The NHS

First off, my apologizes again for forgetting to update blog for a bit too long.

So the UK has national health care. And I've gathered enough individual experiences to form some sort of bases about the whole thing. So, when I first got to Southampton I had to register with a doctor. This is done at a doctor's 'surgery' which does not mean they operate on you, it's just what the normal offices are called. There is a certain catchment area for each office so you really just go to one that you live near, and for myself that meant one of the two connected to the University.

Once you have a doctor, you can simply call them up or drop in if you need an appointment and they'll accomodate you. If you go in for whatever reason, sore joint/sickness/bleeding wound, the appointment is free. You don't fill out any paperwork at any point in time and you are free to deal with the general practioner. If you have a 'real' problem, you may then get forwarded on to a second party, such as a physical therapist or a podiatrist. Again, no matter where the office of these other parties may be, it's free and appointments don't require any paperwork. If you need an operation, again its free, you just may end up having to get sliced open on your birthday.

Of course, it's not all a total free-for-all. As alluded to, you can't really afford to be picky when it comes to services outside the GP's office. If you miss appointments, you may not get any more. And any request for rescheduling could possibly result in long delays as backlogs are being dealt with. In all of this, there's no way for me to compare the standards of care, having truly limited experiences with both systems. Also of potential interest is that the Emergency room is simply referred to as 'A&E' here. For the life of me I can't recall what it actually stands for but I think of the tv channel everytime I hear it!