Junior Doctors strike

Yes indeed Maremia. It might well be quite common.
Taking my thoughts further, might it be useful to study countries with high satisfaction levels for healthcare? We could look where such services are going right rather than focus on where we're going wrong. I'm not sure which countries these would be though. Different funding mechanisms should be studied too. Just because it's always what we've been doing doesn't actually mean it's a good way, just a familiar one. We'd need a government with imagination and the bravery to make changes if they're found to be in our best interests.

I'm finding some of the newer measures taken excellent. Take cataract treatment now - people used to have to wait a year of more, now it's going to a specialist clinic.

This may be a step forward for one area but services are quietly being removed so people are not getting the treatments they need to help them live healthy lives. For example, a friend of mine has a problem with their breathing which can be corrected by a small operation. The problem interferes with their sleep so they are suffering chronic fatigue as they never get proper sleep. This cannot be resolved by a C-PAP machine. The consultant has agreed to refer for the op but explained that he will get refused because the NHS is no longer doing these operations as it might be something that needs to be repeated in the future. So this person can't work because of the fatigue and this will cost the country in benefits but at least it won't cost the NHS!

Personal responsibility also plays a part in upholding the NHS. I don’t think this will apply to Gransnetters who I reckon are a pretty savvy lot, but my trainee-GP daughter sees so many people who really don’t need a doctor. A visit to the chemist or even just the supermarket to buy paracetamol or some E45 cream etc would be enough to remedy their woes.

She sees people who demand a same-day appointment because they’ve woken up with the start of a cold, or they have a stye or decide their ingrowing toenail needs treatment at 3am. It’s not an occasional event, she sees similar patients every single day.

She also has opinions about the organisation of the NHS, of course. She says it’s broken.

Absolutely agree about people taking personal responsibility. I've been shocked at times by friends, from NHS, expecting a pill for everything and knowingly continuing to drink to great excess, eat rubbish and smoke heavily.

How are things with your son, now, Primrose? This must be a very worrying time for you.

I'm shocked at the examples of going to the surgery for those sort of reasons SueDonim.

How on earth do they get through the triage system?

Someone ringing first thing with these sort of problems in my surgery, the receptionist would pass it onto the triage doc:

But you would get a text back pretty pronto suggesting you go to the chemist or some basic advice/get advised it they want to be seen to go to the GP drop in centre in town where they would have to wait but be seen.

This, unless of course they have a chronic history where a sudden heavy cold is significant.

We do have a certain culture where people don't look after themselves health wise sadly. This is of course understandable and understood for some.

The internet has something to answer for - people google and find the worst possible explanation.

OTOH there are some infections like Meningitis which have a very rapid onset and you have to know how to spot the symptoms, it's not easy.

icanhandthemback that example is very troubling. Yes ENT is very crowded and backlogs, but I honestly can't understand why needing to repeat makes it a no no. I'd try and get GP refer elsewhere. the NHS Patient Care Guide says GPs can refer patients to specialists outside their local area for a second opinion, often facilitated by a patient's right to choose their hospital or consultant.
"While second opinions are not a strict legal right, GPs generally respect this request"

In general the NHS better organised could do a lot more than it does, but there is still the issue not just of a large group of people getting older - us - with conditions that develop, but also that as we get more and more successful treatments for severe conditions that now can be treated that were not before, and generally take some time and bed space...I have not got any easy answers for this

Thank you, Wyllow, I will pass that info on to my friend,

People lie, Wyllow, exaggerate symptoms or refuse to tell triage staff what they are; they threaten legal action (I know my rights!) or to involve MP’s. They’ll turn up on the door demanding attention, or they tell staff ‘I know where you live’

There are very few sanctions that can be taken against them, even if they throw them off the list, often the surgery is told they must accept them back again.

A lot of GP/A&E problems are not health issues, they’re social matters, poor housing, relationship breakdowns, loneliness, lack of community and so on.

Yes, I agree very much with your last sentence and it is a reality.

One GP I know from a Zoom meeting planning for MH services in the future works in a very deprived area. There are the resources set up in her area to refer to a special form of community centre which offer friendly chats, as well as medical (advanced nurse) offers - for example people needing easy exercise as well a the values of warmth and company.

I think more like that would help, but it's a shame it cant work round the clock.

Wyllow3

Why?

Because £60 million could be better spent on far more important things in hospitals. I have met people from the UK who have been to hospitals abroad having taken ill or had accidents and the only translators have been unpaid volunteers. Often there is no translation service at all.

That depends entirely on your personal interpretation of other people’s right to understand what a doctor is telling them about their condition Primrose53. I disagree with your interpretation, because casual and lay interpreters cannot and do not convey medical information in the same way that clinical interpreters, who have received several years specialist training do.