MEDICAL MATTERS

[Tizer]

I'm fully in support of the principle of the NHS and their staff in general do a great job. The problem is that it's a giant organisation and isn't managed well, and - most important of all - it's grossly under-funded. I realised after posting my comment yesterday that I hadn't told the whole story. They told me there is a waiting list of 36 days - but I think that begins from the date when they contact me to make the appointment, not now. They said if I don't hear from them ring again in a month's time. So the total wait from now could be more than 60 days if I don't hear from them earlier.

What adds even more time for the whole process is that you can't just contact the audiologists direct, you have to get an appointment with your GP (which can take a week's waiting) and he has to approve the need for audiology and put in the initial request. The argument is that they can't let people just go straight to audiology because it would waste their time; you might have wax in your ears or you might have something other than a hearing problem (e.g. dementia can give an impression of hearing loss). The GP checks your ears for wax and if necessary you have to then get an appointment with a nurse to get them unbunged or do it yourself. Of course, you might notice a problem with these arrangements - with the long waiting times your ears will probably be blocked with wax again by the time you get to see an audiologist.

In my case I went to the GP months ago and he told me I had ear wax and to get it cleared, come back and then he'd start the appointment process. I used Otex drops and got rid of the wax but by then I was going on holiday and then other things stopped me getting to the GP and I accumulated ear wax again. So I went through another few days of otex drops and got rid of it. Then made another appointment with the GP and this is where we're at now. The sensible, efficient thing would have been for him to have contacted audiology on my first visit to him months ago and I could have got rid of the wax in the meantime. I would have probably had my visit to the audiologist by now and be able to hear properly again. This is all very typical of the NHS - the skilled staff and the appropriate equipment are all there, they just need someone to shake up the management and streamline the system, and a big injection of money. We don't pay enough for the NHS.

In the case of hearing aids I don't see why we should get the aids for free on the NHS, but nor do I think we should pay the exorbitant thousands of pounds that places like Specsavers and Boots charge. We don't get our spectacles free. The NHS should pay for hearing tests, like it does for eye tests, at private businesses and we should be able to buy the aids for a similar price to spectacles. If most people were going to the private shops for their aids then prices could be brought down to a similar level to the spectacles. But it would need the private businesses to get better at the job - the NHS aids are as good a quality as the private and the testing and fitting are better at the NHS. according to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID).

[chinatyke]

China's link on quangoes failed. Try this Quangoes

That's the one. Thanks P.

The NHS is held as a fine example of health care to the rest of the world and I agree it is, but compare NHS hospitals with private 'clinics' or BUPA hospitals and the difference is immediately obvious. Last year we made frequent hospital visits in California when my youngest stepdaughter was having her first child. I can tell you the hospital she was in left NHS places in the shade. Yes, she had to pay for her care, but I've paid 8% (?) of my wages as NHI for 40+ years, it ain't free by any means. When I was promoted and offered BUPA care as part of my salary I turned it down because I said the NHS was good enough and why should I pay tax on a benefit that I didn't want and was of no use to me? So I agree with you Stanley and I'm a supporter of NHS. That doesn't mean I think it is efficient or even the best service available.

[plaques]

Back to the hearing aids business. Having gone through the mill of listening to various tones at different volumes the audiologist finally mapped out a frequency profile for each ear. These profiles were assembled by computer set in each ear piece. After putting them in the respective ear hole I was asked how does everything sound now? Ok, but I'm only listening to one voice. Do you have a signal tone generator that I could listen to? A blank expression appeared on her face. Not wishing to further the embarrassment I let the subject drop. But for those who would like to compare their hearing acuity this is a useful site. Tone GeneratorJust type in the frequency you want to listen to.

[Stanley]

Interesting P. I could hear the sine wave up to 8,500herz. What does that mean?

[chinatyke]

Interesting P. I could hear the sine wave up to 8,500herz. What does that mean?

I could hear 10 - 20,000 Hertz but had to turn the volume to max for the highest and lowest frequencies. The normal range for humans is considered to be 20 - 20,000 Hz. Wonder if I can shatter wine glasses with this program?

On the same site the voice generator is also a superb program. I like "Daniel's" voice and will recommend this program to my students to help them with their English pronunciation.

Thanks again P.

[Stanley]

So it looks as though I am losing my higher frequencies.... Not surprising after all the years with diesels, heavy guns and riveting..... Ah well.......

[Marilyn]

....and all those hairs that grow in old bloke's ears!...

[Cathy]

Eeeew!!

[LizG]

Eeeew indeed Cathy.

[Tripps]

Another one bites the dust. . . The original 'research' was done by a company called Ocean Spray. Now where have I heard that name before.

Cranberry juice

[Tizer]

Don't worry, Tripps, the American Cranberry Growers' Association will be delving into their treasure chests to fund studies that prove the opposite! American Cranberry Growers' Association
And there are cranberry growers' association in many US states too.

[Stanley]

Maz is right.... And then there is the question of ear wax.....

[Marilyn]

...of course, the growth of ear hair and nose hair is migratory from other key areas!

[Tizer]

That online tone generator posted by Plaques is easy to use and interesting. I did the test a number of times with the volume at it's original mid-way setting and also found that I needed to move my PC speaker into direct line of hearing to get a meaningful result. I'm going to send the results to my GP to back up my request for why I need an audiology update. Without my hearing aid I could hear down to 130 Hz and up to 5500, although between 4500 and 5500 it depended on rotating my head. With the hearing aid I got from 100 to 5700, so the aid is not doing me much good at present in the higher range (it's clean and isn't blocked and my ears are free of wax).

[Stanley]

The funny thing is that I am cheered up by the fact I have a better range than you Tiz..... Sorry about that but I am only mortal......

[Tizer]

Don't worry, I'm cheered up by knowing that at least you've got good hearing! I'm hoping that the audiologists will be able to make a big difference to my hearing when I eventually get a test and a new aid.

[Stanley]

Good luck with it!

[Tizer]

Thanks, it would be nice to hear the bird song again!

[Stanley]

I didn't realise it was so impaired Tiz. Thank goodness I can hear things like that.

[PanBiker]

I started yesterday with a bad head cold, it developed into coughing spasms which has left me with a raw throat. More mucus than you think possible. Not much sleep last night as I could not get comfy laid down without inducing more coughing. I got up this morning with a banging headache through the lack of sleep to go with it. Steady day today I think.

I was going to start my remembrance cross distribution down at Gill today it would have been a good day for it. Not feeling up to it though. I will take it easy until the faeries come to collect me for a catch up on sleep. Need to get right, I have a GCSE exam to invigilate on Wednesday and I am baby sitting our Jacks house tomorrow with no power on while the smart meter bloke does his thing.

[Stanley]

Keep an eye on it Ian. I suspect I have just been through the same bug. After four weeks I have just about got shut and as you say the productivity has been amazing but that's a good thing as long as you don't get a lung infection. It's your body getting rid of the debris. I relied on Original Covonia, honey and lemon and salt water gargles... They all help!

[Stanley]

Thank God, at the moment I'm in good fettle. We have enough illness in the family at the moment without me giving anyone cause for concern. This is a good healthy morning, a dry frost. More of the same please.....

[Tizer]

There's a good description here of work under way to counter the growing problem of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. There are plenty of opportunities but they need funding and backing from governments and also more regulation of antibiotic use. Scientists convinced most doctors long ago that antibiotics should never be used to try to prevent infections, only to treat infections. Giving them to healthy people is a sure way to bring about resistance. But I wonder how many people know that healthy farm animals in most countries are now given antibiotics as a routine because they grow faster - the antibiotics kill off the gut bacteria which otherwise metabolise some of the food eaten by the animals.
`How do we avoid the antibiotics apocalypse?' LINK

[Stanley]

Tiz, a good start would be for our leaders to stop bickering over political process and start governing the country again!

[Sue]

Tiz, are they still researching bacteriophages as an alternative to antibiotics. I always thought that had huge
potential.