UK and America are two countries separated by a common language, UK and US Q&A cont'd

[mathanxiety]

Started another one in case anyone wants to do it again...

What is Elephant & Castle? Is it a neighborhood?

Just used golden syrup. Thought I should share the tin.

Steff - yes. Originally named after the Infanta de Castile I believe (Princess Isabella (?) of Castile) but the locals bungled it and it became Elephant and Castle, a borough in London.

This is all from memory. Google might be more accurate, but I'm chuffed to have remembered a nice historical fact and wanted to show off.

Try again. Pictures won't work.

elephant&castle is a crossing in london.
a big tube/train station and fugly shopping centre are on top of it. sometimes the area around it is called like it as well.

wiki

Ah bugger. Google has proven me almost universally wrong

Not a borough of London, just a nickname for an area. Not after a Princess of Spain. I was just wrong wrong wrong.

Oh my gosh, I love that you explained the name; I wondered where it came from. I'm re-re-re-re-re-re-reading the Harry Potter series, and it mentions Elephant & Castle, and I've always wondered what sort of place it was.

It's ok, I forgive you. Your explanation was very nice, much better than google's.

grotty. From what I recall.
Anything else from Harry Potter you want explaining?

No, I'm good. :)

Cattle call means you get told to arrive at 10.15 for instance, and unless there are lots of walkins needing urgent attention, you will be called in the order in which you signed in and the receptionist processed your presence and fished out your file. So it can pay to get there early. The aim is to have you called within half an hour of your time of 10.15. However, you can sometimes wait in the examining room for a while too even after you are called.

Unless you have a dire case of something with sudden onset while you are coincidentally within ten minutes of the office, you will not be seen as a walkin in my pediatrician office. If you have a sick child you phone first and fight your case to be seen, giving details of an ongoing difficulty or high temperature or symptom. You will be told to come in and sign in, and then a nurse comes out to the waiting room to do triage. At that point if you really are sick you will be seen, and seen before people who are there for a routine checkup.

there was a little satellite surgery in devon that had that type of system. No appointment, no signing in. One morning a week.

Basically, the office opened it's door at 9am. People could come in and wait starting then. The GP showed up at 9:30 or so. You just had to kind of "remember" who came in first, and then the GP just buzzed, and the person who'd been there first went in, then the next.

In the states, that would have been inviting a blood bath in the fights. In the UK, people sensibly helped people remember who came in when and waited their turn patiently.

Never experienced a cattle call system at any US docs but OMG I've had some long ways in the UK. 4 hours was the record I think. Unless you count the time we drove 20 miles for a hospital clinic only to be told the consultant was on holiday and no-one had bothered letting the patients know.

The children's last peadiatrician always ran late so we found a new one.

Re NHS wait times

As it's been said it varies between hospitals, GP surgeries and clinics a lot.

We've just moved and our old GP surgery used to have an open surgery each morning where no appointment could be prebooked. You literally turned up, took a token off the wall and then we're called to reception by no. And booked in. Often going at 8am and wanting a particular doctor meant the longest wait times. I learnt when DD was young you were better going in at 9.45-10am when the initial rush had subsided and often there would be 3 people in front of you as opposed to 10 first thing!

At our new doctors you can book ahead (often a few days or a week depending on the doctor) or you can ring up at 8am or 1pm and get a same day appointment which is a nightmare to get through on. They've recently introduced an online booking system which is ace as lots of people in our town are elderly and wouldn't opt to use it, so the appointments set aside are easier to snag.

I currently I have a fractured foot and have spent 2 hours in the fracture clinic for my 6 week check up (hoping to be signed off and releases from my boot but no such luck!) today. My appointment was 3.30pm, I wasn't called through and seen until 4.50pm and finally left about 5.30pm. The wait sucked (mainly because I'd finished my book and I had no 3G) but you just suck it up as everyone was flat out trying their best. Each nurse and the doctors I saw were all apologetic and explained they'd had some really complex cases in which took precedence...mine was a straight forward 'nope your foots still fucked' and a new boot!

As much as the NHS isnt perfect I always try and remember that it mostly costs us nothing...and for that I'm eternally grateful :)

The NHS does not cost us nothing, it costs over £100 billion a year

caroldecker but the amount it costs each of us individually is less than people pay for health insurance in the US, because despite the bureaucracy it is still a far less bureaucratic and costly system than the US.

My GP has emergency appointments each day, which can mean waiting around. You can phone and get a non-emergency appointment the same week if you don't mind which Doctor you see. If you want to see a specific one, it can involve a week or twos wait (especially for my GP who is popular and part time). Several of the GPs have specialism's - so I should book an appointment soon with one who can do something about a blocked sweat gland on my head - but I can also have the procedure carried out at my GPs rather than going to the Hospital.

A and E, waits vary - fastest was 45 minutes in the middle of the night for a child's banged head followed by vomiting; longest was about 6 hours in total for a suspected broken ankle, but we did go as shifts were swapping which led to a big delay.

True Carol, it's not free, but it never costs you more than you can afford.

It is free at the point of use, that it the key element of the NHS.

The pediatrician I go to has about six doctors plus pediatric residents working under supervision - it's affiliated to a teaching hospital. The down side is the DCs rarely see the same doctor twice in a row but the upside is there is always someone available. The residents tend to get to see the walking wounded more than routine checkups. Over the years we have been seen by all the doctors and many, many residents..

Do you not have what we call a GP? They are a general practitioner and you see them first. Anything they can deal with there they do, anything else they refer. You can't do anything before you see a GP. For example I'm currently having ivf. But to start with I had to see my GP and get referred to the fertility clinic.

I have a family doctor that I can see for a general issue, but the idea I get is that your GPs act as a sort of gatekeepers for the more specialized physicians. We don't really have that here. For instance, if I was having issues with my periods, I would make an appointment directly with my gynecologist, I wouldn't have to see my familiy doctor first. My son wants to have treatment for his acne, so I made an appointment with a dermatologist, he didn't have to see the family doctor first. But, if I think one of us has strep throat or an ear infection, we go to the family doctor for that.

I'm rereading Harry Potter too! 7 year old DS is enthralled. He and toddler DD are going as Harry and Hedwig for Halloween. :)

My soon-to-be 4-year-old daughter is going to be Batman for Halloween. :)

I love Harry Potter. I always tell people my favorite book is The Catcher in the Rye, but it's totally Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Do you not have what we call a GP? They are a general practitioner and you see them first. Anything they can deal with there they do, anything else they refer. You can't do anything before you see a GP. For example I'm currently having ivf. But to start with I had to see my GP and get referred to the fertility clinic

We have the equivalent of a GP, called a primary care provider, but they have specialised skills. So a child would see a paediatrician as their PCP, a child-bearing age woman would probably see a ob/gyn, an older person would see a geriatric specialist. I like that my children are seen by a 'GP' who only deals with children and who is up to speed on their needs and care. That is also typical of most European health systems.

There is also a specialty of family practitioner, who sees people of all ages. I have never used an ob/gyn as a primary care provider.

Are there really small communities in the USA where people are actually inbred? We see jokes about inbred hicks. Surely these days this can't go on??