I Have Given Up

January 14, 2022 Longrider General Rants, Health and Fitness, misanthropy, Personal Stuff 31

I have a hospital appointment next week to fix the old prostate. I’ve gone private at a cost of over six grand because I’m sick of it and sick of waiting. So all that money I’ve paid in over the years has been wasted. During the pre-op assessment, they asked about my blood pressure. Well, that’s been on the high side for a while, but I thought I’d have a chat with my GP.

Under the new covid panic, you have to phone at eight in the morning to get an over the phone triage. It’s now ten and I have not managed to get through. I decided to give Push Doctor a try. £45 and an appointment for 10:30.

Fuck the NHS. Really, fuck it in the eye and in the arse.

31 Comments

  1. Hi Like you I have prostate Cancer, unlike you I live 30 miles up the road and get good NHS treatment. In June 2020 I had an MRI scan on the NHS followed by an extremely painful biopsy (local anaesthetic) followed by a Bone scan which was OK. Following that I saw a consultant who initially said I would put on the list for Radiotherapy. A month later they changed their mind and said I would be put on observation with regular PSA tests. Suspecting something nefarious I looked it up and it seems that that is probably the right treatment for now. I also have incontinence problems which Radiotherapy would almost certainly make worse, something else I was able to verify on the internet. So for now its a case of wait and see. So far I have had good treatment and advice from the NHS and am quite happy with it and it hasnt cost me a penny. Suggest you make a move 30 miles North East – cant be any worse !

  2. I suspect this has been the plan all along, to wean us off the deliberately unusable for us who pay for it NHS, and force us into the private sector.
    Don’t be expecting a two tier taxation system though, we’ll still be paying for the behemoth even if its unavaialble to the likes of us.
    Good luck with the treatment.

  3. The last time my wife needed a GP phone appointment about a chronic knee problem, we began phoning at 8am on two phones over and over again until we got through. According to our phones it took just over 150 attempts.

    After all that, my wife ended seeing a locum GP who was completely useless, prescribed pain killers and wasn’t interested anyway. She ended up going to a private osteopath who seems to be sorting the problem.

  4. Commiserations, LR. I just found this via David Thompson and thought of you. Perhaps it will help with blood pressure; cup of tea and some origami.

    • Ah, yes, Origami. I used to have paper models filling the house at one point. Still got the books on the shelves. That said, the Hayabusa is an example of kirigami.

  5. If you can in the future, Longrider, go abroad.
    Some clinics in Eastern Europe are world class and much cheaper than private health care here.
    It’s where I go when I need treatment.
    Zero wait, inexpensive, good quality.

    It’s a real eye opener when the poorest countries in Europe have better health care systems than the fifth largest economy in the world…

    • I signed up at ten to ten. Got an appointment at half past and the appointment ran to time and I’ve got a prescription. There is no excuse for the NHS not providing the same level of service.

    • Always remember the great Mark Steyn and his story around the Bhutanese Yak Farmer. He made the comment that ‘the NHS might be the envy of the odd Bhutanese Yak Farmer but that he had never met anyone in Australia, NZ or Canada with the slightest envy of the British health care system. He said after that he received a letter from a Bhutanese man, who although not a Yak Farmer himself came from a long line of Yak Farming stock and who said that his parents having been taken ill in London both had agreed that the NHS was significantly weaker than the Bhutanese system’

      You could say the same about the state education system in big cities at least. I can recall many acquaintances from Southern Africa and the West Indies who sent their kids back to their countries of origin for secondary education in particular.

      The U.K. Public Sector (at least in parts)has to provide some of the worst service anywhere in the globe, as well as the breeding ground for the inculcation of ‘woke’ beliefs…

    • “If you can in the future, Longrider, go abroad“

      Unfortunately, that option is now going to be extremely difficult (if not impossible) for our host, myself and others who haven’t had the requisite number of “Clot Shots”…

  6. I use the online patient access service when I need to talk to my GP. Otherwise, phoning is useless since 90% of the time, when you manage to get through, there are no spot available left for the morning. Or the phone hangs up after 20 mins…

    You then have to call back at 1pm for an afternoon slot.

    When I remarked that they could put me on the list now for the afternoon list, saving me a call but also them having to answer a call, hence freeing time, it was made clear that it was not possible. No reason given of course.

    Those services are even more costly than just taxes, when you add the amount of time the public wastes accessing those services.

    But hey, they’re heroes…..

  7. I’ve had to do the same LR with a hearing condition. Given up on the NHS and gone private.

  8. Unfortunately I’ve had to go in the opposite direction. After 30 years with a private dentist, financial circumstances force me into the cold embrace of the National Health. In fairness, the actual treatment is better than I remember as a kid, but is a two-month wait for a filling normal? I mean, my bloke never did one the same day, but nor was it ever more than a week. And his place was aways busy. This NHS surgery is like a morgue.

    • I’m still waiting for my NHS dentist to rearrange my appointment that they cancelled with 4 hours notice on 23rd March 2020. The text said “We’ll be back in contact as soon as we can”…
      Truly abysmal service from the NHS, unless you want a covid innoculation.

  9. I can easily believe that the sacred Nasty Health Service is being run down deliberately. Unfortunately most of us don’t have the means to go private and the behemoth’s staff will be late to realise that there aren’t enough private sector jobs to go round . . .

  10. Well, according to Fahrenheit211, they are hiring lots of diversity coordinators so that will help.

  11. I tried, over a 3 day period, to obtain an appointment with my GP (only available Monday and Tuesday for NHS appointments), without my phone call being answered, so I drove down to the Health(?) Centre to book an appointment. “You have to phone in.” I was told, “and today’s appointments are full”. The next day, I again drove down to the Health( ?) Centre for 8am, looked through the window as I phoned. It rang, and it rang, with none of the 4 receptionist staff going anywhere near those phones and some, in fact, appeared to be having a social discussion. Finally allowed in, and queried why the phones weren’t answered. “We are very busy.” was the reply, so I showed the video taken on another mobile. Today, I received a letter informing me that I have been removed from that Health( ?) Centre’s patient list, for a reason not disclosed, and I have to find another Health(?) Centre, so far without success. Wonder how I would cope with A & E without a GP?

  12. In contrast to many on here, called the quack, was told I could call in at 08:00 the next morning and possibly get an an appointment for that day or they could book me in at 10:00 on Wednesday.

    Also, my favourite Hyabusa tale: The naming of the bike by Suzuki was deliberate. At the time, the fastest bike in the world was the Honda Blackbird. Hyabusa is the Japanenese Peregrine Falcon whose diet mainly consists of blackbirds……Quality.

  16. Update from my previous post. Now back with the original Health(?) Centre. Two receptionists ‘resigned’ after words from Practice Manager and letter of apology.

Comments are closed.