You have my sympathy buddy in every way. Much as I appreciate what the NHS does and has done for myself particularly there are still huge gaps to be filled in, but it's as much fault with the GP's as well.
My job before retirement was with the NHS and among other work I used to read referrals and put them in order of urgency which at times and much to my annoyance behind my back some consultants would bring their own patients bookings/appts forward leaving me to face the music of those whose appts had been put back----such as one which I'd marked urgent and a follow-up for breast cancer. The patient's husband was on the phone,distressed and angry as well he should have been and I was helpless to do anything about it because the consultant was " in charge ".
I too was fuming because I knew the woman had been really ill----------what do you do ? These " high-ups " are a law unto themselves with their attitudes. How dare an ordinary nurse tell them what to do !?
However it wasn't so long after that the poor woman died. I'm not saying that it was because her appt was put back but it wouldn't have hurt the consultant to have seen her when I'd already said.
Fortunately here over the water from Liverpool it's not too bad and I have no trouble seeing a GP if needed ( once a year thankfully ) but I do have a problem with wrong diagnoses such as my last visit in November last year. The GP made an urgent appointment for me to attend A&E because my balance was off-kilter. I was seen to straight away and given a CT scan of the brain. Waited for the results,got them was given anti-sickness pills from the pharmacy everything fine,it was vertigo.
In March I was back at the GP's telling her that it wasn't vertigo and that I'm not taking any tablets so she went onto the computer and told me that I'd had a mini-stroke----the hospital hadn't told me and she'd been surprised that they hadn't mentioned it. Bit of a difference,eh ? Stroke/vertigo ?
Anyway no further treatment and no follow-ups as I said I'd sort myself out, which I have. I'm well aware that you can have a few of these TIA's and not always notice but when it shows up on a scan and nothing's said it is a case of get on with it. Probably because of my own age.
I too avoid the hospital like the plague.Last time being 2006 for 2/3 days.
This latest debacle involving 100's of patients is appalling and obvious what's behind it all. I thank goodness that I still have a " sharp tongue " in my head and a voice loud enough to refuse any chemical cosh's. All those poor people were robbed of their voices because their minds were full of opiates. RIP.
Why do some professionals feel that they must put themselves in this " God like " position ??Psycopaths.