I have been waiting over 4 weeks for an 'urgent' xray how pathetic has the NHS become ???? what do they define as 'urgent;
waiting time for 'urgent' treatment - NHS England: A Ca...
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waiting time for 'urgent' treatment
Written by
ancora
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Hi ancora. I think most of us are finding it hard to come to terms with how overstretched NHS facilities are and that includes the departments in our hospitals who don't like having to make patients wait so long, but don't have an option.
Like you, I think that there is something seriously wrong at the moment, but I do recognize that the answer is political, not medical. I can't come to terms with the lack of funding in the NHS versus the grandiose plans of our current administration for projects like HS2 or the eye-watering sum paid out to the Democratic Unionist Party for its support to keep itself in power.
On the other hand, health services can become a bottomless pit. We have to choose what we can fund. How much should be spent on getting you your x-ray quickly, as opposed to how much to people seeking sex-change surgery, 'designer' drugs for rare and complicated illnesses, and how much to expend on elderly people like me.
It seems crazy that governments are hell-bent on improving life expectancy, but then won't accept the burden of keeping generations of old people with their plethora of needs, alive.
I lived overseas for a long time in a country which had only a skeleton medical service for people who couldn't pay. I can tell you categorically that we are doing very much better than there, but that, yes, services have slipped and the current government shows little to no interest in putting it right. We all have our own views on why.
So, long story short, I'm very sorry for you and for all those people kept waiting longer than they should. In your own case I'd assess how urgent you think the need is, and if you are worried that waiting any longer is going to seriously damage your chances of recovery, then get back in touch with your GP to see what can be done to speed up the process.
I waited 8 hours for an urgent ambulance & they kept ringing to ask if I was worse or not!!! I was just going to bed when they eventually turned up & they were miffed because I was tired, it was after 1 in the morning & I had been to the GP at 5 o'clock! Previous to that in 1998 I waited 6 hours for an ambulance, urgent! to deal with serious injuries from a fall in 1997!! I think urgent for anything is if face fits as some wait no time at all & others wait weeks/months. don't know how urgent is defined any more. Often wished I could afford private as NHS is definitely not what it used to be.
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