h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I remember an old cartoon of a doctor visiting a grumpy old man. The old man was saying, "Yes, Doctor, but an apple a day costs money - I get you for free!"

That must have been in England, doctors have always been rather expensive here.

I think we are all fans of the NHS (National health Service).

Yes, I iamagine that. We're heading at our version of your NHS - full speed I guess we'll have the same bad system you have in only a few years to come.

Despite what you may read the system is not so bad. My wife had to have lots of treatment for cancer a few years back and we couldn't fault it. I'm not sure what we would have done if we'd had to pay.

Oh, I didn't mean the treatment as such, which seems to be ok - once you eventually get it. They're reducing staff here, especially in hospitals, which means that you have to wait much longer for a treatment, and frankly, I don't think that's the way we should be going. Doctors get paid less whilst their workload, mainly buraucracie, increases, and the effect is, that young doctors leave the country to work elsewhere.

I thin that happens here a lot too. I have a lot of dealings with doctors and money is always on their agenda.

At the moment, people working in the economy sector earn much more than doctors do - yet, nobody suggests to reduce their income by about 40% - it's a farce.

I attend a meeting as a lay person. The meeting lasts for about 2 hours and I get no extra money for attending it. THe doctors who go get GBP250 for each meeting (about 400+ euros) each.

Wow, that's a lot of money for two hours. They'd not be able to earn that much with their actual work here, I think. I have no idea how this is handled here, I'll have to ask my brother.

Will he give you money?

No, he's just moved house.

Does that mean he's a doctor then?

Yes, he is a doctor, specialised in kidneys.

A very close friend of mine had a Kidney transplant 15 years ago. Sadly he died this year of cancer - nothing to do with the kidney which was still going strong.

I'm sorry to hear this.
My brother works in a place where all those people come for dialysis who don't have a transplanted kidney.

My friend, when he was a young man and had to be on dialysis was such a positive person that he used to arrange his week to make the dialysis something to look forward to. The machine had been set up in his parents home (where he lived at the time) and he would video all of his favourite comedy programmes during the week.

On Dialysis nights he would have a pile of video tapes he wanted to watch to pass the time. During the first hour of dialysis he was allowed to eat and drink anything he wanted as his blood would be totally cleansed - so he would have a bacon sandwich made exactly to his taste and a bottle of beer.

He was able to put himself on the machine but needed someone there to help him come off. So I, or another friend, would spend the evening with him watching videos, laughing and telling funny stories to pass the time. Then at the end of the evening (often past midnight) we would help unhook him and go home.

Strangely happy times!

That's fascianting, didn't he have a nurse who watched the process? As far as I know, the patints get something which prevents the blood from clotting, and have to be under surveillance during the whole process.

At first it all happened in hospital but over time they were able to train him to do everything himself. The only thing he couldn'd do was withdraw the needle and press a gauze dressing onto the wound at the same time. That's why we had to be there to carry out that simple procedure for him.
The hospital paid for the family garage (which was attached to the house) to be transformed into a small treatment room with its own water and power supply. That's where his special chair and kidney machine were kept, along with the cupboards full of dressings, syringes etc. He had regular hospital check ups but mostly he was doing it himself.

He was the longest serving patient on dialysis in the region, partly because he was so comfortable with it all. (It meant that by the time he had a transplant it was a very well matched kidney).

That's really fascinating, I'll ask my brother about this when/if I see him on christmas.