Unprofessional

maltrab

Administrator
Staff member
I had the joys of the eye clinic at our main hospital just after 9am on Monday, sitting near me was a frail elderly lady in a wheelchair, she had a relative with her, who at 09.15 went to the desk as the notice states, if you have not been called within 30 minutes of your appointment let the clerk know, she explained she had brought Mrs x in for a 08.30 Appointment, the clerk who has zero people skills and cannot even look at them, said Mrs x needs eye drops first and they are never there before 9am.
So who made Mrs x a 08.30 appointment, why was this not pointed out to Mrs x when she first arrived, maybe say sorry but go get yourself a cuppa and pop back in 30 minutes.
So Mrs x was possibly up at 6am to make sure she is all ready to be at the hospital on time, she was still in the waiting room when I left at 09.45 though I don't know if she had been and had the drops done at that stage, and was waiting for stage 2 of her treatment.

In my case my actual time with the nurse was 10 minutes and I was the first patient to see her, it looked like she arrived in Clinic 5 minutes after my appointment time, then she found time to chat with a colleague, when I got in the room nothing was set up, then she had to leave to find gloves that fitted, this was followed by a bad connection with the machine to stare into your eyes, so 35 minutes wasted during my visit, no wonder these clinics are always running late.
 
The NHS is great, but...
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital sent my friend 3 appointments for different clinics on the same day - again!
Last time they managed to go to the first a.m. appt, go home -rather than spend 2-3 hours in the waiting room - and go back for the p.m. appt, the third appt overlapped one of the others.
This time, same scenario, except they already had dental appt that could not be missed as it was part of a multi-app schedule.
... and the check-in staff are really unhelpful.

The mum of a school friend was a doctors' receptionist. She knew one Dr would never be on time in the morning - he'd leave home at clinic opening time - so she never booked his first two slots!
 
Sadly I feel we're heading for a two tier health system, I was referred to a cholesterol consultant by my GP. I had to wait the best part of 6 months for the first appointment on the NHS. I needed a follow up appointment which I didn't want to wait for so I said I'd see him privately, hey presto! I was in the following Monday and told by the consultant the appointment could be at a time of my choosing :mad:
 
Here in the US, my eye doctor is just down the street from us, we can get an appointment at our convenience, we go in at the appointed time, and are seen shortly. And they have this wonderful machine that takes pictures of your eyes and it gets rid of having to get your eyes dilated. That is the most wonderful part.
 
My friend has just had cataract surgery which he had been waiting 3 years for. Our local health trust has decided to clear the backlog by using a private hospital in Glasgow and taxis to get the patients there. The taxi firm is close to Borders General Hospital which is a 1 hour drive to where we live. On the appointment day the taxi drove an hour to pick up my friend, then just over 2 hours to get to Glasgow, he then waited for the surgery to be done and drove my friend back home and then returned to his base. All paid for by the NHS, of course, but it does seem a ridiculously long and expensive process for an operation that only takes about 10 minutes.
 
I had similar just over a year ago, after waiting some time to get it done, they sent me to a private hospital in Grimsby, it was all very efficient, like a production line, though we did have to use our own transport, as you say Roger all for 10 minutes on the table, with the pre check up, eye drops to numb the eye, setting up the table for me, then afterwards another check up, cup of tea, bag full of eye drops, I was in and out in 1 hour.
Personally I think the private sector don't get paid if they are not seeing patients, the NHS are getting money even if it takes forever to treat someone, I noticed during the Covid problem when hospitals were just starting to see out patients again, I had a appointment at our main hospital, they were only allowing two people at a time into this clinic waiting area, yet there were five reception staff sitting behind a large counter and even then they ignored you and kept you waiting to book in.
 
Do we think the UK will eventually succumb to the US and other country's policy of private health care over a national health service ?
I have asked friends in Europe how their system works, in Germany they pay to the government 15% of their earnings (UK is now 23%) for healthcare, this money is paid to insurance companies, who have to comply to many rules and regulations for your healthcare, if you need treatment, you go to your GP of choice, who depending on what treatment is required will recommend a consultant to carry out the procedure, this all happens very quickly, in one friends case, having a problem with his hip, he saw his GP in the village, the receptionist took some bloods, by the afternoon he was having a scan, which was in done in the same village that he lives, the following day it was confirmed he needed a replacement, his GP recommend a surgeon at the hospital in Bonn, about 15 miles away, he visited the surgeon at the hospital 3 days later, the following week the operation was done, he had 3 months of daily Physio in his village, he was was collected and retuned home each day, all covered by his state contribution
 
I have asked friends in Europe how their system works, in Germany they pay to the government 15% of their earnings (UK is now 23%) for healthcare, this money is paid to insurance companies, who have to comply to many rules and regulations for your healthcare, if you need treatment, you go to your GP of choice, who depending on what treatment is required will recommend a consultant to carry out the procedure, this all happens very quickly, in one friends case, having a problem with his hip, he saw his GP in the village, the receptionist took some bloods, by the afternoon he was having a scan, which was in done in the same village that he lives, the following day it was confirmed he needed a replacement, his GP recommend a surgeon at the hospital in Bonn, about 15 miles away, he visited the surgeon at the hospital 3 days later, the following week the operation was done, he had 3 months of daily Physio in his village, he was was collected and retuned home each day, all covered by his state contribution
Wow! I wish the (non-)system here in the States were that efficient. I've waited months for the only orthopedic surgeon in my region who does my needed highly specialized surgery to repair a torn hip muscle to have an opening in his schedule. He operates only in a hospital in the next state because, he says, the New York State Health Department's regs are too restrictive. Bloomin' cowboy! Those regulations keep me safe when I need health care.

Round trip transport will cost $158, not covered by insurance, to travel to Pennsylvania for pre-op testing, and an additional $79 for transport there for the surgery. The hospital will arrange post-op transport back to the nursing home where I've pre-booked in the re-hab unit to recover from surgery and attempt to learn how to walk on crutches for the six weeks that I'm required to keep weight off the operated hip. I'd like therapy to rebuild lost muscle everywhere else while waiting out those six weeks.

Health insurance pays in full for the first 20 days in the nursing home. After that the co-pay is $188 per day,, which I'm sure is only a small fraction of the total cost. Still seems like a lot!
 
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