alcazar

iTrader: (2)

OK, to put this in context, 26 years ago we moved across town, and the practice we attended for doctors allowed us to stay on their books....I wanted to as I knew all the doctors and had been with them 35 years.

Last Friday, my eldeast suffered a horrible injury whilst working on the local steel works, when a 15kg lump of concrete broke free and fell about 10m, striking him on the back of the head and neck/shoulder area.

He was taken to hospital around 9.30am, and discharged around 3.30pm full of morphine, and with the advice that when the whiplash appeared, he should see his own GP.

Today, he's in agony with it. The only painkiller we have are paracetamol.

So I ring our medical centre, only to be told he's registered with a doctor in Loughborough where he was at uni, and they WILL NOT accept him back since we live outside their catchment area.

They advise me to ring my local doctors' so I do...and get told THEY can't see him as no-one in the family is registered with them.....

I argue with both, but both are adamant that THEY are in the right, that's what the rules say...no thought for the care of a patient, just what the fukcing rules say.

I FINALLY ring NHS England to be told that the local surgery are in the wrong and should see him.

I ring them again, relay what I've been told, and finally, after two-and-a-half hours, get an appointment.

Both wanted him to go to A&E...but he was in no state to go and sit on a hard chair for four hours to get painkillers. And anyway, aren't the governmenet trying to STOP folk going to A&E needlessly???

To say that I am disgusted with the present state of the NHS is an understatement...

EOEUMC

iTrader: (5)

Look in to a local drop in center. You normally get seen pretty quickly and its a happy medium between your DR's (which don't sound too good and A&E

Maz

iTrader: (34)

Bad carry on that Jeff. Surely patient care should come uppermost not red tape and fobbing off!

Dingdongler

So what's actually wrong with him?

hodgy0_2

Lets face it The NHS as it currently stands is dead in the water

The "free" concept simply does not compute against modern economic theory

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Whereabouts was he working at, Jeff?

I was on the works email/red stripe bulletins about 3/4 weeks ago after scorching my foot burning a seized loco tyre off Oops.

bighead

iTrader: (1)

when I had my motorbike crash(hit by a white van man ! ) in central London . I was in pain, sat in the hospital waiting area for 4-5 hours , then a nurse comes and tells me to get up to go to be seen , I said I cant move as my shoulder/collar bone is broken ......she just look at me and said it not that bad and did not offer any assistant at all !!!!.....this was 14 years ago, so I guess no progress there then .

jaygsi

iTrader: (46)

I have to many stories for that's thread. I don't want to even get started

Carnut

Could this not be a case of a useless bint on the other end off the phone rather than a example of the NHS as a whole?

Fabioso

Is there a special factory that produces NHS doctors' receptionists? In the past few years I have never met such a nasty, unhelpful useless bunch of rude $%£^&£" that are "meant to be" serving the public. The ones at my local surgery generally spend most of their time at the back talking and ignoring patients standing at the front desk who have hit the bell and are wondering whether they should faceplant the desk to get their attention

They give out mis-information on-demand and their main aim in life seems to be to put as many obstacles in someone's way as possible. The miscommunication that goes on between the 3 idiots at my surgery is absolutely priceless. I generally pick the chair closest to the front desk while waiting, just for the sheer entertainment of watching disaster after disaster unfold.

I've lost count of how many times test results have gone missing or have "allegedly" never been sent back. It takes 5 minutes of observation to understand why..........

john banks

These edge cases expose the difficulties with a nationalised system where the resources have a tenuous or no link with attendance in this case. The odd thing that didn't come up here is that general practitioners are not actually contracted to see injuries at all. We do for injuries over three days old as that is the understanding in our area, with injuries under three days old attending A&E. However, when this doesn't align with patient wishes, conflict can arise. There are many difficult situations for unregistered GP attenders and practices around people who have connections with an area. Paying on use would solve most of the issues.

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

I think as above it's the receptionists rather then the doctors and nhs themselves
Similar to where I live
Once the misses rang up and it was 3/4 days to they could see here
I rang up put on my Councillors voice and same day for here
Same on their prescriptions 4/5 days yet if you plead next day
Seems to be the calibre of staff
Sort of like ' illness prevention officers ' who think them selves better then the patients who they are there to look after

I have never had problems woth the actual doctors or hospitals in my recent years and various things but receptionists
Mmm

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I find it slightly ironic that the NHS is free to use, but you have to pay to park at a hospital:

I think it'd work better the other way round.

urban

iTrader: (1)

I would imagine he's lucky to still be alive

David Lock

So hasn't it been fixed yet

dl

Miniman

iTrader: (2)

At our doctors, the receptions are employed to prevent you getting to see a doctor. I believe they are bonused on how unhelpful they can be.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Recurring headaches, pain and numbness down the left arm, very stiff neck, difficult to move, shoulder also sore and stiff, painful to move.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Queen Anne blast furnace rebuild, fabrication, plating and welding.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I reckon...Luckily, he was half bent forwards and the concrete hit him across the BACK of his helmet and top of shoulder area.
had it fallen on top of his head, he would have been looking at spinal crush injuries, had it struck small end onto his unprotected neck.....doesn't bear thinking about.

Just shows how close we can be to disaster.

It knocked him flat and briefly unconscious.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Yes, we were told he should contact his own GP..that's when it all kicked off, he now hasn't got one!

And both seemed to want him at A&E despite the campaign to STOP folk needlessly using A&E.

Ah well, back at uni next week, I just hope he doesn't get ill during any holidays.....

What a mess.

I feel I OUGHT to write to someone in the local area and appraise them of the problem, but how do I find out who?

urban

iTrader: (1)

I'd approach the local media and let them wind up the pressure

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

nah...I dislike the media, plus the local rag is weekly and so in the pockets of it's advertisers, the thought of any sort of campaign would be anethema to them.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Ah, didn't know he was working on the big re-line project. Was it one of the 'bricks' that fell mate?

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

One of the best ways to complain is via PALS ........

Shaun

scoobyboy

the missus can never get an appointment at our docs yet i ring up and i'm seen the same day lol

tony de wonderful

What does that mean exactly? Where is this utopian 'market' in health care you wish us to emulate?

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

An 'offensive' wife?

tony de wonderful

Do you lose money where patients don't attend John?

tony de wonderful

Well they are gatekeepers for the GP and indirectly your own health, in a sense they have some power.

Patients can be seen as objects and it would be easier if they went away.

john banks

Not sure I understand the question. Re injuries, the GP terms of service involve seeing patients who are ill or believe they are ill. It doesn't include many other services but many are almost universally provided such as child health surveillance, immunisations, smears, chronic disease management etc. It usually doesn't include minor injuries/trauma care except in some urban centres and some very isolated rural situations. The practical implication re not being contracted to provide trauma care is that we don't have a full time nurse, x-ray facilities or keep up staff training for dealing with minor injuries as we are not resourced to provide these services. We bid for them (the payment was per attendance, didn't have to be your own patients, was lower than the cost of an A/E visit) when we had a doctor with a special interest in trauma, but the service was centralised in minor injuries units/A&E.

If you are asking about temporary residents, there used to be a claim per attendance, but it was changed to an unmetered average 10 years ago. The implication of this is that if you see patients you don't have to, ie patients who are not in your practice area, as sounds to be the case with alcazar's son, you are doing it for free. So the second practice would be the ones to see the patient in this case, the way things work locally.

For permanently registered patients, we see patients who have moved out of our area who are still registered and then advise them to register in their new area, and we also see patients the day they register. Some other practices will not see patients in either situation, which we consider unhelpful. Some patients at university come "home" to see us as temporary residents as they cannot get an appointment at their university GP. This tends not to work well as we don't have the history, records, medications, allergies. It would work if they were genuinely staying temporarily in the area and became acutely unwell.

We lose money if patients don't attend. The reason being is that if we run on time, as I usually do, on average calling patients before their appointment time if they arrive early, then a non attender wastes an appointment and they usually then make an emergency one when they realise they've forgotten. Sometimes we wonder if operating only on the day appointments would be more helpful, but we provide a mixture of on the day and pre-booked which gets us the highest patient satisfaction ratings in our county.