General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

NHS? Here's my (latest) experience .....

November 2023, I'm in Spain. I fall 3 metres, down a stairwell, backwards.
I landed on my back with my head hitting a box of glass blocks.
Luckily, my wife was with me and she rang the ambulance.
I woke up to the ambulancemen pouring freezing cold water on my head. "you've got a gaping hole in the top of your head", says my wife.
Taken to hospital by ambulance, taken straight in, two nurses give me a wash-down. Doctor attends, inspects my head. "Hmmmmm", says he. Next, a neurosurgeon arrives. First doctor speaks to neurosurgeon, neurosurgeon asks them to send me to theatre. Off I go to theatre, stopping off to have a brain and neck scan. In theatre, I had my face and body covered up with just the top of my head showing. A few injections in my head numbed it while they spent a while scraping and pulling at part of my skull. Then they stitched my head up and wrapped an extremely tight bandage around my head (which, by then, had taken on a really funny shape!).
Not a pleasent experience. The 'report' from the hospital did say, "the patient tolerated the procedure". I was released from hospital with a big envelope containing the 'report' and results of the scan, plus details of the procedures undertaken along with a prescription for anti-biotics to stop any infection in the wound.
An English speaking doctor then told my wife we must attend my own doctor, immediately on arrival in England, and give them this envelope. Doctor and nurse accompanied us to our car and assisted me getting in.
First class treatment.
Booked a flight immediately and flew home later that day.
Day after, the pain kicked in! Back, neck, scull etc. Forehead turned black and swelled up, both eyes turned black, could hardly move.
Went to my 'health centre'. "Sorry, we have no appointments available for three weeks" (no-one waiting in reception?). I gave the receptionist the envelope. She took it to the 'practice manager'.
"Sorry, practice manager says this is written in a foreign language so there's nothing we can do, translation is your responsibility, we haven't the time". blah, blah, blah,.
(yet they have notices at reception written in Arabic etc., just to help the immigrants who are staying in the Ibis hotel on the East Lancs Road .....)
No appointment, so I go to a walk-in centre in St.Helens. It's packed, so I ask "how long is the wait", she tells me "well, the last patient waited over 4 hours". 'No chance' thinks me, I'm off home getting my head down. As I walked out, the receptionist says, "don't bother going to Whiston, they're wating 10 to 11 hours there, to be seen, they're all coming here"!
I went home. Next day, I'm worse. Wife rings 111. They tell her to take me to Leigh hospital, where they saw me after 20 minutes wait.
They took the time to read the papers from Spain. "Ah., yes, but we don't usually give these anti-biotics, we give these others, but they're just the same". So I take some. Within two hours, my head had swelled even more, both eyes swelled and more blacked, lips swelled too, pins and needles in my face and arms. Back to Leigh, wait an hour, then a triage tells me "you really should see a doctor. You need to go home and a doctor will ring you in an hour". (?????)
An hour later a doctor rings. "You need to go to Wigan hospital A&E. I will notify them you are coming, you won't need to wait".
Hey, lads, hey! Straight in, blood tests and examination tells them I'm allergic to the type of anti-biotic they've given me in Leigh and they've given me extremely high blood pressure. Take these, more pills, different types. Doctor tells me, "you MUST see your own GP about your blood pressure".
Had stitches removed in Leigh a week later.
Now, three months on, I managed to get an appointment at my local health centre. It was with a 'physiotherapy assessor'. His opinion was, "well, I've seen people a lot younger than you who are still having problems with neck and back injuries some 12 to 18 months later. Give it another three months or so then, if you are still having trouble with it, I'll refer you to our physiotherapy team".

NHS? Not fit to lace the boots of the Spanish health service!

I don't usually go on so much, but I've not been on WW for a while!