West Hoathly Seagull
Honorary Ruffian
Once again, an NSC member with reason to be grateful to the NHS. I was working away, well taking a lunchtime walk actually, when Dad called me to say that instead of taking Mum for her regular Friday hair appointment he had had to rush her to A and E instead (Mum and Dad were meant to come up and meet me in London and go out tonight). She had gone down the drive to do the neighbour's wretched chain (we live up a slope and have to go over his land), when she realised her legs were going to give way under her; she has suffered from bad sciatica for a long time, but is having a really bad go of it at the moment. Dad took her in to the PR, and from the moment they arrived, the care was just superb. A young lass met them at the door of A and E, and ushered them into the triage section, and it was less than two hours before the triage nurse took her for treatment. They then gave her regular pain relief, an X-ray and an MRI scan. At one point they put her in a cubicle, as they thought they would have to keep her overnight, and there were two old ladies in there. A member of staff was ringing the family of one of them, making sure that her home was suitable before they would let her go home. A very worrying day for Dad and me, though at least I was able to throw myself into my work this afternoon, though it wasn't too good being up in London and not able to do anything. I was greatly relieved when Dad called me, stuck in the traffic jam at Purley, due to the accident on the M25, on the way home from my flat (there are some nice parts in that borough, honestly) to say that she was coming home. You hear some horror stories about the NHS, some justified, but she can't speak too highly of the treatment she received today.