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Your Story |
Cheryl
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# Posted: 29 Jan 2008 19:40
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Recently during my mother regular eye check up it was discovered that she has Age Related Macular Degeneration.
Off we went to the hospital for further tests etc. We went in the expectation that if there was a treatment available my mother would be treated.
After the tests we went in to see the consultant. My mother sat in her wheelchair by the consultants desk, I sat at the back of the room and watched the scene unfold.
"Well Mrs ******, you have lost some sight in your right eye, it has stabalised at the moment but it may get worse in the future". "I can't actually offer you any treatment on the NHS because it is only your right eye which is affected,if it were both eyes I could arrange a course of injections which would halt the degeneration".
"I could prescibe a course of injections one a month for three months as a private patient. It would £600 for an unlicienced fairly new drug, or £1400 for the licienced drug thats per injection".
My mother was quite taken aback at being asked to pay for her treatment, "Oh dear I can't afford to pay, I don't have anything like that sort of money".
"Well as I said Mrs ****** I can't offer you the treatment on the NHS, now if you have any trouble with your left eye, do get in touch with us as soon as possible and we will then be able to treat your condition".
End of consultation!
Reading this now it comes across as something from a comedy sketch, what's it going to be next they won't put your broken leg in plaster cos you still have the other one to hop about on?
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Redbaron
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# Posted: 31 Jan 2008 01:27
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You could always ask for a second opinion or ask your local PCT if this is true.
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Cheryl
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# Posted: 2 Feb 2008 10:03
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I'm quite sure it's true, since this happened at my mothers consultation I have spoken to other people who have either been told the same thing, or they know somebody who has. They have all been elderly people.
Maybe they have a different rule for younger people, but younger people don't loose their eye sight through Age Related Macular Degeneration. Surely if an elderly person is in generally good health such a simple treatment should be available regardless of age?
.
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PaulaH
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# Posted: 4 Mar 2008 16:41
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AMD & Glaucoma has cost my Mum her sight, she's maybe got 5-10% in one eye and nothing in the other.
To say keeping your sight is down to budgets is disgusting, we're living with the consequences of losing your sight - it's horrendous.
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Jane
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# Posted: 20 Mar 2008 18:35
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My husband lost most of his sight suddenly at the age of 40, due to Diabetes. One eye haemorrhaged suddenly, and when we went to the Eye Specialist, they told him he would have to wait six months, to see if the clot that had then been left, dissolved, BUT, if he wanted to see the same Dr privately, he could have an operation within three days.With three young children and a mortgage, we had no spare money, and my husband eventually had so much pain in that eye, that a different specialist saw him(after our GP made a fuss). The retina had detached, and unfortunately, the repair came too late. When his other eye started to deteriorate, and the hospital were not going to do anything again, Diabetes UK advised me to shout as loudly as possible until something was done, which I did, and the result was that my husband was operated on within three days, thankfully and has retained some sight.
The system has not changed, as our 20 year old son, who has been diabetic since he was a baby, had diabetic changes noted, two years ago. The Eye specialists receptioniist said it would be twelve months before he was seen by the Dr. I created and wrote to my Welsh Assembly member, and threatened to go to the papers, and he was seen within a month.
I complained when my father needed cataracts, as he lived alone, and after eighteen months waiting, was really frustrated, and had had several falls. A local MP changed the system locally, so that everyone who needed cataract surgery had to be offered the treatment at another hospital, if it couldn't be done locally.(It had to be done within a certain period of time)
Eye care in this country is third world. The only good thing about my husbands loss of sight, is that for the past eight years, he has been the owner of a beautiful guide dog. His sight loss would have been preventable, with the correct treatment. My anger is that it is often the SAME doctors doing the private treatment. How can they do this, if they are supposed to be full time on the NHS?
I used to be a nurse, I have seen Drs in all specialities doing this. I must add that they were in the minority, when I was working, but it was still going on.
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Cheryl
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# Posted: 21 Mar 2008 07:03
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Hi Jane
It all seems very odd to me. Its as if the doctors are not there to give NHS treatment, but to use NHs clinics as a fishing ground for private clients?
Even my own GP when I asked to see a physiotherapist
suggested I go private because there was such a long waiting list to see a NHS phsyio, and she gave a name of
a private clinic?
Its true as you say Jane it always gone on that NHS doctors have run or been involved in private practise to.
But now it seems they are running their private practise from right inside the NHS. Hospitals often have a private practise clinic/surgery with the NHS hospital?
That surely must be a conflict of interests?
Doctors are not going to press for treatment for an NHS patient if they think there is a chance they can convert them to a private patient?
There just seems to be so much pretence, spin and corruption nowadays.
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Jane
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# Posted: 24 Mar 2008 17:24
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Hello Cheryl,
I know quite a few people now, who are apying for at least an initial appointment to be seen privately., but in an NHS clinic. This means that they are jumping the queue, and people who have been waiting for perhaps several months, have to wait even longer, as they have been effectively pushed down the line, not by more urgent vcases, which nobody would want to complain about, but by people who have only just got the problem. The stupid thing is, if everyone stuck to NHS for 12 months, the whole system would catch up, and Drs would not be lining their pockets unnecessarily by abuse of other peoples suffering.
My sisters son, aged 15 kept collapsing, then the GP decided he had an abnormal liver function. My sister was frantic, but was told it would take three months for him to have the scan he needed. She was a single parent , not on benefits, and only working part time. They had no money and could not afford to pay. thankfully, the GP demanded his scan as urgent, so that she could treat the problem, and three years on, he is fine.
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Richard
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# Posted: 1 Jun 2012 04:18
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I am a journalist looking at NHS consultants working privately - I would love to hear from anyone who has experienced the sorts of things the carers are complaining about here
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