When the GP sends you for any test or to a specialist, they have to pay something out of the surgery's budget.
True, diverting the cost of such referral to doctor's salaries, introduced by a Tory government to reduce NHS costs, knowing the doctors would hang onto the extra once in their hands.
Here it is in action:
17 years ago I had a serious loss of blood pressure heart attack. I wasn't surprised since my mother had heart valve disease, that after referral and tests was treated with a replacement valve. Later my older brother too was referred after four attacks and also given a replacement valve. But all I got was my GP overprescribing calcium blockers.
After a few years on my being able to control the situation well enough, I suffered increasing incidences of heart rhythm and blood pressure crashing problems, rising to the present where these attacks are occurring around 15 times a month, often destroying that night's sleep. When matters came to a head in late 2019, I tried again to get a last chance referral but was refused again since the health trust had asked all local GPs to avoid them to get over a long backlog of previous referrals.
So I decided I'd try again in the spring, but of course that was 2020 when Covid arrived and all other treatments were stopped. Eventually that decision was reversed and the waiting list tackled again, but of course with no referrals I have never been able to get onto any waiting list and anyway I was now getting too old by NHS and NICE standards for bypassed open heart surgery.
So that 2019 refusal was effectively my death sentence, go away and wait for death. In many other countries I would get the operation despite my age, but here it isn't an option.
Ironically though I've still beaten the system. My mother lasted 14 years with her new valve before death at 78, that being the maximum life of such valves. My older brother lasted 9 years with his before death at 87. But by acting as my own doctor I've made it for 17 years without their skills and still going at 88 years old, setting a new family record for longevity.
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