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[Pennyfarthing]

It's just hit me today (after driving mum to appointment) how local healthcare in our area has deteriorated.

I am now 62 and was born and raised where my Mum still lives. We had a GP in the village who had a surgery attached to his house.   You didn't make an appointment you just went and sat in the waiting room until you were seen.  If anybody needed treating at home then the district nurse came.

62 years on and we still have a GP practice which is part of a larger group. You have to make appointments and there's always a long wait if you want to be seen in our village.  A district nurse only calls if you are "totally housebound." 

My mum has a leg wound which needs dressing weekly and I tried to make an appointment today for her to be seen at the surgery across the road from her house and it's a three week wait!!!  In the meantime I am doing a 30 mile round trip every week to get it dressed at their other surgery where there are more nurses.

We used to have a cottage hospital 12 miles away which was great and our family had operations like tonsils removed, hysterectomy, varicose veins, hernias, gynae ops etc.  Anything you needed, you got done there!  Now we have a 70 mile round trip if we need an operation involving an overnight stay.

We are going backwards I tell you! 

[babyjane]

Too right

When our eldest was born the family doctor came out to visit after we came home from hospital.  When our middle one had an asthma attack in the night the on call GP (from the practice) came out from his home 17 miles away at 3 am to bring a nebuliser.  When my father died in 1969 their GP visited mum at home the next day.  We always saw our family doctor and he knew who we all were. 

These days I can still see my own doctor but I need to book well in advance because he is one of the good ones and therefore popular but there is little continuity of care otherwise and if you need an appointment on the day you don't know who you will see till you get there.  As for home visits, well I don't know because we have never yet needed one but I think you get a doctor from the out of ours service who could be from anywhere.

We no longer have maternity, childrens or A & E at our local hospital any more and our son and his wife had to travel 20 miles to the nearest city hospital with one of the babies if they needed attention in the night when they were small.

It doesn't seem like there will be the same level of care when we get old, there can't be, there just aren't the funds and the population of our town is much bigger now than it was.

[SadLynda]

Dont get me started, I could go on (and on...)

This weeks fight was to get the GP to diagnose a UTI in my Mum, as she started with signs of confusion late last week.  Took four days and me having a mega kick off at the surgery and the 'stand in' GP came out, as Mum's GP and the others she had seen at practice were all 'on leave'.  You would think this was a good thing, as finally we got the diagnosis and agreement with me that it was infact a UTI - AB's administered only to find on receipt of actual tablets that they were not to be taken with the other meds Mum was on. so had to wait another day for the 'right' AB's - 5 days from sample to treatment on a lady of 78 with CHF, Diabetes, Kidney Issues etc..

[Pennyfarthing]

It's such a shame seeing local provision being run down.

There's a little hospital locally which could be marvellous but they're quietly running it down. Loads of money was spent on it about 20 years ago and it had a ward for people with MS, MND etc where they could go for respite breaks.  They also took a few long term patients.  This closed about 10 years ago and stands empty. Another ward for elderly people recovering from surgery and also end of life care is just about still going.  They don't send people there so they can say at the end of the year "we only had X patients here last year."

There was a hydrotherapy pool which I believe is never used. I was there for physio last week and was shocked. There used to be a beautiful light and airy wood and glass room with about 6 beds with curtains and a couple of physios.  Last week all the beds had gone except one and just one physio in this huge room. It looked stupid!

A large fully equipped room for elderly day patients stands empty as do all the benches in the garden and all the little summer houses. 

[Pennyfarthing]

Oh heck I guess city life does have some compensations.

Although our local general hospital doesn't do everything any more, we can access pretty much every specialty with a cross city trip. What do you do about visiting if you have a loved one in hospital so far away? Must become exhausting.

ITs very exhausting! When my dad was in hospital I had to drive 20 miles to pick up my mum in one direction. THen I double backed on myself and went another 50 mile round trip.  The hospital he was in was built about 15 years ago without adequate parking so you drive round and round looking for a space and if you find one then you have to pay silly money. I did that most days for several weeks and then fought for him to come and end his days at the little hospital I mentioned earlier. I was told there were no beds but I got a social worker on my side and she found one and when we got there there were TWO other patients on the whole ward!! 

[groundhog]

Moan alert.  When my bowel perforated last year,  the hospital I was in was 75 miles away from home - so a 150 mile round trip for my family.  My husband had to move into a bedsit for a few weeks when I was really ill - it was a nightmare.  Now all my appointments are also in same hospital which is a pain.  But the expertise is there so I shouldn't complain but the distance is a nightmare .
GP surgery is current,y run my locums as all regular GPS have left,  no continuity and appointments - well don't get me started 😡

[Joyce]

We're lucky in that our GPs have remained constant for last few years apart from a few retirals. If something is really urgent they will deal with it there & then either by phone, visiting or if you can manage into surgeryby,  emergency appointment. I had to do that once with my asthma when I needed a nebuliser.

However, my daughter, who lives in England experiences a very different service at her GP surgery. Doctors forever changing, little or no continuity. She's a nurse & if she hadn't fought for our youngest GD's meds & those of her partner when they were really ill. Well I hate to think!

[Cazikins]

Don't get me started about the parking at hospitals. 
I have had 8.30 appts in the morning & get a parking spot ok, but at 9am, forget it  . It would be easier to get dropped off by OH, who then goes off to park up at a retail park near by & wait for me to call him to collect me.
Crazy world.

[CLKD]

Is there a dedicated 'ulcer' nurse available?