Hi Celestialzone

Unfortunately Australia is behind the rest of the world.

There are long waiting queues at the emergency department, people waiting for life changing operations.

I am talking about the public hospital system here. Every Australian is entitled to be looked after but because the public hospital system is overloaded, understaffed, we have to wait.

Our Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has screwed our economy during the lockdowns, refused to fund public hospitals and the ambulance service, therefore you may be waiting up to 1 hour for an ambulance which is not acceptable for an emergency and once you get to emergency you will be waiting for hours before seeing a doctor if your situation is not life threatening. Obviously if a patient has had a serious car accident he/she will be looked after immediately. I have called the ambulance in the past due to extreme neck pain. They took me to the hospital and instead of allocating a bed for me due to my very bad condition, they made me wait in the waiting area for hours. Now when I get a flare up I don't even call them anymore. It is not uncommon for the hospital to put you in a bed in the corridors, because they have run out of rooms. If you have covid you get prioritised but not if you have cervicalgia, neuralgia. Just a few days ago in the state of Victoria (Australia) our politicians gave themselves an abundant pay rise especially our Victorian Premier Dan where is salary went from $198000 per year to $481000 per year. This is ludicrous to say the least and a kick in the guts for all the people like me needing medical procedures.
In the meantime I have started to pay a private medical insurance so that I can get looked after by Jan 2024. Why Jan 2024, because there is a 12 month waiting period for existing medical conditions before I can claim.
Since the 5th of June my neck, lower back conditions have worsened. I am in pain 24/7, I am struggling to walk without pain. The pain from the neck is spreading into the legs, feet and toes. My latest MRI show cord contact around the C5 area. This could be cause more referred pain. When I lie down my legs and feet feel tight, painful and numb. I am also getting pins and needles around different parts of my body even near my genitalia.

I told my pain management doctor about my issues getting worse, but he didn't look overly concerned about it and fixed my next appointment for the 24th of July.
To do another chat session and get paid for it?
Every day it is hard to sleep despite the drugs, get up, walk, do things around the house.
I don't want to end-up in a wheelchair.
I have been praying for 10 months and still can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Best regards

Alfred