Watty's Awakening

Suffolk_lass

It's not perfect (the NHS) but it does very much depend where you are and the type of issue. They certainly saved my husband's life last year, waiting and monitoring him and everything entering and leaving his body; they intercepted developing sepsis and treated it immediately. In contrast they nearly killed him when the staff on the day surgery unit were not recording his records accurately, and the biscuits and gossip culture failed to notice how he was deteriorating while under their care.

Watty1

I agree, it is not a perfect system, it is, in part excellent (I have had many bits patched up with great care) and yet it is very broken in other parts but I genuinely don't think any political party has the "courage" to create a fix because to do so would be a fundamental issue that would not immediately create votes and a feel good factor and really politics is only about getting re-elected so tinkering occurs rather than genuine overhaul.

I also think there are so many other factors involved - the price of food, life stresses and a lack of simple things like cooking knowledge. Few make the connection, even if every so often a civil servant/politician releases "a paper" on sugar or processed foods or some such …..but there is no real will to tackle anything imho

(Clambers off soap box).

On a personal level I'm so grateful to VNM for having the money - and being willing to share that - to pay for the investigations that got me to the point we might not know what is going on yet but we have ideas of what is not. And I'm grateful for the me that worked so hard over the last couple of years that I also had enough to get the ball rolling.

On a sobering note though I do realise I'm spending each month more than I am earning and bailing myself out with savings. Luckily I have them but, whilst resting on sofa I have been thinking of ways to earn a bit more to replenish savings account. Had a lovely chat yesterday with a pal and came up with some ideas.

Slinky

Not especially impressed by the cardiologist. I chased him by email on Tuesday, no response, then emailed his secretary this afternoon. She chased him, and he's got back to me to say he'd forgotten to arrange the scan….. I asked my GP to ask him whether he had considered a condition I have that may be affecting my heart, she wrote to him 4 weeks ago, he hasn't responded, nor did he mention anything about it in his response to me, although I mentioned the letter in my email to the secretary.

Haven't had a bill for his consultation yet….

Watty1

That is rubbish service from the private sector @Slinky … I'm hoping the bill reflects the lack of service when it comes in.

Watty1

The ponies won £75 on the PB this month. As always they reinvested that for their future health care needs.

The hospital have refunded just shy of £8000 so I can return that to VNM although he has asked me to just put it in a savings pot for now in case anything further is needed. His view was that he thought he would be paying for stents to be fitted and now they have not been so fabulous but something is still not right so I should hold on until we see what comes next.

Call from hospital and discussed the pain in my arm which has not cleared and is frankly getting very draining. I genuinely thought arm would be fine by now. Seems that going in with the kit to check the heart via my wrist they have grazed a nerve and that will take some time to clear, they mentioned a few weeks to a few months.

Said we can discuss in detail at follow up appointment with cardiologist. Tests came back from the hormone doctor re HRT prescription and whilst it needs "tweaks" the main issue is not that the prescription is wrong but my nervous system is overwhelmed apparently. She wants a follow up next week to talk over next steps.

VNM and I have chatted over our options. It is beginning to look like we need to push forward with plans so I am putting that out to the universe. Will also revise vision board I think.

Cherryfudge

That's a nice win for the ponies!

Good to have a prompt refund from the hospital too, and follow-ups in short order. The arm pain must be very wearing so I hope it clears up quickly.

Your VNM sounds like an absolute star, and chatting things over with him will give you the advantage of other insight (obviously). Perhaps ask him for some happy easy-wins for the vision board?

Slinky

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82025091#Comment_82025091

I doubt there will be any adjustment to his bill.

I got a call from the hospital yesterday and my scan is on Tuesday. £1100 which is £100 cheaper than the cardiologist thought it would be, so I'm £100 up there…..

VNM is certainly living up to his name. Hope your arm improves soon.

Well done ponies on the PB.

Watty1

Fingers crossed the scan provides some answers for you @Slinky

So far nothing much done today. Watched a bit of TV - loving Clarksons Farm new series. Took WattyDog on my daily walk, I've not been taking him as he prefers sniffs rather than a real walk but clearly he had the memo and marched out bless him.

Local church having a fund raiser and given that it had poured hard all day suggested to VNM we went along to support as I thought there would be very few people there. I was so wrong - the place was packed - the outside games were pretty much ignored naturally but inside was full of people drinking tea and eating coffee so that was lovely, bought raffle tickets, had a go at the "guess" competitions and had a tea and piece of cake and came home feeling we had contributed locally. Easy dinner (cold chicken, salad, potatoes) bring in ponies and then film this evening.

Cherryfudge

Your community life always sounds like something from a delightful 20th century novel in an unchanged rural setting. Of course there may be intrigues and secrets under the surface (according to the novelists), but people are just doing nice things together on behalf of the steeple repair fund or new choir robes. It's all set against the background of a grey afternoon while the young leaves drip in the rain and the blackbird sings…

PennysIntoPounds

There are so many aspects of the healthcare system that need changing, such as we (in the entire UK) only allow 8000 people to train as doctors every year, which is madness considering we're nearly 70 million people and our NHS is so short of qualified staff, and the physical and mental health consequences of a badly functioning NHS hit the economy incredibly hard even if you don't care about having a country where people are well and happy.

And the ones we do train are under no obligation to stay in this country to work for any time at all.

But then you need enough universities for people to study at and enough lecturers to provide that, you need enough qualified staff with enough time to give practical training, you need a wide enough spread of medical hospitals and clinics for everyone to get jobs in, so you need significant improvements on transport links, etc etc etc.

If there was a political party that said they would do all that then they would be in with a landslide majority, but how to balance the books- that needs major rethinks about society and a lot of very rich people would not be okay with that, and they're the ones who run media and make donations to political parties of all stripes.