Thought I had an eye problem

[le bon paysan]

So at 2 o' clock rang the hospital in Limoges, can you describe the symptoms?
Yes, lights ' flashing ' a lot of floaters and a job to focus my right eye.
Asked me what I thought it was, me perhaps a detached retina. Classic symptoms.
Come straight in and will be waiting for you. So Mrs drives me into town. Through the hospital door to the desk name please? Oh yes, go through to the waiting room then in 1.5 hrs I look into 4 machines and finally the doctor looks in my eye and gives me the diagnosis, retina is ok but there is a fluid sack which started to break down normal in over 50s.
Floaters will continue for sometime but nothing to worry about. Total time 3.5 hours and that includes 2 hours of driving. Got to love the health system here!

 

[AJ123]

So what are they doing differently to the uk which is in such a mess?
Is it free to all like uk?

 

[AT Aloss]

So at 2 o' clock rang the hospital in Limoges, can you describe the symptoms?
Yes, lights ' flashing ' a lot of floaters and a job to focus my right eye.
Asked me what I thought it was, me perhaps a detached retina. Classic symptoms.
Come straight in and will be waiting for you. So Mrs drives me into town. Through the hospital door to the desk name please? Oh yes, go through to the waiting room then in 1.5 hrs I look into 4 machines and finally the doctor looks in my eye and gives me the diagnosis, retina is ok but there is a fluid sack which started to break down normal in over 50s.
Floaters will continue for sometime but nothing to worry about. Total time 3.5 hours and that includes 2 hours of driving. Got to love the health system here!

I'm very short sighted & it's very normal for myopic people to have larger eyballs than people with 20:20 vision. This can result in developing what is known as posterior vitreous detatchment sooner than people with normal eyesight. The floaters are the glue like protein substance that attached the vitreous to the retina starts to float about. It came as a bit of a surprise to me as it happened very quickly during harvest 2022. I was told that eventually your brain stops looking at the floaters & ignores them, meaning vision does slightly improve. I'm finding driving at night a bit harder with slightly blurred vision in my right eye from oncoming headlights, so it's a long way from being back to normal. My left eye is still ok. I was told there is a risk of the retina being torn if it starts to come away quickly which was described to me like a curtain coming down & it needs an immediate medical procedure (within 24 hours).

 

[le bon paysan]

So what are they doing differently to the uk which is in such a mess?
Is it free to all like uk?

Investment and management, Drs and clinicians in charge at all levels is, what I think , is the difference.
Yes, it's free access but funded differently. You pay your National Insurance equivalent, which pays 100% of what the government say it should cost, about 70% of the actual cost. Then a 'Top up' private insurance which covers the rest.
Major diseases like Cancer and Heart are completely covered by the State contribution part.
Varying degrees of Top Up go from All the basics to a Private room.
In the first 3 days of a hospital stay, WiFi and phone at your bed cost €3, after that its €3, a day. TV is free.

 

[Highland Mule]

Investment and management, Drs and clinicians in charge at all levels is, what I think , is the difference.
Yes, it's free access but funded differently. You pay your National Insurance equivalent, which pays 100% of what the government say it should cost, about 70% of the actual cost. Then a 'Top up' private insurance which covers the rest.
Major diseases like Cancer and Heart are completely covered by the State contribution part.
Varying degrees of Top Up go from All the basics to a Private room.
In the first 3 days of a hospital stay, WiFi and phone at your bed cost €3, after that its €3, a day. TV is free.

It's no different from the UK with symptoms you presented, whatever some may claim. Except that if you presented yourself at the optician with retinal detachment they would likely lie you on your back in the waiting area and get an ambulance to take you in, lying down. For things that have immediate risk of escalation, the NHS is pretty good.

 

[le bon paysan]

It's no different from the UK with symptoms you presented, whatever some may claim. Except that if you presented yourself at the optician with retinal detachment they would likely lie you on your back in the waiting area and get an ambulance to take you in, lying down. For things that have immediate risk of escalation, the NHS is pretty good.

The other Monday night. Our friends rang the Dr in the uk for his mother. Ring for an ambulance Dr said. Rang ambulance service 14 hours, took her in the pick up. 8 hours in A+E waiting for some help in a plastic chair with people on the floor, then 8 hours in a non reclining broken reclining chair, no cubicles, no trolleys. Intravenous antibiotics and stuff, Dr said she needs a bed, theres no bed, no chance of a bed. Discharged home. Better off there.

 

[Highland Mule]

The other Monday night. Our friends rang the Dr in the uk for his mother. Ring for an ambulance Dr said. Rang ambulance service 14 hours, took her in the pick up. 8 hours in A+E waiting for some help in a plastic chair with people on the floor, then 8 hours in a non reclining broken reclining chair, no cubicles, no trolleys. Intravenous antibiotics and stuff, Dr said she needs a bed, theres no bed, no chance of a bed. Discharged home. Better off there.

She's still alive and recovered? I saw opposite last week - phone call to Dr led to immediate drive to hospital, tests for heart and in a bed within minutes.

 

[le bon paysan]

She's still alive and recovered? I saw opposite last week - phone call to Dr led to immediate drive to hospital, tests for heart and in a bed within minutes.

But you're in Scotland, not middle England.

 

[BrianV]

Investment and management, Drs and clinicians in charge at all levels is, what I think , is the difference.
Yes, it's free access but funded differently. You pay your National Insurance equivalent, which pays 100% of what the government say it should cost, about 70% of the actual cost. Then a 'Top up' private insurance which covers the rest.
Major diseases like Cancer and Heart are completely covered by the State contribution part.
Varying degrees of Top Up go from All the basics to a Private room.
In the first 3 days of a hospital stay, WiFi and phone at your bed cost €3, after that its €3, a day. TV is free.

Very much the same in Switzerland. UK health system now overwhelmed.

 

[glasshouse]

But you're in Scotland, not middle England.

Yes , Scotland.
That failed state as described on another thread

 

[Highland Mule]

But you're in Scotland, not middle England.

I'm in the UK

 

[glasshouse]

Very much the same in Switzerland. UK health system now overwhelmed.

Not so in scotland

 

[le bon paysan]

I'm in the UK

Whatever.
3 counties isn't coping too well. Build a mega hospital. Shut down several others. Replace a 1000 beds with 750. Oh we're not coping as we're short of beds.
Go figure

 

[puppet]

If you spoke to any optician with those symptoms they would see you same day here. Lots have retinal photography which can be sent to the specialist for advice.

 

[Highland Mule]

Whatever.

I was responding to:

the uk which is in such a mess

Investment and management, Drs and clinicians in charge at all levels is, what I think , is the difference.

Not my fault that you guys don't recognise that the UK is different to England

 

[le bon paysan]

If you spoke to any optician with those symptoms they would see you same day here. Lots have retinal photography which can be sent to the specialist for advice.

Limoges had a bed for me, available for a possible Laser retinal surgery tonight.
I don't believe the service I had today, or a bed would be available in Cheltenham.

 

[Two Tone]

Limoges had a bed for me, available for a possible Laser retinal surgery tonight.
I don't believe the service I had today, or a bed would be available in Cheltenham.

It might be.
Friend of mine had something not too dissimilar recently ended up in Cheltenham for 10 days!
Then they moved him to Gloucester for 2 more days.
His wife is a NHS nurse and she knew that both Hospitals were not pulling their weight properly, so discharged him and took hime home!

 

[le bon paysan]

It might be.
Friend of mine had something not too dissimilar recently ended up in Cheltenham for 10 days!
Then they moved him to Gloucester for 2 more days.
His wife is a NHS nurse and she knew that both Hospitals were not pulling their weight properly, so discharged him and took hime home!

That's not exactly a ringing endorsement.

 

[Two Tone]

That's not exactly a ringing endorsement.

No, it certainly isn’t.
But they did put him in a bed, when he’d rather have just been seen, then told to go home.

People keep praising the NHS when I am really worried that as I am at the age where I start to need to use it more, it is shambolic!
For the fortune it has cost me in National Insurance, I was hoping for a lot better!

I needed it when I was 23. My thoughts then was that they looked after and nursed me really well, though its facilities were a bit antiquated. I was thinking that it was bound to improve, only to find it has done the complete opposite.
IMO, the nurses have forgotten how to nurse.

My own stepdaughter is in her final year of Medical Uni and is completely disillusioned by it all, wondering WTF she wanted to be a Doctor in the first place.

The whole thing is just a bureaucratic nightmare, full of some that really want to do a good job and a lot that don’t give a feck.

It comes to something when we, as farmers look after and care our livestock a damned sight better than the NHS looks after and cares for us!

 

[Princess Pooper]

Mum (aged 90) had a routine eye appt at our local hospital, but was concerned about a recent change in her 'other eye' so asked the consultant to take a look. From there with a medical letter and consultant phoning ahead, I drove her to Eye Casualty at Leicester (separate from A and E but closes at 4 pm) arrived about 1pm.

Mum was assessed at 6 different stations/tests/imaging etc and had bloods done, we left at 8pm which included 2 hours waiting at the end for the blood results and the on-call consultant being contacted at home for final diagnosis (he had seen her earlier in the day when he finished surgery before he clocked off). Fortunately it was not temporal arteritis, which was the initial concern. Very satisfied with the NHS that day, another consultant even organised us tea and biscuits as the shop had closed and vending machine not working.