The Future!

When you have a long term health condition life can be a struggle. I think the aim must be to make that struggle as easy as it can be by managing and controlling your problems as best as they can.I believe that there are certain aspects of the care of those with long term conditions in the UK that can be improved and i would like to put some solutions forward in this post.
Starting from the beginning when you are diagnosed. When you are diagnosed I think its important to know as much as possible about your condition and your problems. Without that knowledge I think that its an almost impossible task to know how you can best help yourself. At present in my experience hospitals tell you very little.They seem to believe that patients are little better than children and should be told as little as possible.I believe that when we are diagnosed we should be given a folder about all aspects of our illness with contact numbers of specialised charities we can contact for support and more information. I also think that our records should be online so we can easily access them so we can read at our leisure all about our conditions.This would give us the knowledge we so badly need.
Another aspect of our care that is badly lacking is regular  monitoring.Most people with long term conditions see a consultant every three or six months but in between that time you see no one and there is no monitoring of your condition which lets be honest is ever changing.I believe that all of those with long term conditions should be seen at least once a month by a community nurse to make sure that there blood pressure and oxygen levels are fine and that they have nothing that is worrying them.This would not only improve our care but I think stop so many people with long term conditions being having to be admitted to hospital because problems would be seen before they become serious.
Most of us who have theses problems get a crisis from time to time.Many of us have no one to turn to when these occur say at night or weekend when the doctors are closed and are forced to phone for an ambulance for help. I believe that we should have a phone number of a specialist nurse we can call for help. Often you don`t need to go to hospital but end up there because there is no where else to turn to. Having a nurse on call would help stop this happening so often and once again lead to less people ending up in A and E.It would also lead to people with long term illnesses feeling safer and less alone. It is frightening knowing there is no one to turn to when you are feeling unwell I can tell you. I know from experience.
These are just a few suggestions where I think care can be improved. Some of these would mean more investment but that investment would not just improved patients lives but also save money with less hospital admissions in the long run.Sometimes you have to spend money to save it!