The NHS is the U.K.'s publicly funded health care system. We've heard so many people expressing dissatisfaction with the organization (it IS overloaded), and I had such a comforting and satisfying experience last week that I thought I should share. Granted, my experience is only one data point.
We have a local surgery/GP in our town that is a short walk away, right next to our landmark St Myllin's church.
I've had a resurgence of allergy-induced asthma for the past 5 weeks or so, and have been using medications I already had on hand to control it. It has been almost 20 years since I'd had an attack (I'd had the 4 years of allergy shots in the U.S.), so at Dale's continual prompting, I decided to inform my GP of my breathing struggles so they'd be able to provide meds when needed. I described the situation on their online form, saying I had it under control and wouldn't need an appointment, just wanted to give them a heads-up about the meds I'm taking.
Within minutes of submitting the form, I got a phone call to say they would like to see me that day at noon, just 2 hours later! Now I was regretting sending in the details - "there's nothing really wrong with me, I'm not really sick, I don't want to make a fuss, I know what this is, I have this under control, others are more sick than I am .....blah, blah, on and on."
The doctor I saw said my reaction is exactly the same as happened to him when he moved from Scotland to Wales, which caused him to suffer too. He was knowledgeable and sympathetic, and listened to our input. Of course, he could also hear the wheezing with each breath. So he recommended 2 medications to bring it under control (he didn't seem familiar with the serum-injection method we had in the U.S.), with a follow up in about a month with the asthma nurse. Now I'm glad I went - I really needed that prodding - the following day, after beginning the meds, I had the best breathing I'd had in weeks.
Oh, and all prescriptions are free of charge in Wales!☺
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