MEDICAL MATTERS

[plaques]

Bit of a down day yesterday after my prostrate search and destroy session. Getting my growl back now but draw the line at commenting on our third rate politicians dragging the country into the abys. A visit to room 101 would be a pleasure by comparison.

[Stanley]

Understood Ken. It can be wearing! Rest up and think positive thoughts!

[Stanley]

It seems to be the season for falls and hospital stays. My Sister had another fall, went in but once more did her Houdini act and is back home. (That was the fifth time!)
This morning I get word that my nephew Michael has fallen and damaged the quad tendons (whatever they are!) in both knees, so he is looking at time in hospital and then on physio.
Is it something they are putting in the water?

[Sue]

Bit of a down day yesterday after my prostrate search and destroy session. Getting my growl back now but draw the line at commenting on our third rate politicians dragging the country into the abys. A visit to room 101 would be a pleasure by comparison.

I hope everything is OK. It must be a real worry

I was pleased to hear Burnley hospital has good facilities and a new urology department. When Mum and Dad were in the hospital for various things I got the distinct impression it was being run down. Urology particularly was poor with my Dad eventually being transferred by ambulance to Blackburn. All the wards were dreary and dismal. Appointments for cataracts were confusing involving Rossendale too. They were often made for one place and on turning up we found we should have taken Dad somewhere else. On one occasion we went to Rossendale where we were to meet Dad, Dads ambulance took him to Blackburn despite him protesting it was the wrong place, but we should all have been in Burnley.

Parking was a nightmare at Burnley. Zoned parking each had different letters and tickets were not transferable even if still valid. We would visit Dad on a Sunday, pay in one zone, go back home to collect something , come back to find the carpark full but empty in another zone and have to pay again even though the ticket was still valid ie one. Price all day Sunday. There were also a few hiccups over treatment involving MRSA for both parents. Too long to discuss here, but we were not impressed. I do not have happy memories of Burnley hospital

[plaques]

Parking was a nightmare at Burnley. Zoned parking each had different letters and tickets were not transferable even if still valid. We would visit Dad on a Sunday, pay in one zone, go back home to collect something , come back to find the carpark full but empty in another zone and have to pay again even though the ticket was still valid ie one. Price all day Sunday. There were also a few hiccups over treatment involving MRSA for both parents. Too long to discuss here, but we were not impressed. I do not have happy memories of Burnley hospital

With the new urology unit opening to a mysterious location on the map we decided to drive in with Ms P ready to drive out again when we had found it. Fortunately there was a vacant parking spot near the Urgent Care unit. Burnley hospital has new buildings going up everywhere soon there will nowhere for visitors or staff for that matter to park. The positive side is that the facilities are very good and you feel as though you're getting the treatment you deserve. I would say 'well done Burnley' but once it settles down get someone to draw some proper maps.

[Sue]

Parking was a nightmare at Burnley. Zoned parking each had different letters and tickets were not transferable even if still valid. We would visit Dad on a Sunday, pay in one zone, go back home to collect something , come back to find the carpark full but empty in another zone and have to pay again even though the ticket was still valid ie one. Price all day Sunday. There were also a few hiccups over treatment involving MRSA for both parents. Too long to discuss here, but we were not impressed. I do not have happy memories of Burnley hospital

With the new urology unit opening to a mysterious location on the map we decided to drive in with Ms P ready to drive out again when we had found it. Fortunately there was a vacant parking spot near the Urgent Care unit. Burnley hospital has new buildings going up everywhere soon there will nowhere for visitors or staff for that matter to park. The positive side is that the facilities are very good and you feel as though you're getting the treatment you deserve. I would say 'well done Burnley' but once it settles down get someone to draw some proper maps.

I am pleased to hear that. Here in Rochdale our facilities are on the decline which is poor for a town our size. At least we have an urgent care centre, and being only 1 mile from us has proved useful over the years, including for my fall some weeks ago. There is a good radiography unit and a few eye clinics but that seems to be about it from what I can see. Buildings are closed and well past there sell by date. Perhaps it will get revitalised like Burnley . We have to go to Bury, Oldham and North Manchester for anything of note. All difficult to get to by public transport if that is all you can use to travel

[Tizer]

Burnley hospital has new buildings going up everywhere soon there will nowhere for visitors or staff for that matter to park.

That's what happened here in Taunton over the years and no extra parking has been provided. We live in the same part of town as the hospital and our street is one used by the hospital staff as their own personal car park

I've had yet another problem with Well Pharmacy. Waited 10 days for a phone call to say my repeat prescription was ready. Every time I tried to phone them it gave the engaged signal for about 5 seconds then went dead. I've never been able to get through on their phone line. I had to go to the surgery yesterday afternoon which is opposite the pharmacy so I called in and asked why they still hadn't called me. The assistant looked and found it had been on the shelves for several days. I had them check the phone number - they have the correct one so they had failed to phone me.

My visit to the GP was disappointing. Like with the nurses, the first thing was she wanted to know why I was there. Strange, when she had told reception to phone me and make the appointment. To cut a long story short, we wasted a lot of time going over the same things as in the last appointment. I got the impression she wanted me to tell her what should happen next! It was late on Friday and I think she was worn out and just wanted to go home!

[Sue]

Every time I tried to phone them it gave the engaged signal for about 5 seconds then went dead. I've never been able to get through on their phone line. .......


Same here Tiz, for our Wells pharmacy. Dead

[Tizer]

The NHS have a web review page for pharmacies and some of the Wells get good reviews, others terrible.

[Stanley]

I suspect the quality of the service is largely down to the adequate provision of staff and their quality. Thank God, Barlick seems to be on a roll lately, it's the surgery where the problems lie, very much on the lines that Peter lays out.

[Sue]

I suspect the quality of the service is largely down to the adequate provision of staff and their quality. Thank God, Barlick seems to be on a roll lately, it's the surgery where the problems lie, very much on the lines that Peter lays out.

Sadly we have both

[Stanley]

Some of you may remember that every morning I clean my kitchen sink with bleach and boiling water. Compulsive behaviour I know but I always think is is not time wasted. Yesterday I peeled and cooked two sweet potatoes imported from the US and it struck me that I was removing any potential microbes that they had brought to my sink.
When you think about the amount of food that is imported into the UK is it any wonder that infections can spread globally....

[plaques]

Gradually and I mean gradually the main stream media is waking up to the statistics of excess deaths after the pandemic. Never a popular subject unless its some celebrity that has passed away aged 104. The problem with our current excess deaths is that statistically if a majority of the old crumblies shuffled off due to pandemic then there should be less current deaths not more. Why younger people are now dying is still a mystery but followers of Dr John Campbell may well have their suspicions. Clearly a subject of national concern there appears to be a total lack of interest / discussion at government levels. Yet within all this apathy the doom mongers are warning of another unknown pandemic waiting in the wings. Do we have to wait for episode 2 before action is taken or is it a cunning plan to cut the NHS waiting times.

Cynical? who me?

[Tripps]

followers of Dr John Campbell may well have their suspicions.

I think his banking arragements might be at risk.

[Stanley]

Daughter Susan and I had a long conversation yesterday and she told me about the recent distressing incident with the infected ear, a condition she is an expert on. In an emergency visit she was seen by a non-doctor with the power to prescribe and had to do what Peter describes so often, give a complete medical history and then be told she didn't qualify for the oral AB she knew she needed. That was only the start of a comedy of errors that went beyond the surgery to the chemists. Suffice to say that after a long battle she eventually got the conclusion she should have had at the beginning, a rare AB that she could take and was immediately effective.
My point is that everything she described was a product of a badly managed underfunded service and it is going to get worse before it gets better. Deep Joy!

[Tizer]

In my post above about the unsatisfactory appointment with my GP about breathing difficulty it ended with her saying she would put me forward for a visit to ENT to check for nasal polyps. I was frustrated by then so accepted it. After some research and discussions with family over the weekend we came to the conclusion that all the present evidence shows I don't have nasal polyps. On Monday I sent a polite email to the GP explaining this and asking her to cancel the appointment if she already made it and I apologised for any inconvenience caused. I've had no reply but the incoming emails seem to go into admin and slowly make there way through to the intended recipient.

Meanwhile I'm in week 6 of the anti-carcinoma treatment of cream to my face as described in one of my earlier posts. The surgery's label on the tube says `Use for 3 weeks' but I'd told the GP then that it wasn't cleared and sent photos. She said give it another 2 weeks. It still isn't cleared so I managed to get a phone call through to the surgery and asked for a phone discussion with the dermatologist who prescribed the medication. The first date she could give me was 8th August - for a phone consultation! I explained that I need to know whether to stop or continue the treatment and all she could tell me was to try calling again in case there was a cancellation. NHS primary care is sliding into meltdown. As Stanley wrote above, `a product of a badly managed underfunded service and it is going to get worse before it gets better'.

[Tripps]

I rarely (almost never) comment on my personal medical affairs. However I got a text message this morning from a named GP asking me to make an appointment to discuss medication etc.

Phoned surgery - "we do not have any appointments at all at the moment. We are waiting for the new rosters -
that doesn't sound urgent I will let the doctor know."

I find there are still ten doctors on the payroll with the practice. They are all women - I don't know if that is a factor, but I think it probably is. I doubt that any of them works full time.

NHS primary care is sliding into meltdown.

I wonder if Mr Gove has taken this into account with his grandiose plans for 50,000 new homes in Cambridgeshire.

[Tripps]

I came across this tonight. Doctor Zain KhanIt must surely be relevant to the current NHS situation.

[Stanley]

We have been speculating for years about the future of the NHS. It is now clear.... we are watching its death throes.
Remember 'Safe in our hands'?

[Tripps]

In case (like me) you had thought that Covid was a thing of the past and we could relax - I was told last night that three of my son's family had caught it last week, He soldiered on with paracetamol. youngest was mildly ill, oldest has escaped so far (symptomless?) and wife had to go to bed as she was feeling so rotten. Trip to France due yesterday, has been postponed for a week. Infection confirmed by a test.

[Tizer]

Yes, The times on Saturday was reporting Covid on the increase but most of the new cases seemed to be in the London area.

Re your surgery appointment, I needed one to tell me if I could now stop the awful carcinoma treatment. When I asked for an appointment with the doctor who set me on the treatment (and who is both a GP and a dermatologist) I was told none was available for two weeks. I asked for a phone consultation and still told 2 weeks. Instead I sent an email to the surgery marked for her attention and with photos of my much scarred face and got a phone call to come in that same day! I had chosen to ask on a day when I knew she would be at the surgery. She works as GP one and a half days a week and does some other work there on another day. It seems you have to get to know the ins and outs of the surgery these days and be cunning with your attempts to get an appointment!

On the web page with the YouTube video I recognised a face in the other thumbnails down the side. Neil Oliver. Remember him? Archaeologist and sometime presenter of the TV `Coast' programme. He's now with GB News and seems to have become a big wheel in the conspiracy and misinformation world.

[Stanley]

"He's now with GB News and seems to have become a big wheel in the conspiracy and misinformation world."
Commenting on it or generating it?
"It seems you have to get to know the ins and outs of the surgery these days "
That's a very perceptive remark Peter! You may remember me commenting on the fact that I had received no information about either of my blood tests. The same can be said about any information about the status of my repeat prescription so I left it until we were bordering on running out and rang the surgery at 15:00 yesterday when I suspected they would be least busy. Only a short wait and then I got a helpful lady who looked my case up and after a few clues from me realised that someone had indeed forgotten to re-authorise the repeat prescription. (Actually that's not quite correct. The repeat had been flagged up on the system as needing attention but nothing could be done until the doctor had mandated the length of time it was to run. That was what hadn't been done.) The lady assured me that she was typing the reminder for the doctor as she spoke to me and that the authorisation would happen this week. We shall see....
One thing that bugged me was that she kept telling me not to worry as it would be all right. I am not worrying and if I hadn't flagged up the omission it would not have been all right. I think that the reassurance mode is triggered by my age.

[Sue]

In case (like me) you had thought that Covid was a thing of the past and we could relax - I was told last night that three of my son's family had caught it last week, He soldiered on with paracetamol. youngest was mildly ill, oldest has escaped so far (symptomless?) and wife had to go to bed as she was feeling so rotten. Trip to France due yesterday, has been postponed for a week. Infection confirmed by a test.

Covid will never be a thing of the past. It is endemic rather than pandemic now. I often come across people who have just had it, like the common cold

[plaques]

Covid will never be a thing of the past. It is endemic rather than pandemic now. I often come across people who have just had it, like the common cold

I've mentioned this on a previous post. Two weeks ago I started with a infection with a temperature of 39.9C head ache, shivering, the whole bag of tricks. My breathing started to become laboured in the bronchial tubes. 2.00 Am panic sets in with an ambulance to Blackburn Royal. Blood test showed NO heart attack. X-ray given some antibiotics. But the whole point was nobody mentioned or tested for Covid. Having spent £Billions on covid vaccines and excess deaths particularly among the young still worrying can we honestly say its like a common cold to be ignored. There's something about this whole covid episode that smells of corruption.

[Tripps]

Having spent £Billions on covid vaccines and excess deaths particularly among the young still worrying can we honestly say its like a common cold to be ignored. There's something about this whole covid episode that smells of corruption.

I would tend to agree - but I am alive to the possibility that it may get me labelled as someone

in the conspiracy and misinformation world.

and we wouldn't want that.