7 ms·

A personal anecdote: had been feeling very unwell all morning with back pain but needed some fresh air so went for a walk, on the way back my chest tightened to

A personal anecdote: had been feeling very unwell all morning with back pain but needed some fresh air so went for a walk, on the way back my chest tightened to the point where it felt like a very heavy person was sitting on my chest and was having stabbing pains. I'd never experienced anything like this before. My local GP was near by so I went there first, described what was happening to the receptionist... they said 'Call 111' (NHS non-emergency triage, for non-Brits) and shoo'd me off; I loitered around and Googled symptoms and yea... 'possible heart attack, go to A&E NOW' was the general gist. Called 111 from within view of the receptionist in case I collapsed, 15 minutes later I'm still on hold - I figured all they'd do would put me through to 999 after spending 10 mins asking questions. Got an Uber to A&E, and had an EKG within about 20 minutes of arriving. They said it's not a heart attack, probably isn't myocarditis or pericarditis, then the weird question 'do you suffer from anxiety or any mental health problems?'... I'm 100% sure it wasn't psychosomatic or an anxiety attack. But that was the point where their concern ended and I was discharged with no follow up from GP or any idea of what had happened. Turns out, it was acute pancreatitis caused by a gall stone - I had to pay privately to find that out because repeated GP appointments they couldn't care less. Either way, it's an absolute clusterfuck, and this same pattern of systemic dysfunction has been repeated with pretty much every interaction I've had with NHS funded services (both hospitals and GPs), and I'm fairly sure - like in a_c's friends case - if it had've been a heart attack it would've required me to drop dead in the GPs reception for them to do anything more than just pass the buck.

TheOtherHobbes 4y ago
The UK is down with leading countries like Colombia in the doctors-per-capita rankings. The NHS could be a lot better, and most doctors want it to be a lot better. If there aren't enough doctors to provide an adequate service - and there really aren't - it's not the front line staff who are to blame.
- rcarr 4y ago
  Is it not the same doctors that vote to cap the amount of doctors places in higher education in order to protect wages? Why are we not training as many doctors who meet the educational requirements as possible? Every year come A Level results there’s a kid in the paper with AAA grades who can’t get into medical school. It’s a disgrace.
  - kodyo 4y ago
    It's so crazy how socialism keeps failing people. Totally unpredictable.
    - jules-jules 4y ago
      It's called starving the beast. A decades long deliberate policy of funding cuts which ultimately drives people into private care.
    - InitialLastName 4y ago
      You'd be making a meaningful point if the market-based solution didn't also have some disastrous failure modes.
    - MrAlex94 4y ago
      > In short, the NHS is more correctly seen as nationalised rather than socialised medicine, achieving the first three levels of a socialist health service identified here. It can be said to have socialist principles in the limited distributional sense and has some socialist means to achieve these. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10170226/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10170226/ The study is from 1997, and the NHS has definitely changed in the 25 years since, arguably becoming more privatised since the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (among other decisions).
    - arbitrary_name 4y ago
      I'd still rather deal with that than the market driven system in the USA. Btw, NHS is not socialism.
      - kodyo 4y ago
        That's even worse! All the downsides and the workers don't even get to control the means of production.
        Tanjreeve 4y ago
        The UK generally does somehow manage to hit the sweet spot of all the expense and duplicated effort of market solutions with all the remote decision making and political weaponisation of government solutions and get the worst aspects of them both.
hotpotamus 4y ago
Now imagine you'd had to pay thousands of dollars for that trip to the ED. Otherwise that doesn't sound any different from an experience with the medical system in the US. One of the first questions you're asked is if you have insurance (in Texas it's not assumed), so they can determine what class of patient you are.

TheOtherHobbes 4y ago

The UK is down with leading countries like Colombia in the doctors-per-capita rankings. The NHS could be a lot better, and most doctors want it to be a lot better. If there aren't enough doctors to provide an adequate service - and there really aren't - it's not the front line staff who are to blame.

rcarr 4y ago
Is it not the same doctors that vote to cap the amount of doctors places in higher education in order to protect wages? Why are we not training as many doctors who meet the educational requirements as possible? Every year come A Level results there’s a kid in the paper with AAA grades who can’t get into medical school. It’s a disgrace.
- kodyo 4y ago
  It's so crazy how socialism keeps failing people. Totally unpredictable.
  - jules-jules 4y ago
    It's called starving the beast. A decades long deliberate policy of funding cuts which ultimately drives people into private care.
  - InitialLastName 4y ago
    You'd be making a meaningful point if the market-based solution didn't also have some disastrous failure modes.
  - MrAlex94 4y ago
    > In short, the NHS is more correctly seen as nationalised rather than socialised medicine, achieving the first three levels of a socialist health service identified here. It can be said to have socialist principles in the limited distributional sense and has some socialist means to achieve these. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10170226/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10170226/ The study is from 1997, and the NHS has definitely changed in the 25 years since, arguably becoming more privatised since the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (among other decisions).
  - arbitrary_name 4y ago
    I'd still rather deal with that than the market driven system in the USA. Btw, NHS is not socialism.
    - kodyo 4y ago
      That's even worse! All the downsides and the workers don't even get to control the means of production.
      - Tanjreeve 4y ago
        The UK generally does somehow manage to hit the sweet spot of all the expense and duplicated effort of market solutions with all the remote decision making and political weaponisation of government solutions and get the worst aspects of them both.

hotpotamus 4y ago

Now imagine you'd had to pay thousands of dollars for that trip to the ED. Otherwise that doesn't sound any different from an experience with the medical system in the US. One of the first questions you're asked is if you have insurance (in Texas it's not assumed), so they can determine what class of patient you are.