Ok…Having a rant as in toothache like pain and so called Next Day Delivery pain meds still awaits
Is it me ?
Increasingly over the years I seem to have to be my own Vet, Dentist & Doctor due to Cost or Lack of Access to these Highly Trained Skilled & Experienced Professionals [10 yrs on average]
I mean I had to Google what was wrong with my late Cat and tell the vet I thought she had Adult onset Type 2 Diabetes
Recently had to advise GP an alternative med to the one they prescribed
I’m 65 yrs so remember previous experience with vets, dentist & doctors
I’m educated to Post-Grad Level
But clever as Google etc is I don’t think it [or AI] should be what we as non-professionals should be relying on
My daughter on East side of Worcs… no NHS dentists with spaces within 30 miles… tried ‘em all… on lots of waiting lists.
Teeth been perfect since a child - no fillings. No checkup for 5 yrs due to lack of dentists. Suddenly she cracks a tooth and NO CHOICE but to go to private dentist who fitted her in within days… so much for mega-busy no time dentists!
Treatment includes root canal treatment and crown; also found two teeth that need filling… and the cost!!!
£2200
That includes £200 of pre and post aftercare. She brings home £1000/month… guess who’s paying the bill!
NHS treatment being privatised by the back door - or in this case straight through the front door!
ie cheapest Meds first, if they don’t work, try the next more expensive, and so on until they reach the one they would prefer to give, but can’t initially. Meanwhile the patient suffers…
After an op seven years ago my surgeon said I needed one particular med in a small daily dose for a couple of months but it must be prescribed by GP. However GP and NICE said a bigger dose once a week of the cheapest, which was useless. I did not feel up to arguing the case…
Supplier is also significant. For some particular meds for someone I know well, the specialist private consultant (forget NHS) recommended a pharmacy in Scotland, and even when using Next Day Recorded Delivery it is a tenth the price our local pharmacies quoted, same brand, same packaging.
NHS dentist in Stone, Staffs. That’s NHS as in free at the point of delivery. I’m now on my third dentist at this practice as the previous two wrote to me to tell me they were going private.
Diagnosed with root canal abscess. Told that it was a narrow canal and beyond their expertise. There are about 10 dentists in the practice and they are expanding into Stoke. For £80 they would refer me to a private dentist who would charge me £800. Plus about £300 for the cap.
Told them no and wasn’t there an NHS dentist with the expertise. They said they would refer me to Birmingham teaching hospital with their 12-month waiting lists if I insisted. I insisted.
Got a long letter from Birmingham confirming I was on their waiting list, which could be 12 months.
Got a similar letter a month later.
Got a phonecall a month after that asking me if there were any dates I couldn’t go.
Got a phonecall a month later from Dental Restore Services, which I nearly ignored as a cold caller. My curiosity got the better of me and I answered it.
I had been farmed out to the private sector which turned out to be a single shop unit in a parade of shops near junction 5 of the M5, 52 miles away.
Two abscesses were diagnosed. As a “hospital patient” I will pay didly squat but the private practice will bill the NHS £2500 for my treatment. It will take three round trips in all 312 miles car travel.
Burton hospital, 20 miles could do the work but they only do life threatening work such as mouth cancers.
As far as I am aware, GPs and dentists are all private partnerships but with NHS contracts. They are not actually a part of the NHS as with employees. When Bevan got them onside in 1948 he was asked how he’d done it. “I stuffed their mouths with gold” was his answer.
Richard FX…Concur 100%. Didn’t know about NICE but it makes sense with conversations I’ve had with my current lovely GP
[Boy was I fuming when their Practice Manager charged me £60 for prints of my Medical Records so I could work out what was wrong with me ]
Yep…sourcing Supplier…Straw & Camel recently when Big Buyer Tesco couldn’t get simple pain med but was lucky to find it via Boots on-line with freebie code Next Day Delivery. Being 60 Plus normally get Scripts for free and fortunately the pain med wasn’t expensive…but what a palavar. [Boots were great with quick call from their pharmacist to check no reactive meds. Royal Mail…not so much]
Blood Pressure…Not on Pills yet as GP says Increase due to ‘Stress’
Cooling down with BBC Proms and plodding on with tasks now my pain management under control
Site telling not to reply…I’m ignoring it [Admin…don’t shut me down as important for me to support fellow members]
Empathy…Hope my experience helps?
1987-90 [Under-graduate York Uni]. I was in my late 20’s
Local Dentist: 'You’ve got X Condition…all your teeth will fall out in next few years but don’t worry
Found book in uni library and checked with Dad who said ‘Oh your Mum had that’
Genetic predisposition. I insisted on treatment. Learnt that in my Mums Day the treatment was remove all teeth & replace with dentures but now it was ‘save the teeth’
Oh Boy…You talk about ‘Root Canal’ Work.
This was before the Internet
Phone call from a Dentist in Ripon
“Will do it for Free”
Bless him
As I was a student I’d come away with all of his free samples
Bless him
Didn’t know he’d never done the work before
So initially he’d done the stitches from side to side so when the swelling went down hubby had to cut the loops of cotton hanging in the roof of my mouth
Feedback…so he went with the stiches inside and out on every single tooth
I do remember he struggled with the front top teeth
Because the bone was ‘lacey’ and he had to inject me 12 times
And because the bone was so lacey he said ‘no chance on the bottom front teeth’
Bless him
He would moisten a cloth and wipe the blood off my face after each surgery [so as not to frighten the patients in the waiting room]
We had a good laugh about it but after the final time I said to my husband ‘Just hit him will you’
Then
He rang to say ‘Do you know what a rare case you are? I can get on a course with Head Honcho at Leeds Dental Hospital…there are only 5 places’
So in the interests of Research off I trot from York to Leeds [I’m probably mentioned in some Research Paper as Patient X]
I was expecting ‘Free Treatment’ from the Dental Hospital…no such luck
‘Root Canal’ work just slows down the process of the disease
Loads of pain trying to ‘save the teeth’ over subsequent years
Went Private and Paid £1,500 for a bottom front teeth ‘Bridge’ …think circa 2000…It’s still going strong
Benefit of hindsight ‘remove all teeth and replace with dentures’ as they advised my mom is what I’d do now
Aged 65 yrs
But aged late 20 yrs…‘Vanity’ ?
I’d have gone for implant if I could have afforded them
My 84 FIL is stumping up for private double cataract op, consultant appointment in 2 days, surgery within 2 weeks, almost £6K… he can afford it and the quality of life improvements will be significant. On the NHS waiting list, well we don’t know how long, not anytime soon though.
In contrast, my MIL (81) was farmed out by the NHS within a month to the private sector. Because she couldn’t keep still for the length of the procedure she was bounced back into the NHS hospital and pretty soon had BOTH eyes done under general anaesthetic. In all about 3 months. I suspect it’s to do with the political management of targets and waiting lists.
Discharged the same day with special goggles and a month’s supply of eye drops she has 20/20 long vision. Just needs reading glasses.
Pretty sure we got struck off our dentists books for not booking an annual check up.
Last time I saw them they said I’d be losing all my teeth in a couple of years time, but they went ahead and did two required fillings. One fell out within a couple of months, the other looks like tooth decay behind it now.
Pharmacists are better than GPs when it comes to knowledge of medicines, as an example we were told by the GP there was no other pain killer for my Dad when he had terminal cancer, the Pharmacist suggested one and the GP permitted us to try it (that’s the downside, having to get GP approval) - and as it turned out, the symptoms were not the cancer but the GP prescribed pain reliefs’ side effects, such as not being able to lift his legs more than an inch off the ground without extreme pain. Once he was off those, he was back to walking as normal.
I’ve had a few experiences of my own which is why (sadly) I’m always sceptical.
Agree
Especially ‘side effects’
Told Tesco Pharmacy re my actions and by the time I’d done my shopping she’d already told someone else re Boots on-line
Early days but alternative med seems to be working
My late Dad had severe heart attack [shocked 7 times]. 3 Months Rehab learning to talk/walk etc again
On release stayed at friends farm. It was awful to watch him…he couldn’t sit still, sleep or eat so I checked his multitude of meds with his GP and all bar one [anti-epilepsy] were ‘behaviour control’ [the cheeky chappy had been running around the wards climbing into the beds of female patients !]
Drive through it in the way to CS Haynes (10% off for the plug Colin?)
Hope your pain relief is sorted. Cocodomol is the usual default drug but as a kid I was given clove oil as a last resort. Agony for 5 seconds and then no pain!
OK checked their website via ‘my dentist’ which said they were accepting new patients so I rang them on your behalf but they are only accepting new private patients
Sorry…my bad…guess I was lucky to get in with them 2014 NHS
I’ve avoided cocodomol as it played havoc with my tummy. 1978-81 [aged 20-23 yrs] first dental pain clove oil did not work - back and forth between GP and Dentist on so many meds. Eventually dentist said it’s an abscess and treated correctly but it was too late as tooth died
Wish I could have helped more
Last works done in Feb this year Col & Steph still doing 10% discount for Members
Just back from my three and a half hour round trip.
Can’t move one half of my top lip so the missus is helpless with laughter at my Elvis impression every time I speak. Ex- nurse, so no sympathy whatsoever.
I don’t know if it’s a coincidence but since I’ve been on the Triple Lock two NHS dentists I’ve been going to have told me they are going private
Don’t like visiting dentists and hadn’t visited my old NHS one for about five years. Thought I would be without one as no local ones accepting new patients. Gave them a call and I was still on their list. Don’t just assume that you have been wiped from the records if you haven’t been for years.
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