Government Health care

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by leedsmatt7

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.

What people often seem to miss with this sort of issue, is that it is the same consultants doing the surgery, doing both private & NHS work. On that basis, the quality of the surgery is equally likely to be hit or miss.

[Bri w]

Nhs is underfunded, and don't believe the hype.

The NHS is tasked with making a 6% Cost Improvemnt every year, So when the MP's tell you they've improved the funding by 'x,' take off 6% then you have the true figure.

NHS staff increases, don't believe the hype.

When an MP makes an anouncement that the staffing levels have gone up by 2,000 nurses its a load of ....... In reality a number of posts are made job sharing. Same number of hours covered but by two/three nurses. The real increase is miles less than broadcast.

The NHS is a great thing, staffed by great people (in the main) but not always well managed or funded (hope that's diplomatic enough for the health professionals amongst us).

Originally Posted by Gazza77

What people often seem to miss with this sort of issue, is that it is the same consultants doing the surgery, doing both private & NHS work. On that basis, the quality of the surgery is equally likely to be hit or miss.

Your not wrong, it wasnt overlooked I chose not to mention it as it just made the NHS sound even worse. He actually saw the exsact same consultant for both procedures.
It was the pre-op investigation and post op care which made the massive difference. The NHS hospital had him back home within 48 hours with nearly no phys afterwards. The Bupa people had him in for nearly a week and returning almost daily for a the first month then it got more spread out.

[phi-dan]

Originally Posted by Gazza77

What people often seem to miss with this sort of issue, is that it is the same consultants doing the surgery, doing both private & NHS work. On that basis, the quality of the surgery is equally likely to be hit or miss.

Yep - the consultants here commonly refer to the private hospital over the road as "the bank", as they pop over there every day to get some more money

having never used private medical healthcare and always used NHS i'm biased. its has its flaws as every system. had we be private my mum would never have got the treatment she had her med's totalled near £2k a month and that nots inculding the scans and all the radio active treatment and additional injections she needed over the course of ten years. Our system never flinched - BUPA and all other wouldn't touch her. BUPA and the like won't even look at me due to a pre existing condition - bad back and anything and everything linking to it.
IP has it a perk of the job - in and out in the day and fanatstic surroundings but everyone else i've known has had poor service and invariably contracted infections while in these private hospitals..


Don't knock anything till you've tried it then make you own mind up is my advice

[Red Herring]

Originally Posted by Quedos

Don't knock anything till you've tried it then make you own mind up is my advice

Of course most of us are desperately hoping we never have to try it...

Originally Posted by Red Herring

Of course most of us are desperately hoping we never have to try it...

I used to say that...................

Yes our NHS needs a radical overhaul. The government can keep pouring money into it but it`s like a bucket full of holes. The government keeps coming up with it`s great "visions" but these "visions" cost money and unfortunately that money then has to be redirected from areas of great need.

For example money is taken away from staffing, the backlash is that staff become disenchanted and morale is low so staff leave. Then huge sums of money have to be spent on getting agency staff in to try and cover the wards. Hospital trusts are paying commission of up to 59% to agencies and some trusts have paid more than £40 million in the last 5 years.

Another great idea was to bring in foreign nurses.. no disrespect but in, for example, the Phillipines nurses are not taught basic nursing skills. Due to the private healthcare in the Phillipines the families will carry out basic nursing care in order to keep the cost down. As a result we have wards full of vulnerable people being neglected and developing costly pressure sores etc. The total cost of treating pressure sores in the UK is £1.4–£2.1 billion annually (4% of total NHS expenditure). Pressure sores are totally preventable so imagine how great it would be if the money spent could be avoided and put back into the NHS.

Unfortunately the "powers that be" that make decisions over allocation of resources and budgets etc have no nursing background.... they are managers, not leaders and as such ignore the opinions of the people who matter.

In response to the original question....... despite my grievances I think we are lucky to have our NHS. No it`s not perfect but not everyone can afford private health care so I think we need to consider ourselves lucky to have it.

[the_lone_wolf]

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only person who had steller service from the NHS...

Fracture on Friday afternoon, after waiting for a couple of hours on a busy Friday night a lovely nursey with a thick Dudley accent patches me up with humour and a smile, walk into A&E of local hospital Saturday, consultation on Tuesday, "we'll call you with an operation time" - Wednesday "can you be here by 10am" - home Wednesday evening with K-Wire installed, another handful of consultations over the course of six weeks and the nurses are without fail chirpy and pleasant despite being obviously rushed off their feet, the surgeons professional and thorough despite having another fifty people to see before they go up to surgery to work until god knows what o'clock, the hospital is clean, the tea was strong

And after seeing that the pills alone my mum is taking for her recovery from breast cancer cost the same as a new mid level BMW/Audi etc, not counting the surgeries, the chemo and radiotherapy, I'm glad it's not us, or an insurance company having to make the decision to treat or not...

Is great to hear of somebody`s good experiences as unfortunately we only hear of the negative.