Can’t Blame People For Going To A&E

[naomi24]

My insurers told me to get a letter of referral from my GP to a private specialist for an ongoing and very painful problem. First appointment just to speak to GP to ask for said letter - over four weeks!

Called a private GP who called me back within an hour. Five minutes after the call ended I had my letter of referral. Appointment with specialist at a private hospital early next week. Mad!!

I can really understand why A&E is so badly abused and misused. Shameful service from the NHS. It hardly inspires confidence. Just saying.

[davebro]

Same as mushroom - ring up on the morning as soon as the line opens, get in the queue & take pot luck or try another day.

[davebro]

//next time I have any serious concerns about my health I will go direct to A and E.//

Be prepared to sit there for at least the 4 hour+ wait they have to report & probably much longer before being seen by a doc.

[MissTerious2]

Fortunate,y its the doctors and nurse practitioners that make our appointments, not the receptionists. We have to go on line and fill in a questionnaire which gets passed on to a clinician who makes the appointments. It's cuts down telephone calls and the receptionists will fill in forms for you if you cant do on line or are too ill to use it. It's not perfect, but there's always a duty doctor available. However they are saying now in an emergency phone 111 or 999.

[jourdain2]

I had a nasty fall last summer and thought I'd cracked my arm because there was a nasty lump in it and my arm was black from the elbow to my fingers. My fingers and wrist worked, however, so I refused to go to A&E at Scarborough - it seems that I had broken the bone from comments later made by medical people I know.

In early March this year Mr.J2 began running very high temperatures, rambling, was unable to walk, dress, sit without falling etc. etc.. Can't fault our GP, tried antibiotics, temp. reduced in a few days, but OH fell outside the surgery and was talking nonsense. Took him back, he was seen almost instantly, and she said to get to A&E. (He was 2 weeks off his 90th birthday.) She wrote a letter asking for a CT scan that day, printed off pages of his records, took his vital signs and put them in the letter, took phials of blood and sent us off.
We got there at 4.30 p.m. on Tuesday. He was finally 'admitted' at 9 p.m., but was still sitting on a chair in the waiting room, which was freezing (coldest night of the year). At that point they gave him some sandwiches. I'd had a yoghurt since breakfast, no food available.
At 4.00 a.m. I, sadly, went home (I had dog to see to, arrangements to make and needed some sleep). He was still on the chair. He was there at 9.30 a.m. when I rang. By 11.30 when I arrived, breathing fire and ready to walk out, they'd found a trolley in A&E . Next day he was admitted to a ward.
By this time he was happily watching chickens pecking away and a black terrier that somehow made little birds fly around He also couldn't hit a toilet.
Long story short? Some sort of weird virus (I suspect a UTI). All scans totally clear and he is now back to normal.
The NHS was great when it got going - but that sort of treatment is
inhumane.
Other countries manage health better. When we came home from France, we crossed our fingers and thought that it couldn't be that bad..... but it is.

[Redhelen72]

The only time I have had to wait for an appointment was for blood tests and that was because I am very difficult to get blood from but there is 1 nurse who can get it every time and she was off.

MIL doesn’t seem to have an issue either she has at 3 appointments a week

[davebro]

no blood samples taken at GP surgery - get thee to the hospital blood service & get in the queue

[MissTerious2]

Our nearest hospitals are 25 and 33 mies away. I won't go near the earnest at 25 miles away at Kings Lynn. The roof is being held up by over 3500 props.

How many props are holding up Kings Lynn Hospital?
'The simple truth is that our buildings are in a desperate state and have reached the end of their life. We now have 3,433 steel and timber support props in 56 areas of the hospital. We now have more than six times more props than beds and we are the most propped hospital in the country. '

[MissTerious2]

Nearest!

[DTCwordfan]

A friend put in and had a hip replacement within a time span of 3 weeks, the NHS said she would have to wait a minimum of 3 years. Cost her £7k - 'and well worth it given the pain I was in' was her summary comment.

[Redhelen72]

Bloods and ecg all done at our GP they are not the issue, it’s hospitals and operations that are impossible to get too.
That’s why we now have full private health care

[MissTerious2]

I visited someone in a ward there and it was horrific. The staff can't get about properly and trollies and other equipment cause traffic jms. It looks like a third world hospital! And if I call an ambulance that's where they will take me? That's a lot of the reason Mr T. Would take me straight to Norfolk and Norwich.

[Atheist]

jourdain; the importance of being nearest.

[Atheist]

Sorry; I should have said Miss...

[MissTerious2]

I had my last op privately. Now Mr T needs two new knees and I need a back operation. My back operation might be considered urgent and if so will be high in priority.

[DTCwordfan]

the lost Crown Jewels are probably beneath the hospital, Lottie, - a result of putting them in the Wash.

[jennyjoan]

I have given up - got the letter of referral - sent to insurance - they keep answerking questions. 3 times Am I Deaf so can only email. last email same again - now they want to know how long (insrance) how many many months have to wait for the appointment. I told them 9 months - -again how many months. I 've just given up - I may pay for private. I am fed up

[DTCwordfan]

the thing that grates with me are that the surgeons are the same - and so too their support staff.

[andres]

Maybe some of the NHS specialists are treating private patients as well.

[DTCwordfan]

"Not last night but the op night before,
Two NHS surgeons came knocking at Lottie's door.
As she ran out on hearing their diary date, they ran in.
She hit them on the head with a Kings Lynn rolling pin.
No wonder she's off to the local Norwich loony-bin."

[MissTerious2]

DTC Ha ha. I think the looney bin is now the best place for me !