This is my name in binary.

Clarke Duncan = 01000011 01101100 01100001 01110010 01101011 01100101 00100000 01000100 01110101 01101110 01100011 01100001 01101110

Handy to know The thing is it’s probably the most common version of my name around the world with details being transferred from computer to computer

What’s it like, new website after new website but this time it’s nothing to do with work, my personal website gets a make over as it was looking a bit dated. Only of interest to Family and Friends but please do check it out

Just like to say thanks to everyone who either posted online or sent me a card. My Facebook profile was flooded with Happy Birthday Messages, and my email software started treating it as spam as so much came in yesterday LOL.

Anyway thanks, I had a lovely day and Leona, Adam and Fraser got me some lovely presents and special thanks to Graeme who sent me the complete Guitar Hero World Tour band set, was so much fun last night. However I will need to practice on the drums, as turns out I am better on the guitar then the drums, who would have known!

Yesterday I went to Rosshall Hospital in Glasgow, I been waiting to be seen on the NHS however it would be several months before my appointment would come through and while it’s not an emergency I didn’t fancy waiting this long, so I looked in to Private Hospitals. Initially I thought you could only visit one of these if you have Private Healthcare Insurance but it turns out they operate a self-pay scheme meaning you can be pretty much seen for and treated for most things in matter of weeks.

I called up last week and was given a brief outline of the costs involved, and was asked what Consultant I would like, having never been asked this question I had not expect it so hadn’t done any research. I was speaking to one of the ward nurses and ask her, who would you pick and she recommend one to me. I then looked him up on Google to see what I could find, interestingly he is one of the top consultants at the Royal Infirmary Hospital and if I was going the NHS route I probably would not have got to see him or if I did he certainly would not be the one carrying out the operation as it’s pretty minor as these things go. In fact what I found very interesting is that if you have the money you can pretty much meet a specialist consultant in most fields in matter of days, however you do need a referral letter from your local GP (and that I found took longer to get than the appointment to see the Consultant, madness!)

So the consultant explained what would happen and offered next week for the operation, now clearly he is undertaking this work after hours and on his days off from his NHS work, so not impacting anyone waiting to see him on the NHS but it got me thinking, why doesn’t the government pay these guys who want to work extra hours and days money to do this, wouldn’t everyone get treated and seen much quicker that way?

One interesting thing came out of the conversation with the consultant, he explained two things I didn’t know, 1st that most private hospitals in Scotland don’t treat children, you can meet a consultant who can explain what the problem is but you can’t get treated as most places don’t have paediatric nurses, kind of making Private Healthcare Insurance a bit of a waste of money for children (however I have a friend who has had very positive results going private with her kids) and 2nd thing was he doesn’t have Private Healthcare Insurance himself, simply said your better taking the money you would pay each month and saving it up, this way when you need access to Private care you can pay for it yourself and probably over the years have money leftover and I guess if you think about it, it costs £1,000+ a year for most people and if you have not been to hospital much or at all for many years and generally healthy that could be a considerable amount of money building up and besides long term conditions are not covered anyway.

So looks like the best idea is to apply for a BMI Card (the hospitals credit card that can only be used for medical stuff inside BMI) as you get 0% interest free for 6 months after any health care purchase and then a typical APR of 9.9% and save up the money I pay on Private Healthcare Insurance in something like Premium Bonds each month.

This is the follow up to my post Glasgow Dentistry, in my search for a new Dentist in Glasgow that offers private treatment. On Friday I visited a dentist in Patrick, now I might as well start with saying that I was not all that impressed, his idea of private treatment and my idea where not the same, wasn’t even in the same league, indeed it felt like I was paying for private treatment and getting NHS levels, now that’s not what I am after. Yes I want to save money but I also believe in to two sayings “You get what you pay for”, however you might not need what your paying for so always check and the other saying is “a fool an his money is easily parted”, with them in mind I know it’s striking the right balance of expecting to pay the going rate for private work but also making sure whoever I pay is giving me the time, care and quality of work I am after and is why I interviewed a few dentists to get one I would be happy with.

So today I visited another dentist, for an examination including x-rays, what struck me about the dentist I met today was that he didn’t want any clues as to what might be the issue, but instead went on a journey to evaluate every tooth, giving feedback on each and basically saying if no work was needed, is something need just cosmetic work, if a tooth had anything worth highlighting but was not a concern at this time and of course most importantly anything he felt needed work sooner rather than later. Now what was very good about the Neil Campbell the dentist in question was that not only did he come across confident and knowledgeable but he understood what I was looking for, i.e. a good job with the correct time taken to do it, and went over different options and what likely times and costs would involve.

Now most importantly he diagnosed the area I am having a bit of concern with, I am not in any dental pain right now because of it but I can feel niggling under current of something not being right, however as I said he correctly identified the two fillings that need work and will be undertaking removing the current filling in the back and adding a dressing to see if any infection is present and if it can be dealt with. Also noted in this examination and was clearly demonstrated to me was that I have another filling that needs replacing at another side of my mouth but can wait until after the initial work is under taken. The dentist I visited in Patrick on the other hand missed loads of stuff and clearly demonstrated that being fresh out of the Dental School doesn’t mean you’re trained in the latest techniques, I think experience helps a great deal in a dentist.

So if you found this blog in your search for a Dentist in Glasgow, then I am happy to recommend Neil Campbell who is based at the Ralston practice of A K Watson Dental Surgeons, phone number is 0141 882 1771, they also undertake NHS work as well as Private.