First experience with the NHS

I’m not going to lie, I was nervous to go to the doctor in a a different country.  First and foremost I really really don’t like going to the doctor and have been an expert at avoiding it since i was a little kid.  Second in the States all you hear are mixed emotions about National health care and how it can’t be as good because the doctors aren’t paid as much, etc.

Well after suffering through the major part of allergy season I was forced to go see someone.  My hay fever got so bad i literally couldn’t hear through my right ear, which was very scary.  I spent last week at work saying “WHAT??” to just about everyone I was meant to check in.  This is when I knew I really didn’t have a choice.  So on my first day off I hopped on the net to find out where I need to go.  Interestingly enough you actually go to the places that are closest to you, which meant I had to walk around the block and i was there.  

After filling out the paperwork as a new patient and signing up for the NHS, I was asked to sit down  at a computer station which conducted the regular nurse type tests you would expect to go through.  Except I did all of the tests on my own, I weighed myself, took my own blood pressure and filled in an extensive questionnaire.  Once all of this was taken care of I was able to make a walk in apt with the doctor on call.  

While I was sitting in the waiting room I realized how alike it was to being in Oswego at the doctors office, or at least when I was still a resident there.  You could feel the community setting, it was nice to see people greeting people they knew and doctors knowing the patients that were coming in to see them.  All in all the entire experience was just like being in the States.  I was rushed through the actual visit, handed a prescription for a steriod nasal spray and sent on my way.  Not too bad considering my initial concerns!

~ by dsharona on June 25, 2009.