Jewel in the Crown

[smokingboot]

I was brought up to believe in the NHS; both my mother and my aunt worked as nurses, and loved it passionately, though one ended up being a ferocious non-medicator and the other visited the doctor so often the staff joked she should have a waiting room chair with her name embroidered on it.

My mother was a total hypochondriac where her kids were concerned. I couldn't sneeze without finding myself bundled up and thrown at the nearest GP. To this day, my mother believes that the NHS is a miracle she was proud to pay taxes towards and very proud to work for. If any circumstance could make her picket parliament, the notion of dismantling/ downsizing the NHS is the one. There she would be, hatted and gloved, with a placard in one hand and a thermos of carrot juice in the other, graciously telling policemen that she doesn't want to cause any trouble but she's not leaving. To her mind, the NHS is the most enlightened idea ever to come out of Britain, even greater than peaceful protest and Looking After Gardens Properly.

I find myself less inspired.

Trying to recall the last time the NHS met the standards my mother would have recognised and cherished...there was the nipple burning incident in Royton, nuff said. The 'leave it until it's the size of a penny piece' advice that could have turned my malignant melanoma into a tragedy. Then, in London my 'I fought a train and the train won' adventures... Don't get me wrong, the treatment for that was fine, but the aftercare? Lying on a bed of bloody tissues that didn't get changed or cleaned for hours ... But OK, hospitals are understaffed or misunderstood, or A&E is always terrifying havoc and at least they had morphine...so let's turn to our current friendly neighbourhood GPs, who, after an hour and a quarter queue, couldn't work out whether I have a cold, flu, swine flu, a virus, two viruses, a virus on top of an infection or what the heck so they gave me a five day course of 100mg Doxycycline. It got rid of some of the phlegm. Now, the whatever it is, is back.

I've had this since before the new year.

It's incredible. When did doctors lose the power of diagnosis? What is the point of weeny drugs that don't work? I'm a contractor, no work, no pay, no benefits. So I must work, and I do. But I have voice over work I really need to audition for, projects I want to push and therefore need to discuss with my currently non-existent voice, and let's not forget dear old everyday work. One show's already been lost due to this whatever it is. I can't afford any more.

And I really don't have time for the doctor to pootle around with the cheapest/ minimal dosages/clueless guesswork that I seem to be getting. Tried to make an appointment yesterday, it was closed, tried this morning,the phone rang for over a minute before anyone answered. They don't have any appointments, someone will ring me back. That was at 9 on the button. No-one has come back to me yet.

If anyone knows something that can recover my voice, give me energy and just keep me going, please let me know. Say, wouldn't it be great if there was some kind of national universal healthcare system, contributed to by everyone and bringing everyone a strong basic standard of medical treatment? If anyone has seen one of those lying around, could you introduce me to it? Cos right now, I could really use a doctor.

Comments

I'm still pretty impressed with the NHS

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

Getting to see my GP is a matter of phoning between 0800 and 0803, true. But I gave birth to little T, and lost 5 pints of blood, needed surgery and transfusions and days of hospital care... And now we're both alive (not like we would have been in the third world) and don't have a mortgage-sized debt (like I would if I'd done that in the US.)

Re: I'm still pretty impressed with the NHS

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I am very glad you were well treated and that you and young T are still playing in the world! But I do think it's a strange thing in this country we think it's our system, third world poverty or the states...there are healthcare options across Europe that also work for their populations. I'm not saying we should adopt them. But I do think it wouldn't do any harm to analyse them.