Hospital Reorganisation
There have been a couple of stories on the news about hospital reorganisation in the last week or so. There was a story last week about the reorganisation of A & E units in North West London. Today, there’s a story about a trust in South East london, that might merge with one in North West Kent.
As when the closure of Barts was mooted some years ago, the locals are against it. For instance someone has said this morning, that those in South East London prefer to travel to the teaching hospitals in Central London.
I lived for a long time in East Anglia and now, the number of big hospitals, is probably down to just two; Cambridge and Norwich, with some local General Hospitals in between. Some like Bury St. Edmunds will disappear fairly soon.
And then of course, there was the retired doctor, who got elected to Parliament over the closure of Kidderminster Hospital, a few years ago.
Modern medicine means we need less hospital beds and more specialist consultants and because paramedics are so much more advanced in what they can do, we need less A & E units.
But try selling this to the locals.
An MRi Scan in Harley Street
The doctors are trying to get to the bottom of why my heart doesn’t push as hard as it might.
So on Saturday lunchtime, I found myself in The Heart Hospital round the corner from Harley Street for an MRi scan. The hospital has an interesting history having been refurbished at one time as a private heart hospital. Some of the expensive fittings show this.
Now it is part of UCLH and it was a very efficient procedure, as a cardiologist checked my heart with the machine.
I think the whole story shows how only the NHS can afford really expensive machines, but they must make the assets sweat.
My only complaint was the usual NHS one, of magazines that were fairly out of date. But hey who cares? I waited with a man, who had brought his wife in for something much more serious than I am suffering from. He was much better company than last year’s Hello.
It was also a simple bus ride without any changes from the stop at the end of my road.
How to Cut Down Strokes and Their Effects
The more I learn about strokes the more I know that the one I had in Hong Kong might well have been avoided.
my stroke was caused by atrial fibrillation. This was detected hen I had a small stroke in March 2010. I now feel that I should have been put on Warfarin, but why the doctors didn’t take this route, I do not not know. Could it be that my previous surgery in Suffolk, wouldn’t use a simple hand-held instrument, but still relied on expensive weekly blood tests? I don’t know, but having been on a system based on a machine since moving to London, I can honestly say that the the system is better from a patient’s point of view. My previous cardiologist, who has an International reputation assured me that if I kept my Warfarin regime, I would not have another stroke.
I am now under the care of University College Hospital in London. I happened to tell the nurse doing my electro-cardiogram there, that twenty or so years ago, I had had one that missed a beat in a flying medical. She said that that should have been followed up as it was indicative of atrial fibrillation. Instead over the past twenty years, I’ve had the odd cholesterol and blood pressure tests and that is about all.
It strikes me that, if I had had a proper heart medical, twenty years ago, then my stroke might have been avoided.
But I didn’t even see a cardiologist after my first stroke.
It strikes me that GPs either need to be better trained with regard to heart problems or less reluctant to refer patients to cardiologists.
I was also lucky in that I had my major stroke in Hong Kong.
There I was given a drip of a clot-busting drug, that provably mitigated my lasting problems. It is common place in some countries and regions of the UK. A BBC London report, showed that it saved money against conventional treatment, by avoiding lots of expensive after care. Additionally, in London, you are always taken to a specialist stroke unit.
So it does look like things are improving in the treatment of strokes.
I Had Another Spasm In My Arm Yesterday
At lunch time yesterday, I went to a meeting, where I sat in a chair with wooden arms, not unlike the ones I have where I sit at my computer.
As I walked to the bus, I felt that my arm was starting to do what it did a couple of weeks ago. It obviously wasn’t as bad and I decided to continue to my dental appointment at Notting Hill.
Luckily, the spasm seemed to die down in the bus, so I changed my plan and instead of going to Bank, I went to Kings Cross for the Circle line, as if it got worse I could get off at Euston Square for the hospital.
But it behaved itself and nothing further happened.
I should say that in the morning, I’d had physio on the arm and my physio had felt it wasn’t too good.
I’ve now decided to move my physio appointments to later in the day, as the problems seem to happen around lunchtime, after the arm has been working hard or lying in a particular way on a hard service.
I’ve also taken the decision to not sit in a chair, with my hand on the arm.
Thinking back over the last thirty years or so, most of my sitting has either been in a swivel office chair with a padded arm or on a hard stool. I’ve gone back to using the hard stool most of the time.
Not Annoyed By Students
As UCH is a teaching hospital, I was always being visited by students, who obviously needed to examine real patients.
I don’t mind this, but others might. But they’ve obviously got to practice somewhere.
I chatted with one all evening, as she only left at about half past eleven. It was certainly a better experience, than watching the dreadful TV system.
The UCH TV/Phone System
It’s no better than the one at Addenbrookes. And there’s still no BBC 5 Live! As Fornula 1 is not on BBC1 much of the time these days, that will be a cause for complaint.
The accounting for the cards didn’t seem to be too accurate either!
I did laugh at the rather smug message.
You are enjoying <channel>
Does anybody with a brain enjoy Channel 5?
Next time, I go into hospital, I’m taking a radio.
A Couple of Days in Hospital
Some will know that on Wednesday I collapsed, called an ambulance and ended up in University College Hospital. I thought at first I was having another stroke, but whilst lying on the floor, I felt that this wasn’t the case. The paramedics couldn’t get in, but luckily the builder opposite, who I talk to most days, had a ladder and came through the open window.
I called the ambulance, as my left hand was twitching after doing a lot of typing. These days, I use my left hand for shift and control and I think all the movement had irritated my humerus. And no! It’s not funny. In the end I got frightened, and it got me very worried, so that is why I dialled 999. I sat on the chair and when trying to stand up, my left leg gave way so I just laid on the floor, until I was rescued.
The trip to hospital was quick and they were examining me within a few minutes.
They ended up admitting me and I was in a First Floor single room in the tower, looking out over the Euston Road.
I was fully checked out and they found there were problems with my heart, which I did know about to a certain extent. But I got a very good diagnosis for free. when I was having the echnocardiogram, it felt like I was back in Hong Kong, as the operator of the machine and his student, were both Chinese.
I left on Friday with a whole new load of drugs.
So all in all was very positive.
Can I Have That in Writing?
This was my response, when a doctor in hospital said I was a young man.
I didn’t get what I wanted. But the thought was nice anyway!
The New Royal London Hospital
The new Royal London Hospital opened today.
I wonder if the Labour Ward is still named after Marie Celeste?
London Hospitals Write Off Millions
According to this report from the BBC, the NHS in London is owed £26m by those who because they are not British or EU citizens, don’t get free healthcare. Of this a large proportion has been written off.
This is not a new phenomenon.
When my mother-in-law had her new heart valve fitted in Barts in the early 1970s, some of the patients there could be be described as health tourists from the USA. They needed a new heart valve and had come to the UK, where they then got admitted to the hospital through A & E.
I guess the system is still the same.
The Anonymous Widower 