dukeynorton

Pretty hard to seek a second opinion when you have just awoken from a coma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think with specialist areas, you have to actively seek people out in the UK. Usually, GPs will refer you to whoever you want (my GP does anyway) but you just need to know who is good. When you do find the right person, it can be top notch.

Many doctors are very lazy and do not keep up wth things and this can be a disaster.............literally.

jumping doris

Where my OH used to work in the UK, the physio's were very powerful.
Decisions like that should be made by a team of people but in the hospital OH worked in the physios were like prima donnas. They were very obstructive at meetings and caused huge delays in decisions if things didn't go their way.
The consultants tended to listen to them because they assumed they knew the patients best and people were always rushed, short staffed and quite frankly didn't want the hassle from the physio dept.

I could see what happened to Sophia, happening again today.....and I love the NHS.

Aplogies to all the nice physios out there.

TruBrit

wow i'm with elvira on that one, i really don't think a physio could determine whether a nursing home would have been for you, that decision if at all would have had to come from far higher up the ladder.....my neice is a physio and i know that would not be a decision she could make alone.

Elvira

Presumably, when she was having physio, she was no longer in a coma. And she mentioned having a husband.

I don't think it is any easier to access a top specialist in the US than in the UK. Quite the contrary. When our son was hospitalised, we had to make do with the specialists at the level 3 hospital which is covered by our plan. Our request to have him moved to a higher level hospital (2 miles away!) was refused.

TruBrit

that's when it's handy to have a loved one/relative close by to seek a second opinion for you as i did for my parents.

Elvira

I'm just wondering, from the way she described what went on, what formal assessment on consultation process she went through. It just seems a bit drastic to emigrate based on what may have been a throwaway comment by a physio.

britvic

But being as her OH is American, not sure he would of known the first place to start looking while in the UK.

Sophia_S

To be honest,I really wasn't in any condition to know everything that was happening....all I know was that I heard her tell my husband that,and I managed to summon up the strength to tell him to bring the USAF doctors in to see me,they were there about 2-3 days later,from what I remember everything happened so fast,the US doctors couldn't get over the lack of care I was getting,but I do remember my husband telling me that the English doctor did actually tell him that if she was him,she'd bring the USAF doctors in asap.....the other thing I DO remember VERY clearly was when I was recovering in the hospital in London, the physio used to put me on a 'tilt table' and she told my husband it was very important that I continue being put on it when I was being transfered back to my local hospital,however,the physio at Frimley Park said they didn't have one...but a few days later the door of my room was left open and I actually saw her pushing it past the door!...I knew then,that if I were to stay there I'd never get better....
while I was in Walter Reed I had VERY intensive physical Therapy...5 days a week 3 hours in the mornings,lunch,then another 4 hours in the afternoon for the whole 6 months I was there,it was SUCH hard work,but I'm convinced that's why I got better so quickly...no-one pushed me,they just let me do what ever I felt strong enough to do,but they were there to help,as I said before,I could NEVER thank them enough.....if I ever go back to the UK I'd love to bump into that physio,just to slap her!!!!!!:curse:

jumping doris

Perhaps it was discussed by all the people involved and the physio spoke out of turn? or got the wrong end of the stick.

TruBrit

i guess it's like situations i find myself in here sometimes, you've just got to ask and ask and ask again and keep on at peeps and don't give up or give in esp where health is the issue.

fatbrit

So the motto of this story is that government-run health care works, since that is what you received in the US. Or that government-run health care doesn't work since that is what you received in the UK!

The real motto is that we can't assess how good or bad a system is by our own personal anecdotes. Instead we have researchers to put the whole picture together for us and tell us what is working better.

And when we get to those figures, there is-I believe-only one answer: American health care delivers less results for more money than comparable systems. Unless someone wants to actual produce the figures that state otherwise...

TruBrit

on the contrary, if it was me i would have written to her long before now and told her my outcome, might have helped her with other patients in similar situations and given you satisfaction at the same time.

britvic

There will always be some that feel they have been very let down by the NHS but I for one have nothing but prase for Frimley Park Hospital. And I choose not to go in to personal details.

Jerseygirl

Have you just come up for air while Pierce is around?

britvic