I fractured my hip in June so was visiting the hospital and doctors for about 4 or 5 months, and there were good and bad times with the NHS.
My clinic appointment times were amazingly nearly spot on every time, if i had a 9.30am appointment then i was seen no more than 10 minutes later than that, they suddenly seemed very organised in comparison to a visit years ago, and i went a few times so it wasn't a fluke.
I had to go to A&E one Sunday when i found myself in extreme pain and got concerned there was a blood supply issue which i was warned of, and that was a different story altogether though, i was there for hours and the staff all seemed very stressed to the point of being really grumpy with it.
Some of the people i saw go in there in the time i sat waiting was quite astonishing though.
One woman and her 2 mates were there because she had a "sore elbow", and another woman kept wailing at the top of her voice demanding to jump the 60+ queue because "i'm important". The thing is, she got her way because she was so irritating they just wanted her to shut the fuck up.
As Noggy says, the car parking was a joke though, and stupidly expensive.
My mum has a disabled badge for a breathing problem so she'd spend ages going around the hospital looking for a disabled bay, but they're extremely limited, which is not surprising really as firstly it is a hospital and secondly free parking is not an earner for the parking company.
But we went into an internal car park one day, spent about 30 minutes driving around it with other cars also looking aimlessly for a spot and we then had to pay just to get out of it, as too many cars had been let in with no spaces available!
It was just another reason for me to dislike cars!
Even though my hospital has been on the news recently about struggling, they have just opened a brand new A&E ward so hopefully things might improve a lot over time, although the closure of 2 other local hospitals has obviously been a major cause of problems.
I think they should cut all aid to these shithole countries that tend to not like us and channel it straight into our NHS, 'cos they certainly deserve it more.