tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28089527.post8619620650930357687..comments2008-05-31T00:57:36.848+01:00Dr Pinkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06406744827581370635noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28089527.post-10604758698448103752008-05-31T00:57:00.000+01:002008-05-31T00:57:00.000+01:002008-05-31T00:57:00.000+01:00Oh yeah, I loved being on private healthcare.<BR/>Absolutely great - took three separate appointments to get bloods taken, only discover that "oh, hang on, you're under 18 (I'm 16) - we can't take bloods from you!" So why did you haul a sick person up to hospital on three separate occasions, especially when all it takes is a glance at my d.o.b from my medical history?<BR/>I had a neurologist who didn't believe I was ill.<BR/>When I finally got the bloods done, they forgot which tests they'd actually ordered and so we got completely irrelevant results (and no follow-up appointment, we had to figure out what the results meant ourselves with the help of our doctor friends. <BR/>My MRI scan was done quickly enough, but no one ever got the results back.<BR/><BR/><BR/>In the meantime, I had a complete collapse and went to an NHS hospital in the middle of the night. On arrival, I had bloods taken and were checked almost as soon as I was in the door. The doctor who admitted me and stuck with me that night (as much as is reasonably possible), checked on me regularly just to see how I was doing before he went off-shift - in addition to the specialist consultants who saw me in the morning. Nurses were lovely and really helpful - really comforting to a kid who's never been an inpatient at a hospital before. Doctors mentioned how disgraceful it was to not have the results of an MRI scan done 5 months ago - especially when a later scan showed some fairly significant results. So when I was discharged (not due to lack of bedspace, but because I was feeling much better *shock*) - you can guess whether I went back to private or not.<BR/><BR/>I'm not going to say the hospital was spotless and the surroundings lovely - I was in a fairly large and noisy ward with the youngest patient other than myself being at least 50 years older than me. Not especially pleasant, but I'd rather have good care than carpeted floors (how on earth are they cleaned properly?)<BR/><BR/>My verdict - private is fine if you're not too sick and just fancy a stay in a nice hotelospital. If you actually want treatment, or even just a plain diagnosis, you can't do much better than NHS.Helennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28089527.post-36809942445977067392008-05-11T23:00:00.000+01:002008-05-11T23:00:00.000+01:002008-05-11T23:00:00.000+01:00Absolutely agree. It seems amazing that we are all required to suffer a more expensive and poorer postal service solely to facilitate the introduction of 'competition'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com