doctors or bullshittters? rant

[wilkinsi]

is it just me they don't like or is it that doctors in general are only good at one thing - fobbing people off. i recently injured myself. i went to the walk-in centre and was told to see another one several miles away, thinking i'd got a disease. despite knowing they were talking shit, i got myself checked - obviously i'm clean. more time wasted. every time i phone a local doctor, i can't get through. so at current, i'm in a lot of pain, i have to work or risk losing pay, and am wondering what i pay national insurance contributions for. bastards. [img]/images/graemlins/rant.gif[/img]

[SRD86]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

adding on to insurance rant, I've been paying insurance since my first pay check, my wife wants laser eye surgery, (she's close to legally blind), but insurance companies won't cover it because "it's cosmetic"

[fett]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

Does UK stand for "Un Karing" in your healthcare system? I'm all for socialized medicine. Everyone pays X dollars a year. The medical system in the US sucks. 45 million uninsured people. That ain't right. You guys, in the UK, have had your system for years. Does it work? It has to be a better answer than what we got. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[St.James]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

[ QUOTE ]
i'm in a lot of pain, i have to work or risk losing pay, and am wondering what i pay national insurance contributions for. bastards.

[/ QUOTE ]

If the UK is anything like the US in terms of any form of welfare, health care, etc., your insurance contributions goes to those who don't or won't work.

I pay for my health insurance out of my own pocket. I don't use any form of government coverage, actually I think they dropped heath coverage in my state anyway. But the high dollar paid stuff isn't much better.

I've had my insurance for a few years now and the one time I used it my premiums went up... twice!

What pisses me off is the questions they ask before covering you. Do you smoke, are you already sick, have you been sick with such diseases as cancer, and so on. Answer any of these with a yes and you will be paying a much higher rate if you get covered at all!

[wilkinsi]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

perhaps doctors and insurance companies should be given prize prat awards on every occasion they come out with some bullshit. if i get refused or fobbed off again, i'm going to see a legal advisor. so-called emergency dentists are the same. unless you've got CASH (because apparantly regardless of pain level, dental work doesn't come under the nhs - aka NO fucking health service), they just sit there repeating the same bullshit. if that doesn't work, they bring in a so-called manager who just gives details of a dodgy dentist who just charges you through the roof for some bullshit checkup instead of actually repairing or removing the bad teeth. people of a proclaimed "profession" like this should be punished by means of being shackled to stocks in the town square and viciously kicked up the fucking arse, then made to lose a month's pay.

[1trussell]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

Insurance companies are not in the business of paying for medical expenses. They are in the business of collecting premiums from their customers. And a LOT of doctors (and hospitals for that matter) are under rule of the insurnce companies.

[sambencuda]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

I've been pretty much home from work for the past three weeks with some kind of chest virus. Horrible caugh and flu symptoms. I went to the doctors twice and they said that my lungs were clear and there was no need for an xray. They put me on a 5 day antibiotic. I thought I was getting better, but once I was done with the 5 day antibiotics, I got progressivly worse again every day that went by. I went back to the doctors. Again, "Your chest is crystal clear." They change my antibiotics and send me off. two days later (last Saturday) I was in such rough shape, I had to go back to the doctor (almost went to the ER). This is two days after I was told my lungs were crystal clear. This time the Doc said I sounded like crap and ordered the xray. I've got a screaming case of pneumonia. How could that have happened in just two days!

You wanna talk about pissed? I've used all my sick time, I have no vacation time (just got back from FLA a month ago) so I'm not making any money sittng home watching Backyardagins. Why am I watching Backyardagins? Well, it appears while the docs were dicking around with the wrong antibiotics, I was highly contagious and my wife now has pneumonia and all three of my kids are now sick.

Could this have been prevented? Yup. All it would have taken was a simple xray when I first went in.

I hate doctors. [img]/images/graemlins/eviltongue.gif[/img]

Sorry, I'm done.

[lerxstcat]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

5 days of antibiotics is not enough to clear up anything. It takes 2 weeks. He probably gave them to you as a placebo
if he thought you had a virus, since antibiotics have NO effect on viruses. Once you have pneumonia, which is bacterial, then antibiotics will work, if you don't have a resistant strain.

Doctors can be obtuse sometimes. If you suggest a diagnosis
they'll often say no just because you dared opine.

[fett]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

[ QUOTE ]
just because you dared opine.

[/ QUOTE ] What a nice use of words. [img]/images/graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

[ QUOTE ]
I'm all for socialized medicine. Everyone pays X dollars a year.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a nice idea but it can't be implemented without leading to rationing, long queues for service, or spiraling costs. Any service where you pay a flat rate (or nothing) and are then free to use as much as you want inevitibly leads to overuse that taxes and eventually ruins the system. There's no way around that problem.

[Bert]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

Medicine is a very imprecise science. If the doc suggested an Xray and turned out you didn't need it, you might be just as pissed that now you have to pay extra for something you didn't really need. Sometimes they make the wrong call. It sucks, but it's inevitable.

That said, there ARE a lot of shitty doctors out there!

And I agree with YAO -- socialized medicine would be a disaster.

[mm2002]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

Medical doctors in general are a bunch of overpaid dumbasses. I put them in the same category as professional ball players. But....as long as the major population continues to be "sheep", then the herders will rule.

[metallicarocks]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

Why can't socialized medicine be like taxes? Everybody is taxed, and most everyone is going to have to go to the hospital at some point. Everybody employed pays. Everybody has to work in some way or another. You can't keep up a life if you don't have some sort of income. We've all heard of some people that sit around and collect unemployment, but come on dude, that can't last very long. You have to do a lot of shit to get unemployment, probably more work than it would take than to just get a fucking job!

[RacerX]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

I am one of the great uninsured masses here in the US. I am whistling past the graveyard but the steps I am taking are simple: getting exercise to reduce excess weight, washing hands frequently and thoroughly, reducing dangerous pastimes (motorcycling, some sports, staying inside at nighttime and during rainy times).

[paddok]

Re: doctors or bullshittters? rant

Damn dude, should have picked a better username for the forum.