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News and Comment October 2020

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7 October (Part 2) - Death by Bozo and Hancock?

There are shocking stories easily found on the web about how people are being condemned to die because much of the National Health Service is closed. I have had two Q.E.H. appointments cancelled so far.

Cancer patients are being neglected in some places (I should know!) and denied treatment. Heart rending stuff which no government should be overlooking but unfortunately Hancock and Johnson are interested only in the impossible task of eradicating a virus. A virus that kills a tiny fraction of those who die from other causes. Both give the impression of having lost their minds under the pressure of high office.

While statistically speaking few of us will have lost someone to Covid19 almost everyone has a tale to tell about the unavailability of GP and hospital services. The near impossibility of getting a blood test in Bexley has been widely reported and without a blood test few specialist treatments can go ahead.

My anecdote is far from being the worst but may illustrate the chaotic state of NHS services locally. A friend has chronic breathing problems and was being pushed from pillar to post for a diagnosis well before the Corona panic set in seven months ago. No one could decide if it was a heart or lung problem and the past half year has not brought forth anything more definite.

About six weeks ago his GP demanded another chest X-ray but the hospital refused to see him. The GP sent him to a private facility which he attended but he heard no more.

Yesterday the GP’s receptionist phoned to ask if he had been given the result, not from the private facility but the hospital. He explained that he had not been to the hospital but he was told he had - apparently he had been there twice.

Eventually he got it through the receptionist’s thick head that he had been sent to a private clinic but the GP had no record of doing that. "Would he [my friend] contact the clinic and ask why he had not been given the result of the X-ray.”

He didn’t know the phone number because the GP had given him only the address but he managed to track it down. When rung the phone line gave an announcement that the telephone was not being answered due to Covid19 restrictions.

So it was back to the GP who is now going to try to contact the clinic about the authorised treatment of which he has no record.

Meanwhile my friend, a heart attack victim, can barely climb the stairs and has been suffering from shortness of breath for at least a year.

It’s a story repeated countrywide but in many cases much worse and while Bozo and Hancock remain in office there is no realistic prospect of any improvement.

 

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