Re:The Other Half
by cmrdporcupine on Wednesday March 01, 2017 @02:50PM
(#13767582)
Yeah we have something like this in Ontario ("TeleHealth") and from my experience the calls usually end with "Go to the doctor / emergency room" because they're mostly unwilling to tell you "you're fine, it's in your head" unless it's completely obvious.
On the other hand, that kind of presentation can often COMPEL a doctor to prevent discharge, so lots of, uh, problem patients know they can eke out a few extra days if they mention those words to the right person.
You can search the English NHS Choices website.
That gives calm mostly evidence based advice and lets you know when you should self care, or when you should see a doctor.
For example, here's "chest pain": http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chest-pain/Pages/Introduction.a...
It says there are a variety of causes, but it says you must never ignore it, and gives some criteria for when you should dial 911.
In England we also have NHS 111, which is a free telephone advice line. It's not as good as it could be because fo obvious reasons they're risk averse.