ANEURIN BEVAN CONTINENCE SYSTEM

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Hi Everyone! I`m a newbie to the forum but not to continence problems. I have to use a single-use catheter to urinate. When I was initially diagnosed with this condition, I was depressed but soon realised that you just have to get on with life (this was ten years ago). Then eight years ago I found a catheter available that had a water sachet incorporated into the catheter. This avoided the problem of filling the catheter `in view` when using public toilets. I have been under the care of my GP. The system has worked so well that I am now almost unaware of the problem. I simply rang my pharmacist and the 12 boxes of catheters would turn up on my doorstep three days later. So, it came as a terrible shock to me that the above board sent me a letter (I got this 9/7) it was dated 5/7 and stated that I could not be prescribed these catheters any more from the 4/7!! (no consultation, no warning) from my GP but had to go through a `continent sevice`. This applies to everyone that requires any kind of device i.e colostomy bags etc.) I am very, very worried about this situation. I tried to ring the service on Friday and despite leaving three messages during the pm, had no return call. I`m worried that my prescription will change, I don`t know what provisions have been made for my personal holiday periods, or national holiday periods like Christmas. There seems be no emergency procedure if the prescription gets lost. I just don`t know how people wo are working are going to cope. Has anyone got any experience of this type of system? If anyone from Gwent is on here could they get in touch with me if only to allay my fears. Thanks

 

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Best of luck in your dealings with your national health system. Keep us informed.

 

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I wish I wasn't in the catheter using club (again) but I also worry a lot about supplies and what is or is not (or won't) be covered.

Someone please correct me if this is wrong but I heard second hand that Canada's (free) healthcase limits patients to one catheter per year? But don't worry! There are new studies that show UTIs are no more significant using clean techniques the reusing the same one over and over.

- - - Diatribe starts here - - -
In the USA this national plan for healthcare is sort of taking off but getting it to even operate is 90% of the challange we face. *Technical things like not charging 10x more for out of network services that they tell us (Through webpages written by dolts) Doctors / clinics are in network then out then in depending on variables that should make no difference. This works out great if you were doing this to increase the number of people who need to seek mental health services. I know its worked on me!!!

This might be paranoid (Not a mental health issue of mine) but I think anyplace with (or going in the direction of) national Healthcare is going to have more and more excuses to not pay for medical supplies, drugs or services. I think based on a number of things that have been happening we can enjoy large numbers of new and different "studies" that prove you don't need this or that or the other thing. Cancer diagnosis? Don't worry. Some cancers grow slow and surely something else will kill you first so lets ignore it and count on "watchful waiting" Whoever invented that term clearly doesn't know how busy doctors are with their 15 minute visits where they spend 14 of them typing on a computer.

Taking some kind of drug? I predict that more and more drugs will have sketchy studies published that show the drug is either found to "do nothing" or more likely be shown to cause ill effects so your better off not taking it.

In the UK isin't it difficult to ever see your primary care doctor in a reasonable time frame? If your need CT scans or something along that line is it true you spend months waiting? Perhapes they are hopeing you show up dead before the appointment comes up.

As patients / citizens but most importantly voters I think we need to come up with a solution that has a focus on the actual healthcare and not Insurance company Profit Margins or Iron fisted Government control. Returning the power to the Patient / Doctor connection would be nice but who can even imagine that anymore?

There is a great movie on Netflix that shows what an ER room does now versus how it worked before. Hint... If you came in with a serious injury you had a mass of people rushing in and workling like a well oiled machine trying to save your life. Now you have a mass of hours waiting for someone to come out and fill out forms so you can see a doctor and fill out more forms.

Just out or morbid curiousity I looked at the first hundred Fortune 500 companies. Did you know that 18 of them are either insurance or drug making / selling companies? 12 of the 18 show increased profit margins. Which I read as making a higher percentage of profit. This is not my area but seems fishy to me. A friend from the old Soviet Union where Insurance companies were not in fashion equated insurance with gambling. If a casino showed increased odds in their favor? What would that say about the Casino?

And as far as drugs go I think its a little like one "mob" against another "mob" Have you ever considered how many new drugs are simply old drugs modified ever so slightly so they can be patented again and again? Has anyone ever done a study on things like Beta Blockers or any class of drugs to see if there has been anything actually improved over the different iterations?

I see it as one side showing how the "new improved" drug is better AND 100x more expensive and the other side is showing how the drugs of that type are not needed at all *Or dangerous. It seems like in both ways we the patients are being screwed.