A view of the UK health "service"

Well, a distinct lack of posting of late due to a bout of ill health over the last few months. I wont bore you with the details, and although not serious it has been very debilitating.

Still, seem to be on the road to recovery.

During this time though Ive had the pleasure (if thats the right word) of using the NHS - and as a victim heres some thoughts on it...

The ambulance service - Top notch. Awesome folks doing a bloody hard job. When I first fell ill it was in the middle of the night, woke up with incredible chest pain and could hardly breath. Ended up with a rapid response unit round, closely followed by an ambulance trip to A&E. Although they didnt know what was wrong (and quickly ruled out a heart attack) they were calm and professional throughout.

A&E - After several trips to A&E, my first thought would be to say "absolutely hopeless", but thats not entirely fair. They did a ton of tests and didnt find anything wrong, but seemed content to treat the symptoms only and pack me off home as quickly as possible (despite the fact I could hardly breathe without an incredible amount of pain). Couple this with wrong information given to my wife while I was out of it all on a drug cocktail didnt help matters. Suffice to say I think they are capable of doing a grand job if whatever is wrong is obvious - i.e. knife wounds - anything else and they seem to be left confused about what to do...

GP Service - Once I actually got to see my actual GP instead of a locum - absolutely fantastic. Narrowed the problem down very quickly, described and demonstrated exactly was wrong (which was the total opposite to what the A&E doctors had indicated) and although cannot do much but treat the pain and let it run its course, was sympathetic and did everything he could to put my mind at rest. On the downside, it could take up to a year to clear up.

So overall, I'd give it a "B Minus". from a personal perspective.