Things that piss you off that shouldn't

[sidcow]

Just now, Genie said:

From the same logic as making it harder to see a GP and 111 telling everyone to go to A&E instead.

Absolutely, the biggest false economy ever. Having people attending expensive A&E centres and sitting in Ambulances with full paramedic crew for what is often routine stuff is an insane waste of money and resources. 

[Genie]

4 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Absolutely, the biggest false economy ever. Having people attending expensive A&E centres and sitting in Ambulances with full paramedic crew for what is often routine stuff is an insane waste of money and resources. 

Did GP’s just refuse to see people in person? 

Shops and hairdressers etc were all open and seeing people in person but most doctors still only contactable remotely. 

[sidcow]

11 minutes ago, Genie said:

Did GP’s just refuse to see people in person? 

Shops and hairdressers etc were all open and seeing people in person but most doctors still only contactable remotely. 

It's pretty much impossible to see a doctor now. 

My son had a suspected chest infection last month.  He had been coughing violently for weeks and it was getting worse. 

Dr's wouldn't see him after completing the form. They advised us to call some centre in Selly Oak where the number was constantly engaged. After a couple of days we actually paid for a BUPA online appointment, cost £50 for a same day appointment. They prescribed antibiotics. The cost of buying it was actually 50p cheaper than NHS prescription charge* and he was better inside 2 days of starting the course. 

As we discussed a) think of all the poor bastards who literally couldn't afford to fork out the £50 and just have to wait worrying about their son and b) how much more serious could it have got and eventually cost the NHS if it hadn't been treated then. 

He could have actually got a face to face appointment for £79 too. 

I can see a dual service on the horizon unless things change soon. More and more people with money will go down that route and people without will be at the mercy of having to wait for an NHS doctor.  

*Apparently something like 80% of drugs are cheaper to just go and buy privately than the cost of an NHS prescription 

 

[Seat68]

Over the past 3 months I have seen doctors for a variety of reasons. Some during the working day, some in the evening, this all under the NHS. Perhaps there are issues in some places but that’s not my experience. For balance my daughter suffers from OCD and depression and cannot see a mental health specialist so maybe Staffordshire suffers in that area. 

[KentVillan]

BBC reporting on "needle spiking" again, after the whole concept was basically rejected by medical experts as not being possible (you'd need to inject someone for several seconds, deep into the muscle... not just a glancing blow from some previously unknown drug).

Most "spiking" in general is just young people drinking strong drinks too quickly on an empty stomach and then being shocked by how wasted they've got off a couple of drinks.

[Genie]

I get that on occasions people spike drinks in order to do nasty things to be them but I tend to agree with @KentVillan that a large proportion of suspected spiking incidents are people just getting far more drunk than they expected. I don’t think there’s people going out en mass dropping things into peoples drinks for no apparent reason. 

[sidcow]

1 hour ago, Seat68 said:

Over the past 3 months I have seen doctors for a variety of reasons. Some during the working day, some in the evening, this all under the NHS. Perhaps there are issues in some places but that’s not my experience. For balance my daughter suffers from OCD and depression and cannot see a mental health specialist so maybe Staffordshire suffers in that area. 

How did you get an appointment? 

[Seat68]

8 minutes ago, sidcow said:

How did you get an appointment? 

I have had about 7 appointments for varying degrees of seriousness but not emergencies. I have called at 8.30 and arranged an appointment for later that day, called later in the day and got appointments for later that week and sometimes my wife has gone in and arranged an appointment for me. 

[sidcow]

5 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

I have had about 7 appointments for varying degrees of seriousness but not emergencies. I have called at 8.30 and arranged an appointment for later that day, called later in the day and got appointments for later that week and sometimes my wife has gone in and arranged an appointment for me. 

Your doctors must have significantly more capacity than mine. 

Oh how fondly I remember actually phoning them. 

[Stevo985]

It's just a lottery depending on your GP. We're incredibly lucky that our GP surgery is brilliant. You have to wait on the phone for ages but they have loads of appointments, they'll give you telephone ones if they don't have face to face and they're generally just very helpful.

Contrast that with my mom's GP surgery who she literally can't get in touch with. The phones go to some central call centre and it's just generally a complete ball ache. It must honestly be killing people. 

 

In terms of private, I'm lucky enough to get private healthcare through my employer. Up until last year it was insanely fast to get appointments and treatments. But this year I/ve used it a lot (for my son mostly) and it's been noticeably busier. Much much busier. It's only anecdotal evidence but I imagine it's because a lot more people are being "forced" to go down the private route to get seen

[Seat68]

7 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Your doctors must have significantly more capacity than mine. 

Oh how fondly I remember actually phoning them. 

I think I am lucky to be honest, never an issue. As I said my daughter isn’t at the same GP and has many complex issues, not a **** chance of seeing anyone. 

[Davkaus]

My GP still doesn't have a proper phone system, if you call and the busy, you get an engaged tone and have to keep trying. Absolutely ludicrous, but they're a law unto themselves and don't seem to answer to anybody.

Can't say I've ever had a gp appointment that was actually a good use of anyone's time, honestly, it's always just been a box ticking exercise to get me through to a specialist in X months.

[maqroll]

Shuffle dancing

[Genie]

5 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

My GP still doesn't have a proper phone system, if you call and the busy, you get an engaged tone and have to keep trying. Absolutely ludicrous, but they're a law unto themselves and don't seem to answer to anybody.

Can't say I've ever had a gp appointment that was actually a good use of anyone's time, honestly, it's always just been a box ticking exercise to get me through to a specialist in X months.

My GP surgery has a recorded message when you call telling you not to be abusive to the staff, so you know before you’ve even spoken to someone you’re likely to be pissed off with the service. 

[bickster]

5 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

My GP still doesn't have a proper phone system, if you call and the busy, you get an engaged tone and have to keep trying. Absolutely ludicrous, but they're a law unto themselves and don't seem to answer to anybody.

Can't say I've ever had a gp appointment that was actually a good use of anyone's time, honestly, it's always just been a box ticking exercise to get me through to a specialist in X months.

That is all GP do now anyway, that and prescribe antibiotics (and play golf )

[Xela]

2 hours ago, Seat68 said:

Over the past 3 months I have seen doctors for a variety of reasons. Some during the working day, some in the evening, this all under the NHS. Perhaps there are issues in some places but that’s not my experience. For balance my daughter suffers from OCD and depression and cannot see a mental health specialist so maybe Staffordshire suffers in that area. 

Definitely regional differences. My Folks have been over Telford way for 4 years now and they're still impressed how easy it is to see a doctor. It was nigh on impossible at their old surgery in Erdington. 

[Xela]

54 minutes ago, maqroll said:

Shuffle dancing

ThickTok attention seekers wanting validation from simps. 

 

Edited December 29, 2022 by Xela

[Xela]

2 hours ago, KentVillan said:

BBC reporting on "needle spiking" again, after the whole concept was basically rejected by medical experts as not being possible (you'd need to inject someone for several seconds, deep into the muscle... not just a glancing blow from some previously unknown drug).

Most "spiking" in general is just young people drinking strong drinks too quickly on an empty stomach and then being shocked by how wasted they've got off a couple of drinks.

In that case I spent most of my 20s spiked!

I'm sure it does happen in odd cases and one case is one too many, but its not an epidemic though.

[KentVillan]

5 minutes ago, Xela said:

ThickTok attention seekers wanting validation from simps. 

 

ThickTok attention seekers going to steal that one

[DCJonah]

My GP surgery opens at 8am. Every single time I phone at 8am I get a message saying the queue is full and then the call ends. 

In the past I've had to queue up outside the surgery at 7 30, to make sure I can get an appointment on the day. 

It's a broken system.