Time for another rant...

Right. Seeing as I've gotten on abit of a roll with the rants, here's another one for you. Everything I say here is coming from my own personal experience and opinion and precisely because I'm about to rant, I may say some things that people disagree with. There's no offense meant and if anything I do say does offend then you have two options. Either a)talk to me about it, I like to discuss things and won't have a problem with people who disagree with me or b)get over the fact that other people having opinions has offended you.

Ok. So, the bottom line is that I hate the NHS. I know alot of people hate the NHS for various reasons that I won't go into. I am extremely grateful that our country provides free healthcare. I think it's appaulling that countries like the USA don't and I have seen first hand what it's like in a country with almost no healthcare available for the really poor. So I am grateful.

What I HATE about the NHS is their beaurocratic bollocks and the fact that 'technology' has advanced so much that people aren't being treated as individuals anymore. My Grandad was saying the other day that when he was little and went to the doctors, they would look at you and ask questions and then personally make up your medicine for you based on how you were feeling/looking. Then came the blood tests. Wonderful things, and I'm not being sarcastic because sometimes illnesses can't be picked up without a blood test. No, the problem I have is when one of the top specialists in the country can look at a woman unable to feed herself and in a wheelchair and cheerily claim "good news, your blood tests are normal you can go home now". Something is very wrong there.

Not everyone knows, but my mum was inexplicably ill for about 4 and a half years and no-one could figure out what was wrong. She was the one who had doctor after doctor after doctor tell her that she must be making it all up because the blood tests were normal. Whatever normal is. Then she finally went to a private specialist who took one look at her and said she had a thyroid deficiency. She'd been tested for that already but he said that the blood tests were unhelpful if your activity dropped within the range. Basically it meant that although her tests were normal, because the range they claim to be 'normal' is so big, her thyroid activity had actually dropped loads. Thus making her extremely ill but still within the 'normal' blood test.

That specialist gave her the treatment she needed and now she's completely well again. That specialist is now in court for malpractice and will be struck off.

That is what I hate the NHS. The General Medical Council claims that it is of no relevance at all that thousands of people have got better under this doctor's treatment, the fact remains that he's treated outside of blood tests and that is malpractice. Mum's been summoned as a witness to testify for him but in reality the GMC have already made their decision. He will be struck off and anyone who would have had a hope of recovery by going to him will now have no hope.

I can't stand it when people aren't listened to like that. It's so unjust. People aren't being treated as individuals because there are a set of restrictions outside of which doctors cannot work. And I just can't get my head around how anyone can possibly think that every human being is exactly the same. It just isn't true. We are all different in everything and so logically that would follow for things like thyroid production just as much as sleep needs, vision, eating habits, allergies, energy levels etc etc etc. It's just that the power- happy money-loving monsters that have no idea about real people have just set blanket rules because it's cheaper and easier for them. With wider ranges for blood tests, less people will show up with illnesses so regardless of whether they can even function properly they can be told that they are well because the infallible blood tests say so.

There's a possibility that in the future the GMC will ban the drug that my mum takes. I dread the day when I'll have to go back to seeing her lie in bed unable to do anything for herself. And she must be one in literally thousands who will be in the same situation.

There we go. That's why I hate the NHS.