3 weeks ago I cycled up a (not very steep) hill, which I have done regularly over the last 18months, last time I had to stop at the top was prob 18 months ago! This time I had to stop as I was breathless and was shaking/shivering, HR was 152 which is pretty normal as near the end of a 40 min ride, waited a few mins then cycled home.
Didn't feel too good for a few days so called GP, next day got a call back and he suggested I go in to see him that evening, checked me over and listened to chest etc said I had chest infection and gave me amoxicillin, 5 days later was feeling worse, called GP he called back the same day and gave me doxycycline, 5 days later felt dreadful all over weekend, called GP this morning (a different GP) called me back and asked me to go in to see her at 10:45, did BP etc and she said with my history she wanted me to go to UMAC (urgent medical assessment unit) as they would get ECG & chest x-ray done today rather than waiting for an appointment.
Had bloods ecg x-ray etc then saw consultant, after he (and 3 others) listened to chest and heart, said it sounded like Pericarditis, booked me an appointment on Friday for an echo, then to see consultant straight after.
I had this kind of treatment from local hospital at the end of last year and beg. of this when GP failed to recognise heart and other bits were failing. Blood tests, cardios,rejigged meds and wide awake docs soon joined up the dots and things began to improve at a pretty fast pace.To say I was grateful is an underestimate of my thanks and gratitude. They also let in my son to listen to all the interviews..... in the middle of covid.....my brain had failed me due to overdosing on one med which meant i could not think straight.Thank you nhs
It's great you received the attention needed. Meanwhile I'm 7 months and waiting for a 6 week outpatient appointment. Some people are getting the treatment they need, others are being abandoned.
Oh yes. After chasing I did eventually get an appointment (although I had since paid for a private appointment with the same consultant because it was getting beyond a joke). A day before the appointment it was cancelled as the consultant (or possibly one of his team) had been 'pinged'. I've called a few times since but the call queues are horrendous and have a habit of cutting you off after around 20 minutes waiting. Still trying.
I know it's not good for 'routine' appointments. It does tend to do a good job for emergencies.Regardless, I am so grateful for the NHS when I see how much people in the US have to pay for medical care 😫
So glad they are looking after you Gaz. Second opinions are justified. Something one misses is caught by another.
We are all human and look at things differently.
After surgery for AVR my new GP has been brilliant. She really believed I needed statins even though I’d been taken off them. She lowered the dose and I feel really good now. She also discussed with me what they do. My previous one didn’t even speak to me.
I’ve had trouble with my eyes since the surgery and went for an eye test with Boots. Being over 65 it’s free. Can’t believe how good he was. He asked if he could ask my GP for a cholesterol blood test. I’ve always been worried about that as at one time in the last year it was 6.5. Gettin 4.5 now 🙌 Without him doing that I’d have still been worried.
The money the NHS has spent on me in tests and procedures in the last 2 years has been eye watering. So glad we have the NHS. It as to be protected. It’s for everyone.
It also shows that we have to be proactive in our care. Ask questions and question everything. Be kind and respect what they do.
Go Gaz !
❤️Maisie❤️
• in reply to
Thanks Maisie. Great to hear you’re doing good too.
My normal GP has been amazing, has been with me since my OHS (think he had only just qualified), always thinks of all possibilities, last time I had pleuritic pains he took no chances and had me ring 999 and got me checked for possible clots! It wasn’t, but as he said ‘better safe’.
He was right with the chest infection, GP today said she could hear it, but she was concerned it hadn’t cleared and her ‘spidey’ senses where saying something more.
They actually suspect I may of had COVID! I get tested with lat flow twice a week for work and had a PCR test last week that was negative and another rapid test today. They are also testing for antibodies.
I only posted because people are quick to criticise but not to praise.
Indeed. Spidey sences are the best! 🕷
I have had ups and downs but mainly ups.
GP being the main downs and their reticence at first to notice a problem. Once in the system they are superb. Cardiac Depts are A1 and I really find nursing staff in hospitals and consult are just ace.
💙NHS
Here in West Yorkshire we go through three hospitals. Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, Calderdale Hospital and I got seen by Leeds General Infirmary and eventually got my surgery at Nuffield Leeds, due to Covid. They were all spectacular. They all work through each other. I’m so proud of the NHS where I live.
If you need to speak to your GP what is stopping you?
If it is a problem that can be dealt with by an ANP or practice nurse or someone else, I can understand, if it is an issue that requires a GP consultation, either telephone or F2F then you should get an appointment, I appreciate it’s not always easy getting through, but you can email or use e-consult.
Despite doing e consult that tells you to ring surgery,if and when you can actually get through to them you then have to do another e consult with receptionist who will then pass on to triage which promises to respond within 3 days either by phone or text.As i say you are lucky to have a gp surgery as good as yours.
Very glad your experience was so positive Gaz chops. Hope you continue to do so well. I had to wait 55 minutes for ambulance to come when I had my HA. It was an obvious error, but I survived , albeit with H F. The NHS when you break the barriers is wonderful it’s just getting there. Not everyone has your amazing experience. But I glad it was good for you
It very much depends on where you live and the resources.
It also depends whether you have something straightforward or more complicated or rare.
Yes the NHS can be great when you've broken something, had a heart attack etc.. but have a rarer condition and it will struggle as they're trained to look at one thing and not the bigger picture.
The only thing which is broke about the NHS is that it is suffering the fatal disease of red tape combined with far, far too many admin people to medical staff !!As an illustration of this, I needed a 72 hour ECG tape to be fitted and was told that the wait could be many, many months which got me wondering is this the truth the whole truth or some garbage created by NHS admin?
Very fortunately over the 4 years since my illnesses first started and my 4 emergency ambulance journeys to hospital, I have got to know quite a few medical and immediately adjacent admin secretarial people.
Knowing that my coronary consultant had put in a request for the 72 hour tape, I had been warned by her of the likely delays, so I made contact with one of people I have got to know and she in turn made contact with the senior nurse in this department and I was immediately offered any time I wanted on the Thursday of the following week!!!!
I had exactly the same only last Friday when my GP sent in a request for me to have an appointment with a respiratory consultant, my GP advised me of the likely delays, so yesterday I made contact with another contact I have made and I now have an appointment in 2 weeks time at a time which was convenient to me!!
So is it that the NHS are purely being stifled by administrative red tape and the general lethargy of disinterested people?
I would say that like in all walks of life, it’s who you know to a certain degree, but is that ‘jumping the queue’ which then adds delays to those that may of been more urgent?
I'm waiting for an Echo but how many Buzzy-Beans are going to jump the queue and make my wait longer, who's to say his need is more important than mine.
The other thing you could do is to pay for an Echo. If it's that vital, the Nuffield will happily do one for around £400 which is what I paid, not out of choice but because I did not want to wait
Indeed I could, I've recently paid for a CT scan but many can't afford private fees so have no choice but to wait in line. I'm lucky in that my hospital is running fairly well and already being in the system does help but I know others who are struggling to get appts.
Doesn't sound very fair really, I might have been waiting for that monitor or appt with that Consultant for months !! I had my consultants appt bought forward by 2 months because my pacemaker tech deemed it necessary not because his secretary is a friend of mine or because I know admin staff.
I had a heart attack a year ago. I have had intermittent problems since then when I have felt very unwell sometimes for more than a day. Phone call to GP simply resulted in a visit to A&E where they did an ECG took bloods said troponin was OK and I was the same as the last visit. Yesterday I was feeling similarly unwell. This time I could not even talk to a GP because none were available at 4.30pm.
They told me in a pretty dismissive way to call 111.
So I did. 111 gave me no real choice but to go to A&E.
The Triage nurse took my pulse and said it was very irregular, so did an ECG which did not totally confirm an arrhythmica.
They put me on a monitor for 2 hours, and this did pick it up.
I have been getting these symptoms pretty much since I had the heart attack.
I guess this is a good news story, in that there is a diagnosis and treatment coming.
Pity it took months, and pity there was no GP available during the day.
It some ways it isn’t broken but in other ways it is. There are an enormous number of people who should have regular appointments for eyes, diabetes etc and they are not being seen. This will have a huge knock on effect obviously to old patients and new.I am glad you had great service, I have too this year but there are many people suffering mentally and physically due to no appointments being made by the Hospitals.
Sounds like you got lucky. Do you live outside a city? or in a city with a specialized hospital. My local hospital is pretty basic. But the specialized one in Glasgow has loads of good gadgets.
However, at my local one Paisley RAH, I nearly died waiting 5 hours in one of the hospital's hallways with a broken skull after a violent attack. They knew I was attacked in the head badly. They did nothing for me. Gave me a stitch for the outside stuff, but it was the internal damage that was the issue. No x-ray is done yet they operate the x-ray 24 hours. Thank god my body was able to heal me as I spent days passing in out of consciousness it was extremely difficult to stay awake, it felt as if my brain was smashing against the front and back for days. Got some useless painkillers. I couldn't talk properly for months.
Another time I went up with an infected abscess I told them 5 times to cut it out. They kept on handing me useless antibiotics for the first 2 times. Now on the first time, I forgive they did a swab and tested it to see what type of bacteria we are dealing with. But then 4 times go up and they didn't cut to bleed me and get the puss out. This was over months of getting rejected and sent home. Contacted GP couldn't help since phone only. Eventually one just bursts naturally. And the others began to grow. They didn't bleed them like they were meant to do. Eventually, I managed to finally get 1 good doctor the 5th time. Who honestly couldn't hide her eye-rolling when I told her about the rest of the doctors doing nothing and that my own GP was going to give me more antibiotics. I now have giant scars, that are slowly healing. Now I went to them when these were small had they taken care of them then I wouldn't have huge scars. It's just annoying because I knew the cure and they wouldn't do it. Yea there is always going to be good doctors, good hospitals. I have been through many GP surgeries had a different experience with every single one of them, some bad some decent. It's like any work or business. I don't trust my local hospital ER at all they have let me down so many times, the emergency room anyway and in the years of going there, I've not seen much improvement. This is why I've been thinking of private. But I suspect I will be high on insurance due to previous health issues and ongoing issues.
Well...... my husband had a heart attack back in March, seen immediately and couldn’t fault the care he received. But he also has a lump at the top of his ear, supposed to have been an urgent referral to dermatologist. His appointment has now been cancelled three times. Fourth attempt on Monday.
Lucky you! I had a cardiac arrest 6 years ago at a Working Men’s club and the 999 service wasted precious minutes asking my friends to find out the postcode. Surely they could have googled it. Next time you are having a cardiac arrest make sure you know the post code!I was lucky to survive after the delay and was fully expected to be a vegetable. They also failed to inform us there was a defibrillator nearby.I sought help from my consultant subsequently and it took 5 months for my GP practice to get a response by which time I was desperate having sought help from A & E twice and phoned and emailed the consultant. The hospital has now admitted to failing me.
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