Please excuse the following rant, but the health care system has done little to fill me with confidence over recent months. I don’t know if it is purely a case of limited staff and funding that cause these constant little errors, small oversights and a general care free attitude from the medical profession towards the people coming in and out of their hospitals and offices.
When exactly did it stop being about the patients?
I suppose for the poor doctors and nurses who as children decided they wanted to grow up and ‘help people’, they are now stuck on the front line, over worked and under paid facing the cold reality of doing their job to the best of the budget rather than the best of their ability.
My dad had a mini stroke on Monday, they call them TIA’s. These scare the crap out of your family but don’t leave you with long lasting damage. At least that’s what they hope it was but we will only find out for sure if he now goes on to have a major one, apparently that usually would happen within 48hrs if it’s going to.
This diagnosis was made purely off the presenting symptoms such as inability to make any facial expression, raise arms and total disorientation, nothing Dr Google couldn’t tell us. They were going to run scans but it turned out to be unaffordable for the hospital, and there was also no budget for a hospital bed for 48hrs to make sure that a major stroke didn’t follow, so as soon as he could remember what day it was they sent him home with a note for his GP.
Best of luck sir, please come back straight away if you wake up dead. Oh Great.
So coupled with the not so wonderful experiences that fellow bloggers and many of my friends & family have had with the health care system of late, and the knowlege that I have to trust the system with my Husband when he has his kidney op, my faith has all but disappeared.
I am also waiting on news from my neighbour who today finds out if the now massive tumour on her carotid artery is malignant or not, hopefully they won’t lose these results and delay the process any further like they did with her last ones...
Can you imagine a world without cancer, it’s a nice thought, hey?
Now imagine it from the perspective of a major drug company executive, think how many dollars would be lost if there was no need for Chemotherapy let alone all the other drugs they supply the masses to counteract the horrible side effects of the first one. It doesn’t paint such a rosy picture for them, its not a financially viable option.
Perhaps one of those big drug companies will one day just fess up that they cured cancer long ago, stop trying to line their pockets and start doing the right thing for the people, then we can begin to get back on track.
Have you or someone you know been messed around by the Health System?
1 comment:
If it is any consolation, the system here is better than that in the USA, where I grew up. Having said that I have taken the approach to always manage my care closely, i.e. follow up on tests, question inconsistencies, have all my notes with me, and if I go into hospital I always make sure I have a family member watching out for me, questioning what is happening. I cannot tolerate opiates like morphine/codeine. But despite having a big red drug alert band on my wrist, I have had countless hospital staff inject me with the stuff post surgery. Hello? Rather than get angry and blame them for being stupid cows, I just do my best to be on top of it myself. I’ve heard of people writing on themselves with marker, “Not this knee” or “Operate here”. Not such a bad idea, really.
Post a Comment