The NHS - Part 2

Second experience: Jamie was sick last week, and we suspected a sinus or ear infection. I called to get him an appointment on Friday morning at 830am. The receptionist asked what I was experiencing and then told me that they had no appointments available that day so a doctor would call me back. Wait...what? A doc would call me? Sure enough, about 45 min later, a doc called, asked what I was experiencing with J, and then asked when I could bring him around, suggesting that if possible, the morning would be less busy than the afternoon, so we wouldn't have to wait as long then. 

We took a taxi up to the UHC about 45 min later. We waited for about 5 min, then were seen by the same doctor who had called me. She looked in J's ears and throat and checked his lungs, told me I was right that he had an ear infection, and gave me an Rx (that we then filled right near our house for free and in about 2 minutes). There were so many interesting aspects to this interaction.

1) No weight, temp, pulse, on and on were taken. She asked what we were experiencing (and believed us), observed J (probably pretty obvious when they are in major distress!), and now the NHS will not be charged for unnecessary tests, and most importantly, J wasn't subjected to them (especially the terrible experience of getting him undressed to weigh him when sick - brrr!).

2) In the states, so many people are so very obsessed with weight. From the moment a baby is born, every single time they are taken to the doctor's office, they are forced to undress, be weighed, and then the parents are informed where their child falls compared to others (the percentile they fall in).  This obsession seems to then follow the parents and child as they grow, slowly transforming into another adolescent worried about weight and with an unhealthy body image. Why do we do this? Can anyone point me to a study that shows that this sort of behavior is linked to healthier children and adults?

3) No nurse - direct interaction with the doctor only. She was very nice, BTW.

4) Did I mention that the doctor called me? And that she fit J into the appointment schedule 'on our schedule'? And then we only waited approx 5 min before we were seen?

5) While there, I asked the doc how they do well-baby visits. In the US, there is a set schedule of appointments, mainly so that parents get their babies vaccinated. She explained that there is no set schedule. When the babies are very young, someone visits the home to check on their environment and health (fancy that!). Then, as they get older, the parents can bring them into the UHC on a Wednesday during their baby clinic to get any needed vaccines (as well as coming in when needed for sickness), and then around 1yr old, someone calls the family to check up on things and discuss concerns. She then went on to say that they used to require 1 visit for a hearing test, but that they decided that the test results were wrong too often and that the parents would notice if the baby had a hearing problem and bring the baby in. As many of you know, Jamie failed his hearing test (and hears very well), so this statement struck a chord. Wouldn't it be amazing if our doctors and the govt trusted us to take care of our children? I understand that there is a small minority who might not get the care they need because of bad circumstances, but is there evidence that the system we use solves this problem? I am quite sure that it costs us all a lot of $$.. I was being called practically weekly before we left to bring J into the hospital for a much more involved hearing test that included sedation (!!), just because that is what the state mandates - how much do you think that costs? Should we set policies for everyone that are based on the minority of people? This topic is interesting to me, and I don't pretend to have the answers, but I definitely appreciate the NHS's perspective.

So, after all that, the take home is that I'm quite happy with the NHS so far. I'll keep you posted throughout the year!