Guilt Free Railing 20

[WouldBeGood]

The curtain call.

May this thread be empty 😃

All good news welcome too, to go along with railing, guilt free

I saw that about the alcohol deaths - it seems that of course getting used to drinking (and eating) too much or any other bad habits are very hard to reverse, those two years are going to lead to years of increased deaths.

But don't worry, surely there will be a scot gov ad along in a minute reminding us all to bake or go for a walk instead of drinking gin!

@mapleleavesreturn
A 8/9 years ago we were in the Disney Epcot Park it was raining so spent a bit of time in the science building. They were doing a big push on fitness. It sticks in my mind "once you sit and stop moving it's hard to get back up again" meanwhile the jellybaby character gets fatter and fatter.
It's so true fitness is so hard to get back.

That's terrible @KnittingNeedles - I really feel for your son and all the other children and young people. Sturgeon didn't seem to care at all about the effect of lockdown on these groups. And it's unbelievable that some unis are still not back to normal - absolutely disgusting and terrible for the mental health of our young people 😢.

The problem for university here is that government guidance here was that anything over 50 had to be remote which penalised those with large classes.

And they were so late changing it that it was practically reading week before exams and changing all the timetables for a fortnight was a logistical nightmare.

It was utterly ludicrous as they could all mix in halls, bars and clubs. But somehow we were sold 'cautious is best'.

Ironically practically every one I know up here has had covid in the last couple of weeks but I don't know of any of my friends in England

Can I rant about the NHS? Not NHS workers…everyone of which has been lovely but operating procedures? Apparently hospital consultant is no longer allowed to write a prescription for you? needs to be sent to your GP who will prescribe. So we waited months for an appointment for DD…consultant saw her, said he’d get GP to prescribe medication. Due to the standard miscommunication, allegedly covid based delays and inefficient processes, it was 7 days from diagnosis until we got my DDs prescription in hand.

Now….had the consultant been able to write the prescription during the appointment (say 20 seconds of work?), I could have taken it to the pharmacy same day and DD would have had medication by the end of the day…but 7 days we had to wait all the while she was still having uncomfortable symptoms….and that’s on top of the months we waited for an appointment and only because DH was a man on a mission trying to get the prescription chasing every day. We figured that at least 8 NHS workers were involved in getting us that prescription…at least 8 touches…8 opportunities for the process to break down, when it could easily have been 2….consultant and pharmacist. What’s going on?

It’ll be to do with budgeting. The cost of the meds will come out of the gp budget rather than the hospital one, at a guess

This is so sad. Doesn’t the NHS exists to look after it’s patients? Or does it exist to create admin around their processes in a bid to save money. Them trying to save money causes them to waste it. They have lost sight of their purpose.

@RonSwan that’s just awful. And frustrating, as it’s so unnecessary.

It’s becoming apparent that the NHS does not exist to look after patients. There are too many similar stories, and it continues to be difficult to see anyone.

Hope your DD is on the mend

When there’s a limited budget I guess everyone is trying to protect their own.
I have a family member who suffers terrible pain from collapsed vertebrae. The doctors have finally found a medication that works but every time she requests a repeat prescription she is reminded by the GP of how expensive they are. As a result, and being of an older generation, she uses them sparingly rather than as she needs them.

It's been crazy for years - when I had dc2 I had a choice of waiting hours for a cocodamol etc prescription on the ward,
Or leaving and going to the GP.

The GP was annoyed that I was told to leave and go to GP for routine post natal medicines at the time.

thanks @WouldBeGood two days on and the medication is helping already…I feel so awful she’s had to wait months for a relatively simple solution that would have made her life much more comfortable.

Another mask rant. I went to give blood yesterday at a local hall not a hospital or donor centre. As I walked towards the door the woman watched me put my mask on. "You need a new mask" she says. I respond that she has literally just watched me put one on. She gives me a new one anyway. Then I give my name and she hands me a glass of water and tells me to drink it. Mask off. Mask on again. Over to desk to give my name. Called into the wee booth to answer the questions. Mask off. Mask on after they direct me to another staff member. Onto the bed - mask off to give donation and drink apple juice afterward. Mask on to walk across the hall to the door.

What a waste of everyone's time.

For those struggling to get the prescriptions they need, I know you shouldn't have to do it and many can't afford it, but just to let you know that when our GP surgery prescribed me an allegedly identical non branded pill for the one I'd been on for years with no resurgence of endometriosis symptoms, within weeks I had crippling pain.

Doctors seemed unwilling to do anything about it or accept that the new prescription was different in any way, so I now pay privately for my branded pills through Lloyds online pharmacy and doctors.

I know we shouldn't have to do that, but even as a stopgap until sorted out through surgery, I thought it was worth letting people know that the option exists.

rookiemere I've heard of people having real problems when their brand of SSRI is changed as well, and the gp/pharmacist completely dismissing them and saying it's not possible.

Tbh I've stopped using the NHS for things at the cheaper end. I get blood tests done privately now as it's literally less than a minute online and then a quick fingerprick test to post.

Compare that to the desperate morning phone call to hope that you actually get an appointment, then you have your phone appointment where you desperately justify why you need the test you and, and IF they agree then it's yet another phlebotomy appointment that you need to wait weeks for, then you need to phone up again and beg reception staff to actually tell you what your own results say.

I can totally rail with the mental health shot to pieces having a just turned 18 year old who is so anxious she can hardly leave her bedroom. It all started oh 2 years ago when she was studying for her N5s to be told they weren’t happening then lockdown happened then she had to appeal for some of them, then the shitshow of S5, by the time S6 came she was a mess.

I can also rail about GPs surgeries having not seen a GP in person for over 2 years now despite the fact I have fibromyalgia and take opioid painkillers. I have to get month to month prescriptions and ration myself to when I’m really bad. In Spain I walked into a chemist and came out with the same ones for €2.50 as you can only get on prescription here. I wonder if Spain has a huge opioid painkiller addiction problem?? Since covid I have paid privately for DS to see a chiropodist (was told there’s a 9 month waiting list) and a maxofacial surgeon for me about the same sort of waiting time. Both of us were in pain.

Friend of mine has been fobbed of with pain killers for a back issue for the last 2 years. GPs just dished out basic painkillers saying it was arthritis and the several trips to A&E resulted in the same. A&E refused to perform scans or refer on.
They moved to England where the GP took one look at her and made an immediate referral to a spinal unit. She’s been diagnosed with disc disease and is waiting to see what happens next.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Scottish government’s ‘cautious’ approach made things much worse for young people than it had to be
They didn’t seem to care about that at all
It was particularly bad for students who stayed at home

Yes, really awful for students staying at home. Split from their old school friends (who maybe went away to uni / joined military etc) and not had the chance to build a new friendship group.

Can I also have a rail that the whole be cautious, and restrictions stopped older people catching up with friends. Loosened ties with people. Left older people feeling disconnected.

For anyone not aware of how a broken down ferry affects the whole network and livelihoods of islands, take a look at the two most recent posts on this page Here
The 'ferry fiasco' is very real...

It's the equivalent of shutting down Glasgow central, queen street, the m8, the airport for weeks at a time and seeing how the city would fare.

The SG incompetence and neglect is off the scale on this.

Some of the comments on that link are interesting, because apparently it’s all Westminster’s fault…not the fact that 2 ferries are 5 years late because they kept changing the spec mid build. 🙄

Can I have a moan about GPs not being face to face. I totally get a fair chunk of their work can be done over the phone. But some things are dealt much more effectively face to face. But another thing that would make life easier would be for them to give a set time when they'll call you back or even a window instead of people being glued to their phone all day.

@Dinoteeth yes! I do not understand why they can’t make appointments for the phone as they would have in person?

We still have to attempt the stampede of the 0830 call to get someone to call you back sometime.

I get what they do is have the stampede of calls, then traige them, so by 9.00 they must know what order the GP is going to make the calls. Why can't they drop a text you should expect a call back from the GP between x & y.

At long last our surgery is giving an option for routine appointments. It's always seemed daft to me that routine stuff was treated the same as other appointments.

Yes. It’s even for routine matters you need to ring at 0830 at the practices here.

Im quite happy with a phone appointment tbh, but would like just to be able to book one. Even to book online