Another rant

Dottydoodah

Here i go

Why is it that the health system seems incapable of treating you as a "whole" person? ie.. I have several medical conditions. Often one affects the other in some way, yet so often i find doctors merely treat their speciality and dismiss or ignore the others. This has led to several occasions where drugs i have been given have affected another illness and messed my life up until I have pointed out the problem!! They also seem to ignore how ALL the conditions lumped together affect me as a person and make my life quite miserable at times.
I am so fed up with the NHS right now. Is it just me or is there really a sense of apathy and neglect within it? I often feel that many of the people working in it these days are there for the career prospects and actual CARE of the patient is lower down the list. I say this as the wife of a man who has been a nurse for 28yrs and even he says that NHS will only give you the barest minimum care they can get away with. Depressing stuff when you are reliant on it.
My local hospital has been headline news regularly of late for neglect and dangerous practices 2 resulting in a death. But what do we as patients do about it? I feel there is nowhere to turn to address the issues and get things changed.

OK rant over...coffee time

keith1971

Interesting & I actually agree with a lot of what you say BUT........

Doctors treat their speciality because that's what they are experts in. You wouldn't call a carpenter up if your boiler exploded would you? Likewise I wouldn't expect my rheumatologist to be a cardiac expert. As the patient it's important for us all to be extremely pro-active in our treatment & not settle for second best. We fund the NHS through our taxes & as such should not settle for the bare minimum in care. If you don't ask, you don't get.

As for your hospital - mustn't fill you with confidence given what you stated. Is there another one local to you? Living in London I guess I'm lucky that there are a number to choose from & generally the care I've had has been satisfactory......apart from the first rheumatology department I went to which I've sworn never to return to again!

;-)

x

Dottydoodah

Hi Keith

Yes, i agree that they have to treat their own speciality, but surely they have a responsibility in that field to ensure they are not damaging the patients health and wellbeing in other areas in doing so? I feel that if the "whole" person is at the forefront of their decisions then life would be better for all concerned.

Sadly, I live in an area that is not well served by hospitals so alternatives are limited and those that are close by appear to have similar problems!!

Glad you have found the care you deserve.

skezier

Hi Dotty,

i so know where tour coming from. We have the worst hospital in the uk for our care..... Bottom of the tables ever since they came out.. last year it failed by 90 something %!..... The rumo and pain doc are brilliant but one of my other conditions (actually 4 of them) come under the gastro clinic and well.....

Trouble is you cant do much about it....

I do think you are entitled to be seen as a complete person but they hardly ever do. Their bit of speciality is all they look at unless your very lucky.

Like you all my conditions effect each other... its all a balance Dotty and sometimes I just feel like yelling i am a human being! This one has such bad moral... as you can imagine.... that effects our care as well....

I don't know what the answer is but I am so lucky that both the pain and rumo docs do see me as a complete being.. mind I have been seeing both for a very long time and I think that helps?

hang in there flower and how ever they treat you make sure they rspect you at least.

Hey its nice to see you and leaving a ((( ))) and a hope you get a decent day. Cris x

Dottydoodah

Hello Chris

Thank you for the hug. Just what i needed

Yes, like you i feel like yelling out i'm human stop treating me like a piece of meat on a conveyer belt.

Hope you are not suffering too much lately. How are all your 4 legged friends?

fudge

Hello dottydodah, I am with you all the way on this one - having more than one medical condition to battle is hard enough without the the medics having to put you into their particular box. My GP is a lovely man, but will only deal with one thing at a time, so you go hurting / numb whatever down one side and he will only deal with the the top the middle or the lower - then suggest the top could be because of the heart - to be dealt with on another appointment :!: The inflam. in the bloods could be :?: :?: or maybe :?:
Having a history of cancer - and several surgeries later - that comes up like a jack in the box
We have it rough - they have it tough. We just have to plod on together knowing the magic wand is just a dream and tomorrow is another day.

The body as whole - a fully in order working one - heck I forgot what one was, guess a lot of us on here will echo that.

I have rambled off, I do hope you feel better soon, meanwhile take care.

fudge.

Airwave!

This brings us back to a topic/poll about Care Plans, we are not treated as an on-going concern.

I still think a drop in centre for arthers (all types, we all need help) is the way ahead. A dedicated phone line for advice and to save some unnecessary travelling, nurse practitioner led fast track system to filter the patients forwards to registrar/consultants. A dedicated phone line for doctors/surgeries/nurses to use, staffed by the same centre staff on a revolving basis thus keeping all NHS staff up to date and informed.

Perhaps even a revolving staff system around a centre or two to keep practices and methods the same and a forward leaning approach to arther.

kneegirl

Have any of you got the expert patient programme in your pcts? I haven't been as I don't feel I need to but you might find it helpful - if you give me your home towns I will gladly look it up for you

Dottydoodah

Hi Fudge
Yes, a fully working fit and healthy body is a far flung memories nowadays.But i refuse to give up that i may get some of it back. Afterall, if we gave up on that whats the point in carrying on?

Airwave

That is a fabulous idea. Cant see it happenibg though with all the NHS cuts

Kneegirl

Never heard of expert patient programme. Would love to know more.

stickywicket

There was a question about this recently. I've bumped it up so that anyone interested can read more.