Post by Dave on Sept 6, 2013 19:12:01 GMT
Hi Guys,
Don't get me wrong, I'm very much in favour of our NHS and regard it as one of Britain's great achievements but I think it's slowly being squeezed towards privatisation to enrich already obscenely rich individuals and organisation at the expense of us less fortunate majority - hope I'm wrong but as we all live longer the ever growing market for increasing numbers of ever more expensive medication is too big a market for the uber-capitalists to ignore IMO.
However, I digress - to the point. About 10 years ago my lifelong occasional bouts of migraine developed into occasional bouts of cluster headaches and a few short years after that they became chronic (attacks every day). Eventually my GP threw the towel in and referred me to a consultant Neurologist at a local hospital who correctly diagnosed Cluster Headaches and prescribed a very effective medication. A couple of years later I suffered a mini-stroke and was told this very effective medication was now contra-indicated - oh shit!!!
After a year or two without a repeat of the mini-stroke the same Neurologist said I could resume "judicious" use of the effective medication which, incidentally, is not recommended for patients over 65 years old, a milestone I passed a few years earlier. Although this helped to reduce the attacks I seemed to slowly get used to it and it's effect declined greatly. My GP twice wrote to the Neurologist to ask him to see me again, only to receive no response. When I asked him to 'push' the Neurologist` again he indicated that after two 'no responses' he thought I should try contacting the Neurologist personally - what??!!!
Then a few weeks later, out of the blue, both my GP and I got a letter signed by the Medical Director and the Head of the Neurology Dept. of the local hospital advising us that "because of administrative problems" in the office of the Neurologist confirmed the dept. had not been delivering an acceptable service and apologising for any problems this might have caused. Two weeks later (today) I received a letter from the Neurology dept. confirming my appointment for the 15th of October.
Fortunately my problem is merely one of a very inconvenient pain and not life threatening (although severe CH bouts are sometimes referred to as 'suicide headaches' for the obvious reason) but other patients of the Neurologist have much more onerous conditions to cope with and I wonder how many of them are no longer with us due to this "administrative problem".
Moral of the story: don't assume your affliction is regarded by everyone in the NHS as important as you think it is - if you're not getting the response you expect, keep pushing. If you're not prepared to take responsibility for your own health you can't expect others to do so.
Dave.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very much in favour of our NHS and regard it as one of Britain's great achievements but I think it's slowly being squeezed towards privatisation to enrich already obscenely rich individuals and organisation at the expense of us less fortunate majority - hope I'm wrong but as we all live longer the ever growing market for increasing numbers of ever more expensive medication is too big a market for the uber-capitalists to ignore IMO.
However, I digress - to the point. About 10 years ago my lifelong occasional bouts of migraine developed into occasional bouts of cluster headaches and a few short years after that they became chronic (attacks every day). Eventually my GP threw the towel in and referred me to a consultant Neurologist at a local hospital who correctly diagnosed Cluster Headaches and prescribed a very effective medication. A couple of years later I suffered a mini-stroke and was told this very effective medication was now contra-indicated - oh shit!!!
After a year or two without a repeat of the mini-stroke the same Neurologist said I could resume "judicious" use of the effective medication which, incidentally, is not recommended for patients over 65 years old, a milestone I passed a few years earlier. Although this helped to reduce the attacks I seemed to slowly get used to it and it's effect declined greatly. My GP twice wrote to the Neurologist to ask him to see me again, only to receive no response. When I asked him to 'push' the Neurologist` again he indicated that after two 'no responses' he thought I should try contacting the Neurologist personally - what??!!!
Then a few weeks later, out of the blue, both my GP and I got a letter signed by the Medical Director and the Head of the Neurology Dept. of the local hospital advising us that "because of administrative problems" in the office of the Neurologist confirmed the dept. had not been delivering an acceptable service and apologising for any problems this might have caused. Two weeks later (today) I received a letter from the Neurology dept. confirming my appointment for the 15th of October.
Fortunately my problem is merely one of a very inconvenient pain and not life threatening (although severe CH bouts are sometimes referred to as 'suicide headaches' for the obvious reason) but other patients of the Neurologist have much more onerous conditions to cope with and I wonder how many of them are no longer with us due to this "administrative problem".
Moral of the story: don't assume your affliction is regarded by everyone in the NHS as important as you think it is - if you're not getting the response you expect, keep pushing. If you're not prepared to take responsibility for your own health you can't expect others to do so.
Dave.