Yesterday I had to phone 999 to call for an ambulance. The reason was that I was experiencing very severe and very horrible pains in my abdomen and chest. To start with I tried taking a pain killer but the feeling was so disorientating and nauseous that I thought I had better phone the doctor to make an appointment now before it got so bad I couldn't. The receptionist who answered the phone advised me to phone for an ambulance.
I dialled 999 and the operator asked which service; Then they wanted to know the address and the nature of the emergency. I explained and they obviously alerted their first response team or whatever they are called. Within 10 minutes a paramedic had arrived and was wiring me up, taking my pulse and temperature, spraying angina stuff under my tongue and getting me to take a soluble aspirin. About 10 minutes later an ambulance team arrived and to cut a long story short I struggled down two flights of stairs and got into the ambulance. My daughter came with me and was understandably very worried.
All their tests did not confirm any problem with my heart and the consultant dealing with me suspected it was a severe bowel spasm. He gave me some potent muscle relaxant, a pain killers, a tuna fish sandwich and sent me on my way. I made an appointment to see my doctor later that afternoon.
So what was wrong? Obviously at this stage no one knows for sure but my doctor suspects some kind of dyspepsia. However, whatever it is it is not an isolated one off thing. I know because my whole body is failing in many respects and for the last 10 to 14 days I have been getting dull headaches and feeling severely tired and under the weather. I have been perspiring after the smallest exertion and suffering severe palpitations at night lasting anything from half an hour to three hours. Over the last ten years I have been under the most dreadful stress and I am suffering severe 'worn out' syndrome both emotionally and physically (probably PTSD). I am on the verge of collapse and collapse is what I did yesterday. So for 24 hours I have been ignoring the world and either entertaining myself rather mindlessly online, sleeping or watching nature programs. Then I cooked something for my daughter and me and decided to go to bed early.
BUT - We have an appointment with the DWP tomorrow at 9 am.
What could be wrong with a 9 am appointment with the DWP? The Department of Work and Pensions, which is basically the department responsible for providing unemployment benefit and sick pay, are becoming more and more oppressive. I recently encountered a newsletter from the "Disability Law Service", a charitable organisation, who are concerned at the new arrangement whereby if someone has a sick note provided by a highly paid, properly regulated, professional expert doctor then the DWP can pay a very lowly qualified health worker to examine you to ascertain if the 'sick' note - now called a 'fit' note - thank you George Orwell - is valid. (You can see the latest DLS newsletter at http://www.dls.org.uk/web_pub/.) So what was the point of having doctors authorise sick notes? Why not just line us up at the railway station and separate us into those who are deemed fit for work and those only fit for the gas chamber? Since my nephew has been suffering from something akin to Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome and has had a highly trained and professional neurologist diagnose that his somatic and autonomic nervous systems are severely out of sync meaning that he simply cannot function regularly or reliably he has had his sick pay simply stopped because the unqualified person at the DWP medical centre has deemed him fit for work because he can move his limbs and subtract 7 from 47. He is currently getting £0 and has no savings. It is only fortuitous that someone has a house and feeds him. So what could be wrong with a 9 am appointment at the DWP?
What is wrong is that when you NEED help and people withhold it, it has very serious consequences. This is very worrying. And that is what I am now doing. My heart rate has gone up, my stomach is feeling tense and I feel sick. So what could be wrong with blatant cruelty from the authorities?
When I say that they are killing me I am not speaking metaphorically. So to answer the initial question: This is how it works.
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