A snapshot look at NHS services in your area

durhamjen Are you saying that patients with cancer should be made to wait, or denied treatment altogether, rather than be treated in a private hospital?
If that isn't what you're saying, what are you suggesting should be done with cancer patients who can't be accommodated at NHS hospital?
And don't say 'build more hospitals' because that doesn't happen overnight.

Elegran I share your exasperation.

The North West. Have just had both cataracts done. Excellent surgeon, good staff round him. I chose short sight a reading eye and a computer eye rather than a driving eye and a computer eye as I said it was important for me to be able to read food labels, shampoo and conditioner in shower, and laundry labels and tell if my clothes were inside out.

My mother had her cataracts done and at 100 could read the motorway signs but not see her nails to cut them, nor the spots on her clothes. He was a bit surprised but did it perfectly am sitting here typing with no specs and can pickup a book to read if I wish. When out I can read the menu and I have t say I sometimes jump in the car and reverse it out of a parking space before I remember to put my driving specs on! Am just having some varifocals made up as once out of the house it is better to have specs on all the time and shopping is much easier. Short sight is a more expensive option than driving sight but I am so glad I can see the dust and spots and do not to have to reach for reading glasses. When I am in my care home! I will be able to see every one around me and my food on my plate even if the care assistant has forgotten to give me my glasses!!

I have always remarked that I learn from GN all the time. I thought a cataract op just removed the cataract and restored your sight to as near before as possible. Did you have new lens' fitted Emily ? I had not considered that that you can choose your "type " of sight.

Ann they take your own clouded lens out and put a plastic one in. But it's a fixed focal length (unlike human lenses in which the focal length can be altered by your muscles) so there's a choice about the range of distance that you can clearly see.

I was offered a choice, as in, 'You can have this or this but we always do this because it's better'

Rather like Henry Ford "you can any colour for your .model 8 so long as it's black" janea I hope you are happy with the one you "chose"

Have you seen about the cancer drugs fund, Jane, one of this government's flagship NHS reforms which appears to be waning before our eyes?

It's not me saying people with cancer should not be treated.
I am saying that they should be treated by the NHS in NHS facilities, which are there.

I am having treatment for my Wet ARMD at the local Bupa hospital courtesy of the NHS and if I need the laser treatment I will have it MREH by the same surgeon . I am very happy about that.

I'd be interested to know how much of the NHS budget is spent on private healthcare now.

JendurhamOf course if the NHS facilities are there, they shopuld be used as a first choice. No-one would argue with that.

But Katy said that her DH was treated in a private hospital because it was nearer. Surely someone being treated for cancer needs to be as near to home as possible. She then referred to NHS hospitals being overstretched - isn't it better that patients are treated in facilities that have capacity, and better that medical and nursing staff can do their jobs in safe conditions, rather than making mistakes because the facilities are overstretched?
NHS facilities are not always 'there'. There will always be variations in demand - what is wrong with using the private sector when the NHS is at full capacity?

That was what was being discussed, and with all due respect, you did say that you thought it completely wrong that people with cancer should be treated in private hospitals, paid for by the NHS.

That sounds to me as though your ideology is more important than people's lives.

Ann yes my plastic eye is great thank you.

My husband died of cancer three years ago, jane, so I do not put ideology above lives, and that's a ridiculous thing to say.

You still haven't answered the question.

Has the percentage of privatisation increased from 5% under Labour to 6 % under the Conservatives. ????

Actually I am kicking myself for given oxygen to a good thread going back to one that is a repeat, of a repeat, of a repeat. [angrywithmyself]

This is one thread I hope does return to the OP as it was interesting for just once reading posts that are personal stories regarding recent NHS service rather than connected to political links.

Elegran.

I agree

People are still posting about their NHS experiences in their area, so I dont think there is a problem.

A thread can always easily go back to the opening post.

And it can just as easily become a clone of all the other threads singing the same old song.

'The Red Flag', by any chance...?

This area has very good NHS services and in my experience first with my aunt and then with my DM needing long-term care that was also very good on the whole. I know it isn't the same everywhere. I'm told that, for example, it's almost impossible to get enough physiotherapy early enough in some places but it's not the case here. I only really know about one GP practice but it's very good. It seems to have a lot to do with how well organised the services are. There's another city in another part of the country where I know all the A&E consultants resigned en masse and the CEO of the Trust has now resigned. And the service isn't a patch on what we get here.

I live in a village in Nottinghamshire and I feel very fortunate that we have an excellent surgery - its quite large with at least 6 doctors and covers the nearby villages. Lots of clinics attached to it. Referrals to hospitals is quick. Appointments can be a two week wait but urgent appointments are no problem. We also have a 'sit and wait' and a talk to the nurse system. Forgotten what that's called. Is it triage?

There are also two large hospitals close by. Touch wood, I have never had to call an ambulance so do not know much about that.

If you mean Queens Med and the City they've both been very good when the SO's mother was ill over the past few years; she was in and out of hospital many times and the ambulance service was excellent.

Tegan That exactly the hospitals!

Really - typed that's !

Queens Med is one of the best teaching hospitals in the country I think, so we're quite lucky to have that. And that new centre next to it that seems to be semi private [the Treatment Centre [?]] is very good. S.O. can't fault his mums treatment at both of them. Although a friend who worked as a nurse at QMC now does agency work because his working conditions are much better [he would prefer not to but, when you have a family to support you have to do what's best for them].

I was surprised to learn that NHS Staff off on sick leave get six months full pay and six months half pay. My wife has multiple heath issues and generally we find the NHS is great but there are a number of administrators like receptionists who seem to do very little and find patients an inconvenience. We have automated check ins that scan bar codes on appointment letters and yet there are still two or three staff on reception in many clinics . NHS Needs money on doctors and nurses not administrators.

There is a lot of administration required at practice level Peewww thanks to government requirements regarding tickbox exercises and so on, and receptionists do far more than just answer the phone and check patients in.

I think the administrators who might well be culled are those further up the feeding chain at CCG or health authority level.