A Conversation for Haemolytic Disease of the Newborn

No Subject

Post 21

Haylle (Nyssabird) ? mg to recovery

Well people's bodies aren't different over here and every woman who is negative needs two shots here as well!"

You don't say smiley - winkeye. Actually I laughed at what I wrote after I posted it, but you probably got what I was trying to say.

It's odd that we have so much money floating around, and yet we still have funds appeals, volunteers, similar to you. I think it all goes to the marble for the buildings fund smiley - tongueout. It's so American - we equate somehow the outer appearance with quality care. I had to laugh when James saw a crap local hospital and thought it was beautiful. That was nothing.

In Moscow, my hometown, I was very, very spoiled. Should I have not felt like making an appointment with my excellent family doctor, his office had a satellite quick-care office at which I could be seen in 30 minutes at the most. The town is small enough, but has enough community and is a university town, so has a rather unfair distribution of medical professionals (it's a very ideal little community). I was nervous to move to a bigger town here in the States for fear that I'd just be another patient to my doctor. I have no idea what it must be like for doctors in the UK, and if it's even possible to have a good, somewhat personal relationship with him/her.

I suppose so long as Josey is seen immediately when he has asthma attacks, my random health concerns are taken seriously, nobody looks at me wierd when i continue the american tradition of the 'annual exam' with my family, and if I have that Rh negative pregnancy it doesn't take 4 months to get a referral to a perinatologist, I'll be plenty happy smiley - smiley. And maybe I'll even donate plasma (they wouldn't take my blood smiley - laugh).


No Subject

Post 22

Z

Yup, a kid with a serious asthma attack would be seen immediately of course, (one thing that is really scary is when the NHS starts moving quickly, then you know it's serious).

I can't imagine it would take four months to get refered to a perinatologist, after all it would be too late by then baby wise, but I've not done obs and gyne yet so I can't say for sure, it may well take a couple of weeks.

But you might get a few odd looks about the American tradion of an annual exam, if I were you it's something that you should discuss with the practice nurse when you register at a practice, to see if they'd be ok to do it, I'm fairly sure that they would be if you explain. Some practices run regular well man/well woman reviews for people, to chat about health promotion, and everyone who's got a chronic illness or is on regular medication gets a sixth monthly or more frequent review.

Some of them would be fine if you explain that it's what you're used to and you'd be concerned if you gave it up- but a bit of advanced warning might prevent a nasty shock for them because they don't expect people to do that. GPs can be very overworked, (well they think they are, they're not as overworked as hospital doctors, but they moan a lot more!) so they can get annoyed if people demand to see them for trival reasons - because it means that their patients who do need to be seen have to wait longer. They don't mind if people who are genuinally worried about something that turns out to be trival comes to see them. But *demanding* to be seen is a guarenteed way to make you unpopular (don't ask why) I think it's the same in shops and other services as well, demanding anything is just unpopular, it's just not English dammit!

I tend to ring NHS direct when I'm worried about something - they're a 24 hour phone line, staffed by nurses who are good at telling you how urgent a problem is, and if you should go to a GP or to A and E! They also can tell you where local chemists are etc.

A lot of people have a close relationship with their GP, I certainly do- he's great - one of the new school of GPs who belives in giving your all the options, and letting you decide.

My Nan's GP is great.. she's 86 and lives alone, and he never complains about going around to visit when she's too ill to get to the surgery. If she's too ill to get her regular medication he'll fax her prescription to a chemist who delievers.

She had a fall last year, and no one in the family could take the time off work to look after her (she couldn't bend over because she hurt her back). The A and E (ER) arranged for nurses to visit three times a day to check she was ok, and get her washed and dressed in the morning, the brought meals around for her as well - not that she felt well enough to eat them. When her pain got worse her GP visited her at home a few times and brough medication around because he was


No Subject

Post 23

Haylle (Nyssabird) ? mg to recovery

Wow..they seem very on top of things smiley - bigeyes. You'd have to pay up the ass for an actual doctor to come to your door. That said, since it is expensive, of course it's becoming a trend for wealthy people. Nurses on the other hand will come around for the grunt labor. I do have a distinct memory of my first husband getting a ride home from his vasectomy from our doctor in his rickety old pickup truck. (I love that doctor..old pickups, hawaiian shirts, looks like robert de niro, and a unitarian. the perfect man, really).

The thing that confuses me about annuals, is how do you guys keep on top of things like pap smears and other preventative medicine? Even if I didn't have paps here, my doctor would want to see me once a year to make sure my birth control method wasn't screwing with me too badly. And he has no financial incentive to do so - I'm on state (free) health care.

Since we're on the topic, when I get to the UK, what is the procedure for getting to see a doctor so we can get Joseph a running prescription of albuterol and whatnot? I'd rather not just turn up at an ER one night.


No Subject

Post 24

Z

Well if you're on regular medication, such as the contraceptive pill - then you'd have a six monthly check up. GPs will often take that oppertunity to discuss other prevenative medicine, take blood pressure (well you need that for the contraceptive pill) and nag about smoking and weight.

There's a national cervical smear programme and all women get sent an appointment on a regular basis, older women automatically get sent appointments for regualar mammograms.

To access medicine, (other than in an emergency) you'll need to be registered with a GP. It's a good idea to register when you arrive and are well rather than when you are ill, usually it's stress free, but it involves filling in a few forms.

You need to find a GP who's got space on the list, usally that's really easy, you just go into a doctors office and join the list. Then most of them do a new patient appointment - where they check what conditions you've got, what medications your on etc. Then you can get a prescription for you're regular meds.


No Subject

Post 25

AEndr, The Mad Hatter

Cervical smears are every 3 years. If you're on medication you have a limit on the number of repeat prescriptions you can have before having to see a doctor - dependent on your health and the medication. I for instance can have 6 packets of the pill, my friend with okay asthma sees her doctor less often than me but my friend who has bad asthma has only 3 months between checkups.

DON'T go to the A&E (Accident and Emergency Department) if it's for prescription meds etc - it's for emergencies only, not something you can use for a docs appt. Larger hospitals also have out of hours GPs for things that would be done by a GP. They are usually next door to a GP.
What you want to do is look up the local GP practice http://www.nhs.uk/root/localnhsservices/default.asp can tell you about these if you have a postcode (explained below) and phone/visit in person, explain you've just moved to the country from the US and want to register and need to continue prescription medication for your son. The practice could be full, but if it is will give you advice about others in the area if you ask.

Note: pharmaceuticals have different common names over here. Get your current doctor to send details of what your son is on and what for. If you can take a copy of your medical records with you to give to your new doctor, do so. It takes long enough for records to transfer within the UK, I don't even know if it's possible between countries.

Postcodes: these are a bit like zip codes. A small number of houses will share the same postcode. Postcodes are of the format CH45 3HN. The CH represents the nearest postal town, in this case Chester (though it's for an address about 50 minutes drive from Chester), 45 is a district within that area - usually numbered spiralling outward from the sorting office or centre of town. 3HN then divide that district into smaller and smaller regions till it's about reasonably small number of houses on a road. If you know the address of where you are staying but not the postcode, look in the royal mail postcode finder - http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm (linked from there).


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