Brilliant NHS

So good to hear, and so much better than having to wait and worry.

kitty what a worry and what a relief!

We have had cause to thank the NHS over the past few months.

The service was outstanding, the difficulties the clinicians overcame because of the lack of investment over the past decade was awe inspiring.

They work so incredibly hard.

Good to hear Kitty

That’s great to hear, both about your DH and the NHS

That is brilliant care kittylester
I don’t malign NHS care.
But I think that we have rested on our laurels too much whilest telling the rest of the world that ours is the best.
It * is*outstanding when it is good though. No denying that.

That brilliant kitty. I'm glad your DH is ok. Mine was blue lighted to A&E in May. Treatment couldn't have been better. Yes hours in A&E but they did their best.

By the way my DH had the same thing as your DH a few years ago and had similar great care. We too feared cancer.

Great news kittylester.

I think it does depend on where you live. Densely populated areas have a challenging time. My nearest hospital is 15 miles away in a large city, and the waiting list is 52 weeks for heart problems. Due to my scary heart symptoms, I was too afraid to wait and used my credit card to pay for a private echocardiogram and to see a cardiologist privately last August. She said I could have had a stroke before Christmas and prescribed drugs which I then obtained through the NHS.

However, now I need a follow-up appointment and some tweaking of the drugs due to challenging side effects, and will have to pay yet again because I phoned the NHS hospital this morning and all they could say was that I was on the list but it could be September before I am seen. The service in my location is overwhelmed apparently.

As has been said many times before, it truly is a postcode lottery.

I am sorry to hear your issues sparklefizz and hope you can get sorted soon.

We are about 10 miles from our nearest big hospital but we were able to travel to the other end of Leicestershire to be seen. Transport was offered.

Our local hospital is 10 minutes drive away so DH was lucky. Unfortunately the A&E there has since closed and we would now have to go to the new mega super hospital in Smethwick.

Over the last five years we have experienced the NHS at its best - and at its worst.

The best has always been in emergencies - and we have had severl of those. The worst has been dealing with routine or minor matters, or so they appeared at the time.

Unfortunately in recent years we have been at the minor end of the process and the care and service we have had has been appalling.

Well done that GP.

And a relief for you both, kittylester.
Will your DH have treatment now or is this something that can be managed?

My aunt had excellent care in hospital. Couldn’t fault it. However they couldn’t wait to get rid of her even though we thought it too soon. She was back within a week.

Just management Allira.

Lots of our family has had brilliant care lately.

kittylester

Just management Allira.

Lots of our family has had brilliant care lately.

That's good that it can be managed, kitty

The NHS care here is unpredictable, like M0nica we have found it either good or very poor.

So glad to hear of this, kittylester. I think we should make more of it when the NHS does its job well, rather than complaining about every little thing.

We have also experienced the best and worst of NHS.

My husband had a severe stroke 7 weeks ago and is still in hospital.

The ambulance service was dreadful. One and a quarter hours to get to us and then another 45 minutes to get to hospital with everything flashing because it went all down the country lanes due to a new Sat Nav system.

Once there the service was great. Into brain scan immediately and told results and straight on to Stroke Ward. 3 weeks spent in there varied but they saved his life. What I didn’t like was never finding a Doctor or Sister to speak to and going home every day not having a clue what was going on. It was not short staffed, there were so many staff that you could hardly get past them sometimes.

He has had 4 weeks so far in a Stroke Rehab Unit straight from the hospital. Modern, light, and better parking. Staff are mostly great and have time for everyone. Physio, speech therapy and OT all work hard to help patients recover.

My main concerns are quite a lot of staff have very poor English to the point of it being really embarrassing for them and us having to ask them to repeat themselves. I understood that a few years ago it was decided that all medical staff had to pass tests to prove they could speak, understand and read and write English properly but this seems not to be the case now. It is essential that staff can try to understand what stroke victims are trying to say but many could not.

The other sad thing about our experience is the loss/theft of a beautiful gold necklace which was his Dad’s. He never takes it off but we believe it was removed the night he was rushed in for brain scan but not returned to us. I have made countless calls to the hospital and still have my fingers crossed it will turn up. An expensive bottle of Men’s cologne also went missing on the ward but I am not that bothered though they say it was not handed in.

I too have many reasons to thank the NHS, I will always vote Labour as they started it and will fix it, the Tories ran it down as they wanted to close as much of it as possible, I can't get podiatry now and NHS dentists are non-existent.
I love Labour's idea of having a proper career path & pay for those in social care too, long overdue in my opinion.

Kitty Lester, so pleased you found the NHS at it's best for your DH. I hope his recovery continues to go well. Good to hear it does still work well on occasions.

Same praise here.I noticed blood in DHs urine and took a sample to the GP.That same day he had been sent a fast track appointment and within 3 weeks has even a urologist,had scans snd a resection of a small bladder tumour.Results are back and it was cancer so he will have frequent checks up and further treatment as necessary. A shock for us both but hopefully caught very early.Thank goodness in this instance our GP and the NHS came through.Eternally grateful and aware its not everyone's experience.

Nice to hear someone speaking well of the much-maligned NHS and even better to hear that your husband is not suffering from cancer or anything else life-threatening.

I hope satisfactory treatment for his hiatus hernia will soon be forthcoming.

Lovely to hear some positive comments about the NHS. Very pleased your DH has nothing sinister.

Investment for the future of staff, medication, equipment, costs millions of pounds. The Management needs sorting first though. For many many years the advances in treatment has been fantastic but it all costs money. The UK public are not prepared to pay more money I to the various "Free" things that we have been receiving. The younger generations begrudge paying to maintain those services they don't consider they are using. Regardless of the fact that they do, have and will do in the future. I despair for the future of this country we are fast becoming a 3rd World status.

Unfortunately since November I have had a couple of health scares that started ‘out of the blue’ with no warning and resulting in having to call 111 who were marvellous and sent an ambulance both times.
Having still not fully recovered my GP sent me to A&Eon Monday. We arrived there at 10am with only 4 people in front of us in the queue and were seen straight away with a clear pathway of treatment. We eventually left at 7pm with medication and arrangements for an MRI scan appointment and an ECG monitor to be arranged. It is now Friday and the ECG monitor has been fitted and the appointment for the MRI scan arranged for the 26th.
Unfortunately it is looking as if it is more serious than I imagined it was going to be but the care that I have received during this time has been amazing.
The small market town where live in has been subjected to huge amounts of housing being built in the last two years with only two GP surgeries. I was despairing of the difficulties in getting to see a GP nowadays but the care and treatment I have received since these health scares started has proved me wrong and whatever the outcome is I am so very grateful to be receiving it all.