Author Topic: The NHS and my hiking experiences  (Read 4232 times)

gunwharfman

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10255
The NHS and my hiking experiences
« on: 15:59:38, 16/06/18 »
I was reading about the 70th anniversary of the NHS earlier. It made me think about how the NHS has contributed to my quality of life.

Since the 80s I was plauged by hernia failures. Up until 2015 I'd gone though 6 hospital operations, No charge!

In early 2015 I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. In April 2015 they took me in, pampered me and used the 'da Vinci Robot' to sort me out. No Charge!

I was home in five days, and hiking again within a month.

I am still so grateful to the Doctors, Nurses and other staff at my local hospital.

In July 2015 I 'bit the bullet' and hiked the GR10 footpath across the Pyrenees' from Hendaye to Banyuls Sur Mere over a 50 day period. On day 17 I saw that I had another hernia (my fault, I thought I was totally back to normal but I wasn't) but I managed to get a truss and then continued my journey.

I reported myself to the hospital on my return to the UK and within six weeks, at lunchtime on a Saturday morning, my hernia was repaired and no problems since. Again, no charge!

I am eternally grateful to the NHS and three years later I am still hiking.

Thank you NHS.

April

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9687
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #1 on: 17:57:00, 17/06/18 »
Yes, thank you NHS and all of the wonderful doctors, surgeons and nurses who care for us. I've had five operations over the years including the two cervical spine operations I had to have done. The last one has sorted me out, I was losing strength in my legs before I had the op, thanks again NHS, I can carry on hiking  O0
Hate will never win

Ridge

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9691
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #2 on: 18:32:40, 17/06/18 »
I could be writing a reply for this thread all night but I will limit my self to saying that it is an amazing organisation staffed by exceptionally dedicated people.


Of course it has its problems but where would we be without it.

Stube

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 499
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #3 on: 21:13:33, 17/06/18 »
I have a rather more jaundiced view of the NHS - even though my grandfather founded the dental side of the business!

The NHS is excellent for rare or acute problems - terrible for chronic conditions such as rheumatism.

On several occasions I've fallen foul of the four and a half day week syndrome of the NHS - DO NOT fall ill on a Friday afternoon - it will be Monday before you will get treatment.

Ridge

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9691
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #4 on: 21:38:36, 17/06/18 »
On several occasions I've fallen foul of the four and a half day week syndrome of the NHS - DO NOT fall ill on a Friday afternoon - it will be Monday before you will get treatment.
As you say great for rare and acute. We walked in to A&E on a Friday evening and in 30 minutes had seen 3 nurses, 2 doctors and had an x-ray.

jontea

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3492
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #5 on: 21:42:06, 17/06/18 »
I could be writing a reply for this thread all night but I will limit my self to saying that it is an amazing organisation staffed by exceptionally dedicated people.


Of course it has its problems but where would we be without it.


I also echo Ridge’s post, the NHS has it’s problems but I wouldn’t be hiking now without the thousands of pounds spent on me, let alone the research in new drugs keeping me well.
I owe my quality of life to the NHS so I too thank them.


Just to balance things, I was rushed into hospital on a Saturday morning and operated on late afternoon  :)
Walking is the world’s oldest exercise and today’s modern medicine.

https://www.johntrowsdaleart.com/

Instagram  jontea62

Troggy

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 126
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #6 on: 09:22:30, 24/06/18 »
Some people will always find fault with the NHS, will always say what it didn't do and not mention how many lives it saves, keeps fit and active; and brings into the world; seven days a week throughout the year. I was booked in for an operation to remove a growth, when I got there (9.30 am, the team including the doctor, were sitting at reception waiting for me. There were plenty of other people in reception that were waiting their turn.The op was over in around 20 minutes, about a 10 minute wait at the pharmacy and that was it. They were brilliant.Not only should we the most wonderful national effort there has ever been, outside of war, we should stand up for it, and the men and woman of all grades, who keep it running so well. Sure it has problems and it has limitations but for what we pay for it as a nation, it's the best in the world.

Troggy

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 126
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #7 on: 09:23:19, 24/06/18 »
PS, those operations were taking place on a Saturday!

pauldawes

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1785
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #8 on: 11:46:51, 24/06/18 »
I have a rather more jaundiced view of the NHS - even though my grandfather founded the dental side of the business!

The NHS is excellent for rare or acute problems - terrible for chronic conditions such as rheumatism.

On several occasions I've fallen foul of the four and a half day week syndrome of the NHS - DO NOT fall ill on a Friday afternoon - it will be Monday before you will get treatment.


I can relate to practically all the posts on this thread..the NHS does (of course) do wonderful work.


But I can also relate to this one. Parts of the NHS really, really don’t operate well. Apart from management of chronic conditions..where I agree with you (that it’s poor) often admin of just making sure necessary appointments are scheduled is feeble.


 And those cases where there’s a grey area between medical and social care (should a really old confused person be discharged or not?) are often managed with a view to clearing beds, rather than being certain discharged person will be okay at home.


I think knowing that NHS does have weak points can help individuals. I’d advise anybody waiting for an appointment for a scan (or some such) to get on phone and check what’s happening, if appointment letter doesn’t come within a couple of weeks, for example.

harland

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1717
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #9 on: 12:21:22, 24/06/18 »
I agree that it does a lot of things well so I am  not going to say otherwise however I do believe that it is now a political football and neither side (i.e. labour and conservative) has the will to try and sort it out without just throwing more money at it.  I don't think that it can continue as it is at present funding all and every new medical/social issue. 

There will always be good stories about what they have done well and vice versa but I do wonder whether the staffing levels are correct having seen on more than one occasion (and I know that doesn't prove anything) nurses standing around chatting about their social events for very significant times and not dealing with the patients.  Yes I, or more truthfully my wife, have had excellent treatment when she had cancer although it took the third GP to get her referred to hospital despite horrific blood test results that they should have known that there was a serious problem the two previous GPs thought that it was a virus. Having got to the  right person all went well but it is a matter of getting to that person.

tonyk

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2857
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #10 on: 10:31:41, 25/06/18 »
Deleted
« Last Edit: 12:19:43, 25/06/18 by tonyk »

dank86

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 265
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #11 on: 01:43:40, 26/06/18 »
I'm another with a jaded view of the NHS sadly, trying to get a referral for anything mental health related is almost impossible where I am, the only way I ended up getting help was when I got so bad I attempted to end it, even then it was a long wait to get any real therapy.
I also can't have my gynaecomastia removed even though it's painful and effects me at work, that took almost a year to get a specialist appointment to find out what it was as well, not good thinking it's possibly breast cancer and things moving exceedingly slowly.

My best experience was when I got knocked off my bike, nothing severe just a headache but when I reported to hospital I got seen pretty quick.

So even though there is good I've had significantly more bad with my experiences with the NHS

mananddog

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3240
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #12 on: 10:44:10, 26/06/18 »

I have tried not responding to this but after working all my working life in the NHS retiring as a prof and senior bod in the service,  after nearly 40 years it is hard not to.


I have heard all that time how bad we are, what a lousy job we do, how it should all be privatised, etc etc. Patients in the latter years of my practice would come in and say how surprised they were that the staff were so pleasant how they saw me quickly and were pleasantly surprised at the speed and standard of care. They had taken in all the negative press. The fact that we have a staffing problem is understandable given this constant undermining. If you say what you do there is always someone who will stop you in the pub to tell you their bad experiences of the NHS, never their good, and by implication blame you. I am free of most of that now.


Let us consider the public responsibility to the NHS. The real threat to the NHS for all of us is the health behaviours of the UK population leading to obesity, type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, increased cancer, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and more all of these are avoidable if people took responsibility for their own health but there it little evidence that the UK population is willing to do this- they keep getting fatter and more sedentary. But even there the NHS gets the blame for the public failing to take responsibility for themselves.  Chronic conditions (my area) are, by their nature not curable, they are persistent and require a combined approach to care for the patient and the clinician to maximise benefits. I don't think clinicians are very good at managing this because they have been taught to see lack of a cure a failure and are not geared towards helping people cope, and many of the general public want nothing short of a cure without the responsibility of doing things for themselves.


The NHS is not perfect we all know that, there will always be examples of bad behaviour in a huge organisation and the NHS is the biggest organisation in Europe. If many people in industry do not do their job to 100% the consequences are negligible in healthcare they can be fatal. We spend less on health care than comparable nations, have fewer staff, especially specialist staff as the report published today  highlights. We have a recruitment problem exacerbated by underinvestment in training and a cap on allowing overseas workers.


The NHS is by international standards and comparisons the most efficient health service for health outcomes. Efficient means the best outcomes to the amount of funding and there is the rub. If we spend the average others spend, invest better in the staff, we might start doing better.


Sorry for the rant.

Troggy

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 126
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #13 on: 12:42:22, 26/06/18 »
That's no rant Manandog! Well said indeedI've looked at some of the comments on here and, each to their own of course but in an organisation of medical help that covers the whole country, with so universal a range of diagnoses and treatments it provides, every day; and all day and night I think we've got a marvellous public service. Not like America, where they see if you're insured before considering treatment. I saw today that some Think Tank reckons we have a health service that comes low on prevention of death by heart failure, cancer and strokes.  I've got a feeling that resources has a part to play here/ Staff, how many nurses and doctors are we, as a nation, training and are we prepared to pay for them?Well as far as hiking goes, my exp[erience is that I'd not be doing any hiking, and quite possibly not be here, if it wasn't for the early diagnosis and smashing follow up treatment I receive. So I won't be bounding up many hills I don't think but having a good walk of six, seven or eight miles, maybe more if I wasn't such a lazy [censored], is brilliant. That was and is my experience. As for the nurses standing round talking to each other...well blow me down with a feather! Quite often they don't have a dinner hour , like the nurse who looked after me. She was on for 12 hours, no set dinner time and grabbed a cuppa and eat her sandwiches, in the sort of control room where she monitored me and others throughout the night.If you look on a Friday night and see the characters that stagger in, drunk drugged or both and seeing what our nurses and doctors have top put up with and that's on to of all the areas of social care that the NHS are dealing with.

harland

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1717
Re: The NHS and my hiking experiences
« Reply #14 on: 12:46:50, 26/06/18 »
Not read as "a rant" mananddog.  Well said about people accepting responsibility for their own behaviours instead of them expecting the NHS (taxpayer) to sort the out their indulgencies.  Obviously I haven't researched those attending A&E but it does appear that some/many (?) do not understand "Accident and Emergency".

 

Terms of Use     Privacy Policy