Brian Griffin
Striker
Seems appropriate as there’s a discussion going on about this. I really really really don’t want to get into a political debate. It’s just my own experiences of this quite wonderful service of (all) of ours. There are a few things that could be better and I’ll get some off them off my chest while I’m sat here in the chemo chair.
I turned up at my GPs in February 2017 having made an appointment some weeks earlier in January. I never went to the docs. I’d been living in Chester le Street for 8 years and hadn’t changed from my surgery in Durham. I just didn’t get ill.
I told him I had been having stomach cramps. Ones that stopped me breathing for a bit but was stiff upper lippish about everything else. He had a listen, a prod and an anal examination, well he performed one on me anyway. Then he referred me for X-ray but repeated the statement he couldn’t fast track me because I was under 50. The X-ray appointment came through weeks later set for, when it would be of no use, late May.
My first cramp was early January. My X-ray would have been over 4 months later. If I was private I would have had one within days. If I was savvy I would have sat in A&E until I had one. I was neither.
At the end of February I was taken in as an emergency after weeks of worsening pain. I sat from midnight to 6am while A&E saw to the drunk and noisy people. They do have a triage system but it seems causing the most bother gets you to the head of the queue. I was merely dying quietly in the corner.
24 hours later I had been operated on and the tumour removed. While I had my life saved the delay had allowed the tumour to breach the bowel lining and the nature of the operation could mean more likely complications down the line. And this proved true.
I have written about all the stuff since. The surgeon up here will not operate on me again. They tried. It failed. Twice. Fair enough. Except for the world of social media where a group of people in the same situation talk to each other.
This is how I found a surgeon who was willing to operate further providing chemo stopped further progress of the disease. To get referred to him there were two options. GP and private. I saw my GP. She was reluctant citing budgets and whatnot. I offered to pay and she said fuck it and referred me. Well not actually but she saw someone who just wanted to stay alive a bit longer if that’s ok and maybe thought that was a good use of funds. She did look a bit worried about it all though.
The private sector offer fast referrals, a better hotel function - I know I had massive diarrhoea in prep for my last operation in very nice surroundings. The ward was full so they let a commoner in for the night. They also finance drugs that are not available on the NHS. I am paying for one myself. It is very expensive. I said before, the NHS will spend a lot to cure but not to prolong.
At the end of it though many end up in the same operating theatres. With the same surgeons doing their stuff. It’s just that the private health patients are likely to get there sooner. Bloody queue jumpers as my dad calls them. And in my case had things been done quicker I would likely have not needed the second operation. The first one would have been scanned and planned, my innards as shiny as a new pin, not half full of chilli con carne.
With cancer it’s always about the early as possible. My staging is 4. Out of 4. My life expectancy is 12 months. In simple terms I would likely have been dead by February 18 but have managed to hang around well into month 28. This is a good thing but doesn’t quite make amends for the delays at the start. I don’t have regrets though. It’s pointless. What I do hope is that more early diagnosis and prevention is done in the future.
I read about a bowel screening programme soon to begin up at the Freeman I think it was. This is great news. That it’s happening and that it’s up here. No use to me of course but very useful to the next me. They said it would cost just short of a million pounds. But crucially funded by the Bobby Robson Foundation. In the long run there will be less money spent by the NHS from something not funded by them. Early diagnosis, always. The fact that people will have their loved ones around a bit longer is a bonus but while the nurses do the caring its the management that do the money, whether it’s government or Trusts. And it’s the management who sign stuff off. I hope they don’t fixate on annual budgets and all that bollocks where the long term can get lost in the meeting, or more commonly failing, of short term targets.
I have a port fitted to administer my chemotherapy. It’s a catheter with a tube to my heart surgically implanted under my chest skin. The sister has just said “I love these”. Not many have them. They cost more to buy and fit than a Hickman and Picc central line but the advantages are huge. Less infection, less flushing needed so no district nurse visits plus the quality of life for well, me. I can go away for more than a week and have a swim while I’m at it. It’s sealed, they puncture for each chemo and I heal up before the next. An infection for a cancer patient means hospital admittance a lot of the time. And that is expensive.
The cost will be less in the long run so if they add a few boxes to the right of their f***ing fiscal predictions then we would all have these ports fitted. Little veins on arms can break down with the strength of the poison sent through them. So another line is fitted somewhere else. Buy cheap spend twice.
This all seems like NHS bashing but I have written, a lot, about how good the whole thing has been for me.
I am about to take out private health insurance for my daughter. As much as I believe in fairness, equality and would love for it not be necessary, my principles can go and fuck themselves when it comes to her.
My last few payslips showed I paid a fair few hundred pounds every month in National Insurance Contributions. As a young pensioner myself I now pay fuck all. You are all looking after me. Thanks very much. Premiums for her private cover are £35 per month. I know these will go up and all the other problems associated with private insurance. Like if you actually dare to use it or use it too much then the price will rocket or the policy may be cancelled if you dare to get ill a lot. The terms and conditions are there to read. Of course there’s a limit on number of treatments and total cost but all in all a decent gamble.
I think of it as a safety net above a safety net and one that is much closer to the tightrope.
I believe totally in the NHS. I’m glad I don’t have to wait for a faceless f***ing insurance bods to give the go ahead while I lie on a hospital gurney.
I had a prepacked sandwich today too. And I’m still here. So far.
All the best.
You’ll outlive us all with your attitude.
Keep fighting sir, keep fighting.
ggy
