Government Health care

I like it because without it I would be dead------------simple

[timwilky]

The UK health service is budget sensitive. There is a reluctance to initially use expensive diagnostic tools and as a result life threatening conditions are commonly misdiagnosed.

My sister in law was complaining of headaches and visiting her doctor weekly. In the end he wanted to refer her to a psychologist for her hypochondria. She wanted a second opinion and went privately to a neurologist. 5 mins into his consultation she badly failed a test and an MRI was performed. Brain tumor identified. Her general practitioner was full of apologies. But she never went back to the guy.

Hospitals, tend to be dirty, overcrowded and fail to provide decent 20th century standards. I had to take my mother to the local hospital 2 weeks ago. She was told to wait in a reception area. Somebody incontinent behind a screen on a trolley was defecating. The smell in the waiting room was awful, faeces was thrown on the floor under the screen and you could hear the nurse telling him not to put his hands in it etc. His dignity, our dignity were through the floor.

High rates of hospital acquired infections through large communal wards, with poor cleaning.

My then 16 year old daughter had an infection that required emergency treatment/investigation. The only available room for her was a side room on a mens ward. far from ideal.

The UK health service has improved. But there is a damm long way to go yet.

Tim, miss alpinestarhero has had to go on mental health wards in her old job, and I think she does in her current job too. Anyway, she always said how they were horrible, dingy places. Prison's are better furnished apparently.

What winds me up about this is, how can someone get better from a mental illness or at least have an improved condition when the environment they are in is so depressing

Again, the NHS is great, its there and its ready. Like many things, the treatment given is only as good as the person(s) who diagnose and treat the problem. My sister in law had her appendix removed due to stomach aches, when it turned out it was actualy IBS.

Likes:
* When something goes wrong, people fix it and you dont get a huge bill.
* Going to the GP for consultation doesnt cost so your more likely to get check up and therefore a diagnosis if you have a problem

Dislikes:
* Big chunk out of salary for tax due to NHS
* Long waiting times on Op's
* Long waiting times in Hospital
* Been in a waiting room surrounded by people who dont work and therefore dont pay but still get the same free treatment that I'm essentially paying for.

Detest:
* That when Im given some pills anit-biotics or what ever, the nurse will ask if I work or not. If I work (and therefore pay tax) I have to pay for the meds. If I dont work (and therefore dont pay tax) I dont have to pay for the meds. It just further backs up why I think I'd be better off I didnt bother with a job and instead just binged off the tax payer.

If there was a choice between NHS and Private healthcare, I'd stick with the Private healthcare and get insurance anyday. Technically I do anyway, me and the misses are looking at getting BUPA. After seeing a close friend have a knee op on the NHS been done so badly he couldnt walk properly, after claiming against the NHS he went to BUPA who re-did the surgery and he is now back playing football less than 6months on.

[yorkie_chris]

Well if the alternative is being checked for insurance before you get any treatment then I know which i prefer.

see this is half of what concerns me overall the service and care here are excellent it is just come as a cost and health insurance is expensive. if you are hurt and dont have insurance you still will get care even though my guess is second rate when it comes to doing extra test. so it doesn't completely give no help to those in need i just half to ask when is the last time the govenment made thing more efficient.

I grew up in Belgium. When I needed to have an operation, I was in and out 2 days after I had visited the doctor! It is incredible service, but I have to say, I am not sure how it is funded, I think my parents had medical insurance, so I suppose although I might have had great care, other people in Belgium might have no healthcare.

my ultimate concern is i don't have much money hints why i have an sv650 and not two bmws. I'm analyzing the ultimate cost out of my pocket. I don't go to the hospital unless i'm dying i dont go to the doctor unless i really need something and i try to make it a cost effective visit. I also go with the theory of paying for myself even if i can't. and lastly i don't want the government to have access to my medical records with out a warrant because in that bill it allows them to dis-enroll people

I grew up in Greece and have now been living in the UK for 10+ years. Both countries have public healthcare systems. Both work in a very similar way and both fail in the same way!! That is urgency is not something they know about!!! If you are not in a very poor state then they let you get in that state and then take action.

In both systems the benefit is that you can have access for minor things like colds etc and then you either know how to play the system and get access faster OR have private care which you pay yourself.

Now here in the UK I have private medical cover AND know how to ask for a referal from my GP so that I can get the specialist care I might want to.

As with all public systems you just need to know your way round it. Obviously if you are unemployed and cannot afford private then public is better than nothing.

[Red Herring]

Originally Posted by timwilky

The UK health service is budget sensitive. There is a reluctance to initially use expensive diagnostic tools and as a result life threatening conditions are commonly misdiagnosed.

My sister in law was complaining of headaches and visiting her doctor weekly. In the end he wanted to refer her to a psychologist for her hypochondria. She wanted a second opinion and went privately to a neurologist. 5 mins into his consultation she badly failed a test and an MRI was performed. Brain tumor identified. Her general practitioner was full of apologies. But she never went back to the guy.

Unfortunately GP's also have to live in the real world. Statistically one in 10,000 patients who go to their GP complaining of a headache actually turn out to have a brain tumor. Usually it's stress related or transferred pain from elsewhere (arthritis of the neck for example making you tense up) in which case it can be treated a whole lot cheaper than sending you for a scan. In fact if the GP did send everyone for a scan who wanted one the system would clog up and those that really did need one wouldn't get seen until it was to late. GP's act as gatekeepers for the NHS, they have to make judgement calls and yes, sometimes they get it wrong. It's unfortunate, and at the moment still relatively rare, but don't expect it to get better. All the time we are increasing our expectation from our health service without increasing our investment in it it's only going to go one way. And by investment i don't mean more administrators, more targets, or more power for untrained and inexperienced staff.

The US version has it's advantages. You go into hospital there and it's in the doctors interest to give you every conceivable treatment they can think off because their pay is directly linked to it. Of course that's OK because the only persons getting the treatment are those that are paying into the insurance scheme that pays the doctor...

My wife's a GP. If it wasn't for her love and commitment to the NHS we would have emigrated somewhere where she can earn twice what she does here for half the hours. Yes, I'm biased.