Using the NHS

Fun British Phrase of the Day- "Drop a Clanger"-meaning to make an embarrassing mistake. A colleague at work told another that she saw his wife on the bus and did not realize that she was pregnant. He replied that she wasn't....awkward....

I had my first encounter as a patient with the NHS today and I have to admit that I was very satisfied. I called in the morning for an emergency dental appointment as I had pain and swelling up and down one of my upper incisors. I also woke with incredible pain in my ear canal. Convince and paranoid that they were related I decided I couldn't put the toothache off anymore. Surprisingly, I was given an appointment 3 hours after I called! Fearing the worst (a root canal) I walked up the stairs to a nice, clean, and warm reception area. I was even treated well by the receptionists despite having to explain how I wasn't paying taxes to support this service and that my credit card did not have the funky English security chip so they'd have to manually put it in. Since I was working at the hospital and the receptionist had a fascination with North Carolina, they said I could pay the nominal 16 pounds which covered everything the dentist could throw at me.

The dentist, a Hungarian, was also incredibly nice which is a quality I find lacking in the States. He took a quick X-ray and concluded that, while I did have an infection, it was in the bone between the roots and so I did not need a root canal! I told him he had given me the greatest birthday present I'd ever had and he said that I must live a very troubled and neglected life. I ran over to the pharmacy and paid 7 pounds for a bottle of Amoxicillin and that was it.

In the end, I was short only 23 bones ($46) for an emergency consultation, X-ray, and antibiotic and was back at work in under an hour. In the waiting room they had a price guide explaining that all crown procedures, regardless of the number needed, cost only 200 pounds. I paid 10 times that much in December for mine at our dental school.

Go cheap health care! I'm now an NHS fan for the day...until I go into work on Monday and hit the paperwork again.

Have a great weekend!