Falling Sick in UK-Nightmare :-(

Its great to stay in a well developed country like UK where you have proper facility for almost everything but I would always say that there are a lot of drawbacks as well and of them being the healthcare facility that you receive. The health service in UK is run under the aegis of NHS(National Health Service) is free (you need to pay for few things as well) but my experience ( and experiences of few of my desi friends) with NHS has always been bad. First of all there is so much procedure (read bureaucracy) involved in visiting a doctor that the person will die (or almost die) by the time he receives proper treatment. If you are here then you should register yourself with one of the GPs(General Practitioner) and the doctors in those GPs will see you only if are registered with the GP. Else the only other option is to go to A&M (Accident and Emergency) and as the name suggests you can go there only in case of some emergency. Even if you go to a doctor with cough cold etc and ask for an antibiotic then the answer will be a strict NOOOOOOO as they prescribe it in rare cases. The doctor will say 'Take rest and you will be fine’. You will fell so irritated hearing that and would like to reply back saying 'If I had to become fine taking rest (without any medicine although I have high fever) then why have I come to you??????'.Last year my wife was unwell and it took me (us) almost a month to register at a GP and even registering her at a GP did not help a lot, she got proper treatment only after we reached India. I was unwell this week and thanks to my in laws I talked to a doctor back home (via phone  ) and he suggested me few medicines and I was pleased that I can now get well. To my utter dismay the chemist at the shop declined to give me those medicines as I did not have a prescription  although I said that my family doctor has advised me and I take these medicines regularly. I then had to go to the A&E and I was lucky enough (or may be there was some divine intervention) that the doctor issued me few medicines. I am now feeling much better and I thank the doctor as he understood that a desi cannot get well taking rest (he needs medicines to get well. A lot of these doctors (although many are from Indian Sub continent) have not heard about a lot of disease. One of my colleagues (a British) had typhoid after visiting India and none of the doctors could find that and they could understand the problem after a lot of hit and trials (by the time she became very unwell) and she always says ha she could have got better treatment has she been in India as the doctors there could have easily diagnosed the problem.

Whenever I am in UK I just pray to god that I don’t fall sick as I know that the treatment that I get here will not be to my satisfaction. I have only two options when I am here either I stay fit and healthy or I leave my self at the mercy of these able medical practitioners who don’t understand a desi’s psyche.