Told, 'You cannot access the NHS' when I CAN...

Hi PlainPearl and kbeech06... Thank you for responding to me the way you did.
It means a lot.

I had a bad day but I feel better now, and it is partly because you two were so understanding! Really.

Well, day almost over, thankfully... and tomorrow, my friend and my husband are both going with me to a private doctor, which my mother in law is going to pay for. I have had a very bad fever, on and off, all week, and a bad chest infection. I'm done messing around - I want meds!

Hopefully it will all be sorted tomorrow - AGAIN, THANK YOU BOTH! xoxoxo

Some hospitals have urgent care centres in their A&E departments.  And if not, the A&E department should be able to see you.  When I moved here, I got seen and treated in my local A&E department no problem.  I explained the situation (I had not yet been able to register with my GP) and no one had a problem seeing me in hospital.

Maybe something to try to avoid having to pay for a private doctor?

Aquila, good idea! I will ask hubby if we should look into that - thank you!

I would suggest going back to the same one, armed with the proper information so you can educate them and it won't happen to the next person who tries to register.

Ok, I plan to write to them. A nice letter, explaining what happened, and what the rules are. Thank you!

There's a free walk in centre at Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith.
Just turn up, get treated and get a prescription, I imagine google will find you one in your area, oh it does. - http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/Emergencyandurgentcareservices/Pages/Walk-incentresSummary.aspx

I used to go to CCH walk in all the time as it was closer than my GP and I could go in the middle of the night or after work, I was treated for an infected breast cyst, an ear infection, a big bruise which I thought was going to kill me, food poisoning, a 3 day migraine etc at various different times there. It's great.

Thank you cheesebiscuit!!!

I was just so sick today that I could not really function. And I am on my own. I never even thought about walk in clinics. I completely forgot about them!

I'm happy they took good care of you there!

My husband will be back in the morning from his business trip, and my friend is coming over in the morning, so I will ask them to look up a 'walk in' that is close, so my mother in law does not end up spending money on me. I just feel so sick that I am dysfunctional today.

Fever = Oversensitive  Airhead.

For some unknown reason, my in laws all do everything private, so they are rather clueless about the NHS.

THANK YOU!

I don't know where in London you're based, but Ealing Hospital also has one - 24 hours a day, every day.

I was there a few months ago when I accidentally spilled a pot of boiling water on my hand. (been trying to make a nice pasta dish for DH after he had to work on the weekend)  It blistered up something awful and we went straight there and I was seen and bandaged in less than an hour.  (been to their A&E as well, but hopefully you won't need that level of care!)

Hope you feel better.

I've had a chest infection before; it's super duper NOT fun.

I've also had really good experiences with walk-ins.  I went to one in Weymouth a few weeks ago when I had a bad chest infection.  I was in and out with a prescription in less than half an hour.  Very efficient and everyone was professional.  

All this talk of NHS walk-in centres got me thinking... I have no idea where ours is in Glasgow, or if we even have one! 

Did a quick Google, and it appears we're out of luck here... we've got some rubbish thing with certain pharmacies that are nurse-led for minor ailments, but the opening hours are something like 7am to NOON?  Not much use, really.  So I guess we'd need to call NHS24 or go to an A&E, depending on how bad the illness was.

So I guess we'd need to call NHS24 or go to an A&E, depending on how bad the illness was.

Yeap, that seems to be the case - at least where I live up here there's no urgent care centre.
 
That said, I'm a big fan of the NHS24 service, the nurses on the other end have always been lovely.
I've had instances where they've called A&E for me and given me a good time slot to go, i.e. not too busy  - but it is A&E, so you never know when an ambulance will come in or when the helicopter is going to come in from a mountain rescue or from other rural hospitals.
I've also called NHS24 and they've called my GP to arrange an urgent appointment
They sometimes (though its not happened to me) will get a GP to come out to you

Only sucks when you've got to go to A&E on a Friday or Saturday night, because its heaving with drunken injuries and alcohol poisioning and there can be quite a wait
(Don't know why I'm telling this to you, T, you've been here far longer than me and I'm sure are well aware of what the NHS24 does, hahaha, suppose I am just throwing it out there for anyone who doesn't know  )

Lara, feel free to call the NHSDirect (NHS24 in Scotland) as they can help as well without having to necessarily go to an urgent care centre

Thank you so much phatbeetle, historyenne, and Aquila!!!

I ended up at A&E last night, and they gave me some sort of gas thing, and a bunch of tests, and I am going to a doctor (I think it might be a specialist?) right now.

I have a serious infection.

The gas thing, maybe it was just oxygen... did help a lot.

I have a car picking me up because I am not supposed to overdo it - I am not getting enough air...

Again, thank you soooooooo much for being around for me yesterday! I was home alone, and I was scared, and I could not breathe well. I was a bit freaked out.

Those of you who were caring made all the difference.

I hope one day to return the kindness.

xoxoxoxoxxoxoxooxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoox
L.

(Don't know why I'm telling this to you, T, you've been here far longer than me and I'm sure are well aware of what the NHS24 does, hahaha, suppose I am just throwing it out there for anyone who doesn't know   )

Actually, for as long as I've lived here, I have never used NHS24 and never been to A&E!  (i'm not a very 'sickly' or injury-prone person, or lucky, I guess!)  So I suppose I didn't know what NHS24 did... i just thought they gave general advice, and didn't know they'd help do that other stuff you mentioned, so it's good to know.  
I still think we need a walk-in clinic in Glasgow, though!  

Walk in clinics are fantastic if, like me you tend to ignore your medical problems until they are about to kill you but you feel silly about it.

Like my "Uh I have a bruise, am I going to die?" moment of last year, I felt too stupid about it to go to A&E and it felt too time sensitive to visit my GP so walk in was a good option.

(Also don't impale yourself on your bike handlebars at speed. Bad times)

I just had this response yesterday (fror the 3rd time). Luckily the receptionist was super nice about it.
I offered to show her the Home Office website where it says I am allowed to access NHS and actually a GP stepped in and told her that spouses with ILR are allowed NHS services. I was so shocked that a GP actually bothered to know that! The receptionist apologized after for not knowing. I do think that they should be trained in who to accept, but as long as they make an effort to correct a misunderstanding (unlike the other practices I talked to) it goes a long way.


There just seems to be a lot of chest infections going around this month. Hope you get better soon LaraMascara!

(Also don't impale yourself on your bike handlebars at speed. Bad times)

Oh, just reading that made me feel queasy!

Walk in clinics are fantastic if, like me you tend to ignore your medical problems until they are about to kill you but you feel silly about it.

Like my "Uh I have a bruise, am I going to die?" moment of last year, I felt too stupid about it to go to A&E and it felt too time sensitive to visit my GP so walk in was a good option.

(Also don't impale yourself on your bike handlebars at speed. Bad times)

Ouch! As a horseback rider, I have a long list of visits like that: "uhhhh, so this seems to still be swollen and that might be bad?" sort of visits.

I second the amazingness of walk in clinics. I've started going to a sexual health one for all of my birth control/etc stuff as the nurses there are absolute pros at their jobs (it helps that they do it 100s of times a day!) and super helpful.  My GP is fine, but he doesn't deal with this stuff exclusively, so I like the walk in.  I must admit that the first thing my husband did when I moved over was walk me to the A&E and the nearby walk in clinic (down the road) to make sure I knew where to go.  (See aforementioned habit of horseback riding, although in fairness to myself, I don't normally get hurt!)