Is there any hope for the NHS in your opinion?

I think not.

For the first time ever I have been unable to make a GP's appointment. I offered to wait the two to three weeks which is standard practice now.....even that couldn't be done.
Full up for the foreseeable.

What a sad state of affairs for our once thriving NHS.

I was quite ill at the beginning of this week and I rang my GP (never, ever call my GP) and I rang a total of 28 times and never got through.

eddie wrote:I was quite ill at the beginning of this week and I rang my GP (never, ever call my GP) and I rang a total of 28 times and never got through.  

Getting through is the first huge hurdle.

I tried to ring to get my blood test results back (and thats a whole new different balls up thanks to the NHS) I tried about 6 times, the best result was 'You are 18th in the queue'. I stuck it out today as I was only 12th in the queue....after 40 plus minutes I was answered.
Only to be told there are no appointments for the foreseeable and none are being taken at present.
If I ring back on the 27th of this month some new appointments may be available then.

It's only the Fu**ing 8th today for F*CKs sake...I might be dead by then.

Well I do hope you’re not dead by then. Maybe phone them on the 27th at the stroke of midnight and stay on the line until they open for business?
That’ll teach ‘em to mess with you. Yeah baby.

eddie wrote:Well I do hope you’re not dead by then. Maybe phone them on the 27th at the stroke of midnight and stay on the line until they open for business?
That’ll teach ‘em to mess with you. Yeah baby.

On the 27th the phone lines will open at 8am....guess what, the world and his wife will be trying to get through, probably be 900000 in the queue then.

I reckon preventative care is the way forward for the NHS. Did you know that half of the Americans who died in 2000 died of preventable causes like diabetes, respiratory disease, etc.? I do, because I just read it on Wikipedia.

Syl wrote:

eddie wrote:Well I do hope you’re not dead by then. Maybe phone them on the 27th at the stroke of midnight and stay on the line until they open for business?
That’ll teach ‘em to mess with you. Yeah baby.

On the 27th the phone lines will open at 8am....guess what, the world and his wife will be trying to get through, probably be 900000 in the queue then.

Hmmmm. Perhaps you can camp outside the surgery overnight, the night before?
Oooh! Take some sarnies.

Ben Reilly wrote:I reckon preventative care is the way forward for the NHS. Did you know that half of the Americans who died in 2000 died of preventable causes like diabetes, respiratory disease, etc.? I do, because I just read it on Wikipedia.

Syl? When you camp outside the surgery give Ben a call and he can regale you with Wikipedia nonsense whilst you wait.

And the blood tests I wanted to see the Dr about was some recently taken for osteoarthritis
.
I was told "Dr has marked them clear"......I have a fu**ing complete knee replacement because I am riddled with osteoarthritis, I need a new Knee on the other side now because of osteoarthritis, my ring size has suddenly shot up 4 sizes because of osteoarthritis yet according to the snotty receptionist the Dr  has marked them clear.

I noted Didge said on a recent thread that if he rings the Dr's surgery in the morning more often than not he can get an appointment the same day....does he live in LaLa land or somewhere?

Like I said...the NHS is now useless.

I can call my doctor right now and likely talk to her directly. If not I could talk to a nurse. Or I could call my mom's and discuss some things with her too.

But I live in a backwards ass shithole and that's how we do it around here.

eddie wrote:

Syl wrote:

On the 27th the phone lines will open at 8am....guess what, the world and his wife will be trying to get through, probably be 900000 in the queue then.

Hmmmm. Perhaps you can camp outside the surgery overnight, the night before?
Oooh! Take some sarnies.

Eddie, are you taking this seriously??

Syl wrote:

eddie wrote:

Syl wrote:

On the 27th the phone lines will open at 8am....guess what, the world and his wife will be trying to get through, probably be 900000 in the queue then.

Hmmmm. Perhaps you can camp outside the surgery overnight, the night before?
Oooh! Take some sarnies.

Eddie, are you taking this seriously??

Yes I am! I told you to make sarnies and I said call Ben so he could bore you with wiki facts! Pffffff.

Maddog wrote:I can call my doctor right now and likely talk to her directly. If not I could talk to a nurse.  Or I could call my mom's and discuss some things with her too.

But I live in a backwards ass shithole and that's how we do it around here.

Different system, you dont have a NHS.
We obviously need a complete overhaul....it has worked for 70 years, there are reasons it's on it's knees now and they have to be sorted else we are going to have people dying on the bloody streets.

eddie wrote:

Syl wrote:

eddie wrote:

Syl wrote:

On the 27th the phone lines will open at 8am....guess what, the world and his wife will be trying to get through, probably be 900000 in the queue then.

Hmmmm. Perhaps you can camp outside the surgery overnight, the night before?
Oooh! Take some sarnies.

Eddie, are you taking this seriously??

Yes I am! I told you to make sarnies and I said call Ben so he could bore you with wiki facts! Pffffff.  

For example, did you know that the NHS building was constructed in 1295 by the decree of the Duke of Tooting?

eddie wrote:

Syl wrote:

Eddie, are you taking this seriously??

Yes I am! I told you to make sarnies and I said call Ben so he could bore you with wiki facts! Pffffff.  

Yeah, well when my hands get so bad I cant type....you will BOTH be sorry.

Ben Reilly wrote:

eddie wrote:

Syl wrote:

eddie wrote:

Syl wrote:

On the 27th the phone lines will open at 8am....guess what, the world and his wife will be trying to get through, probably be 900000 in the queue then.

Hmmmm. Perhaps you can camp outside the surgery overnight, the night before?
Oooh! Take some sarnies.

Eddie, are you taking this seriously??

Yes I am! I told you to make sarnies and I said call Ben so he could bore you with wiki facts! Pffffff.  

For example, did you know that the NHS building was constructed in 1295 by the decree of the Duke of Tooting?

Dude, don’t wind her up. She’s already miffed.

Syl wrote:

Maddog wrote:I can call my doctor right now and likely talk to her directly. If not I could talk to a nurse.  Or I could call my mom's and discuss some things with her too.

But I live in a backwards ass shithole and that's how we do it around here.

Different system, you dont have a NHS.
We obviously need a complete overhaul....it has worked for 70 years, there are reasons it's on it's knees now and they have to be sorted else we are going to have people dying on the bloody streets.

We have the VA for those that served in our military. It sucks.

It's on it's knees because more people are using it and less people are paying into it. The only solution is rationing, and that is ALWAYS the end result of government provided healthcare. It just takes longer in some cases than others.


Meanwhile in the US, we have people talking about how great the level of services is in the UK.

Ben Reilly wrote:

eddie wrote:

Yes I am! I told you to make sarnies and I said call Ben so he could bore you with wiki facts! Pffffff.  

For example, did you know that the NHS building was constructed in 1295 by the decree of the Duke of Tooting?

Have you morphed into Quill..?

Maddog wrote:

Syl wrote:

Maddog wrote:I can call my doctor right now and likely talk to her directly. If not I could talk to a nurse.  Or I could call my mom's and discuss some things with her too.

But I live in a backwards ass shithole and that's how we do it around here.

Different system, you dont have a NHS.
We obviously need a complete overhaul....it has worked for 70 years, there are reasons it's on it's knees now and they have to be sorted else we are going to have people dying on the bloody streets.

We have the VA for those that served in our military. It sucks.

It's on it's knees because more people are using it and less people are paying into it. The only solution is rationing, and that is ALWAYS the end result of government provided healthcare. It just takes longer in some cases than others.


Meanwhile in the US, we have people talking about how great the level of services is in the UK.  

No pun intended....

Don’t make Syl mad!

Maddog wrote:

Syl wrote:

Different system, you dont have a NHS.
We obviously need a complete overhaul....it has worked for 70 years, there are reasons it's on it's knees now and they have to be sorted else we are going to have people dying on the bloody streets.

We have the VA for those that served in our military. It sucks.

It's on it's knees because more people are using it and less people are paying into it. The only solution is rationing, and that is ALWAYS the end result of government provided healthcare. It just takes longer in some cases than others.


Meanwhile in the US, we have people talking about how great the level of services is in the UK.  

It was...past tense.
We can go private, but the NHS has always been a brilliant way of not discerning between class and privilege, it was there for all...from cradle to grave.

no its a dead stick

the NHS murders children because its cheaper to kill em off than to treat them, everythinig in the NHS is price dependant.

if they can afford it you live if not you die, this whole idea that its free sevice is the biggest load of shit going, its only free if youre an illeglal immigrant or some extinction rebellion benefits scournger vermin, everyone else pays through the ass for it and then you get denied life saving treatment cause they blew all the cash on transgender ops and boob jobs.

and if anyone thinks the NHS is a nationalised service they are fooling themselves, the only thing national about it is the name NHS and the people who work for it getting paid by the govt, but everything else is privatised or bougt from a private company.

disband it and sell it, let people keep their national insurance and pay bupa instead

eddie wrote:

Maddog wrote:

We have the VA for those that served in our military. It sucks.

It's on it's knees because more people are using it and less people are paying into it. The only solution is rationing, and that is ALWAYS the end result of government provided healthcare. It just takes longer in some cases than others.


Meanwhile in the US, we have people talking about how great the level of services is in the UK.  

No pun intended....

Don’t make Syl mad!  

Do you want me to change my vote in the Poll thread?? …. well do you???

Syl wrote:

Maddog wrote:

We have the VA for those that served in our military. It sucks.

It's on it's knees because more people are using it and less people are paying into it. The only solution is rationing, and that is ALWAYS the end result of government provided healthcare. It just takes longer in some cases than others.


Meanwhile in the US, we have people talking about how great the level of services is in the UK.  

It was...past tense.
We can go private, but the NHS has always been  a brilliant way of not discerning between class and privilege, it was there for all...from cradle to grave.

It was going to go broke. It was just a matter of when.

Syl wrote:

Ben Reilly wrote:

eddie wrote:

Yes I am! I told you to make sarnies and I said call Ben so he could bore you with wiki facts! Pffffff.  

For example, did you know that the NHS building was constructed in 1295 by the decree of the Duke of Tooting?

Have you morphed into Quill..?

No, but here's another interesting fact about the NHS building that I learned when I visited it in the London borough of The Covenant Gardens -- it was constructed entirely out of glass and now there's a football team named after it, the Glass Building Gillywaters.

smelly-bandit wrote:no its a dead stick

the NHS murders children because its cheaper to kill em off than to treat them, everythinig in the NHS is price dependant.

if they can afford it you live if not you die, this whole idea that its free sevice is the biggest load of shit going, its only free if youre an illeglal immigrant or some extinction rebellion benefits scournger vermin, everyone else pays through the ass for it and then you get denied life saving treatment cause they blew all the cash on transgender ops and boob jobs.

and if anyone thinks the NHS is a nationalised service they are fooling themselves, the only thing national about it is the name NHS and the people who work for it getting paid by the govt, but everything else is privatised or bougt from a private company.

disband it and sell it, let people keep their national insurance and pay bupa instead

I agree with some of your post. Millions have paid 50 plus years in tax and NI to fund the NHS amongst other things.
The irony is the people who have paid in the most for decades end up old and sick and then have to pay themselves for the care at the end of their lives.

Ben Reilly wrote:

Syl wrote:

Have you morphed into Quill..?

No, but here's another interesting fact about the NHS building that I learned when I visited it in the London borough of The Covenant Gardens -- it was constructed entirely out of glass and now there's a football team named after it, the Glass Building Gillywaters.

Fascinating...think on this.
When you live here full time you will be one of the people unable to get through to make a none existent appointment with a surgery that probably wont even be open then....so start saving up for private medical care, which will probably cost a lot more than you pay in the US presently.

Syl wrote:

smelly-bandit wrote:no its a dead stick

the NHS murders children because its cheaper to kill em off than to treat them, everythinig in the NHS is price dependant.

if they can afford it you live if not you die, this whole idea that its free sevice is the biggest load of shit going, its only free if youre an illeglal immigrant or some extinction rebellion benefits scournger vermin, everyone else pays through the ass for it and then you get denied life saving treatment cause they blew all the cash on transgender ops and boob jobs.

and if anyone thinks the NHS is a nationalised service they are fooling themselves, the only thing national about it is the name NHS and the people who work for it getting paid by the govt, but everything else is privatised or bougt from a private company.

disband it and sell it, let people keep their national insurance and pay bupa instead

I agree with some of your post. Millions have paid 50 plus years in NI to fund the NHS amongst other things.
The irony is the people who have paid in the most for decades end up old and sick and then have to pay themselves for the care at the end of their lives.

and then you look at wha the top headshed are getting, 6 figure salaries for what?? compared to the nurses and porters etc.

i firend of my used to work in the nhs and he told me they were informed of some govt cash boost that they would all be receiving as a wage hike, but he said they got nothing cause it filtered in from the top down and got syphoned off.

then you have the PFI contracts that labour signed usinto which bleeds the NHS of millions, its the same everywhere, you cant just have the ward handyman change a light bulb,its gotta go through several layers of expensive bureaucracy to a thid party company who employs the private handy man who then gets paid £70 an hour to fit a 20p light bulb which then the NHS then gets charged £100 for.

everything that gets used is supplied by a third party company that charges well over the odds for everything, you could buy in bulk at retail price from waitrose and still come in under what the NHS is getting charged.

this is one exampe of how socialism fails, the NHS is a socilaist health care system and its failing just like everything with socialism

Syl wrote:

Ben Reilly wrote:

Syl wrote:

Have you morphed into Quill..?

No, but here's another interesting fact about the NHS building that I learned when I visited it in the London borough of The Covenant Gardens -- it was constructed entirely out of glass and now there's a football team named after it, the Glass Building Gillywaters.

Fascinating...think on this.
When you live here full time you will be one of the people unable to get through to make a none existent appointment with a surgery that probably wont even be open then....so start saving up for private medical care, which will probably cost a lot more than you pay in the US presently.

Sorry, Syl

Syl wrote:

eddie wrote:

Maddog wrote:

We have the VA for those that served in our military. It sucks.

It's on it's knees because more people are using it and less people are paying into it. The only solution is rationing, and that is ALWAYS the end result of government provided healthcare. It just takes longer in some cases than others.


Meanwhile in the US, we have people talking about how great the level of services is in the UK.  

No pun intended....

Don’t make Syl mad!  

Do you want me to change my vote in the Poll thread?? …. well do you???

Sorry Syl.

Maybe if we spent as much on health care as other European Countries we'd be ok.

My GPs used to be a walk in and wait to be seen service in the mornings and evenings... and was great...

Now it is a phone up and book appointment service... and if I ever phone up and try to book I am usually told that it is all booked up for the next 2 weeks and that they don't take bookings any further ahead than 2 weeks...


The system before used to be very busy sometimes... but would always end up getting seen... and never had to wait more than an hour...


Under the newer system... I tried for weeks to book into seeing the GP at my doctors surgery who was a skin specialist, as I had a funny little bit of a skin rash that would sometimes appear on various different parts of body at different times... could be any one of these areas on it's own, or a combination of areas... forearm inside elbow joint area, lower front neck, patches on chest or belly, little bits around armpit area/side chest, inside of legs behind knee area...


Tried for few months to get to see this skin specialist GP... but could never get booking to see her... as it turned out that she was always too busy as she was always being booked up by women who wanted to see her for things that any of the other Male GPs were perfectly capable of dealing with, nothing related to her speciality in skin disorders... but the women just wanted to see her because she was a woman...


I gave up in the end...!

now I explained that system - turn up and wait on here at one time and was called a liar, glad you too confirm, among others at the time.
We'd have walk in surgeries in the morning and evening, the gp would do home visits in between and be on call for certain nights. We also had two chemists to choose from none of the medicine will be in this afternoon. Doctors and chemists lived in the village and knew just about everyone.
One gp went to school with my father and he never failed to stop and have a chat when doing house calls he'd only be there 10mins but it seemed much longer

Vintage... the system I describe was the long term normal at my local GP... and only changed a few years ago... although I cant say what other GPs surgerys were doing in my area at the time...


And my GPs is the same one I have been with for the last 37 years... and it is in southeast of London...

By coincidence, this programme highlighting exactly what has been said here, was shown on BBC TV last night. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/headlines/48195347/gp-surgeries-in-crisis-you-can-t-get-an-appointment

I have, [among lot's of other Medical problems] something called Peripheral Neuropathy,[look it up] .As it's getting worse I asked for an appointment with my Vascular Surgeon, a letter came from his Secretary , "We will contact you for an appointment within the next 18 weeks", 18 WEEKS FFS !

I feel your pain, Nicko.
Went to my GP 4 weeks ago about my bad knee.
He recognised the symptoms as a torn cartilage, which requires an MRI scan, followed by a meniscecomy.
I am still waiting for the report to be triaged by a non medically qualified clerk to enable them to send me for the procedures.
A pointless beaurocratic arm of the NHS , where their salaries
and admin costs would be better spent on frontline services

I don't understand how doctors are now under such strain. Under the system Tommy and I talk about it was an almost 24/7 job. Our doctors had a half day off on Thursday but had Saturday morning surgery, was on call for emergencies two or three nights, also on call to the cottage hospital A & E dept along with just about all the gps in the area, that was closed a few years ago. Most of our gps worked until they were in their seventies, happily it seemed.
Now from 6:00pm to 7:30am its a locum, who in our area can cover from Newport to Swansea.
People used to queue from 7:30 in the morning to get into the surgery at 8:00 to make an appointment, if you ring up you can be on the phone for half an hour, it doesn't help that they don't have a queue system on the phone and that you go through a whole speech about if you are really ill or bleeding to death ring 999 and then if you are calling for test results call after blah blah blah, which takes up precious time if you do get through. When you do get through all the appointments are gone, usually.

Because Camoron , Osborne and May implemented a regime of austerity and colossal staff cuts, leaving those in post unable to cope with an ageing population.

BBC News - NHS 'dangerously' short of 100,000 staff
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-43143325

I see your point Andy, but do you think it would be any better if Corbyn was PM ?

I honestly dont know Nicko, but I do know there is a vaste waste in the NHS, from too many layers of beurocrats, penpushers, non medically trained managers, waste on purchasing of equipment, medicines and having to pay privatized companies such as Virgin Healthcare ( who expect a profit from taxpayers)
If Corbyn manifested that there would be a top to bottom overhaul of the NHS , to root out uneccasary staff and waste,  streamline the service and provide more efficiency and value, would anyone decline that offer?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-48191438?intlink_from_url=&

"Dr Helen Stokes-Lampard, president of the Royal College of GPs, said: "General practice cannot be allowed to fail. It is an absolute cornerstone of the NHS."

There have been reports of waits of up to seven weeks for a routine appointment, while those needing urgent appointments have been forced to queue outside practices in the early morning to guarantee to be seen

.The fall in GPs from 64.9 per 100,000 to 60 per 100,000 means the average doctor now has 125 more patients to look after than they did in 2014.

The Nuffield Trust analysis looked at the number of GPs working in the NHS - both full and part-time - per 100,000 people across the UK.
It shows that during the late 1960s the numbers were falling, before four decades of almost continuous growth.
A peak of 66.5 was reached in 2009, before the increases tailed off.

There have now been four consecutive years of falls with the biggest drops being seen in England. "

smelly-bandit wrote:

Syl wrote:

I agree with some of your post. Millions have paid 50 plus years in NI to fund the NHS amongst other things.
The irony is the people who have paid in the most for decades end up old and sick and then have to pay themselves for the care at the end of their lives.

and then you look at wha the top headshed are getting, 6 figure salaries for what?? compared to the nurses and porters etc.

i firend of my used to work in the nhs and he told me they were informed of some govt cash boost that they would all be receiving as a wage hike, but he said they got nothing cause it filtered in from the top down and got syphoned off.

then you have the PFI contracts that labour signed usinto which bleeds the NHS of millions, its the same everywhere, you cant just have the ward  handyman change a light bulb,its gotta go through several layers of expensive bureaucracy to a thid party company who employs the private handy man who then gets paid £70 an hour to fit a 20p light bulb which then the NHS then gets charged £100 for.

everything that gets used is supplied by a third party company that charges well over the odds for everything, you could buy in bulk at retail price from waitrose and still come in under what the NHS is getting charged.

this is one exampe of how socialism fails, the NHS is a socilaist health care system and its failing just like everything with socialism  

 

One small thing wrong with your idiotic analysis, SmellyNoClue...

The rundown and slow privitisation of your country's health system began with Thatcher's right-wing Conservative gov't in the 1980s -- and not with your hated Labour stooges..

And has been accelerating since, doubling up under your beloved Cameron and May-led Tory "austerity" measures and slow-death privatisation efforts.

We used to have two doctors, different practices, with a trainee gp or two assisting, now we have three partners all of whom work four days in our bright Nordic style surgery and an abundance of locums who each come in for a day or two. A few nurses and a whole upper floor crammed with office staff.
I think it matters where you are to a degree, a friend's daughter lives and works as a gp in a affluent area of Cardiff, she loves her job because of the variety, they have various clinics between surgeries and do minor surgery as well. She did do a stint in a valleys surgery covering for holidays and couldn't believe that it was nowhere near her own surgery for the services they provided.

There is definitely a postcode lottery element to what level of NHS care you get.

In this area of Manchester we were served pretty well till maybe 4 or 5 years ago, then the waiting times to see a nurse, doctor, or hospital appointment got longer and longer.
The final nail in the coffin for us was when three local surgeries merged last year, even long standing members of staff have left because it's just complete chaos.

The only thing wrong with NHS, is meddling Tories. The Tories want to bring down NHS by their austerity drives.

Remove Tories = properly funded NHS = happy public. FCS, if you can afford a military you can afford the NHS.

Original Quill wrote:The only thing wrong with NHS, is meddling Tories.  The Tories want to bring down NHS by their austerity drives.

Remove Tories = properly funded NHS = happy public.  FCS, if you can afford a military you can afford the NHS.

Shortage of Dr's and nurses, surgeries and hospitals being closed or merging is the knock on effect of nine years of Tory cuts and  mismanagement.
Hopefully the NHS will survive, after yesterday I have my doubts.

Too many people chasing too few Doctors !

nicko wrote:Too many people chasing too few Doctors !

The way to get more physicians is to make the job more attractive.

Look, the NHS is a failed system and when you have places like the US, Australia, Canada, etc pay more in wages for doctors. Then the system is always going to have a problem with staff shortages. Many people being trained whether nurses or doctors, can go abroad and get a far better wage for their abilities. Its why we have such a drain on the system. As well of the fact, we have had such a huge increase of people requiring medical care.

You could set aside billions more for this system and it will still fail. As you require the medical staff to run this system and its where we are always going to suffer with, because the system is flawed. Its unworkable.

The care system is a shambles and many of the problems stem from the fact, we dont have a better system to ensure many elderly or people in need of care. Have places to go in respite. They are stuck in hospitals, that cost far more money and take up hospital beds. Then you have the shortages of specialist doctorss. Where again many are dran abroad and the knock on effect continues.

We need a radical think, in how we can revoluntionize our NHS system. As at present it is unworkable. Its no good blaming the Tories for this. The problem started years ago and they are just one in a line of Political parties that have failed the system.

We now use a system called NHS 111, which looks to attempt to rule out potential problems and because it err on the side of caution and unable to rule out potentially life threatening situations. It will have advisors clogg up A&E and 999 emergency calls. As they cannot rule out potential life threatening medical problems. This is because the system is flawed and based on people providing arbitrary answers to questions. The system cannot differentiate and onl;y takes the worst case scenario. If the answer is unsure. This will often lead to people having an abulance sent or being sent to A&E

The other problem, is the poor view formed by people that demand to be seen, for the most mundane medical problems. Where people demand to be seen and again clogg up the system with the most ridiculous non-life threatening illnesses. Has a massive knock on effect. What happens, is the more people demand to be seen, when there is no need that they are. It increasesd the waiting time for people to be seen.

Like i say, there is many factors here and many were created when actually Labour privatised many sub groups like paramedics. Because clinical commisioning groups were clueless on finnacial issues. This led to then many abulances having baseically trained operatives, who are not paramedics, but basically first aird trained to help. Another massive strain on the system.

The sad reality is, nobody thought long term with the NHS. Not with the increased aging population or high birth rates.

Its times the NHS was adpated to a better system. Its also time people stopped thinking that they should be seen for many non-life threatening conditions. Its also time many people stoppped self diagnosing themselves online. As this leads people to form an unconcious bias to think they have something far worse wrong, than what is medically wrong with them. People form a poor view, to take a worst case scenario and then lead to worst case scenario answers to questions asked. They self diagnose online and are convinced that the symptoms they have. Is the worst case scenario.

This is just a number of reasons why the system is flawed. Cuts only play a minor part to the many probllems today

Syl wrote:And the blood tests I wanted to see the Dr about was some recently taken for osteoarthritis
.
I was told "Dr has marked them clear"......I have a fu**ing complete knee replacement because I am riddled with osteoarthritis, I need a new Knee on the other side now because of osteoarthritis, my ring size has suddenly shot up 4 sizes because of osteoarthritis yet according to the snotty receptionist the Dr  has marked them clear.

I noted Didge said on a recent thread that if he rings the Dr's surgery in the morning more often than not he can get an appointment the same day....does he live in LaLa land or somewhere?

Like I said...the NHS is now useless.

A blood test for osteoarthritis? Was the doctor perhaps looking for something else and ruled out other causes?

I presume there's a waiting list for knee replacements anyway.