Replies

Sorry, Scotsman. Not able to get on the ‘puter as much during the summer. Kids! LOL!

“1—How did you find the NHS overall?.
2—How did you find Britain overall (likes/dislikes)?.
3—When did you live here and where?.”

(1) I found the NHS poor, if I can be brutally honest. Have many stories. Most of the time it would take me several days to get in with a doctor if I was sick, and never could get the doctor of my choice (3 in the surgery). One story of many: Had to go to an ER because the surgery couldn’t get me in until 4 days.....ER doc took 20 minutes flipping through a PRD (physicians desk reference) to find the medications to treat me. I was pregnant. He told me there was no guarantee that the meds would not hurt the baby. On, and on, and on. Don’t even get me started on the poor care my elderly FIL received. He was, basically, sent home to die.

During the time of my FIL’s illness, I did a little digging into NHS databases (they were once open but are all locked down, now). I called up one such database that the doctors used. It told them, step by step, what to do if the patient exhibited particular symptoms, the steps to be taken, what meds were available, how much it cost ‘the state’, the timeline for next appointments, and when to refer. I was shocked and showed my husband this. Basically....anyone with a slight bit of medical knowledge only had to follow the government guideline.

(2) I liked GB OK. GREAT pubs, loved the ability to be able to walk or cycle to places, LOVED the rich history, the humour. Found it particularly hard being a ‘Yank’ at times and that there was profound ingnorance about the US that was mainly swallowed and spewed thanks to Hollyweird’s influence and ‘Auntie Beeb’s’ anti-American slant. I’m from the South.....so I got a lot of ‘Jerry Springer’ comparisons. XD Made a few, good friends, tho, and still keep in touch. I learned A LOT whilst living there and it gave me a different perspective of the US from when I left. I was quite young and naive.....ESPECIALLY politically.

(3) From ‘93 to 2001. Yorkshire. Sheffield and then near Hull.

Your moniker says you live in (are from?) Scotland? I LOVED Scotland and vacationed there quite a bit. “Local Hero” is one of my favourite movies. Spent many times in the village where it was filmed. Loved an interesting, little town we happened upon called ‘Wigtown’ which was nothing but bookstores. Got to view a near total eclipse of the sun there.

Husband grew up in Cumbria. Many tales of the Solway Firth when he was a boy.