There is, of course, no reason why I should attempt to defend or even explain the actions of doctors and other health care professionals in every case which reaches the newspapers, or every situation where a forum member is worried. Obviously I don't know all the facts in any one situation.Originally Posted by gparry2007
It's natural for parents to be worried about their kids at ANY age. Where I can possibly help is to explain illnesses without too much detail or medical jargon. It seems to me that communication is often lacking between the patient / or parents and the health care professionals and that leads to misunderstanding and unnecessary worry.
Doing "some lab check before sending patients home" is not always possible. To test blood or CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) for "bugs" requires culture which takes a day or two. If meningitis is strongly suspected, the best antibiotic should be given before the results are available. As I've tried to explain, reaching the correct diagnosis - and deciding which patients to admit to hospital -is the hard bit.
All is NOT well with the NHS. The reforms planned, handing control of budgets to GPs, abolishing Primary Care Trusts, and at the same time trying to make £20 billion (1,380 billion pesos) of savings MIGHT produce improvements, but many experts disagree.
You do right to worry, but I still prefer our NHS to the Philippines health service.
