Ok, there has been a lt of NHS moaning recently… and to be hnest it’s upset me, I know it’s tupid but earlier I was literally crying…
The NHS has saved my life on more occations than I can count. They have even sent a taxi for me and paid for it when I couldn’t get to hospital. They have given me a safe place to stay when I’m unsafe. They have given me treatment that would have cost several thousend pounds if I had to pay myself. They have kept me alive, they have saved my life, etc.
When I was 18 I even had a non-essential opperation to remove some keloids the size f golf ball. Before the opperation they tried steroids (which will have cost a bit) and then some pressure pads which were worth over £500 each!!! In the end it took 4 opperations and 2 doses of radiotherapy to get rid of them, none of which I had to pay for. Can you imagine if I did have to???
3 times I have considered going private, each time I’ve changed my mind after meeting the staff… I even had one doctor call me “poor scum”, why would I want a doctor invlved in my treatment who thought I was scum???
Therapy wise I will admit the NHS waiting list is long. But when I tried to ind a private therapist they were all unsuitable, one was even one of those “false memory syndrome” people, which isn’t a good mix wwith someone who has DID. Another told me that the abuse was my own fault!!! I honestly do not see why I should pay to be insulted, not that I can afford it anyway as I cannot work currently and so my partner and I have £360 a mnth to live on which doesn’t even cover our rent. So without the NHS what would I do?
Shadowlight's Blog 
February 2, 2010 at 12:48 pm
You’ve had good experiences, but sadly not all of us have been so lucky. It’s a postcode lottery. The Trust within which you live depends on how decent your treatment, physically or mentally, is administered.
So while I understand your willingness to defend the service, please understand that some of us have genuinely be screwed over by it. Your experiences of private therapy sound like most of my therapy forays in the NHS. Now that they’ve finally given me a therapist that I can trust, they are ending my treatment, in complete contravention of their own guidelines and those of NICE.
I live in a rubbish Trust area. I know not all of them are the same.
February 2, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I have had bad experiances too… I have passed out in waiting rooms from blood loss, I’ve had people give me sitches with no anastetic as I’m a self-harmer so must “like pain”, I’ve been refused treatment, I’ve been insulted, I’ve had psychs yell at me that I’m lying and that DID isn’t real and “if I’m going to FAKE a disorder I shoud at least make sure it’s a real one”, etc…
But without the NHS I honestly would be dead… I cannot affford any alternative. I have also lived in 6 different cities across England and Scotland so I know about the postcode lottery
But at the end of the day bad treatment for free is preferable to paying to be misstreated
March 5, 2010 at 8:10 am
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