Nhs

[John Arton]

Bureaucracy is killing the NHS. 18 months ago we changed our doctors to a practice that is less than half a mile from where we live. I am on statins after my stroke and eldest daughter is on hormone replacement Therapy after a brain tumour was operated on why she was 8 years old. We have had no problem with our new G.P. prescribing repeat prescription. Last week I got a letter from the NHS clinical record ( a private outfit that the NHS have outsourced to, based in Preston), telling me that I was going to be taken off my G.P's list as I did not live in there post code despite this letter being sent to the same post code as the surgery. Phoning the practice manager regarding this matter and had to listen to a five minute diatrade from her about how useless this outfit, that is supposed to hold all our clinical records electronically on a central database, were. She had been requesting our records for over a year and they still had not responded yet this outfit knew we had changed our address, knew that our g.p. had requested our records yet still had us registered at our old surgery. Our new practice manager has had to contact our old practice in order to get them to send over their hard copies of our records instead. This outfit was given the task under a very lucrative NHS contract to store and handle all patients records but according to her are making a right kybosh of it. As I have said before, if we could strip out all the wasteful bureaucracy out of the NHS, it would be a far better service. Our local hospital has just been told it is losing stroke, maternity and children's A & E to its partner hospital, Sunderland Royal which means a 20/30 minutes ride for visitors and patients at a cost of around £25 for a taxi and don't say why not use public transport, that would mean taking two buses and almost an hour to do the 12 mile journey. Use your car, parking charges are astronomical and if you go one minute over your time, that Will be £70, thank you very much.
Rgds.
J.A.

[Keith Tindell]

We have been told here that a lot of the services are being moved across to Southampton hospital, this means at least a 20min high speed ferry service, plus a taxi from the ferry terminal to the hospital, that journey, ferry terminal this end is a 45 minute bus ride alone. Kt

[robpage]

It might just be my imagination but I think when you get the large hospitals like Southampton and Portsmouth I think they tried sucking all the smaller hospitals to make themselves bigger I would have thought and any case the Isle of Wight should retain virtually all of its own services on the grounds of what happens on a rough day and you're not feeling well you certainly won't want the ferry crossing

[Doc Vernon]

Here ibn Oz we now have E passports and I think the UK has them now.

It might just make it easier to detect illegals.

Funny thing is John
When coming back from the UK with my E Passport ,it would not recognise my Eys so had to go to the normal line and wait for ages to get through!
As I got to the Customs desk I asked the Guy there why did my E Passport not work!?
He asked me a few questions and behold!
It seems that I had to take my Glasses off ! Gee I felt a dill! LOL
cHEERS

[Keith Tindell]

Treatment for most cancers Rob have been done on the mainland for years, quite stressful for the patient and the wife or family, not to say expensive. I had a badly detached retina a few years ago, that was done in Southampton, and i had to take my wife to look after me back each time, all in all about 8 return journeys with check ups etc, got quite expensive, kt

[happy daze john in oz]

Closing small hospitals is not just in UK, here there have been many 'bush' hospitals go in favor of the main ones.

But one can understand why when you see the cost of equipment, millions just for an x ray machine.
Having so much equipment in one major hospital keeps overall costs down but puts pressure on the system.

We do have private cover here in a big way, but it is not always the best.
My mate, myself and my brother all had Prostate cancer over a three year spell.
Mate had his done private, brother and I in public.
There was no difference in any of the treatment, except my mate with private cover had to pay over $2,000 gap fees.

[robpage]

Treatment for most cancers Rob have been done on the mainland for years, quite stressful for the patient and the wife or family, not to say expensive. I had a badly detached retina a few years ago, that was done in Southampton, and i had to take my wife to look after me back each time, all in all about 8 return journeys with check ups etc, got quite expensive, kt

I don't know if it still is but when I worked for Sealink . Nautical mile per pounds money that route from Portsmouth to Ryde earned more than any other ferry per mile anywhere else in the world including the US Australia Far East Mediterranean to get to the Isle of Wight with the most expensive pro rata

[Keith Tindell]

I should imagine still is Rob, my niece, her husband , two kids and a car last summer £140 return, not bad to cross a three mile strip of water. We have had umpteen consortium enquires over the years, same result each time. kt

[Captain Kong]

I am surprised that a bridge hasnt been built.

[robpage]

It would be a high bridge , lots of different shipping into Portsmouth , gosport , lepe , leigh on the Solent or Calshot have poor access roads , it would require 10 miles of new roads this side . the ferry is very profitable , and reliable ,