Originally Posted by Lion in Winter (Post 13152841)

I'll see what I can do. Not to get all political i the wrong forum, but the poor old NHS hasn't exactly been made a priority over the last 12 years. Fragmented, under-resourced, pieces contracted out, overloaded doctors, etc. It needs nelp now.

Originally Posted by Lion in Winter (Post 13151971)

I don't. I don't even know if one has been decided yet or who does the deciding, but I can ask that at the surgery. Can you mix and match? ie pay for one appointment and get the followups (annual, in the US) and the defib care on the NHS? Or is it all private or all NHS?

The defib thing was done separately in the US, but maybe it's not here. It was actually done remotely through a device we had at home which established a bluetooth connection with the thing in his chest (yeah, strange).

There are hospitals with cardiac centres about the place.

Is it the case that within the NHS the patient cannot call directly for any services likes this (other than mental health which I know is self refer)? I got so used to being a health care "customer" in the US and having to go shopping for my own services, that I'm a bit at sea.

Originally Posted by bats (Post 13153493)

https://www.mse.nhs.uk/cardiac-centr...ology-services

look at this. Southend Hospital has a support group for people with implanted cardiac defibrillators. There are also clinic phone numbers. Start with them and see what their procedure is for routine checks. They should be able to give you the names of the the cardiologists that specialise in this