Mortality and NHS Efficiency.

Over the past couple of days I've been able to sample NHS efficiency first hand and I must say that in the area relating to strokes, at least in Portsmouth there is good news.

Yeah, get me, having a stroke, at 50. This is one milestone I'm not too happy to get to before my time.

But anyway, I must praise the team at Havant Day Service and at the QA Hospitals TIA clinic. I stepped into the day service reception at 10:00am Yesterday and got a slot at the TIA clinic by 3pm. I'd had my assessment, seen a specialist and had my appointments for today booked and also had my bloods taken by 4:30 when I left the hospital.

Today I had an MRI scan and had a vascular assessment done by lunchtime. Back up to the TIA clinic in the afternoon and confirmation that the loss of feeling I've experienced in my left hand is indeed the result of a mild stroke. Plus there's evidence of a couple more in the past that have gone unnoticed.

The longest wait seemed to be to get medication from the hospital pharmacy which took an hour. Medication, which cost me nearly £23! It shows how long its been since I needed to purchase a prescription, I'd forgotten you don't pay per prescription, but actually per item on the prescription. Maybe its the first drug cocktail I've ordered up and I've only previously had a single item on a script, but it does seems a tad excessive, given that scroungers and layabouts get it for free while I have to stump up over £7 every time the doctor adds a line to the script. Even my autistic son still has to pay for his prescription because DLA isn't an enabling benefit for free ones.

To my (now admittedly slightly flawed) mind, there's something wrong with telling someone they'll be on medication for the rest of their lives and then charging them for it.

Big thanks to the NHS team here in Portsmouth and Havant and for anyone in the locality wondering, the NHS seems to be working quite well.