THANK YOU HEALTH WORKERS

Amen, William.

You've obviously had far better Health Service experiences than mine.

Here, we have to wait 2 weeks for appointment to see our G.P. And then are kept waiting for ages.

Over several years different doctors failed to diagnose my wife's gallstones, duodenitis and other illnesses; i ended up diagnosing them myself, before she finally had treatment/ the necessary ops, after years of avoidable suffering. Her gallstones op was cancelled on the day itself 3 times, each time postponed for weeks or months.

When she damaged her neck in a car crash, she was sent for physio that caused further damage and pain.

After discharge from a hospital op several years back she was supposed to have an antibiotic injection that day from the local surgery; they couldn't find her prescription or info, didn't give it, and she contracted a serious infection that meant a further op. A couple of years on, the prescription for the injection turned up out of the blue, when she was expecting a simple painkilling injection- so she was almost given the wrong one.

During one admission my wife was supposed to be kept under observation in the night; an elderly patient fell on the floor and was there for hours despite my wife's trying to get attention.

When she had an op to remove lumps from her lower back, i noticed the bandages were swollen and felt like huge lumps, when she was about to be discharged. The nurse said don't worry, it's only the bandages. When i insisted she checked properly, sure enough my wife had blood clots that meant immediate removal op without anaesthetic.

A few weeks ago she was visiting her sister in another hospital, found her on the floor on 2 occasions (her sister had passed out); one time despite neck and back damage she had to lift her herself as there was only a trainee available who said she couldn't and other staff were busy; caused herself further injury and another hospital admission.

During this admission the nurses twice gave her the wrong tablets, despite my pointing out their error after the first mistake.

She was also given medication to which she's seriously allergic despite my confirming to the allergy day before when they saw it recorded in her notes.

On getting home after discharge we realised one set of daily medication was missing, rang the ward who said it wasn't there, so we spent most of the day trying to get another presciption at the surgery before the ward told us they'd found the medication after all.

When we lived in Birmingham i rang our then GP in the night to say i was sure i had food poisoning (i suspected the chicken i'd eaten and had had food poisoning once before) and that i'd got a tempreature of 104f and was being sick, diarrhoea etc. He said it sounded like flu, just take paracetamol and he refused to come. It was later confirmed as food poisoning.

Another time i requested a visit to my wife who was ill with a temperature of 104 also. That GP also refused, saying if it continued go to Casualty in the morning- which we did. She was immediately admitted with severe bronchitis.

The GP's here avoid home visits like the plague. We're far from alone.

Appointments with the neurosurgeon have a 2 year waiting list each time.

I'm afraid my faith in Health workers- doctors, specialists, nurses and all has been destroyed- this although i'm a retired doctor's son.

wow; so sorry to hear of all your problems with the
medial proffesion and others involved.my poem was written after the sars outbreak here in Toronto
Canada we witnessed nurses who worked tirlessly
to help the patients who had contracted this dread disease, and there were more than one death reported as a result of these nurses taking this virus home to their loved ones. A husband of one of the nurses died as a result of being infected and the nurse herself died shortly afterward.A well known doctor also died after catching this virus from one of his patients. because of their tireless
efforts a much more serious epidemic was averted
nurses in all the hospitals wore masks from morning til night (very uncomfortable) no visitors were allowed in any of the hospitals. and those patients recieving medical care were screened most methodically. I thank you for your comments and wish you well in the future

kenji, Where are you from? My son is a doctor/disabled, and we suspect it was the result of a mistake.

I'm from a country town in Wales, but also spent years in England. I'm unimpressed by the policies of consecutive governments (if they thought a bit more about prevention they wouldn't have to keep increasing spending to keep up with demand and struggle to reduce the enormous waiting lists), as well as with the standard of work i've come across- this in a once famous system founded by my compatriot Nye Bevan.

We had a great holiday in Toronto and are still happy to think of the kindness of the people. Thank you Toronto and Canada. I'd almost forgotten about the SARS problem in the city; i'll certainly add my voice to the praise for the Health Workers there, in such a difficult and dangerous situation!

Kenji: It sounds to me like you know your politicts
as i understand it you have a two tier system of medicare, both public and private. In Canada we are experiencing Politicians who are on the extreme
right advocating private medicine. But the large majority of our population want to keep our medicare programme in public hands so there wont be any queue jumping for diagnostic and surgery by proffecianal doctors.So far we are winning this contraversy and i am glad.the state of your health
and that of your family should never have to be
accountable to your pocket book, or purse. I thank god for living in a Country where the majority of our population will not sacrifice this position.

I have great admiration for Canada, a more enlightened and peace-loving country, it seems. Here in Britain we seem determined to copy the worst not the best aspects of American life. Most of the social, political, environmental and health problems we encounter as a result are directly predictable 15 years ahead- e.g obesity. Unfortunately the medical profession has always been more into cure than prevention.