[JFDI]

Our surgery has about 8 doctors and an excellent automated booking system.  About half the appointments are available for advance booking, the rest held back for demand on the day, with some held back for the afternoon.  I can always get to see a doctor on the same day, or I can wait a week or so for my doctor.  And they have one doctor on at 0700 for commuters

Our nearest casualty department is the Luton & Dunstable which is dire.   But there's a nurse-led minor injuries unit in St Albans which is first class.  I've been there a dozen times in the last few years and it's quick, friendly and capable.

[Goldcraig]

Our surgery is generally good and you can get seen pretty much the same day....IF ,IF you can manage to get connected to the Surgery switchboard at 1 second past eight when they open...even then you might be #16 in the queue....but anyway, that's not my biggest gripe...
I have real issues with the Pharmacy next to the surgery that offers Methedone "therapy" on a daily basis.... BEFORE anyone jumps an a high horse, let me tell you that I have no isses with addiciton, or people suffering from addicition, I have issues with how the process is managed....the following really grip my sh!t.....
 
1. Why are there always people waiting outside while their pals are in getting their daily prescription. It can be intimidating for folks going in or out ?
2. Why do I have to wait to receive my kids / parents / family prescritions while folk can walk in and stand in the middle of the shop and get their daily dose first?
3.Why can't the Pharmacy dispense Methadone at a specific time of the day, rathen than on a drop in basis (I could be wrong, persons may have an allocated timeslot)
4.Why should I have to attempt to descibe what is happening to my children?
 
And finally, why am I the bad one for asking these questions in the Pharmacy???
 
Business is business, I understand...but I now use another pharmacist who does not subscribe to the program, albeit a bit further away....So what's the point you may ask?, it's your choice not to go...and of course, you're correct. I really do hope that folks who are trying to kick the habit, "get it" and managed to recover.....it's not the people, it's the process......
 
Thanks for listening......

[Sylvia]

Henchard, I'm not knocking the NHS at all, I lived for years in the Irish Republic where you had to be in a bad way to get free medical treatment.
My question was, what if someone plucked up the courage to go to the surgery and asked to see a doctor and was met with the receptionist, be she ever so nice, who told you that there was a waiting list and what did you want to see Dr. about and this in a waiting room full of strangers. Someone at the end of their tether or with embarassing symtoms may well not stay to explain.
I was asking what folk thought about a simple system whereby people could by-pass the receptionist and the doctor could know about things before he saw you. You could write a little note and put it in a post box just inside the waiting room, then get your appointment.
Omnipeasant, the receptionist did take my swollen eye seriously, did I want to see another doctor later that morning? I hadn't fed my pigs yet, so   I did get an appointment for the next day where a doctor took my eye very seriously and I have to go for tests early next week   I am trying NOT to google swollen eyeballs now

[omnipeasant]

I hope everything is okay with your eye.

[henchard]

It's not free - we are all paying for it through taxes. In other countries the system of payment might be different (and I'm talking about comparable countries here, not developing ones), but the system of delivery seems to be more efficient. And I do know that doctors and nurses and everybody else who works for the NHS work very hard - that's never been my problem with it, and I'm very grateful for them doing it. But something must be wrong with the system if it so obviously doesn't deliver what it was designed for!

I did not say it was free. I said free 'at the point of delivery' thus there is virtually no limit to expectations and demand.

The NHS is unsustainable in it's current model. You only have to look at the current obesity crisis let alone technological advances. There is no way we will be able to pay for the costs that will fall on it in the future in it's current form. But no politician is honest enough to say so.

It's time for society to ask serious, if unpopular questions, about exactly what should be funded especially when a large proportion of the community do not look after their own health. Just look around any town centre at the amount of people who are obese and who will all be demanding their weight loss surgery, diabetes treatment, joint replacements and other related conditions during their lifetime.

[plumseverywhere]

Seriously sick people can go to an Out of Hours facility or A&E.

Our Gp has a PA and she takes the details of patients who are too poorly to wait a week but not ill enough for an 'emergency' appt same day. The PA then has a meeting with the person's GP and we receive a call back , same day, to offer us an appointment that has been decided via a triage system. Works well for us.

[Lesley Silvester]

Our surgery has about 8 doctors and an excellent automated booking system.  About half the appointments are available for advance booking, the rest held back for demand on the day, with some held back for the afternoon.  I can always get to see a doctor on the same day, or I can wait a week or so for my doctor.  And they have one doctor on at 0700 for commuters

Our nearest casualty department is the Luton & Dunstable which is dire.   But there's a nurse-led minor injuries unit in St Albans which is first class.  I've been there a dozen times in the last few years and it's quick, friendly and capable.

This sounds like an excellent system and I have known others like it.  I think, like in everything, you get good and bad.  I've very grateful for the NHS.  I would never have been able to get private health insurance for my son to have artificial arms when he was born without a left hand, for example.  I just don't like the surgery I am with.  I ought to change really.  There are others around so it is my own fault.
 
Wouldn't mind a surgery like on Coronation Street.  Someone says, I think the doctor ought to take a look at you and, within a few minutes, they are being seen by the doctor.  If he's called out, he is there almost immediately (despite all these people going for last minute appointments) and, for good measure, he's pretty dishy.   

[Moleskins]

Goldcraig are you ex forces by any chance?

[anderso]

what as being ex-forces got todo with it...........
 

[MAK]

Gow about this?
No appointement, seen within 5 mins, chest x-ray, ultrasound on the heart, blood tests then drugs given to us over the desk.

DOG is fine now !!!!

[Goldcraig]

Goldcraig are you ex forces by any chance?

 
No....Although I have worked overseas for many years, it's just the little things that annoy me 

[Sylvia]

But, how much did it cost you?

[MAK]

The Dog costs? - I did not mention that the dog had 8 blood tests so that they could monitor the results of a machine that they used to draw off his blood, remove excess fluid and return it. they have their own blood analysis machines. Cost was 210 Euros so about £180 ish.

I had a chest infection and had to pay 2.07 Euros when I collected the prescription for anti-biotics on the day I called for an appointement. 

[deepinthewoods]

sylvia, how is your eye now??

[Sylvia]

sylvia, how is your eye now??

Have had blood tests, results later this week, then have to see the doctor again and she will make an appointment to see a consultant. Why does everyone always have an aunt/sister-in-law/friend that...................   Still not googling!!!!
I know there are medically minded folk out there. When I asked what blood tests would reveal I was told Oh, liver and kidney functions and such. Would my liver or kidneys or such be affecting my eye? Best to discuss that with Dr. O, I was told.
I know what my concerns are and would rather have a straight answer so, what else would blood tests show?
Thanks for your concern,Dave and OmniP.