Right, he said, we'll get you booked in for a series of tests. Oh, here we go, I thought - another three week wait. Perhaps I could go private? I said, to speed things up? Speed things up? he said, I'm talking about NOW. You couldn't do it any quicker how ever rich you were. He picked up the phone and spoke to somebody at the Royal United Hospital, Bath. Printed out a letter for me to take and half an hour later I was on the train to Bath.
I'd never heard of Ambulatory Care but it's attached to A&E and is for urgently referred outpatients who are mobile. I was there for 4 hours and received incredible care. They did loads of blood tests, blood pressure, ElectroCardiogram, X-Ray, ultrasound and then a half hour assessment with a doctor. He drained some fluid off my lung for a biopsy and decided he wanted a CT scan which I had with virtually no waiting. Then when most of the results and pictures came back he spent another half-hour with me going through them all and coming to the conclusion that I was 100% fit, other than the lung thing, and sent me off to the pharmacy to get more powerful antibiotics. When I got back he'd got the analysis from the CT scan that showed some unusual scar tissue inside the lung and decided that he wanted a consultant to look at it so booked me in for a non-urgent appointment for that.
All that in one afternoon and for nothing. How much would all that cost if you could get it done privately? Thousands, I reckon! I had no idea that sort of care was available if a GP considered a patient at high risk (in my case, he was worried about the possibility of a blood clot on the lung). One of the nurses said I was lucky to have such a proactive GP. He's only about 35 but he certainly seems to have an understanding of how to use the system to his advantage.
Just thought I'd put in a plug for the NHS (although it doesn't work so well for everybody) and apologise for my earlier negativity
Ian
Hope you get sorted out very soon 
EricT
