MEDICAL MATTERS

[Big Kev]

Sounds exciting Kev.....
I am getting quite concerned about the management of the Barnoldswick health centre in Park Road. For the second time recently I have had a letter saying they can't contact me on the phone and asking me to contact the surgery as there was a message for me. I did so and was told exactly what they told me in the last urgent message about my repeat prescription. I thanked them and hung up.

If you don't answer your landline (unless you're expecting a call) they'd need to send you a letter. Do they have your email address? Could save them having to write a letter, pay for postage and the cost of a phone call for you having to call them back.

[PanBiker]

Our new treatment rooms in the old Yorkshire Bank building looked like they were being inspected by NHS representatives today.

[Stanley]

Kev, they have my mobile number, my email address and my registration on the myGP app. They regularly send text messages. Plenty of people have no land line these days. Not my fault if they can't get organised!

[Stanley]

I have managed to remember that I am due at the surgery at 08:30 this morning for a blood test. This is an achievement at my age!

[plaques]

CT scan at Blackburn Royal Last Sunday 26 June at 11. 00 am. Results back to Colne health Centre Monday 27 June at 11.00 am. Nothing to worry about. Fantastic service. Thank you NHS.

Extra blood tests showed some abnormalities. MY Doctor said she would make a referral request. Yesterday Tuesday 28 June 3.00 pm. Call from Blackburn Royal booking office to say a referral will be made ASAP. My Doctor is certainly on the ball and Blackburn are quick on the follow up. .

Can't complain about this level of service.

[Stanley]

Nice to hear such a good report Ken. Nobody told me (Or the Blood Nurse) what the reason was for yesterday's test but we both think it must have been a Creatinine scare....
Question is, will anyone bother to tell me the result?

[plaques]

Stanley your results should be available on Patient Access' or the NHS phone app. My serum creatinine is 78 against a range of 58 to 110. Its about the only result to register 'Normal' . If you feel well and no visible changes in output there's not much to worry about.

[Stanley]

I'm not worrying Ken..... but I am concerned about the numerous small evidences that the management of the health centre is not all that it should be.

[Tizer]

I'm presently having numerous visits to our local health centre for various tests and discussions, mostly with nurses. Individually the nurses are very good and I appreciate their advice and patience but unfortunately there's little communication between them and I keep having to repeat my health story. Some of the story goes back to the 1990s but they can't find any health records for me before about 2010. Very frustrating. The nurses and GPs are also very concerned because the pharmacies are taking so long to fulfil prescriptions, especially when it's for something to be used when I visit them. Also I'm not always told if there's something I need to do before a visit to the surgery, such as don't take my usual medication etc. They need someone to be responsible for integrating the all the staff and their activities. There's a lot of wasted time and effort.

[Stanley]

Couldn't agree more Peter and it's things like that that concern me with our practice.
Many of the problems could be alleviated by one simple thing; communicating more and better.

[plaques]

Individual patients may have records as long as your arm. Sorting out the relevant factors for a new non-recurrent illness in the majority of cases can only be done at Doctor level. Obviously in todays world they don't have time to do this and the job is moved on to the practice nurse or even back to the patient. An 'AI' programme should at least point in the right direction and give a diagnosis/ recommendation a bit better than a 'best guess'

[Stanley]

Unfortunately that could well be true Ken. My problem with it is that it would be the thin end of a very large wedge. AI could start to have more and more influence. When do doctors become surplus to requirements? Far fetched I know but the danger is there.

[Sue]

I can only agree with all of this. The medication I was given at my hospital appointment I considered completely un-necessary. I dutifully took it for a week whilst desperately trying to get a GPappointment to discuss it. I have still not managed an appointment and the medication advice that went with it completely disturbed my digestive system. All for the sake of a 5 minute discussion, a phone call would have sorted it.

[Sue]

Unfortunately that could well be true Ken. My problem with it is that it would be the thin end of a very large wedge. AI could start to have more and more influence. When do doctors become surplus to requirements? Far fetched I know but the danger is there.

Doctors will ne er be surplus to requirement. Medicine is a lot more than textbook symptoms, BUT only face to face and knowing a patient can recognise the non verbal symptoms that patients unknowingly or knowingly hold back

[Stanley]

I agree totally Sue but would that point of view hold in any decisions about how far to trust Artificial Intelligence? We know all to well that considerations of cost would trump what we would see as blindingly obvious.
On another subject. You may remember the reaction I reported after my latest Covid Booster in that it seemed to trigger my reaction to Cod Liver Oil in which I bled more easily. Not to put too fine a point on it, my piles.....
This was so bad and so obvious a link that I gave Susan my Cod Liver Oil and ceased taking it. This has been worrying me so I ordered some vitamin supplements that compensate for the loss of vitamins from the fish oil. Normally I am not a fan of vitamin pills but have decided to try these to see if I can detect any benefit without bleeding. From what I read, one of the effects of advanced age is the loss of the ability to take up some vitamins even if they are present in the diet. Worth an experiment I think.....

[Tizer]

Perhaps you were taking an unnecessarily high dose of cod liver oil?

[Tripps]

One side of a telephone conversation heard at the dentist.

"Sorry but we are not taking NHS patients - just private"

"That would be £80 per 15 minutes with X-rays £10 each".

"Is that OK"?

"Can you give me your details? "

"OK that's fine we'll see you at 9:30 tomorrow then "

[Stanley]

That's possible Peter and had occurred to me. I expect the pills in the post this week so I'll start taking them and see what happens. Can't do any harm and I'd rather spend money on D3, K2 and multivitamins than on Firesticks that are useless!
That telephone conversation is a sign of the times David. I thank God for my pot gobblers!

[plaques]

In Sunak's speech on his 15 year NHS plan he made a big play that the plan had been drawn up by the NHS itself. While this may be technically true the 'Committee that drew up the plan is composed mainly of 'experts' from outside consultancies. These have a background in Neoliberalism where profit and market forces are given free rein. Extracting profit from a free service is difficult unless you introduce charges or increase the price of the goods being used. A parallel move is to de-skill the workforce to make it cheaper to employ and reduce their knowledge based leverage. As we have seen in GP surgeries there is a big reliance on practice nurses where the broader knowledge base is lost. The same will happen in the NHS where the service to the patient is gradually eroded although specialised interventions may remain high quality until de-skilling moves into these areas. As I have said before NHS plans should be drawn up from within the NHS and not some appointed consultancy committee who have other vested interests.

[Stanley]

I agree with you Ken. It has always seemed to me to be common sense to get advice from inside the service before making 'improvements'. We have seen it all go wrong so many times but as you so cogently argue, it is happening again and for all the wrong reasons.
David's example yesterday of the dental service is a case in point. How long before that attitude permeates into the broader service?
(My pills arrived and after two doses I could swear there is an improvement but I know that it can't be this quick. Or can it be....?)

[Tizer]

As we have seen in GP surgeries there is a big reliance on practice nurses where the broader knowledge base is lost.

In recent weeks I've been gaining plenty of experience of our local GP surgery. First face-to-face appointment with a different GP - when we came here 6 years ago we were able to register with the `boss GP' who had been GP to our relatives here since about 2003. The family all knew him well and they rated him as marvellous! During Covid he switched to semi-retirement and still has our relatives but not us, we hadn't been with him long enough. The `new GP' needed me to explain about my breathing problems because nobody so far has been able to find any of my medical records prior to 2010!

She arranged appointments for me with three different practice nurses. The first was me having to explain all about the previous problems because of the lack of records and have prescriptions raised for various test items. The second was to get me using a peak flow meter regularly and raising a prescription for momatosome nasal spray. At the third appointment I walked in, was told to sit down and then the nurse said "What can I do for you today"! She had no prior information about me and I had to tell her I was there for a Doppler test. She had to search out the equipment and get ready. Fortunately I'd looked up the test on the NHS web site I knew that I'd need to be able to easily get my shoes and socks off and wear baggy clothes etc.

I was then told to make an appointment with my GP to discuss all the results. The GP had originally said I'd have to have a chest X-ray but nothing seems to have been arranged so far. Also I'll have to tell her that nobody else at the surgery has my earlier medical records so they need to arrange for that to be investigated. They do have them from about 2011 to early 2017 when I was with a surgery elsewhere, but I was with that surgery from 1996 so it's not clear how they come to have some but not all.

[Stanley]

Are all the social services falling to bits?

[plaques]

Dr John Campbell's latest YouTube showing severe reactions in the early batches of Pfizer's covid vaccines makes you wonder whether we were all treated as guinea pigs in a world wide experiment. Researchers have shown that batches of the vaccine had a severe reaction rate that would not have allowed them to be used on the public. Since it is common practice to trace reactions against batch numbers it is inconceivable that this fact wasn't picked up by the health authorities.

Before making any more comment I would recommend watching this video.

[PanBiker]

One good thing that has come out of the vaccine manufacturing processes developed during the pandemic is the same mechanism can now be used to target cancer treatments. Smart vaccines in a way.

There was report recently of a bloke in Manchester who had a terminal diagnosis for tonsiller cancer that had spread to his lungs. He volunteered for a trial which was a regular targeted vaccine using the same development mechanism as the covid jabs but with a different payload genetically matched to target his type of cancer. It worked for him and he is now cancer free, encouraging.

[Tripps]

Biliary cancer

Very good news. Looks like my donation to the Christie a few years ago in memory of my niece - who was even younger than this gentleman, and not so lucky in a similar situation - was a good thing.

Not just a simple -'we have a cure for cancer' scenario' - there's a lot more to be done - but as the lady in the St Agur advert famously says "get on with it".