Does anyone from England know if this is a true health concern or just noise?

This kind of media is not unique. It appears in the press here every so often. I work in the NHS and it is true that demand is rising, we are facing a population that is living longer with multiple health issues, a massive increase in conditions like diabetes and increasingly a blame culture where so much legislation, procedures and protocols have to be put into place that it makes it a bit difficult to keep up generally! The pressures are pretty intense....but if you ask most of my colleagues they aren't living in fear that the NHS is about to break or that hospitals are going to close in mass.

When something is threatened so often you kinda stop taking it seriously!

NO, its not falling apart! Our NHS is wonderful, staffed by highly committed professionals, who admittedly work long shifts and still have to manage home life and good relationships. Medical treatments can be prolonged and need expensive equipment, drugs and highly skilled medical and housekeeping staff, so there is a continual need to balance budgets, as the patients do not have to pay for anything! A few weeks ago, my best friend died of cancer, in a MacMillan (Cancer Charity) hospital ward, as no local hospice bed was available. The loving care throughout her final illness, helped her to cope with many pains and prepared her well for passing in peace.

Yes! Our NHS does have major problems. The staff do the best they can within the present system. Most going the extra mile for the person in front of them. I only wish others with influence would listen to those who know.

True- the NHS is "supposed" to provide healthcare at the point of need.

Someone I know collapsed on a night out was taken to hospital by taxi because "all" ambulances were on other call outs. After initial examinations it took 5 hours to tell her her heart was OK no other tests done! She has a family history of b12 deficiencies??? They are following this up personally.

Another, a short sighted soon to be medical student was sent home from A&E also after 5 hours with a detaching retina, being told she had a headache and her eyes were soar. The following day she was taken to a more distant hospital and received treatment and the explanation, a detaching retina is something to which short sighted people are prone. She was put on two weeks total rest, to the best of my knowledge she still has her sight. This weekend she heads off to university.

Many doctors surgeries are unable to give an appointment for two weeks which probably explains the pressure on the A&E departments. We need more Doctors to train for General Practice. We have to employ people from over seas to fill the posts our training system fails to fill. In elderly care bed blocking is a problem because many elderly people are unable to return home after an admission because they lack support to get them home! Over many years rehabilitation units have been closed and there are not the places in nursing or care homes. The system needs a good rethink and all staff from doctors to the cleaners need to be valued by our authorities.

If someone does not conform to the NICE guidelines, (they are the authorising authority for medications, surgical procedures deciding which are cost effective), the person is not able to achieve relief of their symptoms. Some here do have health insurance from their employment, or pay for their own insurance, but others in common jobs have to find the money to pay for private health care.

So yes, if your face fits and you fit the systems abilities, you can have healthcare, free at the point of use.

Sued0nim wrote: »

Fuzzipeg wrote: »

So yes, if your face fits and you fit the systems abilities, you can have healthcare, free at the point of use.

This is patently not true

Everybody can access medical care, nobody is turned away for lack of money..it is not down to face fitting but overstretched resources

Yes anecdotally there are issues ..in all fields there are incompetencies and inconsistencies but none are so media friendly as health related ones

Yes it is underfinanced based on need which leads to delays, waiting times, frustrations

But we get primary care physicians, nurses, surgeons, anaesthetists, radiologists, tests, recovery, counselling, physio, any med service you can name even acupuncture and complementary therapies free at point of need. Any medication costs the same for a 2 month prescription.

Yes when I'll we expect and want immediate help and don't always get it. Yes, NICE approves drug regimes that are unaffordable so not offered. Yes waiting due to lack of resources, in pain or fear, sucks

Is there a better option?

It depends upon one's definition of "better", I suppose.

Regrettably people are suffering. Many peoples symptoms are not being addressed effectively.

for example: Gaul stones are caused by thick bile which is unable to flow freely. By increasing the patients stomach acid and using bitter foods it is possible to improve bile flow reducing stones and acid re-flux.

Reduction in thyroid function can prompt poor stomach acid and will cause reduced and thick bile flow. Poor absorption of vitamins minerals is caused by a compromised by digestive dysfunction, constipation, IBS you know the kind of thing, there is a long list. Current science shows that the biome in our digestive tracts, (which should be isolated from our internal processes by the lining or wall of the digestive system. When this lining becomes breached it permits over large molecules of undigested foods into the body where they are taken as invaders to be irradiated by the our immune system and some of these molecules are similar enough for the body to mistake some of our own cells as invaders too, causing inflammation which increases the damage). Where was I, yes. The digestive biome influence what goes on in our immune system and this makes it paramount that we address all endocrine issues properly starting with not prescribing antibiotics as often as we do. Antibiotics are life saving in some circumstances but they can also compromise digestion killing of the most helpful bacteria along with the bad. This requires supplementing the remaining few with ones known to aid our very being. Anecdotally most of us have herd this is a good thing but have no real clue why. There is a piece of kit which is able to detect the difference o between viral and bacterial infections, bacterial infections respond to antibiotics viruses do not. The cost of each test is £4 the cost of each instrument is £800, one medical practice said this investment is too great given the time constraints on their face to face time with patients, only 9 or 10 minutes to make the right decision. That's a great deal of pressure, hardly surprising our junior doctors are restless, naturally its their pay which take top spot in the media but they have valid concerns for the safety of patients.

Unfortunately many our doctors are trained to think of the thyroid as the one they main symptom in many situations which should be treated with t4. NICE says so. They also say there is no need for a hypoallergenic version of these products but allergies and intolerance's are closely aligned to thyroid activity because of gut permeability the thyroid is the principal gland targeted by antibodies to invading oversized undigested foods.

There can be other players in this conundrum. Are the other endocrine glands working properly, the adrenal glands, the pituitary and the rest, The pivotal point of our endocrine system is the thyroid which is responsible for the replication of every cell in our bodies, it is fundamental to all mucus linings which help resist unwanted pathagens particularly in the lungs - think the cause of asthma, bacteria probably; it is also responsible for every stage in our own reproductive cycles. How often are women told you must expect periods to be painful its what its about, but it could be a uterine cancer lurking to break out and reap havoc in some unsuspecting families world. How many times are girls given the contraceptive pill to regulate the cycle being told it is totally safe, when it has the ability to dis-regulate the cycle further. The body never wastes any valuable atom, in women the ovaries make t2, I don't think the medical profession know what it is for but it you don't hold it you will loose it most probably its part of the recycling job our bodies do of necessity. A London research paper discovered that is t3 is at a good level teenagers who are principally effected recover from Anorexia!!!!! If the thyroid and other endocrine glands are working well together the body and the person are well. Only one man has thyroid problems to 8 or more women, does this tell you something of our past. Oh! there are only some measly 300 symptoms from asthma to, the inevitable weight gain the common excuse for failing to loose weight, or is it. We all have our own combination, just to make life more difficult.

Another problem which most often affects women more is anything to do with mental health. Millions of £ or $ are shelled out every year which never touch the spot. I mentioned t4 earlier. Its associate is the t3 this is the hormone which actually does the work. It is what the doctors most fear prescribing because they think their patients would make themselves deliberately hyper because they don't have the knowledge to know if they have to much and the difference between the amount needed to feel well. In medical literature is also referred to as the brain hormone or the spark of life which is the power pack to every cell.

T3 is t4 with an iodine ring removed, this happens in the gut, the liver, the thyroid, and other places. to do this properly the body needs, according to most dietary literature, 150 microns a day, only part of a teaspoon a year to provide the t4 for most people the transformation to t3 happens when there are enough other minerals in the system, which means there will be sufficient vitamins and minerals to make all the other hormones and eliminate the byproducts of life.

Another side of this is as the body replicates its cells, albeit at a differential rate, the stomach is about every 30 hours the brain is years if I remember correctly. The key hormone making sure everything replicates properly is the damnable t3. Adequate levels of this undervalued hormone could help prevent cancers. In some places t3 is being given to lung cancer patients with good results. Not to mention the cancers which are prevented when someone has the proper t3 levels naturally.

There are reason for many of us not having good hormone levels. For women it is the societal requirement that we all should look that way. Carrying extra weight even when still well within the BMI band for normal is frowned on. Women and regrettably girls have to restrict ourselves to 1200 calories just to be thin and what of those who do religiously they are told they still are eating too much but 1200 calories is not enough to provide all the vitamins and minerals that are required for a good quality of life were our endocrine system working in synchronicity.

My final thought comes from David Attenborough, a man in his 90's who has made it his life's work to understand animal life. He brought to my attention on Wednesday and Thursday mornings between 9-00 am and 9-30 on BBC radio 4, under the title of, "the waterside Ape", presented many arguments that we are by rights a marine species which accounts for our need for the span of micro nutrients we do. We are hairless because we needed to swim for our food, cultures which still dive deep into cold water, those who still dive deep from a young age, grow an extra group of bones in the nose to protect them from the pressure of the water, these bones have been found in the fossilised remains of our ancestors. Unlike all our other land mammals we have a layer of fat just under the skin, is this brown fat or is that something else? Only sea mammals have this layer of fat to protect them from the cold water. Another thing we have in common with sea mammals is that our offspring are born with a layer of something which makes them look like a channel swimmers as are seal pups in cold water colonies.

Independent of that, I read somewhere, from the outset our consumption of wheat has given us a myriad of health problems. I suppose it made sense to our ancestors to grow plants rather than put their lives at risk swimming and diving every time they needed a meal.

Now increasingly more is being learned from our genome. Geneticists are discovering our genetic blueprint is actually a predictor of what will become of us if we follow our regular western diet, countries who aspire to our ways of living are beginning to experience health issues like us. Probably we would all do much better if we ate more cold water, oily fish and shellfish and avoided the grain foods with the controversial added sugar. I can't say I like the idea of eating that much fish, I would prefer not to eat animals at all but as I am already added sugar and yeast free that's no issue for me. The best part is that as my understanding has grown I have lost enough weight to bring me down to a slightly higher level than is probably wise but being 8 stone down that has to be helpful. My understanding is far in advance of what our hallowed NHS has shown me. I was one of those who was always told you are fibbing, no I have found a way to encourage my body to work in unison after all its only taken me 40 years to understand all this. I discovered many things including salicylate sensitivity from the natural levels in most vegetables, fruits and nuts, this caused me intense pain and swelling. Histamine intolerance where the body is unable to eliminate the required amount from the body which can cause many symptoms too. Do you know all foods which can be described as leftovers are extremely high in histamine. All the cold meats etc. That one has genetic markers as does Vitamin B12 deficiency and many more.

I wish the shackles could be taken from the NHS. So our doctors can have the time to utilise current scientific knowledge to help people avoid all acquired illnesses. As people are helped to address their personal issues, we are all different with underlying similarities. Better testing systems which when related to our genetics, predictive not dictating possible health problems would prevent many of us acquiring health conditions which get in the way of our financial Independence and stop being a drain on society. This may sound expensive, but I hope you realise these changes would be advantageous to us all.

If you bothered to read all this, I Thank You.

I value the concept of the NHS if only it had the support of our past and present governments.

All my information was gleaned from medical paper, and well established support groups except where stated. You could learn all this, if you tried