A Socialized Medicine Reflection

I must say, I've been very touched by some readers' concern for my health since being here. It has been a frustrating process, trying to navigate the socialized medicine system, but in some ways it's been easier. First of all, everyone we've met has been very kind, the nurses especially. I really like them. Secondly, all we had to do to see a doctor was show a utility bill and our IDs to confirm our address and we were in the system. We haven't paid a dime for a single visit or any medical supplies or prescriptions, which as been amazing seeing as how we just don't have a lot of money to spend on copays. We were going to the doctor a lot before we left the States to take care of any medical issues, and at $50 a visit, it really added up.

What's been tough has been the ssssllllloooowwwwnnneeesss of getting things done. In order to see a specialist (anyone besides a general practitioner), I have to make an appointment with the GP, go to the GP, and then listen to the GP tell me that he/she will request an appointment with a specialist for me. Then, I have to go home and wait for a letter to come in the mail telling me when my appointment is with that particular specialist, which could be months. Months for an endocrinology appointment. Months for the insulin. Months for the supplies. Thankfully it's all here now.

The other thing that has been difficult is the lack of communication between them and me, them and them, and them and anyone else in the medical profession. I haven't seen the same doctor twice since I've been here, and each time I see someone new I feel like I have to "start over" with them: explaining who I am, telling them an abbreviated version of my medical history, showing them my papers, them making copies for my file, yada, yada, yada. I don't have a relationship with any ONE doctor. No one I've met here says "my doctor" because no one has one. They go to "their surgery" (clinic) where they see whoever is on that day. There has to be something lost in that lack of relationship between doctor and patient, I think.

I called recently to follow up about my blood tests from Thanksgiving Day. I figured no news was good news, but I was curious as to what my A1C was. I learned that they don't call people after testing unless it's bad news. Good to know... After pressing for my results anyway and getting shuffled around the office a bit (some things are the same in both countries), a diabetes nurse told me my number and proceeded to advise me about how to handle my disease. She worried that my score was "too good" and that I should come in for a management class. "I haven't seen your file before now, and I know all of our diabetic patients," she said. "Have you been to our surgery?"

I wanted to say, "I've practically lived at your surgery for a few months, but you must have been on holiday. Does anyone there talk to anyone else?" but instead I said, "Yes ma'am, I have."

All that to say, 1) Thanks for your concern for me and my health, 2) There are flaws in the both US system and the UK system, 3) I am absolutely not slamming the kind-hearted people in the National Health Service here in England, but their system is not efficient. If I had undiagnosed cancer and went in with stomach pain or something and had to wait months to even be referred from a GP to a specialist of some sort, I'd be really ticked, and then I'd be dead.

This guy says it best, I think. He's English. He thinks that the NHS needs to be privatized, and I tend to agree with his reasoning, especially toward the end of his video. The quote that made me nod my head the most was something along the lines of, "The only thing more unresponsive than large insurance companies is the government."



I don't mean to offend people who are excited about socialized medicine, nor do I want, in any way, for this blog to become political or a place for people to debate in the comments section. These are just my reflections as a person with a chronic illness on my personalized experience with two very different health care systems on both sides of the pond. Man, that last sentence had a lot of prepositional phrases. Sorry.