Anyone else feel like the NHS almost doesn't exist for them any more?

[story]

There has been a huge drive in my area to raise awareness regarding prostate cancer. Personally driven by the surgical urology consultant - a black man. He does a seminar, open to tge public and his leaflet comes through my door.

Also over the last five years or so I have definitely noticed an increase of black men coming in for a RALP (Robot Assisted Laparoscopic Prosectomy) and other prostate related procedures.
So awareness is increasing.

Like you, in the last 5 -ish years I’ve noticed Black men increasingly unconcerned about getting their prostate checked. The change seemed quite sudden.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Finally heard from a doctor, six weeks and change after first asking for an appointment to see one. The doctor had glanced at my x-ray, decided there wasn't a problem, and told me in a text message that was misspelled to the point of being unreadable that I should either see a physio (seen two already, neither knew what was wrong) or just go away.

Asked again for an appointment to see a real actual doctor in real life. 15th October is the next one.

I get that the doctors are busy. I know that's not their fault. But they get paid a fuckton more than I do for comparable hours and workload and I would never have so little professional pride or basic decency as to send someone a misspelled text message to tell them about something that's profoundly affecting their life. Especially if I was telling them I can't be bothered to do anything about it, despite that being the job for which I get paid the aforesaid fuckton of money.

 

[ghost boy]

Finally heard from a doctor, six weeks and change after first asking for an appointment to see one. The doctor had glanced at my x-ray, decided there wasn't a problem, and told me in a text message that was misspelled to the point of being unreadable that I should either see a physio (seen two already, neither knew what was wrong) or just go away.

Asked again for an appointment to see a real actual doctor in real life. 15th October is the next one.

I get that the doctors are busy. I know that's not their fault. But they get paid a fuckton more than I do for comparable hours and workload and I would never have so little professional pride or basic decency as to send someone a misspelled text message to tell them about something that's profoundly affecting their life. Especially if I was telling them I can't be bothered to do anything about it, despite that being the job for which I get paid the aforesaid fuckton of money.

Wasn’t in text talk was it?

As in: Cum 2 Surgey asap

 

[ghost boy]

Why?
Because the principle of universal socialised healthcare is to make healthcare free at the point of delivery. That should, of course, apply to any medications or treatments prescribed and did, until Gaitskell ditched it to spend on the Korean War instead.

How would a few years payment on UN aide to Korea affect the establishment of an ongoing, taxed service offered to the public?

 

[brogdale]

How would a few years payment on UN aide to Korea affect the establishment of an ongoing, taxed service offered to the public?

Wasn't aid, but rearming. In essence prescriptions free at the point of delivery, were victim to the age-old internecine, factional warfare within the LP essentially using the myth of household economics to stymie socialist policy.

The NHS had been established by the post-war Labour government in 1948. By 1951, there were already heavy pressures on health spending. In addition, after the Korean War broke out in 1950, Britain decided to rearm. In his budget, the Chancellor, Hugh Gaitskell, sought to balance his budget by imposing charges on false teeth and spectacles. Two cabinet ministers resigned in protest – Aneurin Bevan, architect of the health service, and Harold Wilson, the future Prime Minister. The crisis provoked a running battle between Left and Right in the Labour Party which lasted for over forty years.

Source. (Bogdanor = no socialist)

 

[brogdale]

Though, in truth, it was austerity advocate, Stifford Crapps, who first attacked the notion of full socialised healthcare, free at the point of delivery, in 1949:

By 1949, proposals were already being made to try and dilute the truly free notion of the NHS, fearing that the overspending seen in its first year would be permanent, a fear that would prove unfounded.

The then-Prime Minister Clement Atlee, under pressure from Chancellor of the Exchequer Stafford Cripps, introduced in the NHS Amendment Act 1949 a one-shilling charge for each prescription, but the opposition to its introduction was intense.

Its biggest critic, and the one that managed to block prescription charges, was Nye Bevan himself, who threatened to resign if they were brought in.

In 1951, in the wake of the Korean War, Hugh Gaitskell and Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison brought in the first charges for prescription glasses and dentures, and true to his word, Mr Bevan resigned in protest.

The next year, Winston Churchill introduced a universal charge on prescriptions.

 

[Elpenor]

Still think of all the guns and bombs they got for the money

 

[mentalchik]

Finally heard from a doctor, six weeks and change after first asking for an appointment to see one. The doctor had glanced at my x-ray, decided there wasn't a problem, and told me in a text message that was misspelled to the point of being unreadable that I should either see a physio (seen two already, neither knew what was wrong) or just go away.

Asked again for an appointment to see a real actual doctor in real life. 15th October is the next one.

I get that the doctors are busy. I know that's not their fault. But they get paid a fuckton more than I do for comparable hours and workload and I would never have so little professional pride or basic decency as to send someone a misspelled text message to tell them about something that's profoundly affecting their life. Especially if I was telling them I can't be bothered to do anything about it, despite that being the job for which I get paid the aforesaid fuckton of money.

This is more or less what has happened to me.....if i hadn't tearfully insisted on seeing a GP that day after being shrugged off and left not knowing what to do i would never have seen the GP i did who was the first one to actually fully examine me and realise that i actually had something serious going on and who also told me that my MRI and x-ray made no sense ( they botched it) and referred me to the ortho dept at the hospital.

 

[SpookyFrank]

This is more or less what has happened to me.....if i hadn't tearfully insisted on seeing a GP that day after being shrugged off and left not knowing what to do i would never have seen the GP i did who was the first one to actually fully examine me and realise that i actually had something serious going on and who also told me that my MRI and x-ray made no sense ( they botched it) and referred me to the ortho dept at the hospital.

I absolutely hate making a nuisance of myself but it often feels like you have to do it to get anywhere. I worry about those who aren't able to advocate for themselves.

I hope everything works out for you.