I know people are always banging on about how rubbish the NHS are ....

[2sugarsagain]

... but yesterday I had a scan, a biopsy and a mammogram, and the efficiency was second to none. I was seen on time, had about a 10 minute wait in between tests, they were really friendly AND they gave me the results the same day!

They were just fab

Don't know if I was just lucky or if you only hear about the bad things cali.

I'm often banging on about how rubbish the NHS is because it often is ime. Support for ds1's condition has been non-existent for years for example.

However last week I too had a consultation and biopsy on the same day and was suitably impressed (although was told 16 weeks for the results or something).

I think for the urgent acute things it's excellent. For more routine things or things that involve a lot of pain but are not life threatening it can be shocking.

The inefficiencies astound me. The number of appointments I have been to where they didn't have the results from a previous referral/test which means the appointment has to be re-arranged, wasting my time and travel expenses, delaying treatment and most importantly wasting an appointment that could have been used by someone else.

Why on earth isn't someone checking a few days beforehand that they have everything they need and either chasing it up or re-allocating the appointment, rather than letting a pointless consultation go ahead?

Why do I get numerous letters for the same appointment? Why do I get appointment letters that weren't sent until the day of the appointment? Why are there so many receptionists who don't appear to have anything to do?

I know all the complaints about under funding, but really, the waste is appalling.

Our Hospital has got a bad reputation in some ways but i have always found them very good and been looked after ,and cant fault it, it might depend on the department dealing with you
Blame the Government not the Drs and nurses

ZOMBIE revived by a troll.

Lack of referral: this goes back to everyone protesting they didn't want NHS to join up all the records with each other; so ambulance service can't access your records and GP can't access hospital records and so on. British public wanted things this way.

The apparent NHS inefficiency b/c it's being run on a crazy last-minute-everything system, nothing gets planned in advance on such tight margins, therefore lots of last minute appts no time to get letters out early, no time to check for duplicate notices in the notification system, no time to check a few days ahead about what they''ll need, receptionists constantly having to pause & try to figure out which fire to put out first.

Oh bother fell for it! i understand that lljkk, but that's what I mean,the whole system is so inefficient.

NHS is like a poor person.
Poor people can't get a good deal (price) on lots of services & goods, b/c they are poor: can't buy in bulk or sign the contracts or pay up front. So everything they pay for is more expensive. Getting a job is harder b/c they can't afford secure reliable transport. That keeps them poor, too. Endless cycle.

NHS is like that; expected to operate on such thin margins that they can't actually do a lot of things efficiently.

Look at the perverse 4 hour wait target in A&E; sometimes it works ok for hospitals but for years it screwed up ambulance unloading targets (A&E kept patients waiting outside in vehicle so the A&E clock would start later). Result = patient care not improved.

NHS is good but it isnt as good as many other European health services eg France,Spain ,Germany.. It does too much ,is wasteful and bloated.