Regular readers might remember I had a steroid injection in my foot, to help ease an arthritic joint. It appears I am in the system now and I’m troubled by this.
A few days ago I had a follow-up call, which I had thought was a jolly good thing, until it happened.
I was asked how my foot has been since the injection. I explained it was 80-90% better and I had been able to start a little running once again, therefore the treatment has been successful and I was pleased. Furthermore I asked if I could make an appointment for a further injection and I suggested sometime in May would be about right as the pain relief effect will have worn off by then.
I was told that I couldn’t just “make another appointment for treatment”. The voice on the phone said I would have to be reassessed and then a further appointment might be made. These steroid injections, she explained, have to be given sparingly owing to side effects. I knew that – no more than three in a year. What I didn’t know (or ignored) was it makes my immunity less effective, which might explain why I had Covid for Christmas.
Considering it took several months to get to the stage of having treatment, I suggested, I need to book the appointment now to stand a sporting chance of actually getting the injection by the time I need it.
In the meantime I could be maintained as a live patient (of which I was glad to hear I was considered to be alive) and able to call within the next few months on an “SOS” basis. It all seemed terribly difficult and fraught; it seemed an awkward and clunky system.
I likened the process of receiving treatment to requesting a repeat prescription. It happens without needing to see a Doctor each time. Why, then, should I have to go back to the start of the process in order to have the this treatment repeated? Surely a patient’s preference is important? It was conceded that was a valid point but it is too early to know if anything will change for me.
The overall effect
A friend of mine who is a retired Doctor once told me about an unwritten rule most GPs would follow. If a patient comes in with a health concern, unless it is obviously urgent, the approach is often to do very little: perhaps suggest taking a paracetamol or some rest etc. It is only when the patient has flagged up the problem three times that they will be more proactive.
It makes me realise that we have to constantly push for treatment, see a Doctor and so on. It is all too easy to be fobbed off and discouraged. Instead you have to know how to navigate the system, know which buttons to press and to understand the different twists and turns. I am in a system, a process. I have to learn how to find my way through, rather than be pushed in a direction I don’t necessarily want to go.
All of this is, of course, another sign of the gradual deterioration of the National Health Service. Once a service that was admired from around the world is now at breaking point. We hear of hospitals clogged up, people waiting for hours for an ambulance, people unable to get a dentist and even pulling their own teeth out.
Who is to blame? No doubt the answer is quite a complicated one and can probably be argued from different angles. Ultimate responsibility must lie with the Government and it was the Conservatives who were in power for the last 14 years. Admittedly the covid pandemic would have thrown every health service off course but the NHS doesn’t seem to have recovered sufficiently well to offer the same service compared to pre-covid times.
It is through the clunkiness of the system, not to mention the fearsome NHS receptionists, that many people are accessing private healthcare. The general trend is increasing in the UK.
I have used private healthcare, on and off, for over 20 years. Back then you were treated so well and seen exactly on time. Nowadays the private hospital has hired a management company for the car park pressures and you even have to queue up at reception. However, the private service is led by the patient who is treated like a valued customer and I feel that I have definitely escaped the system, albeit briefly.