I've been having problems with double vision & headaches for a couple of weeks. I did my surgery online triage form which said I should phone 111. The phone responder triaged me again & got a doctor to call me back. He said to go to A&E within an hour despite the fact I haven't been out for 5 weeks now. All very dramatic, although in all honesty I didn't think it would be something very serious.
Getting into A&E reception is very different now. There were two people at the entrance who told me to sanitize my hands & said that no visitors were allowed in. I had to stand at a taped distance from where they were sitting. My daughter had brought me & we agreed she would go home. There were a few questions about possible Covid 19 infection & then I went in. At the reception desk the receptionist was behind a glass screen & I stood behind a barrier while he typed my details into the computer. I was given a personalised wristband & told to sit in the waiting area. There were 3 other people there, all sitting a long way from eachother.
After a wait I was called into a big triage room where the nurse asked a battery of questions & gave me an ECG. I was then taken to another area to wait for a doctor. The doctor took me to a cubicle where he asked a lot of questions & did a lot of Neuro tests. At the end he reassuringly told me that I hadn't had a stroke, didn't have a bleed on the brain or an aneurism - Thank goodness! He didn't know what was causing it because he wasn't a specialist, but said I should contact the Neurologist I am under & get an appointment because my symptoms have worsened considerably.
All the way through everything was calm & well managed. Everyone seemed very competent, purposeful & confident. People seemed very cheerful & jolly even. I made a point of thanking them all for what they are doing, but they all said the same - "It's my job".
That's the NHS we need to fund properly & protect. Those are the people we need to be everlastingly grateful to & reward properly financially. That is the organisation that we should be staffing adequately & ensuring that we keep the expertise our training gives them in house. Their morale is crucial.
Politicians meddle with that at their peril.
Absolutely agree Val. Australians also are valuing our publicly funded hospitals and health services. Amazingly, public and private hospitals are coordinating seamlessly as we combat CV19.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope the groundswell of public opinion forces Conservative governments to change their sneaky privatisation & funding reduction after all this is over. I'm not holding my breath here though.
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