I went out for coffee with some friends this morning, as did getting my "annual haircut" but it's actually because I heard back from the consultant today. Part of me was expecting him to just ignore the e-mail (to be honest I wasn't sure if getting in touch with him that way was the best idea), but he replied, and it came across in a friendly way too.
It would appear that he's happy to see me (although he's not sure if he'll be able to significantly help), so I've just got to wait for my GP to officially refer me. I rang them this afternoon, and it took a lot of explaining to the receptionist what I actually wanted but she's going to pass the message on for me and I'm expecting a call in the morning from an actual GP where I'll have to explain it again. No idea how long I'll have to wait for an appointment, and I'm not sure if it will actually help but it means I can at least be a bit more optimistic about things!
Going about things this was has taught me something. However great the NHS is, free care for everyone regardless of finances etc. is that all is not equal. I'm not paying to go private (although I'd maybe be tempted if I could afford it!), but just because I did some work experience and got chatting to a consultant means I can name him and get referred to him by my GP. My consultant (who isn't really my consultant any more) didn't seem overly keen on me getting a second opinion and he certainly wasn't going to offer it to me without any prompting. This means, although theoretically everyone should be getting the same standard of care, because I now happen to "know" a consultant, and have made a bit more of a fuss than I usually would, I am getting to see someone else. There may be many other people out there who can't do this, because they don't have a named consultant to get referred to, or they don't want to make a fuss and get it sorted.
As I see it, it's not fair. But that's the way it is, and with the proposed NHS reforms (which have been remarkably well kept out of the public eye) it's only going to get worse and I hate to think about what's going to happen in the future.
Sorry rant over. I don't normally do pictures of me. But I thought I should show off my new hair cut given the last time I went to the hair dressers was last June. My head feels so much lighter now!
(please excuse the awful photo!)
Right. I need to get back to work. I've been having a bit of a panic because I've always revised by making notes and then when I've made notes I do exam questions and tend to just repeatedly write down answers until I remember them. This is definitely not going to work this time so I'm on the hunt for new revision methods!
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