Paphos Life

Just another update on how we are doing with the NHS. My husband has been suffering for some time with pain in his knees. It has gradually got worse to the point that it was almost unbearable. He phoned the surgery at 8.00am and by 8.30 had received a call back from a Dr and given an apt for 10.00am. By 10.30 am he was sitting in the xray Dept of the local Hospital and by 10.45 was on his way home.
The previous day I had attended my appointment for a mammogram. for this I travelled about 20 miles to a mobile unit. I got there about 20 minutes early as I was unsure how to find it, went in virtually straightaway, had the x rays and was out and on the way home by the time my original apt was for.
We certainly cannot fault the NHS at present.

PS I would have got home earlier had it not been for Sat Nav , I set it for home but must have forgotten to press enter so having gone round a roundabout and heading back to my original position I suddenly realised my error and it was taking me back for another x ray!!

I went to my UK GP about my knees, waited 3 weeks for an appointment, no hassle whatsoever.

In with surgeon 10 mins, he said they are worn out, 1st knee will be replaced in 2-3 months.

As far as I am concerned the service could not have been better.

GOLD STANDARD service

I too have received wonderful treatment by the NHS since returning to the UK, but I do feel that treatment and availability of appointments differ according to which health authority you come under. Having experienced two since returning to the UK, there is no comparison.

Jackie

Many Trusts in England are failing to meet national targets for waiting times.

A&E is overloaded, partly due to young people wanting quick fixes, GP practices having long waiting times, lack of 24-hour clinics and poor education of the young, from extended families, plus many younger people believing every ailment is serious.

You therefore suffer a postcode lottery. Some areas much worse than others. Liverpool, for example, is building a new Royal Liverpool hospital, to replace the 50's building. The new hospital will have 20% fewer beds. No wards. All single rooms (which medical staff hate) The existing hospital is already overloaded with a lack of beds and 70% used by the over 65's. Almost no social care provision availability within residential care. A disaster happening and about to get worse.

So why the disparity between Trusts? Surely this needs to be looked into by Government and see why some are managing so much better than others. As I have already said our experience here in Northumberland is exceptional. If we need to see a Dr we get seen the same day and I was talking to a chap yesterday who is waiting for a hip replacement. He was put on the list a few months ago and was advised September and that has now been brought forward to July. I spoke to a neighbour who has recently had her knee op and she told me now that it is no longer done under general anasthetic and she was awake all through it. She was only in Hospital for 24 hours( although she did think this was a little too short) and virtually had no pain at all so things are moving on,modernisation means less time in Hospital.Another friend has just had his arteries unblocked(don't know the name of the procedure) but he showed me his scar which was smaller than a drawing pin head on his wrist and through this they had gone all the way through to his heart,again whilst still awake. Amazing steps forward in medical procedures and our NHS is delivering.
PS I do not support the 1% pay rise for the NHS,Firemen,Police etc and feel that this has to stop now.

I assume you mean they should get more than 1%.....

The disparity is almost all due to social deprivation, but add in some poor managment. Areas like Liverpool, have greater problems than say Kent. It also means less money and longer times.

Yes Jim I did not make myself clear. Why not pay the NHS etc re the triple or double lock system as per the pensioners. I definitely think poor management. Where we are,as I am sure you know, was all mining and now all gone but the whole region appears to have had money spent on it and by and large is not a deprived area yet my home town of Stoke/Longton also lost the pits and potteries but is what I would call a deprived area and does not seem to have had any money spent on it - huge disparity between the two areas.

The Commonwealth Fund in New York has completed another survey (they do it every 3 years) of worldwide major Health Services and rank them, along with costs and percentages of GDP.

The UK, again, comes top!

One of the lowest spends, top overall and only poor on Outcomes.... something that needs addressing obviously....

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/interac ... or-mirror/

I would have thought that outcomes was the most important thing to patients, and more than outweighs the others put together. Obviously the Commonwealth Fund don't see it that way.

Well just heard that the North East is the best performing area in the UK so this seems to bear out my own observations.

If the cosmetic surgery is not necessary, then no the NHS should not fund it. Nor I believe should IVF, this is not essential to saving life nor treating illness or disease. Neither should translators be funded by the NHS, I'm sure anyone who cannot speak English, can find someone amongst their direct contacts who can.

That said, I too believe that Admin is over staffed and over paid.

Jackie

Have a read at this;

http://medicalfuturist.com/google-and-a ... ealthcare/

Why Aren’t Google And Apple Saving Healthcare?

It is a fact that healthcare is unsustainable. American health spending will reach nearly $5 trillion, or 20 percent of gross domestic product by 2021. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there is a worldwide shortage of around 4.3 million physicians, nurses, and allied health workers. So how could we change it?

The most likely solution is technology. The introduction of artificial intelligence, robotics, social media, various sensors and wearables in medicine could save millions of lives and reduce costs at the same time. There is one question, however, which needs to be answered. Who can and should provide these new technologies for the advancement of humanity?

link for rest.....

There was one Hospital featured yesterday - may have been Durham and they had a Matron on A&E basically sorting out priorities etc. They said it was working well leading to them meeting most targets but they also said they trial many ideas and are always innovative. Maybe some other Trusts should visit them.

Digital Transformation is the buzzword around public services at the moment..... seems sensible...

What holds it back? Culture. Pure and Simple. Example; dstrict nurses use paper diaries and decide when they visit a patient. They resist Mobile solutions as they would lose autonomy, be tracked etc. Result; patients lose out and service is very inefficient, less safe and much more expensive.

My Daughter in the UK has successfully used the NHS IVF treatment and now have a wonderful son.
But I have to agree with you, that this is not what the NHS was brought into being for..

IVF costs around £5,000 per treatment.
Cosmetic surgery averages around £2,000
Hip replacement £5,000
Hernia £2,000

12% of all surgery cases (elective) don't turn up on the day. A further 10% are cancelled by the hospital. That's massive wastage.

As the NHS needs to make savings, they need to prioritise, what is necessary and what is not, it's that simple.

Jackie

There needs to be a consistent approach, rather than a postcode lottery type one...

I'd say that there are many, many people in need to health support, who are denied due to lack of money and resources. Mental health being a prime example. I'd make IVF like a student loan, free to get, but payable when you can afford it. They could apply the same rules to cosmetic repairs for people who get botched jobs outside the UK.

We were at the surgery today waiting for our Podiatrist Apt and there was a big sign up saying that 10.5k had been wasted in the month of August alone in Northumberland just down to failed Podiatrist Apts. Shocking really and if you multiply that by 12 and then for all the counties in the UK and then for all other failed apts it must be millions of pounds that could have been better spent and man power better utilised. Maybe if they advised everyone that there would be a minimum charge of 10 pounds for a failed apt people might be more careful.
Just to add to that for anyone now in Cyprus thinking of returning to the UK, don't worry because all your medical records are still on the computer. I was amazed when the Nurse who did my flu jab just looked on screen and told me when I had had the pneumonia jab back in 2006 and that was the year before we left the UK and were in Cyprus 10 years.

Well we had need for some urgent help yesterday and of course with it being Saturday the surgery was closed. I did not want to use 999 unnecessarily so I called 111.I had to wait about 2 minutes to get through and then we were dealt with very efficiently indeed.After numerous searching questions they decided in the first instance that I should take my husband to the local cottage hospital which is only just over a mile away and made a GP apt for us within the hour. When we got there he was seen immediately and had a thorough examination. He was given some medication and advised to attend the surgery next week but in the meantime if any worse to call an ambulance without hesitation as the emergency hospital ,just over 20 miles away, has all the necessary scanning etc facilities. I really cannot fault them!!