Allyson and the NHS

My biggest fear, as far as Allyson coming to the UK was concerned, has just been wiped away. 

She has just spent about 45 minutes with the doctor here in Long Stratton and … well, wow.

She was thoroughly checked over and because she brought a letter with her from her psychiatrist in South Africa, she doesn’t have to go for further psychiatric evaluation.  Her doctor will prescribe her EXACTLY the same medication that she was on.  Every 3 to 4 weeks she will be evaluated by her local GP and monitored to make sure that she is doing okay on her meds.  The GP also wants to see me for my feedback on her condition and mental state over these past 13 years. 

She was weighed, height taken, millions of questions asked about her condition – as she put it, ‘they are so First World! So professional and CARING! And knowledgeable’.   She was also given a brochure about alternative methods to stop smoking because she definitely can not use Champax or whatever it’s called to stop smoking because it will clash with her anxiety meds – how awesome is that. She has to phone them tomorrow and they will advise what system she can use to stop smoking. 

 

Ally has to go back to her GP about 3 weeks before her current stock of meds is finished (she has a month’s supply of Solian and a month and a half supply of anxiety meds) and the doc will write out her script that she can get at the local NHS pharmacy down the road. She pays a minimal charge for scripts – I think it’s 7 pounds or something like that (I don’t pay anything because I’m over 60).  How magnificent! 

I am so bloody relieved, you guys have no idea how much of a relief this is for me. I burst out crying when we got home and she told me what the doctor had said.  One of my biggest fears was that I’d made a huge mistake and that Ally would end up a vegetable or worse (committing suicide) because her medical care would be compromised. If anything it is far better and she was on a medical aid in South Africa that was costing her about a thousand rand a month and she was still having to pay for some of her meds.

 

She was also checked for lady things which will require some tests to do next week (nothing major) they are so jacked here, it’s ridiculous and the locals have the cheek to say that the NHS service/care is declining (I actually watched a woman in the surgery rooms saying this). Well I have to say that no, it’s not - compared to Southern Africa it’s flipping amazing! 

I personally thank God for making this so easy for my daughter. I’m now going to get piddled.