The NHS

Beth will no doubt have more to add to this later, as I have little or no memory of week one, which is when we had most exposure to the NHS, but what struck me was that if it wasn't for us having a friend who's an NHS surgeon we would have very little knowledge of what happened. Communication, by the hospital at least, has been a bit poor. The consultant's team in my out-patient visits have been brisk and unhelpful too. I got the distinct impression that as they had not excuse to open up my brain (I was under a neuro-surgery team) I was someone to deal with as quickly as possible. My final visit is a good example.

Our GP on the other hand has been very good but he's not a neurologist and he's getting it all second hand. It was our friend who had the text books, who could show us where in the brain the stroke had happened and what had been affected (primarily "routing" rather than function, hence the odd pattern to the numbness presumably).

The people at the Oliver Zangwill Centre were a refreshing change from Addenbrooke's right from the start and, having done a two week detailed assessment with them, they have both mapped out what's wrong and given me some hope for the future, which is quite excellent.

NHS bureaucracy on the other hand sucks. Simple things like losing the request for the MRI scan and more fundamental ones like moving money from one part of the NHS to another