Reasons to be Cheerful: The National Health Service #R2BC

I have a very good reason for being a day late with the linky this week as yesterday I spent almost the entire night at the hospital with my daughter. This is why the National Health Service is my reasons to be cheerful this week. Here are the different reasons why:

1) NHS Direct

There is a dedicated 24 hour phone line (just call 111) so when you are worried about a health issue you can talk to a trained person. They can advise you what do you to solve the problem and if necessary they will even call an ambulance for you (yes this has happened to us this year!). Yesterday my daughter was concerned enough to call them and they advised her to see her GP.

2) General Practitioners (GPs)

Our GP surgery is large enough to have some great systems for appointments. When my daughter rang yesterday the on call GP called her back and decided that she needed to come in for an appointment. So on the same day we went to see one of our lovely GPs. She in turn decided that my daughter needed to be seen at the hospital so rang them and arranged for us to go.

3) Royal Lancaster Hospital Children's Ward

For the 5th time this year we arrived at the ward at 7 PM and she was assessed by a nurse. Then a doctor came and decided she needed to be seen by a surgeon. As there was a long wait the nurse managed to discover that my daughter was allowed to drink and eat. This was just as well as the hard working surgeon wasn't available until nearly 3 AM! At 3.30 one of the lovely nurses took charge of my finally sleeping daughter as she was left for the night. Today my daughter was seen by a senior surgeon (with a tail of junior doctors!) and cleared to come home. A team of nurses took care of her whilst she was there.

All of this was free at the point of use. Yes we pay in to the pot in our taxes but we don't have to be scared to contact the medical profession. This year with all the medical interventions for my daughter I would have spent a fortune if it wasn't free! So the NHS is a massive reason to be cheerful. 

What are yours?