Posted on 07/21/2010 10:52:36 AM PDT by george76
That’s why I always tell people that I want my doctors to be like Dr. House. :-) I don’t care how nasty they are to me as long as they are curious and skeptical of the most likely scenario.
Oh, and atheist helps too - i don’t want my Doctor thinking, “well, she’s going to a better place.” I want my doctor thinking that this IS the best place. :-)
The National Health Service (NHS) is free at the point of use for the patient though there are charges associated with eye tests, dental care, prescriptions, and many aspects of personal care.
The NHS provides the majority of healthcare in England, including primary care, in-patient care, long-term healthcare, ophthalmology and dentistry. The National Health Service Act 1946 came into effect on 5 July 1948. Private health care has continued parallel to the NHS, paid for largely by private insurance, but it is used by less than 8% of the population[citation needed], and generally as a top-up to NHS services. Recently there have been some examples where unused private sector capacity has been used to increase NHS capacity and in some cases the NHS has commissioned the private sector to establish and run new facilities on a sub contracted basis. Some new capital programs have been financed through the private finance initiative. The involvement of the private sector remains relatively small yet, according to one survey by the BMA, a large proportion of the public oppose such involvement.[2]
More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_England
Corrected title :
Parents’ fury as teenage daughter dies just days after doctors sent her home and ‘told her to go home and die’
I agree; most doctors do not take a full history and review of symptoms, but merely go after the topmost layer. The several times I have had a life-threatening organic condition in my lifetime, including a bleeding internal rupture, every time I was sent home the first or second or third time with no diagnosis, or was offered antacids or anti-depressants.
The latest medical odyssey in our extended family was a fairly common yet physically devastating condition that my family member suggested to the doctors that she had — because it runs in her side of the family — but it took six years to get an “official” diagnosis, and two years to get the correct dose of medication — just as the economy was going south and her need for enough health and energy to save her work situation was critical. Her professional and personal losses were substantial, and she couldn’t even make a claim on her disability policy because by the time the four doctors involved realized just how bad it looked, they were unwilling to admit it for the record, and she was by then too strapped to undergo the stress of suing them.
They just don’t have time to listen any more. How many of us are similarly out of patience?
You’re making an important point. This case is an example of a situation where the physician would have to go outside the protocol and keep the patient on either a hunch, or personal knowledge of what “normal” is for that patient and an awareness that she doesn’t look normal. Hunches generally don’t make hospitalists popular with their masters, and a system that destroys the concept of a personal doctor/patient relationship pretty much eliminates the second possibility.
Whether she’d have survived even with immediate antibiotic treatment is an open question, but the case does illustrate the potential systemic flaws when the “doctor as patient advocate” aspect of medicine is lost.
Brought here, courtesy of Dr. “Just-take-a-pain-pill” Mengele...oops...Obama.
That is coming too, as are "at gun point" demands to treat sick family members like the movie John Q.
Hospitals will then be equipped with TSA-like ObamaCare security screeners, and this will likely be used as another excuse to attack the 2nd Amendment.
The flip side is to do 1000 tests for the common cold...
I am terribly sorry that your daughter suffered so much, but, honestly, ( as a health professional myself) sometimes we just aren’t able to make a diagnosis.
I am pleased that you were able to find the help that she needed to get well. Also...Please remember that sometimes people get better, on their own, and the treatment prescribed had nothing to do with the recovery.
“I’m in love with the British health care system.”
Yes, I realize that. We were mainly frustrated with the neurologist who, in the face of, to us, obvious symptoms, could not see that ANYTHING was even wrong.
Next time, though, we’re starting with the chiropractor. :-)
>> The flip side is to do 1000 tests for the common cold...
That’s not the flip side. But 1000 tests are still better than death.
FYI - paracetamol = acetaminophen = Tylenol
bttt
Thanks
1000 tests make money for the hospitals. Unless you are paying for your own bills, don’t expect perfect health care.
Thank-you. Can you tell us how much six stones is?
14 x 6 lbs = 84lbs
Stone = 14 lbs
I get your point, although it was a bit extreme.
Litigation has obviously put medicine on defense requiring the battery of tests you described.
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