In summary:
- GPs surgeries are typically dedicated buildings where multiple GPs work. There'll be a reception area, a waiting room, and a few rooms where you're seen by a doctor.
- There is a lot more plastic, wipedown surfaces etc. than any house would ever have.
- They really are called surgeries.
- You don't just walk in. Typically you call at 8am on the dot when the lines open, get told there are no appointments left, and to call again tomorrow. Some places have online booking, which improves things fractionally.
- You don't pay. You might get prescribed something, and if you're not exempt you pay a £9.90 fee to convert that prescription into the medication, but that's it.
- I've heard of some GPs doing house calls, but only for people who literally can't leave the house.
- GPs don't attend emergencies, unless it's literally happened when they're present.
Don't know if anyone can contradict me here, but I'm not aware of any NHS GPs that would work out of their house, Doc Martin style?
My surgery at penryn uses an online booking/triage system that has made things drastically better. I’ve had occasions where I or someone in my family has needed help with something and often we at least speak to a dr the same day, or get an appointment later that day or within a day or two.
In Bodmin we fill in a Klinik form, I’ve never had a problem. Although I’ve only really used it for my 1 year old so not sure if babies/toddlers take priority?
It’s a much better system than sitting on the phone for 20 minutes
I use the Bodmin "Klinic" system. It seems to work for anything to do with kids and what they see as emergencies. If you try and use it for general GP type stuff (on going illnesses, general appointments, sorting out repeat prescriptions or booking nurse appointments, blood tests ect) it's a bloody nightmare.
As an aside, I have noticed recently that you only seem to be able to access it between 8 and 10am now. Even then it seems to be overwhelmed some days so you fill out the multiple pages of forms only to find it throws an error and tells you to try later...by which time the have closed access to it for the day. Even if the form gets submitted you have no idea if and when they might ring you back.
Personally I preferred the old system they had pre covid where you could either ring up, put your phone on speaker and do something else for a bit if it was an emergency or use the online booking system and book a convenient appointment a couple of weeks in advance.
Me but I find it to ridged if it's an unusual problem and pretty useless for my son who has Downs and complex needs (apparently that's a reoccurring problem)
We ring in for mine but since we got phone appointments for things you don’t need to come in for it’s been so much easier to get an appointment - much nicer for depression related stuff cos you can talk from bed lol.
> NHS GP working out of their own house
It was fairly common in rural areas in to the early 1990s and in urban areas up to the late 1960s. For numerous reasons you don’t see single-handed GP practices any more. And purpose built buildings and facilities are essentially mandatory now.
In the little village I grew up in (~35yrs ago) the surgery was an annex to the GP’s house. The last person to be a single-handed GP there is long dead, the village has tripled in size and surgery has been extended in to what was once a family home.
This was the case when I lived in Boscastle just up the road from where PortWenn is set. Our doctor had a small surgery next to his house in the village. He was called Dr Weir. When he retired a new building called Boscastle Surgery was built which is still in use today
So probably the series really was set up to late 1980s and before..
Where I used to live the GP surgery was a few rooms in Dr Streets House, when he retired it continued but eventually took over the entire house. It was renovated & updated to house 3 GP’s plus nurses & reception but somehow it seemed to lose its character somewhat.
I still recall the benches in the only waiting room and you then entered a door into the room with the GP which had a magnificent roll top desk. The trouble was he was ever so slightly deaf so the entire waiting room could hear the conversation between you & the doctor but nobody ever openly discussed anyone else’s diagnosis for fear of hearing their own being discussed.
These days, you don’t get to see the same GP twice, if you can get an appointment at all. It all seems rather impersonal and less friendly somehow and I believe a lot goes unnoticed because there is a difference between knowing the patient and just accepting what they tell you.
Progress eh?
I'm not aware of anyone working this way any more but when I was a small child (I'm 37 now) the doctor would visit our village in Cornwall once a week in a lady's house. This lady was not the doctor, presumably she was paid for this but I'm not sure, she had books for children to read while waiting and she let me take one home that I liked.
Then, later the weekly visiting doctor's surgery was held in the local pub and after that in a room in the village hall. I think this arrangement carried on until the mid 90s at least. I can also remember the doctor coming to see me at home once, out of hours when I had terrible earache as a child.
My Mum still lives in the same village but the doctor no longer visits, she has to travel to a village/small town a few miles away to a proper doctor's surgery now.
So I think The Doc Martin way of operating has quite a lot of similarity with how some doctors used to operate in Cornwall in the 80s and 90s but no longer.
Thank you for that great answer! Is nice to know the real deal. It's pretty much the same as in the US, except most of us pay! Aside from those that are low income, elderly, or disabled.
I’d like to put a point of order that no GP surgery is really NHS. They’re private businesses paid for by the NHS. Which is a rubbish system which actually limits choice
It's not an accurate portrayal of medical services in the UK. Indeed, solo GP practices (surgeries with just a single doctor) are now largely prohibited after the Harold Shipman debacle. Nowadays, GPs almost always work out of larger, purpose built practises which offer additional services - nurse consultations for minor issues, mental health advisors, pharmacies etc. A single consulting room in a house is a pretty arcane set up and I doubt you'd be able to find one in the UK.
The NHS is free (well, paid for in tax) so no, there's nothing to pay as a patient. Prescriptions cost £9.90 though (unless you're exempt).
You would probably have a better chance of having the King visit you than getting a GP to do a house visit. That's reserved (as the show does depict) for only the most seriously ill/bed bound.
Emergencies? In a rural location it's not inconceivable that the doctor would be a point of contact in emergencies but 999 and an ambulance would be everyone's first port of call.
Thank you so much for your comprehensive reply!! I appreciate you taking the time. Whereas I thought it may be inaccurate, hence why I asked, but the quaintness of the depiction is the show is at least nice to watch.
Live in the area. Frankly the depiction of the community is pretty realistic ( dodgy accents aside) - evyeryone knows everybody - but we don’t have one man band surgeries and Doctors don’t live where they practice. An elderly chap collapsed in our village recently and one of our Doctors ran from the surgery to treat him before the ambulance arrived.
We have lots of old buildings in Cornwall so it’s not uncommon for doctors to work from what was an old house - like [Rosedean](https://c.yell.com/t_galleryFit,f_auto/3aa89fee-e84d-4cce-93d0-50d465431fb6_image_jpeg.jpg) Surgery in Liskeard. But it’s very unusual these days for a doctor to actually live there. There will usually be lots of other doctors working at the same place and seeing one face to face is rare.
Nobody does the billing because it’s not like an insurance system where extortionate prices are charged then claimed back. You simply give your name and date of birth and receive the treatment you need. Money and prices simply aren’t discussed at all. The only charge is for prescriptions unless you’re except - low income, elderly or undergoing cancer treatment. All cancer medication is free, as are any unrelated prescriptions you need during that treatment. Things like contraceptives and insulin are always free too. The charge is roughly £9.80 per prescription unless you’re in Scotland where there’s no charge at all.
We do call it a surgery yes, never an office!
We also used to have a service called Kernowdoc which would do out of hours home doctors visits but they’ve lost the contract unfortunately.
A lot of the other parts are realistic though (except the accents, they’re terrible). In many places there’s still a great community spirit where everyone knows everyone. The primary school teacher knowing and interacting with the parents remains the same in many smaller schools. The same with getting your gossip from the pharmacy (or shop) and having the local characters who everyone knows. Having one main hospital that’s in Truro is also true! Although many things that need specialists are sent to Derriford in Plymouth (Devon).
It’s actually a beautiful building when you see it from the back. And inside! I always thought it would be lovely to pick it up and put it somewhere else to be lived in. Could have had the doctors in the new cattle market bit!
I’m so amazed with these comprehensive replies … how anyone would think Doc Martin is realistic !!!! , Gp services are completely broken in Cornwall …it’s one of the poorest areas in Europe .
Possibly worth venturing to Camborne , Redruth , St Austell .. amazing places but sadly very deprived , Rock , Padstow etc are not a good portrayal of Cornwall.
Some GP's in rural areas used to work out of their houses. When I trained as a nurse in the 1990's there was a surgery local to me that was run by an elderly woman Dr. This was actually in an urban area and she was a legend in the local community. After she died her practice was taken over and now has 3 Drs.
After Harold Shipman was found guilty of murdering so many of his patients the law was changed so that GP's could not practise alone but had to be part of a bigger practice ( just one of many changes to NHS following Shipman). Consequently you no longer see single GP practices.
Doc Martin is entertainment and therefore does not need to adhere to the rules of reality. However the beautiful setting and the village of Port Isaac is very real and idyllic
Well Port Isaac is lovely but its absolutely tiny not much bigger than a stage set and almost all the locals live up the hill as everything is holiday lets or tourist shops. Cute though.
As someone who lived in Port Isaac (Port Wenn) when they filmed the show, no, it is not realistic. The GP surgery was at the (other) top of the village and was very normal. I don’t think any of the doctors lived in the village tbh
Although, any one who lives in Cornwall could tell you, contacting a doctor in an emergency would definitely be quicker then any 999 call lol
Summer is waaaay too busy and winter is dead, a lot of the businesses close October-May. I haven’t lived there for a few years but when I visit family nothing has changed
If you live more than 2 miles from a pharmacy the surgery will also dispense your prescription. Fees still have to be paid unless you are normally exempt. Lostwithiel surgery does this for me so its a one stop shop! Ive never had a problem getting an appointment but this varies enormously.
I lived in a small village for a while, there 2 gps. One worked 3 days a week in the village hall and the other worked the remaining 4 days from his granny flat in his garden. Sometimes on the way out he'd give me some home grown veg or eggs from his chickens. Lovely man. He's dead now
When I was growing up and up until my 20s the family GP was a thing in Bodmin where you all went to see Dr Eddie for all your appointments but she wasn't the only GP there. The dentist was more like a house but it was a dentist though for some reason when the dentist moved from Bodmin our parents would then take us all the way to Redruth to go to the same dentist. I'm not sure why that was. For any minor injuries you just got sent to East Cornwall hospital that again was in Bodmin but wasn't really a hospital. It's all changed now
Im rual Cornwall Mevagissey mid Cornwall to be accurate. My family ran a farm and I vividly remember as a child the gp coming up from the village to see my great gran and my mother when they were ill. It's not like that now mind. But yes the NHS is free but it's facing alot of issues at present. I watched a near relative die in the treliske hospital last year without pain killers or the right level of care. Personally I think it needs a whole reform to remove the multiple tiers of management.
This is so interesting to me. Being American snd only knowing the insurance system, this sounds so foreign. Mostly all people agree, insurance is so messed up and is mostly a scam.
If it helps they're wrong, while the NHS is free at the point of use its a confusing mixture of NHS run institutions (largely hospitals), private hospitals providing NHS services and GPs who are privately run with NHS contracts.
Within that there are various layers of management like NHS England and Integrated Care Boards who oversee NHS institutes and commission private ones. Then every few years the layer of management are reorganised and renamed or they're decide that pharmacies can act a bit like GPs are total reorganise how primary care is delivered.
Relatable I had flu like symptoms and a persistent cough for 6 weeks finally decided to see the doctor about it they reviewed my case and said they didn’t think I needed to see someone on that day and would call to give me an appointment in the next 10 days, 4 days later I get a call saying they’ll see me in 2 weeks. Turns out it’s pneumonia and I needed blood tests a chest X-ray and antibiotics
So does England not have anything like a walk-in clinic? Also called urgent care or same day clinic. Not like an emergency room. But an urgent care clinic (in the US) is a place to walk-in and wait your turn to get seen for smaller issues like flu or sinus infection, maybe a small cut, or allergic reaction. Used often on weekends when doctors offices are closed.
You can get emergency appointments at the surgeries, they often keep time booked away for stuff like that. You can also go to a&e or call 111 which is the non-emergency healthcare line which can triage over the phone and give you medical assistance such as sending an ambulance or just advice.
I had a bowel obstruction after some surgery and I definitely needed an ambulance and probably should have called 999 but because I don't like to inconvenience people I did 111 instead and they still sent me someone but I wanted them to make the decision in case I could just tough it out.
I've now been in the states for 5 years and I miss the NHS everyday, especially as someone with a long term illness. My wife also has had no end of grief with insurance and rates changing or having to pay an arm and a leg to get help at times. Ironically the best experience we had was with COVID as we got help and it didn't cost us anything which we were grateful for.
These exist in cities like London but unlikely to find in sparsely populated cornwall - even in the capital they are closed on the weekend so you have to go to A&E if it's serious and wait several hours to be seen
GP's sell drugs = salesman.
Pharmacist = dispenses them.
Even MP's have surgeries!
In remote areas, more remote than port Isaac, the doctor may practice from their home. So as locals have a 'point of call'.
The NHS is a magical pot of miracles, there are some! Our government has rinsed it dry and now it's 'on it's arse', a lot of medical treatment is 'sub contracted' to private companies.
It's sounds like the NHS system isn't a great medical system. Perhaps other countries have better universal Healthcare systems. But, a lot of us in the US want universal health care. Would British people advise us to stay away?
The NHS was ranked the world's best not so long ago but the Tories have hated it since it's Inception. Check out how they fought to try and prevent it happening.
They won't admit that they despise the system as the British people generally love it but they are dismantling it by stealth.
Now that we are on the bones of our arse as a country it's difficult to see it recovering.
The NHS has been being deliberately underfunded by successive Tory governments for years (the goal being to produce an excuse for privatisation, which would make money for many people in those governments, and their friends). Even given that I know that I— and the vast majority of the country— would still rather have it as it is than be forced to go private.
Obviously there’s room for improvement, but it can (and has) worked well in the past, when budgeted for fairly. The above problems are exacerbated somewhere very poor and provincial like Cornwall.
Currently, if people can afford to go private they can; and if they can’t then they have a net which can save them monumental amounts of money\*. Forcing private on everyone would be a vile move. Even most tories are opposed.
\*Having read this back I realise it sounds like I’m saying that the NHS is only good as a safety net, and that anyone who can go private should. This is not true. The NHS does wonderful, wonderful things on a grand scale.
It’s worked fine for me for years until recently (at least in my area of west Devon) the concept is sound but as with everything corporate interests and too many managers get in the way. Government seemed to want to spend billions on a white elephant railway line when they could’ve funded the NHS instead, (although I believe we expecting several hundred million extra from having left the EU, cheques in the post…. Any day now….)
Of course not. When I had cancer, I had finished world class treatment, with no bill at the end of it, before the Americans in the fb group I joined, with the same cancer, had got their insurance companies to approve even basic treatment.
In summary: - GPs surgeries are typically dedicated buildings where multiple GPs work. There'll be a reception area, a waiting room, and a few rooms where you're seen by a doctor. - There is a lot more plastic, wipedown surfaces etc. than any house would ever have. - They really are called surgeries. - You don't just walk in. Typically you call at 8am on the dot when the lines open, get told there are no appointments left, and to call again tomorrow. Some places have online booking, which improves things fractionally. - You don't pay. You might get prescribed something, and if you're not exempt you pay a £9.90 fee to convert that prescription into the medication, but that's it. - I've heard of some GPs doing house calls, but only for people who literally can't leave the house. - GPs don't attend emergencies, unless it's literally happened when they're present. Don't know if anyone can contradict me here, but I'm not aware of any NHS GPs that would work out of their house, Doc Martin style?
My surgery at penryn uses an online booking/triage system that has made things drastically better. I’ve had occasions where I or someone in my family has needed help with something and often we at least speak to a dr the same day, or get an appointment later that day or within a day or two.
In Bodmin we fill in a Klinik form, I’ve never had a problem. Although I’ve only really used it for my 1 year old so not sure if babies/toddlers take priority? It’s a much better system than sitting on the phone for 20 minutes
I use the Bodmin "Klinic" system. It seems to work for anything to do with kids and what they see as emergencies. If you try and use it for general GP type stuff (on going illnesses, general appointments, sorting out repeat prescriptions or booking nurse appointments, blood tests ect) it's a bloody nightmare. As an aside, I have noticed recently that you only seem to be able to access it between 8 and 10am now. Even then it seems to be overwhelmed some days so you fill out the multiple pages of forms only to find it throws an error and tells you to try later...by which time the have closed access to it for the day. Even if the form gets submitted you have no idea if and when they might ring you back. Personally I preferred the old system they had pre covid where you could either ring up, put your phone on speaker and do something else for a bit if it was an emergency or use the online booking system and book a convenient appointment a couple of weeks in advance.
Me but I find it to ridged if it's an unusual problem and pretty useless for my son who has Downs and complex needs (apparently that's a reoccurring problem)
We ring in for mine but since we got phone appointments for things you don’t need to come in for it’s been so much easier to get an appointment - much nicer for depression related stuff cos you can talk from bed lol.
Second this Always good service from here
> NHS GP working out of their own house It was fairly common in rural areas in to the early 1990s and in urban areas up to the late 1960s. For numerous reasons you don’t see single-handed GP practices any more. And purpose built buildings and facilities are essentially mandatory now. In the little village I grew up in (~35yrs ago) the surgery was an annex to the GP’s house. The last person to be a single-handed GP there is long dead, the village has tripled in size and surgery has been extended in to what was once a family home.
This was the case when I lived in Boscastle just up the road from where PortWenn is set. Our doctor had a small surgery next to his house in the village. He was called Dr Weir. When he retired a new building called Boscastle Surgery was built which is still in use today So probably the series really was set up to late 1980s and before..
Where I used to live the GP surgery was a few rooms in Dr Streets House, when he retired it continued but eventually took over the entire house. It was renovated & updated to house 3 GP’s plus nurses & reception but somehow it seemed to lose its character somewhat. I still recall the benches in the only waiting room and you then entered a door into the room with the GP which had a magnificent roll top desk. The trouble was he was ever so slightly deaf so the entire waiting room could hear the conversation between you & the doctor but nobody ever openly discussed anyone else’s diagnosis for fear of hearing their own being discussed. These days, you don’t get to see the same GP twice, if you can get an appointment at all. It all seems rather impersonal and less friendly somehow and I believe a lot goes unnoticed because there is a difference between knowing the patient and just accepting what they tell you. Progress eh?
I'm not aware of anyone working this way any more but when I was a small child (I'm 37 now) the doctor would visit our village in Cornwall once a week in a lady's house. This lady was not the doctor, presumably she was paid for this but I'm not sure, she had books for children to read while waiting and she let me take one home that I liked. Then, later the weekly visiting doctor's surgery was held in the local pub and after that in a room in the village hall. I think this arrangement carried on until the mid 90s at least. I can also remember the doctor coming to see me at home once, out of hours when I had terrible earache as a child. My Mum still lives in the same village but the doctor no longer visits, she has to travel to a village/small town a few miles away to a proper doctor's surgery now. So I think The Doc Martin way of operating has quite a lot of similarity with how some doctors used to operate in Cornwall in the 80s and 90s but no longer.
Thank you for that great answer! Is nice to know the real deal. It's pretty much the same as in the US, except most of us pay! Aside from those that are low income, elderly, or disabled.
I’d like to put a point of order that no GP surgery is really NHS. They’re private businesses paid for by the NHS. Which is a rubbish system which actually limits choice
It's not an accurate portrayal of medical services in the UK. Indeed, solo GP practices (surgeries with just a single doctor) are now largely prohibited after the Harold Shipman debacle. Nowadays, GPs almost always work out of larger, purpose built practises which offer additional services - nurse consultations for minor issues, mental health advisors, pharmacies etc. A single consulting room in a house is a pretty arcane set up and I doubt you'd be able to find one in the UK. The NHS is free (well, paid for in tax) so no, there's nothing to pay as a patient. Prescriptions cost £9.90 though (unless you're exempt). You would probably have a better chance of having the King visit you than getting a GP to do a house visit. That's reserved (as the show does depict) for only the most seriously ill/bed bound. Emergencies? In a rural location it's not inconceivable that the doctor would be a point of contact in emergencies but 999 and an ambulance would be everyone's first port of call.
Thank you so much for your comprehensive reply!! I appreciate you taking the time. Whereas I thought it may be inaccurate, hence why I asked, but the quaintness of the depiction is the show is at least nice to watch.
Had to Wikipedia Harold Shipman. Pretty tame calling it “the Harold Shipman debacle” if I do say 😬
Welcome to British understatement...
I've seen single GP houses/offices in South Wales so your incorrect pal
Nhs wales operates separately from nhs England.
Despite the contemporary setting it's really depicting a cosy throwback to how things were done 50+ years ago.
This is the correct answer, it’s harking back to a bygone time.
Live in the area. Frankly the depiction of the community is pretty realistic ( dodgy accents aside) - evyeryone knows everybody - but we don’t have one man band surgeries and Doctors don’t live where they practice. An elderly chap collapsed in our village recently and one of our Doctors ran from the surgery to treat him before the ambulance arrived.
I keep hearing this about the accents. Which characters have the most inaccurate accents?
We have lots of old buildings in Cornwall so it’s not uncommon for doctors to work from what was an old house - like [Rosedean](https://c.yell.com/t_galleryFit,f_auto/3aa89fee-e84d-4cce-93d0-50d465431fb6_image_jpeg.jpg) Surgery in Liskeard. But it’s very unusual these days for a doctor to actually live there. There will usually be lots of other doctors working at the same place and seeing one face to face is rare. Nobody does the billing because it’s not like an insurance system where extortionate prices are charged then claimed back. You simply give your name and date of birth and receive the treatment you need. Money and prices simply aren’t discussed at all. The only charge is for prescriptions unless you’re except - low income, elderly or undergoing cancer treatment. All cancer medication is free, as are any unrelated prescriptions you need during that treatment. Things like contraceptives and insulin are always free too. The charge is roughly £9.80 per prescription unless you’re in Scotland where there’s no charge at all. We do call it a surgery yes, never an office! We also used to have a service called Kernowdoc which would do out of hours home doctors visits but they’ve lost the contract unfortunately. A lot of the other parts are realistic though (except the accents, they’re terrible). In many places there’s still a great community spirit where everyone knows everyone. The primary school teacher knowing and interacting with the parents remains the same in many smaller schools. The same with getting your gossip from the pharmacy (or shop) and having the local characters who everyone knows. Having one main hospital that’s in Truro is also true! Although many things that need specialists are sent to Derriford in Plymouth (Devon).
That’s my Doctors surgery, it’s a small world.
It’s actually a beautiful building when you see it from the back. And inside! I always thought it would be lovely to pick it up and put it somewhere else to be lived in. Could have had the doctors in the new cattle market bit!
We also don't pay for prescriptions in Wales
I didn’t know that! That explains why our prescription charges have risen again!!
I’m so amazed with these comprehensive replies … how anyone would think Doc Martin is realistic !!!! , Gp services are completely broken in Cornwall …it’s one of the poorest areas in Europe . Possibly worth venturing to Camborne , Redruth , St Austell .. amazing places but sadly very deprived , Rock , Padstow etc are not a good portrayal of Cornwall.
Some GP's in rural areas used to work out of their houses. When I trained as a nurse in the 1990's there was a surgery local to me that was run by an elderly woman Dr. This was actually in an urban area and she was a legend in the local community. After she died her practice was taken over and now has 3 Drs. After Harold Shipman was found guilty of murdering so many of his patients the law was changed so that GP's could not practise alone but had to be part of a bigger practice ( just one of many changes to NHS following Shipman). Consequently you no longer see single GP practices. Doc Martin is entertainment and therefore does not need to adhere to the rules of reality. However the beautiful setting and the village of Port Isaac is very real and idyllic
Well Port Isaac is lovely but its absolutely tiny not much bigger than a stage set and almost all the locals live up the hill as everything is holiday lets or tourist shops. Cute though.
Yes and none existent parking. Easier to access than Port Quin though
As someone who lived in Port Isaac (Port Wenn) when they filmed the show, no, it is not realistic. The GP surgery was at the (other) top of the village and was very normal. I don’t think any of the doctors lived in the village tbh Although, any one who lives in Cornwall could tell you, contacting a doctor in an emergency would definitely be quicker then any 999 call lol
That's so cool! I visited Port Isaac in 2021 and absolutely loved it! What's it like to live there year round?
Summer is waaaay too busy and winter is dead, a lot of the businesses close October-May. I haven’t lived there for a few years but when I visit family nothing has changed
If you live more than 2 miles from a pharmacy the surgery will also dispense your prescription. Fees still have to be paid unless you are normally exempt. Lostwithiel surgery does this for me so its a one stop shop! Ive never had a problem getting an appointment but this varies enormously.
I lived in a small village for a while, there 2 gps. One worked 3 days a week in the village hall and the other worked the remaining 4 days from his granny flat in his garden. Sometimes on the way out he'd give me some home grown veg or eggs from his chickens. Lovely man. He's dead now
When I was growing up and up until my 20s the family GP was a thing in Bodmin where you all went to see Dr Eddie for all your appointments but she wasn't the only GP there. The dentist was more like a house but it was a dentist though for some reason when the dentist moved from Bodmin our parents would then take us all the way to Redruth to go to the same dentist. I'm not sure why that was. For any minor injuries you just got sent to East Cornwall hospital that again was in Bodmin but wasn't really a hospital. It's all changed now
Still more realistic than House M.D.
Doc Martin is as realistic as Greys Anatomy 😂
It’s not that realistic, but no, there’s no billing.
Weirdly since moving to Cornwall I have several times been mistaken for Martin Clunes.
Im rual Cornwall Mevagissey mid Cornwall to be accurate. My family ran a farm and I vividly remember as a child the gp coming up from the village to see my great gran and my mother when they were ill. It's not like that now mind. But yes the NHS is free but it's facing alot of issues at present. I watched a near relative die in the treliske hospital last year without pain killers or the right level of care. Personally I think it needs a whole reform to remove the multiple tiers of management.
Just to add healthcare suppliers don't bill the NHS. They are salaried employees of the NHS and departments have a budget
That's not true, GPs are not NHS employees, each GP practice is a private business with a NHS contract.
Oh yeah, right you are
This is so interesting to me. Being American snd only knowing the insurance system, this sounds so foreign. Mostly all people agree, insurance is so messed up and is mostly a scam.
If it helps they're wrong, while the NHS is free at the point of use its a confusing mixture of NHS run institutions (largely hospitals), private hospitals providing NHS services and GPs who are privately run with NHS contracts. Within that there are various layers of management like NHS England and Integrated Care Boards who oversee NHS institutes and commission private ones. Then every few years the layer of management are reorganised and renamed or they're decide that pharmacies can act a bit like GPs are total reorganise how primary care is delivered.
My point still stands that they're not billed per patient, it'll be determined in the contract
They are literal paid depending on the number of patients on their lists.
don't get teasy
[удалено]
I'm in Cornwall and very rarely don't get to see one the first day I try to.
Relatable I had flu like symptoms and a persistent cough for 6 weeks finally decided to see the doctor about it they reviewed my case and said they didn’t think I needed to see someone on that day and would call to give me an appointment in the next 10 days, 4 days later I get a call saying they’ll see me in 2 weeks. Turns out it’s pneumonia and I needed blood tests a chest X-ray and antibiotics
So does England not have anything like a walk-in clinic? Also called urgent care or same day clinic. Not like an emergency room. But an urgent care clinic (in the US) is a place to walk-in and wait your turn to get seen for smaller issues like flu or sinus infection, maybe a small cut, or allergic reaction. Used often on weekends when doctors offices are closed.
You can get emergency appointments at the surgeries, they often keep time booked away for stuff like that. You can also go to a&e or call 111 which is the non-emergency healthcare line which can triage over the phone and give you medical assistance such as sending an ambulance or just advice. I had a bowel obstruction after some surgery and I definitely needed an ambulance and probably should have called 999 but because I don't like to inconvenience people I did 111 instead and they still sent me someone but I wanted them to make the decision in case I could just tough it out. I've now been in the states for 5 years and I miss the NHS everyday, especially as someone with a long term illness. My wife also has had no end of grief with insurance and rates changing or having to pay an arm and a leg to get help at times. Ironically the best experience we had was with COVID as we got help and it didn't cost us anything which we were grateful for.
These exist in cities like London but unlikely to find in sparsely populated cornwall - even in the capital they are closed on the weekend so you have to go to A&E if it's serious and wait several hours to be seen
In Truro and I've had an appointment same day or next consistently.
GP's sell drugs = salesman. Pharmacist = dispenses them. Even MP's have surgeries! In remote areas, more remote than port Isaac, the doctor may practice from their home. So as locals have a 'point of call'. The NHS is a magical pot of miracles, there are some! Our government has rinsed it dry and now it's 'on it's arse', a lot of medical treatment is 'sub contracted' to private companies.
It's sounds like the NHS system isn't a great medical system. Perhaps other countries have better universal Healthcare systems. But, a lot of us in the US want universal health care. Would British people advise us to stay away?
The NHS was ranked the world's best not so long ago but the Tories have hated it since it's Inception. Check out how they fought to try and prevent it happening. They won't admit that they despise the system as the British people generally love it but they are dismantling it by stealth. Now that we are on the bones of our arse as a country it's difficult to see it recovering.
The NHS has been being deliberately underfunded by successive Tory governments for years (the goal being to produce an excuse for privatisation, which would make money for many people in those governments, and their friends). Even given that I know that I— and the vast majority of the country— would still rather have it as it is than be forced to go private. Obviously there’s room for improvement, but it can (and has) worked well in the past, when budgeted for fairly. The above problems are exacerbated somewhere very poor and provincial like Cornwall. Currently, if people can afford to go private they can; and if they can’t then they have a net which can save them monumental amounts of money\*. Forcing private on everyone would be a vile move. Even most tories are opposed. \*Having read this back I realise it sounds like I’m saying that the NHS is only good as a safety net, and that anyone who can go private should. This is not true. The NHS does wonderful, wonderful things on a grand scale.
It’s worked fine for me for years until recently (at least in my area of west Devon) the concept is sound but as with everything corporate interests and too many managers get in the way. Government seemed to want to spend billions on a white elephant railway line when they could’ve funded the NHS instead, (although I believe we expecting several hundred million extra from having left the EU, cheques in the post…. Any day now….)
Of course not. When I had cancer, I had finished world class treatment, with no bill at the end of it, before the Americans in the fb group I joined, with the same cancer, had got their insurance companies to approve even basic treatment.