Sneaky cut-backs in the Health Service...

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

I have had free NHS chiropody for 8 years until 2 months ago.
At my last appointment the chiropodist questioned me about my health and decided that, because I do not have any prescription meds (I use herbal medicine) then I was 'healthy', and due to cut backs I no longer qualified for the service.

I have deformed feet and have had bone surgery in the past, and so qualified for NHS made to measure shoes.

I suspect that only diabetics and persons with poor blood circulation will continue to qualify. I deduced this from her line of questioning.

I still receive this service Margaret and I've been reassessed

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

the pharma industries are vast and generate huge profits by making Doctors think that there is a prescription for every ill.

And don't jump on me and tell me that you would not be alive but for modern meds, as I am quite well aware that some people do need medications to keep them going...diabetics for instance....they would die without insulin...however, I do feel that some people do not feel that they have had a good consultation with their GP unless they come away with a prescription for something.

I avoid the doctor like the plague........I do not want my elderly(!) status to be medicalised....and I am definitely against the 'one size fit all' type of medicating that is forever being advocated for the over 55's.

In fact, there are many medicines out there, being used daily, that have only ever been tested on men.....current thoughts are, that these may not be as suitable for women as was once thought.

Has most of you on here know, I'm on a huge drugs regime and have been for many years, and I guess that if I didn't take this medication or had decided to stop taking it, I certainly wouldn't be writing this post now. My drug regime is checked every 12 months by my consultant and is altered accordingly, although its only tweaked very slightly these days

[Margaret Pilkington]

John, I do appreciate that you are one of the folk who do need the medications to keep you going, but I am aware that drugs company's promote drugs to GP's with a range of freebies(or at least they did...seminars in warm sunny places, with a few rounds of Golf tacked on).......this is lucrative and ensures that the company's profile remains high.... Many drugs have side effects that require other drugs to control them...which also have side effects for some people.......requiring still further medications.
Before you know it you need two suitcases to get your medications home....and a wardrobe to keep them in........Yes, Ok, perhaps I ambeing a bit fly here......but the drug companies really do have a lot of clout.

Please Lord, let me stay healthy....... is my ever abiding prayer.

[mobertol]

Life is full of uncertainty ...you can't say from one moment to the next if your genetic make-up will let you down. I have inherited the Asthma which is rife on my dad's side of the family -my medication is not optional. Last year i had bronchitis twice, once it degenerated into Pneumonia with hospitalization. As i was picking up I went down with 'Flu again.
- what worries me is that we are heading towards a US style system where only the rich or those in work can afford treatment -for those with chronic illness there's a great burden -physically in the first place but economically also. We are supposed to part of a great modern civilisation...is this the beginning of a decline and then a fall i wonder?

[Wynonie Harris]

Can't speak for other countries, but I think the NHS might be in a better shape if the last government hadn't wasted eyewateringly huge amounts of money on worthless projects. A prime example is the IT program - the largest of its kind ever - which cost over £12 billion and has now been abandoned because it's a waste of time. £12 billion - just think what that could've bought if it had been spent wisely. And that's just one of a whole avalanche of unwise NHS spending projects instigated in the pursuit of headline-grabbing spin to make the odious Blair creature and his cronies look good.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by mobertol

- what worries me is that we are heading towards a US style system where only the rich or those in work can afford treatment -for those with chronic illness there's a great burden -physically in the first place but economically also. We are supposed to part of a great modern civilisation...is this the beginning of a decline and then a fall i wonder?

I still dont understand what you are saying. When you say we are heading towards a US style system do you mean in you in Italy or us in the UK?

What is the system in Italy? Do people pay for treatment or is it like in the UK.

[mobertol]

Originally Posted by Neil

I still dont understand what you are saying. When you say we are heading towards a US style system do you mean in you in Italy or us in the UK?

What is the system in Italy? Do people pay for treatment or is it like in the UK.

Pretty much the same everywhere i think - cutbacks are hitting through Europe- not made pubblic -when you have to go for your usual prescriptions -there's a surprise waiting...the vulnerable are made to pay for being "a weight " on the rest of society...

[Neil]

I don't appear to be having a problem when I go to collect my prescription or wish to make an appointment to see my GP

My lil girl went to hospital today for an ENT follow up after having grommits and was not charged for the consultation.

Maybe you have been away from England to long, everything is rosy with the NHS

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

John, I do appreciate that you are one of the folk who do need the medications to keep you going, but I am aware that drugs company's promote drugs to GP's with a range of freebies(or at least they did...seminars in warm sunny places, with a few rounds of Golf tacked on).......this is lucrative and ensures that the company's profile remains high.... Many drugs have side effects that require other drugs to control them...which also have side effects for some people.......requiring still further medications.
Before you know it you need two suitcases to get your medications home....and a wardrobe to keep them in........Yes, Ok, perhaps I ambeing a bit fly here......but the drug companies really do have a lot of clout.

Please Lord, let me stay healthy....... is my ever abiding prayer.

I actually think the main problem is the repeat prescription Margaret, I put in a repeat prescription ever month, but before I do I check which drugs I actually need any one particular month, some I need to order every month without fail, because I order every 28 days other drugs can build up so I can cross them of occasionally. But I know for a fact that a lot of people (especially elderly patients) send in a repeat and order everything come what may. I know when my Mother died she had about 3 months supply of Gaviscon (it was obtained on prescription then) but as weave discussed on here before you can't return them to the chemist so its waste which must cost the NHS millions or pounds a year

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Neil

I don't appear to be having a problem when I go to collect my prescription or wish to make an appointment to see my GP

My lil girl went to hospital today for an ENT follow up after having grommets and was not charged for the consultation.

Maybe you have been away from England to long, everything is rosy with the NHS

I know a couple who emigrated to America a few years ago, they were both in pretty good health and were sponsored by their daughter who is a naturalised American. Sadly one of them started with a mental disorder and spent a lot of time in hospital until the insurance wouldn't cover the treatment, they are returning to the UK next week, their American dream over

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by jaysay

I actually think the main problem is the repeat prescription Margaret, I put in a repeat prescription ever month, but before I do I check which drugs I actually need any one particular month, some I need to order every month without fail, because I order every 28 days other drugs can build up so I can cross them of occasionally. But I know for a fact that a lot of people (especially elderly patients) send in a repeat and order everything come what may. I know when my Mother died she had about 3 months supply of Gaviscon (it was obtained on prescription then) but as weave discussed on here before you can't return them to the chemist so its waste which must cost the NHS millions or pounds a year

Yes you are right John.
When they broke up the old lady's home nest door she had 2 drawers full of unused prescription meds because the Chemist didn't wait the full 28 days between deliveries....these all had to be thrown away. She didn't cross off the medications that she didn't need.

[shillelagh]

i can actually beat you on that ... was told off my doc last week do not take the diazapam for more than 3 days .. 1 3 times a day .. so that equals 9 ..... when i picked the prescription up .... i received 28 of em ... still to take them back yet ..

[lindsay ormerod]

I have been told that lots of meds aren't tested on women because the pain threshold and the the effects of the meds vary depending on where the lady in question is during "the month", if you get my meaning!
Makes sense to me .

[Wynonie Harris]

Problem with the NHS is, they seem to cutting in the wrong places. There are countless layers of management, bureaucracy, red tape, ethnic awareness courses and all manner of fripperies that should be cut back. The government don't seem to have the ability to do it and, of course, the pen pushers are very skilled at protecting their own positions, if nothing else.

As for the likes of Spain and Italy, I would like to see them cutting right back to the bone on their health service, welfare state and anything else. Anything, just as long as they don't have to come begging for bail outs which we then have to help fund via the IMF. Due to a combination of the world financial situation and the willful wastefulness of the last government, we are now in financial dire straits. Other countries like Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain are in an even worse position, because they've been living beyond their means on an even grander scale than us. Why should we bail them out when we are trying to pay our own debt off?

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by lindsay ormerod

I have been told that lots of meds aren't tested on women because the pain threshold and the the effects of the meds vary depending on where the lady in question is during "the month", if you get my meaning!
Makes sense to me .

That is true Lindsay....but the researchers are realising that this has been a wrong approach.
Women react differently to men with many drugs because they are different.
Just because something works well for a man doesn't always mean it will have the same effects on a woman.
I have been left the NHS for 9years.......I went to a seminar run by Astra Zeneca........ooh, it must be nearly 15 years ago now, and the researchers were aware of that fact as long ago as that. I don't know if much is being done about this.....but surely it should be.