I was late for work today, as I left the post arrived so I picked it up and opened it when I arrived at the office. To my great surprise on opening it, the NHS has arranged for me to see my consultant for a pre-operation meeting today at 12:00!

I phoned them, as we're short staffed at the moment if I go today i'd be leaving the boss in the office on his own.

I'm told that this is the only appointment time available before my operation and that I have to come or the operation will be cancelled!

It staggers me beyond belief!

On the plus side my car passed it's MOT yesterday but one of the things they put in the excessive bill was a new front indicator, which they've replaced. The old one worked but apparently had too much white light... Well anyway, the upshot is - despite having paid for it and despite it previously working fine - i'll be driving to the hospital today without any right hand indicator because it seems that a trained professional mechanic doesnt know how to fit one properly, and testing it after installing is waaaaay too difficult!

This too, staggers me beyond belief!

What a day.

Quote from Becky Rose :

I was late for work today, as I left the post arrived so I picked it up and opened it when I arrived at the office. To my great surprise on opening it, the NHS has arranged for me to see my consultant for a pre-operation meeting today at 12:00!

I phoned them, as we're short staffed at the moment if I go today i'd be leaving the boss in the office on his own.

I'm told that this is the only appointment time available before my operation and that I have to come or the operation will be cancelled!

It staggers me beyond belief!

On the plus side my car passed it's MOT yesterday but one of the things they put in the excessive bill was a new front indicator, which they've replaced. The old one worked but apparently had too much white light... Well anyway, the upshot is - despite having paid for it and despite it previously working fine - i'll be driving to the hospital today without any right hand indicator because it seems that a trained professional mechanic doesnt know how to fit one properly, and testing it after installing is waaaaay too difficult!

This too, staggers me beyond belief!

What a day.

Best of luck with operation.

hahaha @ mechanic.

the NHS certainly ain't perfect, but at least we have a national health service to moan about.........

As for the front indicator, too much light? sounds like they were having you on

No, if the lens fades and doesn't tint the light enough, you get 'too much white light', which is technically a failure.

But look at the rear indicators on a Honda Civic (the new ugly one, as opposed to all the previous ugly ones), and you'll see just how dangerous modern, standard indicators can be.

Quote from Becky Rose :

a trained professional mechanic doesnt know how to fit one properly, and testing it after installing is waaaaay too difficult!

Well that is very alarming, the fact that firstly they couldn't fit a bulb and far more importantly that they didn't check it, just hope they got round to checking your wheel nuts

Quote from ajp71 :

Well that is very alarming, the fact that firstly they couldn't fit a bulb and far more importantly that they didn't check it, just hope they got round to checking your wheel nuts

reminds me of an old story my dad told me about the british way to put cars together

decades ago some car dealer specializing in british cars used to go to the uk and drive all the cars to germany since it was apparently cheaper then transporting them the usual way
he did so with a bunch of vans filled with replacement parts in case the cars disintegrated on their way down to germany and once he arrived back home he completely took them apart and put them back together properly to make them road worthy by german standards



anyway ... good luck with the op becky

oh yeah reminds me of an old story I heard too. This group of germans went on a bombing raid in an old airship when they got to England they missed their target by about 12 miles. On the way home one of the crew lit up a ciggy & they all plumeted to their deaths.


errr what was this thread about?

Quote :

decades ago some car dealer specializing in british cars used to go to the uk and drive all the cars to germany

We've had some pretty bad cars here, in what was our mainstream car industry, I think wages just became too high and car prices abroad too low for British companies to compete and do a proper job. However, at least no British car - in the history of motoring - has ever been as unreliable as a Mercedese or BMW.

I'd be ashamed if I sold a luxury car with a 23.7% major mechnical failure rate in the first 3 months of ownership (Mercedese) and i'd be really annoyed at a 7.8% failure rate in the first 3 months (BMW). All other brands, incidentally, worldwide, have under 2%.

Still, at least we dont have to build our cars to German standards eh Shotglass .

Quote from Becky Rose :

I'd be ashamed if I sold a luxury car with a 23.7% major mechnical failure rate in the first 3 months of ownership (Mercedese) and i'd be really annoyed at a 7.8% failure rate in the first 3 months (BMW).

Well to be fair Mercs were very well built until some idiot thought it would be a good idea to buy Chrysler and go on a cost cutting spree.

now im going in to the motor trade and its people like that who give mechanics a bad name, one word: COWBOY

Go private, its worth the money. The way your treated in the NHS compared to private hospitals is like going from the 3rd world to Utopia. The NHS has to deal with everyone and anyone, so you can understand why its like it is. If you can afford private treatment though then its best to do that, not only to free up space in the NHS, but also because you will get your own room and a TV with cable!!!

Quote from Becky Rose :

I phoned them, as we're short staffed at the moment if I go today i'd be leaving the boss in the office on his own.

Unfortunately, this is why the NHS is such a bureaucratic mess... Too many bosses left to their own devices. The best solution would be to rake the pyramid with gunfire, until you reach the tiers where effective and useful work is done.

But I have to take my hat off to the NHS. Just over a year ago I was given a twenty percent chance of being here to type this today. Still typing...

I've hated the NHS really, since they mixed up my records.

When I was about 11, I broke my elbow - which was rather painful even when i was sat still. When they changed my big plaster cast for a light fibreglass one, i had a checkup in between. I was sat in the booth, the doctor walked in with my records and said "Your Jack?" Well, I am Jack right? So he continued as normal, but then he grabbed my elbow (which was only 2 weeks broken) and started riving it around and bending it! At this point, i was in total agony! I screamed at him and threw myself back onto the bed.

He had the wrong record. He picked up another boy's record who was also called Jack - unfortunaly he had suffered a broken Wrist.

Yeah, I wanted to sue the guy, he really caused me some pain and my elbow still doesn't have full mobility (which I partly blame to him).

From then on, i've avoided going to the NHS, I guess its a bit stupid that I don't go. It probably was a total mistake, but I don't trust them.

Quote from Becky Rose :

No British car - in the history of motoring - has ever been as unreliable as a BMW.

Steady

I couldnt care less about the NHS...untill they let Mr. Prescott in right away. My mum has MS and has to wait ages just to get an apointment for anything and she has a personal MS Nurse that works for the NHS, she is about as much use as a water-proof tea bag.

Good luck with the op though

I hate the NHS atm, purely for selfish reasons though .
My fiancee works for the NHS and they have decided that from now on, they are going to pay her 5 days later every month to save themselves some money. They don't seem to care that this decision is going to cost me £30 every month because my mortgage will come out of the bank before she gets paid, thus putting me into and over my overdraft limit for 5 days (costing me £30) :banghead:

Must just be because they love me, but I have never had a problem with the NHS, the only waits I've ever had is getting round to booking a heart scan (one year later and I still haven't got round to it, which is silly on my part), the trouble with the NHS is the amount of people in the UK who don't work, thus don't put any money in the pot or the most likely to need the service. I say the dole should be stopped after one year, and unless you hold down a job for at least a year you cannot claim again. We're too nice to the poor here, they have no reason to work when they get everything for free if they pop out a brat.

You also need to find a new grease monkey the place we've taken our car for years has two guys who works there, the chappy who owns it, and some new guy who does more damage then he fixes (he once had to fix the head gasket, and put a screw driver through some hoses which cause the engine to over heat, he has also taken it for a joy ride before today as the mileage went up 300 miles), because of which the only the guy who owns it can work on our cars.

The biggest problem with the NHS is that it's now all Trusts and is run for profit rather than as a service to make people feel better. So they put off things that should technically be done immediately.
The reason we saw the rise of so many flesh eating viruses all over the country was because someone in their ultimate wisdom decided that they could save a few quid by turning down the temperature of the equipment sterilising machines. So after 30 years of cleaning them at a safe high temp they think they can turn it down and it'll be just as clean? I think not.

It's all bollocks. You cannot and should not run a hospital as a business. It's about the treatment, not the profit.

</rant>

Good luck with your op, Becky. Thankfully I've not heard of any recent flesh eating virus outbreaks anywhere