On Monday arvo, as I vigorously strode my daily anti-diabetic penance – well, no … as I strolled idly around my occasional gentle walk – well, possibly somewhere between the two, a flash of lightning pierced my left eye. And again. In fact every time I looked left and then right, the same flash of light shot around the left hand edge of my field of view. Disconcerting, to say the least.
I drifted through Tuesday, hoping that this internal storm might disappear as quickly as it had arrived, but this morning I faced reality and phoned for an appointment with my GP.
At 10:30 am, on the dot, the aforementioned GP fixed me with his gimlet glare and observed, “I dinnae like the luke o’ that”. He comes from West Hartlepool, I believe. “OK with private?”
I could hardly disagree, and nodded and shrugged simultaneously, which was a bit difficult as the sphygmomanometer cuff was still around my arm. Doc glanced at the reading, muttering something about “it’ll come down – it’d better” and reached for the phone.
Less than an hour and a half later I was listening to the specialist tell me the outcome of his exhaustive retinal examination – when they say, “better have it looked at now” they mean it, here.
I staggered out into daylight, pupils still fully dilated, to pay the specialist’s fee on a terminal I couldn’t see and to agree a date for the follow-up examination and the possible laser surgery I hope I shan’t need, when it struck me. This is Australia – it may be private, but … “the Medicare rebate?” I asked weakly. “Just swipe your card again … click, buzz … there you go.” The dear lady had deposited slightly under half the fee back into my bank account from the Medicare moneybags. That’s the state health system, our NHS ‘equivalent’. She went on to outline the cost of the laser surgery and finished with, “you’ll get about half of that back, too.”
So, I received the best and fastest emergency attention that a private clinic could provide, but the public health system paid for nearly half, on the nose. And it will pay for half the treatment, if I need it.
As I said, I was impressed – and I was home in time for a late lunch.
Boadicea's Chariot 
And of course ….. you were treated by the best doctors in the world ….. 🙂
Impressive! We can only dream of efficiency and cost effectiveness here, as I know you know!
Last week I rang up the local surgery to get an appointment the next day for my eldest who had a nasty chest infection. Can’t do it says the receptionist, I have to leave the appointments empty for emergencies tomorrow. What’s an emergency says I. Oh, any normal GP appointment came the reply. So I rang on the dot of 8am the next morning…all those emergency appointments were filled by 7.45. You couldn’t make it up.
Hope the eye gets sorted and doesn’t cause you too much stress. Glad to see you can still type! 🙂
Crash course in Braille …
No, not really – it’ll be fine. 😀
Donald – you’re right, so long as their name isn’t Patel. 😀
For anxious Pommies: no, I haven’t suddenly gone all racist. We have an appeal being heard in Brissie at the moment by one particular murdering bastard of a pretend doctor. He’s appealing against his 7 year sentence, and the Director of Public Prosecutions is appealing against the leniency of the sentence.
When I was a young fellow Dr. Kan was the best Doctor I knew, we could go see him at the club and for the price of a beer he’d give us three days worth of sickies in writing and a prescription for a bottle of Mandrax (went well with coca cola) .
Poor guy wasn’t allowed to operate any more after his club fingers began to freeze up on him while holding the scalpel but that didn’t stop him from killing a few more patients before they caught up with him.
The fact that he was only a pill prescriber before he came over from India somehow never mattered to the Australian Medial Board, as long as he could pass the medical exam that’s all it took.
Things are different today, they added five more questions to the exam … still I always ask to see the University Degree before I deal with any new doctor 😦
Well it’s good news about the cash, Bearsy, but not about the eye. Will keep fingers crossed for you.
In the UK I was registered at the practice that included on its list of doctors one Harold Shipman. So you can imagine, most doctors I see now would be an improvement!
Hi Bearsey, hope it gets sorted soon and in the time honoured way of ‘tinternet I will now give you my expert medical opinion.
All joking apart, the symptons you describe, especially the ‘flash of lighnting,’ is very similar to something that happens to me from time to time. I call it ‘jagged vision,’ as objects I’m looking at have a blank spot, sometimes in the middle, sometimes at the edges but always with a moving, jagged shadow that pulses. I can still see it even if I shut my eyes and the first time it happened it frightened the bejabbers out of me. Near where I live there was an emergency eye hospital and their verdict was, Migrane but without (thankfully) the headaches. It lasts for maybe an hour or two, sometimes longer and always makes me feel queasy during and after. Hope whatever you have is sorted quickly, just rang a bell with me.
Hee Hee Bootsy.
😀
A friend of ours in Oxford had something funny with the vision in one eye. It was a detached retina and they operated on him on the same day that he saw his GP. That was NHS.
Geez, thanks Ferret, I really didn’t need to see that face again… 🙂
I’ve got to admit the Aussie health system is bloody brilliant – clean, efficient in every respect and so quick it’ll make your eyes water (no pun intended, Bearsy 🙂 I hope all goes well for you.)
Back in the day when we were rattling around Melanesia and assorted Pacific islands, Zangada and I were lucky enough to be the subjects of the granddaddy of all insurance policies which included immediate med-evac flights from whichever remote location we might have keeled over in back to Brissie, and very comforting it was too even though we never needed it.
OZ
Jazz
You’re absolutely right – the NHS gets a lot of complaints, and probably rightly so in many cases. One hears all sorts of horror stories. But, in an emergency the NHS is brilliant.
A friend of mine had been feeling really grim for some time. He was finally dragged to the Doctors by his wife, where it was found that his pulse was virtually non-existent. A few hours later was undergoing open-heart surgery.
Mind you I did freak when she told me that the operation was done under a local anaesthetic and that he was concious throughout the whole procedure.
Jazz – I wouldn’t dream of denying that the NHS emergency response can be great. Did Boadicea not recite the story about her friend’s husband who, while we were in the UK, went to his GP feeling tired – and had open heart surgery that very afternoon? Whoops, I see she just has.
I received some equally prompt emergency attention for my blockage problem in the UK – but after that it was £70 for every visit to a GP (and drugs at full price plus GP’s profit mark-up) and a private operation at UK private prices – notwithstanding the fact that the NHS website categorically states that as a British citizen receiving a UK State Pension and with more than 30 years residence in the UK, I am eligible for free treatment. The local Health Centre refused to acknowledge this, and the hospitals laughed at the idea.
Bootsy – Spooky! 😦
Yes, A&E in the UK is excelllent but we’re talking front line here as opposed to the bean-counters, boz tickers and pencil-checkers rhat contaminate it. Within days of taking residencia in Portugal I was informed by letter that I was no longer entitled to free NHS treatment in the UK.
“OK”, I countered, “Please can I have my thirty-plus years of NI contributions back?”
No reply.
“No problem – I’ll just queue up with all the other illegals and health-tourists and you’d better give me the best or else I’ll sue your sorry asses for racism and discrimination and anything else the ambulance-chasers that now infest my once proud contry can come up with.”
No reply.
OZ
Odd that OZ. One of my mother’s friends had health problems in Spain – although I’m not certain that they had actually become residents. The Spanish system refused to treat him, and he returned to the UK. To be honest, he didn’t get what I would call ‘care’ – he was put on the ‘starve them to death plan’ several times – but at least he was ‘treated’ by the NHS.
Sounds v efficient Bearsy. Fingers crossed that you don’t need the surgery.
Don’t let the surgery phase you, Bearsy. I had both of my own lenses replaced last year by an NHS surgeon – one in April and one in May, to rid me of cataracts. Ten to fifteen minutes under local anaesthetic listening to Bach. It took about 24 hours for vision to return to “normal”, and I looked as if I had been punched in the eye for a few days. He put in two distance lenses, which means that for the first time in my life I don’t need glasses to drive or fly – distance vision is as close to perfect as it can be. I do need them to read, but he could have solved that by putting a dsistance lens in one eye, and a reading lens in the other – the brain adjusts apparently, but I wasn’t convinced mine would!
Seeing sudden flashes of light should always be treated seriously, particularly if you think you can hear angels singing simultaneously 🙂
I hope it is resolved swiftly and satisfactorily.
Boadicea – When A Zangada collapsed with her embolism the ambulance was there within ten minutes of the emergency call, probably quicker than I could have done the same journey in a V8 Range Rover. The next and last time I saw her alive was in crispy clean sheets connected to all kinds of dink-dink machines. No complaints here.
OZ
CWJ – I assure you I was not on the road to Damascus. 🙂
Bearsy
You should have put on a funny accent and told them you were an illegal immigrant you’d have got it all for nothing.
It’s strange, Jazz, but that particular Health Centre has a strong prejudice against UK citizens who are resident in Australia. There are notices plastered up all over the place saying things like “If you live in Australia, you will NOT receive free treatment under any circumstances”.
I told the Centre’s Business Manager (ie a spotty clerk) what I thought of his misunderstandings, but I should have saved my breath, of course. 😎
Bearsy, sue them if you seriously have a case.
Christina – if I had the money, I would. But justice, particularly in the UK, is not for the poor. Or the old. Or the Christians. It’s money, money, money, privilege and Islam. 😎
Ferret #9 – brilliant! 😀