I am really speechless to hear this LG. I remember on that day it was bone-freezingly cold and I spent the whole day indoors. I thought about you having to travel to get your bloods done in that awful cold while feeling sick and miserable, but I figured at least you were getting them done properly in a good place. I find it beyond the pale that they turned you away.

The trouble you had after getting them done at the GP is, IMHO not acceptable. I actually had, for the first time, a lump on my arm from recent bloods and I can confirm that it was from a needle that was too big and there were 5 large tubes to be filled. Thankfully I had drunk my pint of water beforehand so the blood came out ok, but I didn’t expect the lumpy bruised arm afterwards. This particular blood service does not use butterflys so I couldn’t get the small blue one, which always works fine for me.

Jeez, I don’t know what you do now. This really is a sad indictment on the quality of the services available in the UK.
dt

God, LG I can’t believe the BS you have to go through! So, they refuse to do your blood because you’re sick? Or it was on a different path request form? I remember when I used to travel down to the Public Hospital for my Clinic sessions and they’d send me off to their Path dept, sometimes the line was so long and I’d have to leave to get my special bus service back to the island – otherwise I’d be stranded. But of course the Path clinics wouldn’t accept that form; thankfully my GP (my ‘old’ one) would copy the request onto another form. Not something I could get done by the ‘new’ GP – that would be the on who refused to do ANY blood tests relating to my HCV Tx.

Being sick and having to go through that and come home with nothing and knowing you have to go through it again is bad enough BUT when you have unacceptable RUDE behaviour thrown at you and replaying in your head just makes it all so much more upsetting and draining.
Honestly, I’m reminded of the Posters in these depts about not ‘tolerating rude or abusive behaviour from patients..’ Well, I’d like to have a T-Shirt with some sort of slogan saying,”Rude, Abusive and Judgemental Behaviour from Staff will NOT Be Tolerated and WILL be Reported!”

I feel for you, sending you Big Warm EHugs and lots of from Down Under

It’s stuff like this and what London girl says that makes me wonder how anyone could be for socialized medicine.

If the government provided free steak dinners, I’m sure they would be the best, huh? Haven’t you read about LG’s troubles? Ask any veteran here in America how well they are treated. The DMV is bad enough. I would NEVER want my government making my health decisions. Wow.

My concern is that our age group, especially those who have a medical history of a chronic condition, will not be able to get affordable insurance, so where will that leave us?

On the subject of insurance in the UK, firstly as you say LG, we all have to pay into the NHS. There is no opt-out. So money for any private insurance has to be found on top of that. Next, even if you are healthy with no existing medical conditions, private health insurance without the cost of drugs that are self-administered at home – will cost you. Most insurances are designed so that you can get the basics only, or you can pay for each service on top of that. To make it affordable for many, you have to choose a high excess (copay), a low allowance for out-patient services, a wait time of several weeks to see if the NHS can do it first, etc. etc. to the point where you end up with something not much better than being on the NHS anyway.

So, those on the basic package will only benefit if they have a truly unforeseen medical disaster which requires hospitalization, or they develop a serious condition like cancer. And they’ll still have the big excess to pay every year of the illness.

In other words, private medical insurance in the UK is not really the answer to your medical requirements unless you can pay for the deluxe package. An alternative for day-to-day needs is a private GP who will also cost you an arm and a leg but will get the job done for you on an a-la-carte basis in a way that your NHS GP won’t. Either way you’ll have to pay for your own meds unless your NHS GP will agree to convert your private prescription into an NHS prescription. I’ve heard reports that some NHS GPs are refusing to do this on grounds of various ridiculous excuses.

I’ve looked into all this, believe me, and talked to a lot of others who are likewise wondering as they get older what their options are when it comes to getting the medical care they might need. Conclusion – if you don’t have a lot of dosh, god help you.

dt

Yup DT, they are also experts are writing scripts for imported meds. Mine didn’t turn a hair when I asked him to write me a script for generics. In fact it was him who first alerted me to the possibility. And it was him who chose my specialist…as it turns out with very good taste.