My NHS Experience

I had no idea how the NHS system had changed since I last used it in the mid 1970s. I'm not keen on going to see a doctor and when my twisted arm played up in the 1970s I just went to the surgery and waited amongst a load of other people to see a doctor. As I have been feeling as if I was going to faint virtually every day for several months and my body had stopped sweating I was not in a good way. While shaving recently I almost collapsed so I struggled into my living room and was lying down on the carpet with my legs raised up towards a chair just to help my blood flow to my head. I got hold of my phone and found the medical centre number and asked for an appointment to see a doctor. It was a thursday afternoon and I was told to call back at 8.30am the next day and I would be given an appointment time. I phoned the next day (friday)and after getting the engaged tone for a quarter of an hour was given an appointment for tuesday morning. So I now had to wait four more days to see a doctor. Tuesday morning came and I was given a blood pressure test and given an appointment for friday morning for a blood test. I arrived on friday for my first ever blood test and I don't like the idea of needles. The nurse put the needle into one of the two veins inside the arm at the elbow. My vein was almost rejecting the needle and the nurse had to put the needle into the vein a second time but still needed some more blood and eventually she put the needle into the other vein to get the samples she needed. The expected bruising appeared but after some ten days it has mostly gone. It looks like a modern medical centre fully computerised might be more efficient by not having loads of people waiting in a reception area but potentially seriously ill people could be left waiting far too long for the help they need.