You are probably right
I'd be happier with the NHS if I could see a doctor in less than a week when I need him. If I didn't have to convince him that I'm in trouble to see a specialist. If I didn't have to share a ward when being sick at the hospital. If the nurses were trained to take blood and put intravenous as standard, not like an optional training course.

Yes, it's probably just me being picky.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Thu 14 Apr 2011, 16:12, 1 reply, 15 years ago)

you're obviously some kind of magnet for the special needs ;)
You can see a doctor same day anywhere provided you phone at the right time, they are obliged to keep a number of appointments free every day. I must admit I don't undertand the obsession with private rooms, it's a massive waste of resources and means nurses can't keep an eye on multiple patients simultaneously. I'd be worried about the blood/IV thing too but that's hardly common.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Thu 14 Apr 2011, 16:18, Reply)

I must be, clearly
I have several problems like thalassemia, an extra bone in my back, chronic tonsilitis... everytime I go to the doctor here, I'm in trouble. Every time. They don't listen to me, tell me everything's ok, give me some antibiotics, and off you go. I'm still in pain, A&E didn't know why, they send me back to the GP and I know what he's going to tell me. It's a wast of time.

To see the doctor at any time of day you must take the day off and wait at home or nearby until they call you. Which is not very useful. If they'd let you see a doctor near your place of work would make some sense, but they don't.

The time I was in hospital 5 days, only 1 nurse was trained to do IV. In my whole ward. That's not an annecdote. The annecdote is that she did it wrong and I ended up with my muscle full of antibiotics, unable to move it and big like my chest.

The problem with the ward is that you have no intimacy. That the other people that are worse than you can really be very creepy (really, 5 nights of "Please, let me dye!" are not good for anyone). In a private room, you won't see the nurse so much, but you can have company all the time, visits are allowed all day, so they'll tell the nurse if something goes wrong.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Thu 14 Apr 2011, 16:25, Reply)

you're clearly very unlucky with this country then!
and, look - I appreciate why you might WANT a private room, but that's not an argument for why it's better to have one, except for just from your point of view. The hospital's job is to get as many people better as possible for the least amount of money. People not having privacy is not high on the priority list. Needs of the many far outweigh the personal preferences of the individual. Giving you a private room ain't going to make you better quicker.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Thu 14 Apr 2011, 16:32, Reply)

It might do
Being in a ward is terribly depressing. Being shown around when you're half naked is not good. Having the doctor to examin you and give results in front of everybody is not good. Makes you feel bad and doesn't help to recover faster.

I know money is a problem, but I think things are not done properly on the NHS. The private room is the smaller of the problems. I gave you a list, I can give you more, like failing to spot mononucleosis after a month. Not because they couldn't find anything wrong, but because they couldn't care to refer to the specialist and have some tests done. Nope. Antibiotics and go home. We had to go to Spain and have it diagnosed and treated there.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Thu 14 Apr 2011, 16:43, Reply)

there's a reason for that.
You can't treat mono so the test is merely to eliminate other things, and is basically a massive waste of money. Did they do a bacterial/virus screen here? If not, it does sound like you've been getting some crappy doctors, but a mono test is pointless unless you're pregnant or they have a reason to suspect you have HIV

What did they give you to treat it in Spain? I'm genuinely intrigued as there is no treatment.

Edit - also, I've double checked on that and you can't pick up EBV antibodies until you've had mono about 3 weeks anyway, so a test in the first month is doubly pointless.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Thu 14 Apr 2011, 16:55, Reply)

Sorry?
You do treat it to aleviate the symptoms. And you're told to stay at home and rest, not to take antibiotics and keep on your normal life. You can get very sick if you don't rest, and even lose your... bazo? spleen? mmm... I'm not sure.

A month is more than 3 weeks. They could have at least tried something different, after a month of fever and tiredness and no use from the antibiotics.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Thu 14 Apr 2011, 17:09, Reply)

rarely you get a mild case of hepatitis, again untreatable
and, yes, you can very rarely get an inflamed spleen. But knowing what it is doesn't prevent that and you still can't treat it. Alleviation of the symptoms are the same as they would be for anything with the symptoms - NSAIDs, painkillers, fluids. Knowing it's mono doesn't help you one bit with any of those.

I know that to you this seems madness, because you've been brought up with a healthcare system that would have tested, but the only single advantage to testing is that you know. It doesn't help you, it costs a fortune and as it's an antibody level test it's inaccurate and massively open to interpretation.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Thu 14 Apr 2011, 17:20, Reply)

Oh, yes
that's what my boyfriend got. Hepatitis from the mononucleosis! When we got to Spain he had developed it already. Maybe it was more than a month, then.

Well, I think if he had been told to rest and not move until he was well, he wouldn't have developed the hepatitis. Maybe not. They told him to keep going to work as normal, and he was probably spreading it around too. I only got mild symptoms and got over it quickly.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Thu 14 Apr 2011, 17:23, Reply)

yeah, see this is the difference
between the systems. I don't understand why you need to be TOLD to rest if you are ill. Or, more specifically, why you need to know what's wrong with you to have to rest. Not having a go at your boyfriend, again, obviously that's just what you are used to. It just seems really obvious to me.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Thu 14 Apr 2011, 17:26, Reply)