"Long wait for a joint injection in Gartnaval Hospital Glasgow"

My moan about the NHS is the waiting times to get seen. I have arthritis, and when I have a flare up of the condition, one treatement that seems to help is a steroid injection into the affected joint. I usually get this at the injection clinic in Gartnavel General, Glasgow, as there is no such service in my local area, which is Renfrewshire.

I phoned for an appointment in some pain, and unable to wait bare very well on the leg, as the pain was in my right hip. I was told that the next nearest appointment was in one months time. I asked the nurse to get seen sooner, as I was in pain. She said she would phone me the next day if there were cancellations. Needless to say she did not phone, and it is now one week later, and I am still in some discomfort. I did receive strong piankillers that take away some of the pain, but do not treat the inflammation which is there.

My GP's response to what I told him, was- ' Well, the NHS service is what we have' .It seesm to be that this is not good enough, but who will make the changes?

I had previously made a complaint in writing to the hospital about their waiting times, and I got the standard response, which does not answer my question. They will do nothing to speed up the waiting process.Meantime, here I am off sick from work, not able to walk properly, taking pain killers which make me lightheaded, and unable to lead a normal life because the vital injection which could have helped me is not made available to me by the NHS in a timely fashion.

It is not the doctors or nurses that I am blaming, but the whole structure of the system, which is at fault. I can moan as much as I want, but know that this will not really change anyhing in the NHS, and people like me just have to put up with a faulty system called the NHS, because the politicans will do nothing. All we hear about is NHS getting more managers, and paper pushers, but where are the extra nurses and doctors to treat patients?