This morning, just as Sam and I sat down to go over our summer plans - bam. Laney hit the wall - literally. She ran right into the corner of a wall that juts out into the room. Unfortunately at the time she was trying to show us how fast she could run. She can definitely run fast. In hindsight, it was probably not a good idea to run in tights in the house and perhaps she should have listened when I told her to be careful 30 seconds earlier, but all of that became quite irrelevant when her head started gushing blood.
As I played nurse with my kitchen towel and pseudo-steri strips, Sam called the NHS doctor and he said go to the hospital in the next (less desirable) town over or to the minor injury clinic that is a bit farther away. Still unfamiliar with the system here we headed for the clinic. We got all of the children dressed, piled in the car, programed the navigation and hit the road. Sam and I thought we had hit our heads when the roads we were taking were not highways or freeways, but tiny little lanes that meandered up and over hills and though farmland leading us away, far away, from the city we live in toward this little village. A half hour later we arrived at the clinic. We were a bit leery taking Laney to be seen in this place that looked more like a prison than a health clinic, but figured we could always leave if it was awful.
So, we headed in and here is what happened: we handed the receptionist Laney's NHS card, ok'ed the sharing of information with her GP, and 35 minutes we were out the door having received more than adequate medical care. Not once did I sign a piece of paper, swear to pay if the insurance wouldn't or show a photo id. The facility did not have big picture windows, there were no tanks of tropical fish and not a magazine to be found, but it was clean and seemed to be equipped with all of the basics.
So my comment on a national health system is "no comment" - you really didn't think I was going to touch that hot topic did you? No, really, so far our needs for health care have been limited and straightforward and for that it has been great. But, I have heard plenty of unhappy people call up the BBC radio shows to voice their complaints, so it is not perfect. Hopefully, we will continue to have limited and straightforward needs. But gash or not, we will be returning to that little village - not only is it darling, it has a great pub. Just what the doctor ordered!
1 comments:
I wish Hank's stitches had gone that smooth. It was 3 hours of paper work, waiting and driving to the hospital. There was certainly no pub in site either!
She wears a gash well. :0)
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