NHS Direct .

[postman]

Not wanting to bother the Doc .I have just filled in a form online .Well they rang back within mins'.

So i explains that i am having trouble with the waterworks .Being woken up during the night .Had an excellent talk with a nurse .And i am going down to the Docs sometime this week .A very good service .But i hope it's not Prostate trouble .I'll take a virus/infection instead .But i am impressed with the service .

 

[ttcycle]

They are a fantastic service, the current condem government are axing the service in a few years time and replacing it with one with a smaller number of trained nursing staff (NHS direct are staffed by qualified nurses and very highly trained) and mainly phone operators without specialist nursing knowledge. Crying shame if you ask me. They were fantastic when I had repeated infections with my wisdom tooth op.

Postman, hope you get the health issues sorted.

 

[gb155]

Forgive me BUT

You are now going to see your doc's anyway ?

So you contacted the NHS Direct, they said , go and see your Doc.

Without the NHS Direction, you will have just gone and seen your Doc

So if we are honest, there isnt much point in it being there is there? It just addes another step in the journey and that step costs money.

That all said, I do hope its nothing serious mate and I hope you get it sorted

 

[ttcycle]

They provide info, help quell worries and let me know where an emergency walk in clinic was. NHS direct has been useful in reducing the number of people turning up at A&E out of hours. So not useless at all.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

I once had an incident when I kicked a box out of the way but it was full of paper at the time a few hours later my big toe went up like a balloon and was a nice mixture of purple and green.

So I called NHS direct for advice and they said go to A&E and have it xrayed which I did, after 3.5 hours I had a picture of my big toe with a nice crack through it.

They then said right you can go home coz there is nothing we can do with it, just keep of it and it will heal...........so I may as well stayed at home. Having said that they were very helpful.

 

[ColinJ]

I once had an incident when I kicked a box out of the way but it was full of paper at the time a few hours later my big toe went up like a balloon and was a nice mixture of purple and green.

Ouch!

I worked as a factory labourer before I decided to go off and complete my edukashun education. One day some of my work mates were having a lot of fun winding me up. They took it too far though and the red mist descended upon me. I had a major tantrum and kicked a wooden pallet across the factory floor, foolishly thinking that wearing steel toecapped safety boots would protect my foot. In fact, it was the equivalent of me kicking a heavy steel plate! My big toe ended up like yours. Only worse...

 

[phil_hg_uk]

Ouch!

I worked as a factory labourer before I decided to go off and complete my edukashun education. One day some of my work mates were having a lot of fun winding me up. They took it too far though and the red mist descended upon me. I had a major tantrum and kicked a wooden pallet across the factory floor, foolishly thinking that wearing steel toecapped safety boots would protect my foot. In fact, it was the equivalent of me kicking a heavy steel plate! My big toe ended up like yours. Only worse...

Mine was a similar incident, I was having an argument with the stupid knobhead who was my boss at the time and the box was holding open the door but I was in adrenaline mode at the time so it didnt bother me until later.

 

[Up_at_the_crack]

Steel toe caps - the 21st centuries answer to toe weapon of choice.

On the matter of NHS Direct, they are very efficient - every time I've had a problem - normally 3am with some odd ailment that was fine up to that - they've been able to identify and point me in the right direction. In fact, they're probably better than my GP!

 

[chillyuk]

Not wanting to bother the Doc .I have just filled in a form online .Well they rang back within mins'.

So i explains that i am having trouble with the waterworks .Being woken up during the night .Had an excellent talk with a nurse .And i am going down to the Docs sometime this week .A very good service .But i hope it's not Prostate trouble .I'll take a virus/infection instead .But i am impressed with the service .

Hope you have better luck than I did. My problem IS prostate. I was the same as you, plus my urine stream has almost dried up to a mere trickle. My GP referred me to the hospital who prescribed some tablets. When I had run out of the prescription from the hospital I went to my GP (as instructed by the hospital) who wouldn't prescribe any more because they hadn't heard from the hospital. So, I am still up at nights, still taking 5 minutes to pass water and still not fully emptying my bladder 6 weeks after running out of the first lot of tablets.

 

[steve52]

if unwell and feeling ill i go to the docs or if something is broken ( i find i can usualy tell) i go to accident and emergency thus relievieing the work load on nhs direct who give a superb sevice to thoses who cant tell if there out of sorts or ill!

 

[arallsopp]

Mixed thoughts here. My experience of NHS direct has almost always resulted in the advice 'go to A&E'. It might be that my wife was pregnant, or that we were calling on behalf of a very young kid, but the response has always been the same. Same for friends in similar situations. I guess 'go to A&E' is the only safe option when you can't get much sense out of the patient (kids more than wife here) but we find that 'some unknown ailment' will see you clogging up A&E for a good few hours whilst the traffic of evident broken bones trundles through.

Its a good service, I think.

 

[ColinJ]

When I had run out of the prescription from the hospital I went to my GP (as instructed by the hospital) who wouldn't prescribe any more because they hadn't heard from the hospital. So, I am still up at nights, still taking 5 minutes to pass water and still not fully emptying my bladder 6 weeks after running out of the first lot of tablets.

I would refuse to leave the surgery until they got on the phone to the hospital and sorted it out - blow that for a game of soldiers!

 

[Spinney]

A relative had chest pains, phoned NHSDirect, they got the ambulance straight out.

He could have just called 999, but I understand that (some) people die because 'it's just a bit of a pain, I don't want to waste the ambulance's time'. If these people are more likely to call NHS Direct, who will take it seriously, it may well save lives.

 

[zacklaws]

I lost my rag at work a good few years ago so I took it out on the nearest thing to me and booted a traffic cone, I expected it to fly over into the back of beyond but it slid forward a couple of foot and thought I'd broke my leg on it, I was in agony and had a good limp for a few days, unfortunatly I picked on the wrong one and this one still had all its ballast of sand in the bottom and was not one of the broken ones we had.

 

[snorri]

if unwell and feeling ill i go to the docs or if something is broken ( i find i can usualy tell) i go to accident and emergency thus relievieing the work load on nhs direct who give a superb sevice to thoses who cant tell if there out of sorts or ill!

If only life was so simple.