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Trust Me I'm A (Junior) Doctor


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I heard extracts from this book by Dr Max Pemberton read on Radio 4 and I just had to buy the book. It is funny, poignant and brutally frank, an excellent read and an insight into the life and work of a very new doctor. It's not "Doctor in the House", not written for humerous effect but I giggled at parts of the narrative; I almost wept at others.

 

Tip from Dr Pemberton:- Don't become ill in August - that's when newly qualified doctors are let loose in hospitals. :wink:

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Our Public TV service last week presented comparisons of health services in the UK, France, and Germany. All seemed superior to the US how much can you afford approach. The German doctors seemed only mildly irritated at not being able to become multi-millionaire pill dispensers like the Americans. Looks like you have a superior lifestyle there.

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Jerry

the health service here is good its not perfect and we are ahving a lot of cutbacks but it still far better than that of the UK.

What the US service is like i cant say,but i thought as long as your insured your in good hands?

 

That doesnt meant that the Dr?s ad Nurse?s dont do a grand job but maybe the NHS should put more money into the Service so that they are not so far overstretched as they seem to be.. more nurse?s more doctors= less stress..

 

Steve

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Our health system is in the hands of profit centers. We can't see a doctor or nurse until we have shown our insurance is paid up, and we have handed over the 'co-pay', usually 20 % of the bill. Gatekeepers prohibit any exams or treatments until this payment situation is completed. Of course, the more patients the gatekeepers can prevent getting treatments, the better their profits are. It is insane.

 

Someone will counter this statement saying -- there are emergency rooms and emergency doctors who will treat you without such gatekeepers. I counter with, "WHERE?" Every day that passes more and more emergency rooms are shutting their doors, or just setting up new gatekeepers. People who do not live near large hospitals have no clinics or emergency rooms to even HOPE will aid them.

 

Yes, I was insured all the years I was employed and now I am insured by MEDICARE - Social Security payments that came from my salary all those years I was working. I'm all right, Jack.

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On April 28 I was alone and having trouble and called the fire department medics to transport me to a clinic. They arrived in minutes and brought me to the Marina Hospital five miles away.

 

Today I received a bill from that hospital that held me on a gurney for 10 hours without a doctor Didn't need one, I was breathing and not bleeding and every four hours they took my blood pressure, and listened to my heart. So no problemo - they transferred me to my own insurance plan hospital. I never saw a DOCTOR at that Marina way station - never -- she was too busy or left the area after her shift, never saw a doctor.

 

But the bill that came today asks for $5,142.40 for the expenses they spent on me during those 10 hours of waiting for further transport. It's in code so I can only guess that each blood pressure reading was cause for hundreds of dollars.

 

Oh, I don't have to pay anything. My insurance company paid it after haggling their charges to a more normal $439.67. It's a game.

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