Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

American women of child bearing age will all soon be taking up smoking then….

 

My dad has finally been referred to the hospitals ENT department after 4 years of suffering with the same problem. It started during covid and they just threw steroids and antibiotics at him until recently. Once he was finally seen in person they wanted to refer him but the nurse practitioner didn't have that power so he had to see someone else, again not a doctor. A few weeks later he received a book your appointment now but he can't actually do that yet because they don't have any appointments. It means that essentially he is on a waiting list to be put on a waiting list that has an average 23 week wait.

 

The whole system is in such a terrible mess ....hope your Dad is seen sooner rather than later @Thevictorian

 

I heard recently about a friend who has a hiatus hernia and was told an appointment would be requested. They were diagnosed a year ago and, despite contacting their GP,heard nothing for months so called the relevant department at the hospital. They were informed they were on the 'holding list' but should be contacted soon. That sounded promising until they were also told that was just to get onto the waiting list 'proper' to see the consultant. The wait for that could be up to 39 weeks! That would be nearly 2 years from diagnosis to actually seeing anybody.

 

Yes that is my belief as well. It is the reason why you have to phone for an gp appointment on the day, that way they can say they see people on the day they rang.

I was sent a questionnaire that was asking about local gp surgeries. It was done by a big company in Cambridge that was obviously done on the behalf of the NHS. The problem with it was that it was written by people that were determined to get the answers that they wanted and not the actual experience of anyone filling it in.
The questions were along the lines of the, last time you went were you offered? Were you offered a follow up appointment? Were you offered a interpreter? etc.
There wasn't anywhere to add comments and none of the questions actually asked if it was difficult/impossible to get an appointment or what you thought of the service.

I also found it funny that they closed a gp app where the doctors would phone people back, simply because people were using it for things like grazes, the sniffles or things that didn't need any medical intervention.

 

You have to wonder how many people are truly on NHS waiting lists.

I think for years they have been doing these delay tactics so that you dont show up on the statistics.
In fact I sometimes think they are helping to create the waiting lists by sending patients around in circles rather than just getting on with it and sorting the person out.

 

Maybe this why deliveries are often not on time.
11:03 - Fri Jan 31
Your local courier will deliver your parcel between 10:30 and 12:30 today

 

Gosh, that puts my recent experiences in perspective. Last year's 4 month wait to see a consultant was bad enough! Things are going downhill fast here compared to even 5 years ago, but at least we've a choice as long as we're prepared to travel. Depressing parallels with UK, even so. It's certainly not down to lack of money, here, but mostly down to lack of qualified staff, from consultant level downwards. Something that needs to be addressed urgently, I would have thought....

 

I've found that once you are in the NHS system, if you can find just ONE person who is prepared to really care, it makes a huge difference.
I'm in East Kent, and I have three hospital appointments in London within a week next month. It would cost a lot to get to and from the appointments, but, because of my condition, I am eligible for patient transport.
Okay, so I have be ready to leave home four hours in advance of each appointment, and there is no limit on the wait time to return. I have appointments at the same hospital two days running, but I can easily spend 8-12 hours out of the house, for a 30 minute appointment. For an all day appointment - well, much longer.
But, it costs me nothing (apart from buying a bar of chocolate for my OH, since she has to get up early with me). I do have to learn to be patient. However, if I arrive at my appointment late, I am still seen, because the delay is down to the transport.
In the main, the medical staff I see, are dedicated, and efficient. If it wasn't for so many of them, I'd have been dead years ago.

An anti-moan!!

 

I was a dr. In the NHS for my whole career, and whilst I agree things are pretty terrible at the moment, I think it is worth mentioning some improvements. Clinic and X rays are now available 7 days a week and 12 hours a day, a huge improvement on recent years.
Recently I needed something urological doing, in the recent past this would have involved 3 separate appointments spread over a few months, mine were all done together over one morning.
However the more clinic appts that are done, the more beds will be needed to perform necessary operations, and there are not nearly enough beds for an increasingly elderly population. COVID is also still having a major impact and is not likely Togo away

 

We have very long wait lists for some procedures. Luckily, I haven't had to experience time frames that seemed outrageous.

Lots want to blame the health system and yes, it has been messed up for years but let's face it, not all the blame goes there. Our system cannot handle an influx of 4 million people withinin two years. There wasn't a proportional addition of medical professionals available to keep pace with the demand.

We have emergency departments overrun with people bringing in their kids with the sniffles or other minor things.

No system can handle a large dump of demand and that, coupled with client ignorance and abuse of the system. Our population is 40 million people, bringing in 4 million in such a short period of time didn't give our health system a chance at ever becoming quickly accessible.

Our federal government tried to buy popularity through population explosions without a care for health or housing needs.

No wonder the boy has hid in his luxury "cottage"...

 

Knives with a pointed end are quite useful - those jars of homemade Jam or Chutney which have been correctly preserved often need a poke under the lid to enable you to open the jar
Any site using the term "a manly man" would be best avoided IMO - smacks of ultra stupidity apart from anything else.
Whilst I accept that on line shopping has increased in popularity, if their products are considered dangerous, why are they allowed to sell them? Your average kitchen knife? - yes - but no children would need to purchase them as presumably the parents already have them in the kitchen. As for the weirder sort like machetes and similar, what do the sellers think they are needed for ? Cutting a particularly "hard" cheese ? Halving a frozen lump of meat ?
I've always thought that America's "gun laws" ( such as they are ) badly needed reform but the UK is becoming almost as stupid with the increasing rate of knife crime here. Different weapon - same results.

 

I'm not surprised you are having similar problems to us, the whole world seems to think it can just get up and go wherever they like regardless of the consequences, I guess when we have been dragged down to the level of wherever they have come from they will get up and move on somewhere better , but I'm not holding my breath.

 

I often get tangled up in the undergrowth in the park, its pretty wild in places and in summer the brambles take over the dirt paths that lots of dog walkers use.

I'm tempted to take something along with me to just slash some of it back as I walk along when it gets bad, but these days its difficult to know what you could use, if its over 4ins long are you breaking the law.