WOW!
Good luck with the project management gig and the huge brick cleaning task.
You have a very busy time ahead, let’s hope you still find time for you, Mrs Pete, Art and Music…
I lived in Dublin for a couple years. Only had to visit the doctor a few times.
Each time I called up around 10am and a nice reception would say and when would you like to come in we have appointments today at 11am and in the afternoon.
The doctor would have a chat as the Irish do so well and ask if there was anything else troubling me.
Now the rub was you had to pay Euro 40 for the appointment.
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If you can keep regular picture updates then we can supervise you from a safe distance……don’t forget the forum collective knowledge of rebuilding is negligible😂
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I’d happily pay for healthcare and stop paying the government stealth tax!!
I already pay for Cardiac appointments as I nearly died last time I was in the hands of the administrative top heavy NHS who lost my surgeons instruction to fast track my operation.
He totally lost his SH1T when I called his secretary weeks after I’d seen him to ask when the OP was to be scheduled.
The NHS have lost the respect of so many people who actually need them and are yet applauded by the majority who don’t.
WOW! I just can’t stop ranting about this can I 
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…BUT our ability to talk authoritatively on subjects we have a little knowledge of, is endless 
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Similar in France. Emergency appointment today, or normal appointment within 1 day to a week ( Today of there is a cancellation) Charge is around 8 euro if you are registered on the French health system, around 25 euro if not.
Our GP will also ask after your general health condition as well as the presenting reason, and then at the end will ask if any other concerns and often mention previous issues, how are they settling etc. It feels less rushed and more engaged than the UK GP’s we previously had.
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No they’re only laid with a lime mortar so (apparently) they’ll be easy to clean by hand. If not I’ll be getting a labourer for a few weeks.
Wow, wire brush and a bucket of water is going to be hard on the hands.
Hammer and cold chisel
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Sadly , our experience of the last ten years here in France has shown us just how far the NHS has fallen behind.
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Mrs Pete is going to enjoy that. 
Hey @Pete_the_painter, have you got any images of what you’re intending to build?
We would all love the opportunity to critique it I’m sure…
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I certainly have had excellent experiences with the NHS - and would be dead were it not for them. I had a CABG done some years ago (quadruple heart bypass), and last year’s tractor accident would have been fatal. Flail chest (most ribs broken, mostly in more than one place), punctured stomach and lung, broken clavicle and scapula, damaged sacrum, punctured spleen, broken wrist. In ICU for 8 weeks. All pretty much sorted (lost the spleen, unfortunately). The staff were fantastic. The food was rubbish (I had to eat mushed-up food only), but apart from that I really could not fault them.
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I too have had my life saved by the NHS. It doesn’t excuse the falling standards and failing aspects though.
I tend to say that the staff outperforming their roles are the only thing that keeps the NHS going, despite management intervention. I could cite various examples of this in my own care and aftercare.
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Same here everyone knocks our Medibank but it’s always there and they’d more than likely whinging even more if it was gone.
Similar experience here, as many here know I ended up in hospital last summer after ignoring symptoms for 5 weeks. I had pancreatitis and a perforated bowel, plus an abscess in the abdominal cavity. They operated within 3 days, sectioned my bowel, then spent over 6 weeks (in hospital) getting the pancreatitis under control, dealing with the blood clots I developed in my spleen and managing the sepsis I developed. A couple of months later I was back in with kidney problems, they controlled those and saved half my kidney function. Then 2 weeks later I developed internal bleeding, this time in London, I was admitted, the bleeding was minor but they discovered I’d developed a pseudo-aneurysm in a hepatic artery which was causi liver problems, so after 2 days in ICU a surgeon cancelled her Christmas Day off and came in and treated my aneurysm, after 3 and a half hours in theatre. she went to the canteen hoping there might be some turkey left. I also had a lump on a lung which they scanned several times for malignancy, I’m now on annual CT scans just in case. Oh I also have gallstones, I have an MRI scan Friday after which, assuming my stomach narrowing isn’t malignant, they’ll schedule an urgent op to remove my gallbladder to avoid a recurrence of the pancreatis.
I’d say I do need the NHS and as it’s saved my life at least twice in the last 12 months and 10 days I am also a fan.
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I think I can speak for all of us when I say that your recovery was miraculous and it’s wonderful to hear about such excellent experiences.
My problem is not with the care givers in the NHS. The cardiologist I see and the surgeon who saved my life and all the clinical staff that supported them and cared for me were superb and all work for the NHS. I have nothing bad to say about them.
The organisation and behind the scenes administration on the other hand are SHOCKING. I could not believe the way I heard a receptionist speak to a confused elderly person at the desk a few weeks ago in my GP surgery. Many of these people are simply taking home a pay check and don’t seem to understand the vulnerability of the people that require their service and understanding.
Also, doctors are so afraid of our litigious society now that they insist on follow ups with various specialists/diagnostic centres, just to cover themselves from being sued. This blocks up the resources for people who actually NEED an appointment and can’t get one.
I had that appointment on Monday at my GP surgery at the ‘urgent’ insistence of the ophthalmologist and the practice nurse and GP could not understand why, but they had to see me in person and use up an appointment slot, to agree with me that it was pointless …
I really need to stop ranting about this, but it stops me going off on one about the roads🤣
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Back in the day that is the kind of job we would have loved as early teens to earn some extra money at weekends or school holidays