A Thing That Bothers Me About Doctors

I'm happy with my local GP surgery. I've never felt rushed and have myself discussed a couple of ailments in the one visit. Appointments with either nurse or doctor guaranteed within 3 days. Children will always be given same day appointments. There is also the NHS Health on Call service which is 24/7 for urgent but non life threatening conditions.
 

Can I talk about dentists here? Well I'm going to anyway. :)

I think I need a tooth filling, but my mind flies back to an episode several years back and trepidation starts welling up.

On that occasion, when I walked into the the 'tooth mechanic's' surgery, I eyed him up and down (the way you do) and thought, "Blimey, he's just a boy, he may be wearing long trousers, but he doesn't look more than eleven."

He smiled and invited me to sit in that big, swivelly, up and downy." chair, then he said, "Open wide please, wider, a bit wider please." I still don't know the reason why he stuck his head inside my mouth.

"You need a small filling, we'll have it done in two ticks", he said.

When he put a leather belt around my head and tightened it to the back of the chair I became a bit concerned, but was there a valid reason for putting his knee against my chest I wondered, now beginning to sweat.

It was when his pretty, young, girl assistantant handed him a Black and Decker drill with a 1/2" drillbit in it that I confess to feeling a sense of terror.

I still remember that dream, vividly. :)
 
I see a family practice doctor and I take a list that I want to talk about. We talk about everything. No limit as to what I am concerned about. He knows I only will see a specialist if really needed and he feels the same way. The only specialist I see is a kidney doctor once a year and a neurologist once a year. He forwards my labs to the kidney doctor and sometimes I don't see them.
 
Doctors are bored with hearing patient's symptoms all day. Try a little drama. My doc loves it when I come in. She sits like a little kid waiting for the magician to pull a rabbit out. Then she types something on her computer and says...anything else you'd like to talk about.
 
Judycat said:
Doctors are bored with hearing patient's symptoms all day. Try a little drama. My doc loves it when I come in. She sits like a little kid waiting for the magician to pull a rabbit out. Then she types something on her computer and says...anything else you'd like to talk about.
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I think I'm going to try that! I agree they must get bored.
 
Can you book two continuous visits at the same time? Tell the receptionist that it’s for two things.
 
debodun said:
Yes, but she pushes it away. One symptom per visit.

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the problem here with our GP surgery is that there's only 4 doctors, and one of those is a locum...but they have 7,000 patients on their register, they just don't have the time to spend listening to long lists of symptoms,nor will they get the money from the NHS for each patient if they limit themselves to just a few patients a day , so of course it's the patient who suffers ultimately!

if I need to see a doctor fast and one who will listen to everything I have to say I use my Private Insurance...
 
Jules said:
Do you have to pay extra, on top of the price to buy the insurance, when you see the Private doctor?
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No...we just Pay for the Medical Insurance.. and that's that, no extras..

I believe there are levels of Insurance you can buy so you would probably have to pay a little extra for some medical procedures for the lower cost Insurances..but not the one we have which covers most things ..
 
Just to add, the Private Insurance doesn't cost very much..I think it's 2.5k for the both of us per year ( not each) ...but I'll find out for sure when hubs gets home..!!
 
hollydolly said:
No...we just Pay for the Medical Insurance.. and that's that, no extras..

I believe there are levels of Insurance you can buy so you would probably have to pay a little extra for some medical procedures for the lower cost Insurances..but not the one we have which covers most things ..
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That’s the doctors I’d be going to then, since you paid for it.

Every so often some Canadian doctors push for private medical for some things. They say that there’ll be fewer people using the medical system then. Duh, there’ll also be fewer doctors in the general system.
 
debodun said:
Yes, but she pushes it away. One symptom per visit.
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With your current symptoms matching up with POTS, go in to your next visit (hopefully with another doctor) and state you fit a lot of POTS criteria and would like the diagnosis confirmed or ruled out. If ruled out, then you need to pursue an accurate diagnosis.

You are set in your ways in a lot of things, Deb, but it's dangerous to act so now since you're experiencing a recent, significant change in health.
 
Jules said:
That’s the doctors I’d be going to then, since you paid for it.

Every so often some Canadian doctors push for private medical for some things. They say that there’ll be fewer people using the medical system then. Duh, there’ll also be fewer doctors in the general system.
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yes that's the one drawback... we can't use the Private Insurance to see a General practitioner..

What we can do is pay the GP a private fee (seperate to the Insurance).. currently around here it's £130..for 30 mins , and then £20 for every item on the prescription, which is free if we see an NHS GP...
 
hollydolly said:
yes that's the one drawback... we can't use the Private Insurance to see a General practitioner..

What we can do is pay the GP a private fee (seperate to the Insurance).. currently around here it's £130..for 30 mins , and then £20 for every item on the prescription, which is free if we see an NHS GP...
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Wow. That’s pricey.

It doesn’t cost us anything for a specialist. I had 5 retinal surgeries in the hospital, daily & weekly appointments, etc. No cost. Just had to pay the deductible for meds.

Most of our waiting time for specialists is because there aren’t enough to accommodate our large retirement population in the interior. Also, the hospitals were built to serve smaller populations. They are now scheduling surgeries & tests late into the night.
 
Jules said:
Wow. That’s pricey.

It doesn’t cost us anything for a specialist. I had 5 retinal surgeries in the hospital, daily & weekly appointments, etc. No cost. Just had to pay the deductible for meds.

Most of our waiting time for specialists is because there aren’t enough to accommodate our large retirement population in the interior. Also, the hospitals were built to serve smaller populations. They are now scheduling surgeries & tests late into the night.
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It doesn't cost us anything to see a specialist either... but depending on the problem, we sometimes have long waiting lists , and that's where our private Insurance comes in especially handy, it usually means I get to see a Specialist within a few days rather than anything up to a year on the NHS...

Our hospital also were built to accommodate much smaller populations, and when the UK opened it's doors to the European Union a few years back, we were inundated with Immigrants, but the problem was, the Govt didn't build any more hospital or schools or doctors surgeries.. just more and more homes.. and sadly many of our GP's and Consultants are so overworked they've left medicine or moved to other countries where they're not so overworked and underpaid..
 
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My Daughter is a good example here.. For many years she lived abroad, and paid private medical Insurance. For that she got to see a Specialist in a matter of Days, had MRI's or Ultra scans same day and results same day ( not what happens generally in the UK on the NHS ).. she had a melanoma cut out of her shoulder last year and so she need to have that checked on every 4 months

When she arrived back in the UK a few months and registered with the local GP she explained about the Melanoma.. and they told her she would have to wait up to a year for a dermatologist to see it.. but cut a long story short, within a month, she got an appointment at the hospital to see the dermatologist. (yesterday). they took deep scans, and said everything looked fine, and clear but she must continue having her checks..

This morning in the post she was sent the DVD with the scan on it ...

She's so impressed... she can't believe this all happened on the NHS... for nothing,!! All she had to pay was £2.60 to park ...
 
My PHP is a hand-patter and not much else. The last few times I've been to her with a complaint, she just says something along the lines of, "You know you're getting older. You have to expect things will no longer be the way they were." The only other doctor in town treats his patients like cattle and his staff is rude.
 

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