New Report: Aspies Let Down by National Health Service

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I'm not at all surprised by this article, my own experience with the NHS mental health service has been very frustrating. I do realise that us Brits should be grateful for having an NHS in the first place, but mental health treatment here (in my experience) is overly simplistic, somewhat out of date (compared with the US), sometimes overly cautious and at times just scientifically ignorant. I think the antiquated NICE (national institute of clinical institute) guidelines, as well as an insufficient budget keeps things stagnant, and not very open to newer (or foreign) approaches towards treatment and diagnosis.

This is very interesting discussion folks. Are you in the UK aware that there is a movie currently in the US called SICKO that promotes how wonderful the national health systems are in the UK, France, Canada and Cuba? The movie exclaims how wonderful and happy everyone in those countries are about all the free care they get, how much healthier they are compared to Americans and how they don't have to wait to be seen. Because of this movie many Americans are demanding the govt scrap private insurance and copy the NHS. I've wondered if this movie was being played overseas?

It appears both systems are corrupt instead of one being better than the other. Just to set the record straight on US private health insurance. I have one and insurance plan that is considered one of the "better" ones yet I sometimes wait hours to get seen by doctors only to be talked to for 5 minutes then dismissed with nothing more done than telling me "its all in your head". I was told it was in my head for 16 yrs when I eventually found out I have Lyme disease so I wasn't imagining my illness. It took that long to get reliable lab tests performed. Even what would seem the simplest of things to treat is not in the US. I broke my leg and it took 4 weeks and seeing 4 doctors before I could get one of them to x-ray my leg and the guy said "did you know your leg is broken?". Duh! Mind you I can crashing down on that leg smacking a boulder and could not move leg. The leg was BLACK from knee down to ankle from all the blood lost under the skin, I had a two inch swelling at the impact site and I was screaming of pain for weeks...and it took 4 weeks before I could get a diagnosis! And the bad thing is one of those doctors is a personal friend of mine and even she would still not x-ray me. She kept telling me tell dr's office B they should do an X-ray. Okay why couldn't SHE order the X-ray?

Complete BS is a good way to describe US health care. For specialists in this town there is a 3-6 months waiting period on average regardless of what is wrong. For two years I could not get in with a GP because no one in town on my insurance was taking new patients because there is such a shortage of medical professionals here because the wages are so low here. Here's another one for you... I have told my GP and another specialist that I stop breathing at night and that I have awoke gasping for breath and numb around the mouth. Normally that would warrant being sent ASAP to a sleep clinic. Considering its known I have a heart condition and asthma they should be concerned about this. But no. I've been complaining since December of this and I haven't had the problen addressed yet. I won't even get into my mental health and how I have never gotten counseling. My insurance would pay for it except no one in town is on the plan who is accepting patients. I was told if I was suicidal they could find me someone. But if a person confesses of being suicidal they tend to get fired from their job and locked up in some state institution.

The NHS sounds great, but it's not all it's cracked up to be, people don't get the best care simply because it's there, it's aging, flagging, underfunded and overworked, you may get seen, but that isn't any guarantee of getting any treatment or help. People get misdiagnosed, mistreated, ignored, etc, etc, here too, the level of care you will receive varies greatly, not only depending upon where you get seen but also by whom, many GP's are just plain ignorant or unmotivated to help patients and it's common for people to wait years to get all manner of problems sorted out.
Mental health care is particularly bad, GP's seem particularly un-knowledgeable, their pat answer is either that it can't be that bad or simply that the answer to all your troubles lies in this little foil wrapped packet, access to specialists of any kind is very limited, and once you see a specialist there isn't any guarantee of them either understanding your problem or actually getting any help once you've been diagnosed.
I can understand why people with Asperger's feel let down, I've heard quite a few daft comments when I've tried to get diagnosed, "you speak too eloquently to be mentally unwell", "you look normal", "you look to me to be coping fine with things", "this is curable and Asperger's is not".
Many people just give up on the NHS and try to muddle through on their own, it's easier than having to go the 20 rounds to get any help, and some people are just damn lucky to live in the "right" area and see the "right" doctor.
I love the way that other countries use the NHS as some glowing example of how to do the National Health thing correctly, considering how many people it fails, it's no better than anywhere else, in some ways I think it's worse, we have all this "free" health care and yet, hardly anyone actually has access to it, it's just one big disappointing mess.

Bugs

Free healthcare. Yet we have to pay for our prescriptions. About £6.50 a time. Not good when you're on regular medication. It's better to be on the dole if you're on medication it seems. As it's free then.

i cant get help from anyone. wich is why i hope my rap career takes off so i can get my chedder and buy some real help