that "Oh **** I wonder if Best Friend is getting dementia:(:(:(". Thank you for your thoughts on this - and it is appreciated.:T

I am wondering about doing a first aid course - and have been for some time - but am a bit too tied-up with other things at the moment to give it any "heavy duty" thought.

Back to original question - what is anyone doing personally doing to deal with declining access to health care? I think I must have asked that question about 5 times so far - and no-one has answered yet.....

GreyQueen

money, you chose to relocate to your present area after retirement. Which, from your comments, I believe to be a village in West Wales.

Moving is a lifestyle choice but moving from an urban area to a country area is going to have consequences. It isn't possible to provide the same level of coverage for a rural population as for a densely-grouped urban population. Which is why you will find things different in different areas.

I live in the centre of a city of 100,000 + and am 300 yards from my GP practice. It isn't open 24/7 and it is very busy, so I don't expect them to be able to see me for minor(ish) problems without a wait. Where things have been serious, they have seen me within minutes.

If I need medical attention for a minor injury, there are walk-in clinics. If I need major attention, there is a large hospital with an A & E dept two miles away. It's the regional centre of excellence and the hospital which provides my ongoing care for the rare chronic illness I get to enjoy. They are superb and I cannot fault them.

Your chances of surviving a major health catastrophe rely on the kind and quality of care you receive in the first hour after the traumatic injury or event such as heart attack or stroke. Not for nothing is it called The Golden Hour. If you are more than an hour away from a large hospital, your chances of making it through a major incident fall sharply.

Which is why, if you are determined to live long and prosper, you should (as all of us should) think carefully about where you are living in relation to acute medical care, as well as the bread-and-butter everyday stuff.

As we age, this becomes more and more important, as the odds of getting ill shorten. Thus far, you may have been enjoying relatively-good health and not really grasped what can happen when it all goes wrong. I got struck down out of the blue by chronic illnesses at only twenty years old, so have had thirty + years to understand, at a most absolute level that righteous living, clean eating and alternative remedies often don't count for squat.

Doveling

Churchmouse wrote: »

A&E stands for accident and emergency and should never ever be abused for routine, non emergency treatment. It's because people turn up expecting treatment that should be obtained from a GP ( and yes I know the waiting time for an appointment can be lengthy) that we have the situation we are in now. I'd go so far as to say anybody presenting at A&E for non urgent treatment should be charged a hefty sum.

Totally agree with this.:D

Very few people I know are within walking distance of the Health Centre. Most drive, catch the bus or book a taxi.:)

In our area, hospital transport is provided if you are in receipt of certain benefits. Even then, if you have a 10 o'clock appointment you have to be ready to go by 8 o'clock as the transport will pick up others as well. You then have to wait till clinics have finished for the return journey.

Health Care -I have kept things which I was given on prescription instead of donating them to Age UK i.e. commode, shower chair etc.
We had bought my wheelchair from the Age UK charity shop and I am also hanging on to that instead of re-donating it back.
So far we have used it for my father (to take him to vote), mother (to go shopping) and my niece borrowed it when she broke her foot.
We also lent it to my friend's father when he hurt his knee.
I can see a time when these pieces of equipment will be charged for as a matter of course.
I am fully equipped!

Naseby

I am a long-term lurker on these boards and this is one of the threads I tgry to read on a daily basis. I find what MITSTM is saying is quite offensive. I am old enough to remember the time before there was a National Health service where you had to pay for treatment. I am sure none of us would choose to go back to those days. I am also someone whose life was saved by the NHS and for that I am grateful every day of my life. Why don't more of you get involved in Patient Participation Groups (PPGs)? Every surgery in England ( I am not sure about Wales where MITSTM lives) has to have a PPG. Most active groups meet on a monthly basis and have some (maybe very limited) sway in how your surgery is run. Members can also go to a Patient Forum linked to the Clinical Commissioning Group and members can get involved in discussions about Commissioning. It is by no means ideal but it is a start and if more patients were willing to give their time and get involved then who knows where it might lead.

The NHS is the jewel in the crown of this country and is the envy of other countries. I have lived in countries where a national health service is minimal and were people have to pay for health care. I would not want to be one of the ones who is unable to pay. I have seen the Hospitals and the facilities and believe me it is not a pretty sight. I have also seen patients who are seriously ill and in need of urgent medical treatment be asked if they have health insurance before they are "allowed" to get into an ambulance. Is this really something you are advocating MITSTM?

There will be more and more emphasis on each of us taking more responsibility for our own self-care. There may also be some improvements when more surgeries embrace online facilities. I have seen videos where doctor (in the surgery) and patient (at home) are linked by something like Skype so that the GP can deal with more patients in the time available.

The NHS is having a very hard time and most surgeries are suffering, never mind hospitals etc. A large number of GPs are at or nearing retirement age, newly qualified doctors are not choosing to go into General Practice so there will be a crisis sooner rather than later if this is not addressed. The GPs in my surgery work extremely hard and are under so much pressure, as are all the staff in the surgery. Something is going to have to give but please do not be peddling this nonsense about us having to pay £5 to see the doctor. Free at the point of delivery is something worth fighting for.

I better mention, I don't work for the NHS, I am a patient.[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

moneyistooshorttomention

Personally - I don't see it as a realistic option (unfortunately...:mad:) to say "There will be no rationing - ever - regardless".

I wish it were not so.

But it is so and we can all see that.

So - for the (umpteenth) time "What plans do people have personally to deal with this (thoroughly unpalatable) fact?"


Are you:
- getting a lot of alternative health care books and planning to DIY?
- planning on "protesting"?
- working out on how to deal with working within the parameters of "What Is in 2016"?
- some other option I havent thought of?

Don't shoot the messenger....

cbrown372

Well I can only be grateful that when I collapsed on my doorstep (with gallstones GQ!) that the mobile library was in the village at the time and the driver called for an ambulance and it wasn't someone walking about with a book flipping through it to diagnose me :rotfl:

GreyQueen

cbrown372 wrote: »

Well I can only be grateful that when I collapsed on my doorstep (with gallstones GQ!) that the mobile library was in the village at the time and the driver called for an ambulance and it wasn't someone walking about with a book flipping through it to diagnose me :rotfl:

:eek: Ouch! I know women who've had horrible deliveries and been in labour for 48+ hours and who've also had gallstones. When they tell me the pain of the gallstones was far worse than the pain of labour, I believe it must be hellish. Very glad that there was a responsible person handy to summon an ambulance and hope they are not still troubling you.

NewShadow

I go away, I come back... 20 more pages await.

I'm tired, grouchy, and I hate london - plus the glance I had at the forum annoyed me, so I'll likely delete a lot of this tomorrow.


[mini-rant]
Oddly, the NHS in Wales is something I actually know a thing or two about.

If you choose to go to an A&E rather than wait for a suitable primary care appointment for a non-urgent issue, you are preventing the staff in that hospital from treating more serious cases as they need to assess you and at busy times may have to close to more urgent cases because your bum is on a seat (frequent occurrence during peak cold and flu).

If you disrupt the running of the waiting room because you feel you should be seen before those people that have been triaged ahead of you as more seriously in need of care, you are preventing the staff in that hospital from treating more serious cases as they have to give you the attention you are demanding (frequent occurrence during sporting events).

If you then engage in correspondence because you feel you are entitled to compensation because of your choices, you are preventing the staff in that hospital from treating more serious cases because they have to chase up records and engage with you to explain why you are not entitled, and then explain it at case conferences why they received complaints (depressingly frequently in some services/professions).

This increases demand on (very limited) resources, and in accumulation could be the difference between your friend who may have dementia being assessed in a week or a month or six months. You blame us, we blame you.

For minor ailments, there are a range of options - I recommend this chart as a good starting point:http://www.nhsdirect.wales.nhs.uk/choosewell/

You ask

"What plans do people have personally to deal with this (thoroughly unpalatable) fact?"

Well... today explaining how the system can work fine if everyone accepts the principles of Prudent Healthcare
(http://www.prudenthealthcare.org.uk/principles/)

Which includes you being responsible for your health and only seeking medical intervention when clinically necessary and at the right setting (Primary, Secondary, or Community level).

You say the service has gotten worse, but in my grandmothers day (90 yrs back) you only saw a Dr if you were birthing or dying - everything else you just got on with it.

When my dad was a lad (60 yrs back) he went to see the GP when he broke his leg - other than that any bumps, scrapes, cuts, sickness - 2 paracetamol and an early night.

When I was a kid (30 yrs back) I lived in the middle of west wales. I had to travel around 50 miles to get to my GP and back. I went for vaccinations for a holiday (and I paid for those). I did get shipped to A&E for appendicitis, and I went to my local asthma clinic for a few years (which was held twice a month in the local village).

That includes coming bum over face off a bike and giving myself a bloody forehead and black eye - my parents used a sanitary pad to stem the bleeding, kept checking on me overnight, and I got the morning off school.

The pressures in the NHS are because (as a society) we want every little booboo checked over by an MD.

I can't remember the last time I visited an MD for treatment - I book anything I need with the nurse well in advance, and if it's urgent but minor have a chat with my pharmacist (unless it's in my mouth or in my eyes - then it's the dentist or optician).

As an aside, if you have concerns or recommendations for the service, you can write to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport (Vaughn Gething) or one of the statutory advisory committees - who consult with the profession and the public and give advice/make recommendations to the Cab Sec (http://gov.wales/topics/health/professionals/committees/?lang=en)

Very ramblely, but I've done about 60 hours this week I think so will be sleeping now.

cbrown372

GreyQueen wrote: »

:eek: Ouch! I know women who've had horrible deliveries and been in labour for 48+ hours and who've also had gallstones. When they tell me the pain of the gallstones was far worse than the pain of labour, I believe it must be hellish. Very glad that there was a responsible person handy to summon an ambulance and hope they are not still troubling you.

One stone removed the next day and when I when in to have my gallbladder removed some weeks later it had shrivelled up and it was decided to leave well alone as to remove would have meant a bigger operation than the keyhole removal planned. Very grateful to the NHS and all the staff who work within.