Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Another senior appointment

How many of appointments at the GP practice are no shows, I would think quite a lot? At my mothers NHS GP practice they had a board that said this week 42% of appointments were no shows, there in lies a considerable part of the problem. Over here you have to pay a CoPay of $15-$20 to see your Doctor which means you only go to see the Doctor when really necessary, to see a Specialist you pay $20-25 and you keep your appointment. For a lot of minor ailments you go to the Pharmacist or an Urgent Care Center. Now we are over 65 yrs old and on Medicare we don't pay to see our Doctor but do pay the CoPay to see a specialist.

Whilst over in the UK last month visiting in Cornwall my wife took a fall and broke her femur at the hip socket and was admitted to the Royal Cornwall Hospital so we experienced the NHS firsthand in it's current state. The ambulance would have taken 3 hrs minimum to get to her lying on the side of a road, with help from some very good locals we managed to get her into a ladies car who drove us the 40 minutes to the hospital, where a Paramedic team transferred her to a wheelchair. I then had to push her into the A&E, in great pain she waited 1.5 hours to be seen with no pain relief given, once seen by the Nurse she was immediately taken away. Long story short she had dynamic hip screw surgery two days later and spent a week in the trauma ward (not a pleasant experience) before being transferred to rehabilitation hospital before being declared Fit to Fly back to America. Thank goodness for Travel Insurance who were brilliant in monitoring her medical treatment, arranging the rehabilitation and paying for everything. The hospital bill was just over GBP9,000 which is charged as a NHS package. The NHS Staff were brilliant, way over worked and functioning in a system that was clearly failing them.