Financial strain to the NHS

[david.bligh]

In some ways, I feel quite guilty that my diabetes costs the NHS so much money. At the same time, I couldnt possibly afford to pay for all my equipment.

Is any body else made to feel like you're a financial strain on the NHS?

 

[Fallenstar]

Yes I do, I think about this often. How I try to rationalise it is I do my very best to stay as fit and healthy as I can through diet and excercise. So even though the genetic hand I was dealt is not the best and I do have chronic conditions that cost the NHS, I feel doing my part with my overall health elevates the guilt a bit.
Hopefully having good cardiovascular health and eating a very clean diet will ward off other health issues, but who knows whats around the corner...you could get run over by a bus tomorrow, and that will cost.
I do try my best to use up all insulin ect....and I did used to conserve needles :wink: but I got a virtual spanking for that :lol: So now I change every time.

 

[ebony321]

Hi,

I have also thought about this before, but i honestly can say i don't feel like i am a burden on the NHS. I have a disease i could not have prevented. I have paid my NI contributions since i was 16 years old.

I also control my diabetes well, so it's unlikely i will need an overnight hospital stay or any treatment for complications that could arise from poor control.

Having a pump costs the NHS more too, but if i was still on injections with absolute diabolical control i would more than likely still be in hospital 4 times a year with DKA because i couldn't control my diabetes.

I can say for definate a large percentage of people with diabetes could not afford to fund all they need to sustain the control they have now.

I consider strips, insulin, cannulas, tubing etc an investment by the NHS to ensure i won't need kidney dialysis for years or not be able to work and contribute to the NHS because i can't walk or struggle to see!

Don't feel like a burden, because your not and neither am i

 

[Unbeliever]

Any "thinking " person is going to consider this point at some time. I don't feel guilty abou the cost of my diabetes o the NHS but I used to wonder about the cos of my etinopathy eatment.

I was almost 60- a few months off - when I was diagnoosed. I have been told that I have probably had it all my adukt life but kept symptonms at bay because of my lifestyle and diet. There is a strong genetic link to diabees for me.

My eye problems were bought on by inappropriate reatmen by the NHS but I used o feel very guilty about the cost of my eamen for it. I have discussed his with staff at the hospital and they assure me I have no need to feel his way. They see people who have paid nothing into the system and continue to abuse it and take no responsibility for their own healh.

My consultant assures me that they also learn a great deal from treating me as my case is unusually well documented and quite unusual in other ways too.

I have been "used" for training purposes on several occasions . This makes me feel a litle better about the whole hing. Of oourse , it is also a fact that my blindness would probably cost he NHS more oo.

On my pat i do my best to keep my levels under control o allow the teament to work.

I do feel ,however, that money in the "diabetes " budget is not used appropriately. I am sure we can all think of examples.

 

[noblehead]

David,

Feel guilty?...............never in a month of Sundays!!!!

None of us asked for diabetes to enter our lives and given the opportunity we'd be rid of it tomorrow, the NHS was set up to provide a universal health-care to everyone regardless of class and income and we all contribute to it through our taxes.

Provided we request items that we intend to use for ourselves then there is no need to worry, my only concern is with the back-door privatisation that is taking place under the present administration, I do wonder if standards will fall once they have tendered out all the out-patient appointments :think:

Nigel

 

[phoenix]

I wouldn't feel guilty if I were in the UK. Between us my husband and I have paid out a lot in NI and taxes and were almost never ill. I feel very guilty that I moved to France thinking I was perfectly healthy , paid just a little into their system and was then diagnosed with this costly condition
My head though says I shouldn't feel guilty. Neither the philosophy of the NHS, nor the French system requires those who use it should feel they are a burden on the state or taxpayers. Simply they are systems in which those that can pay (but maybe at the present don't need it) , pay for those who need it but can't pay. In France I think that's what the concept of solidarité is all about.

 

[SparkJack]

I agree with most said. ALL my family work in the NHS system and I can assure you there are far greater wastes of money such as the £6 billion spent on a useless national patient computer record. Many diabetics could not blame their diabetes on themselves but have a genetic propensity for it.
If you go into A&E many, many injuries are sports injuries. This is definite patient choice-from rugby,netball, horse riding as well as extreme sports.Most sporty people who injure themselves do so more than once .I broke my leg jumping ship when sailing (to tie up). I broke my thumb on dry ski slope when learning to ski. All NHS has too many people in management and not enough staff at ground level. Staff are not hired and wards rely on high cost agency staff to fill gaps. Oh crikey I could go on for hours. Every weekend night and others high cost patients are inconsiderate and incoherent drunks who are brought in because there is nowhere else for them to go.
In brief no one should be made to feel guilty...

 

[SparkJack]

I agree with most said. ALL my family work in the NHS system and I can assure you there are far greater wastes of money such as the £6 billion spent on a useless national patient computer record. Many diabetics could not blame their diabetes on themselves but have a genetic propensity for it.
If you go into A&E many, many injuries are sports injuries. This is definite patient choice-from rugby,netball, horse riding as well as extreme sports.Most sporty people who injure themselves do so more than once .I broke my leg jumping ship when sailing (to tie up). I broke my thumb on dry ski slope when learning to ski. All NHS has too many people in management and not enough staff at ground level. Staff are not hired and wards rely on high cost agency staff to fill gaps. Oh crikey I could go on for hours. Every weekend night and others high cost patients are inconsiderate and incoherent drunks who are brought in because there is nowhere else for them to go.
In brief no one should be made to feel guilty...

 

[david.bligh]

Don't get me wrong, it isn't everyone that works for the NHS that make me feel like this. In fact, most don't! My GP however is forever trying to cut down my test strips, saying diabetes costs the NHS as much as breast cancer and something else combined. I've seen them on the shelves and I know they cost a fortune, but you have to test your blood or you would never know what your BG was, and subsequently how much insulin to take?!

 

[Sanober]

I don't feel bad despite having used the NHS constantly throughout my life. That's what I tell my husband who works part time in the NHS :lol: he agrees though.

However, I've also been using my work's private healthcare over the past year and a half for my non diabetic health issues. This has minimised the amount of time I have had to spend out of the office and of course waiting times - for example physio (for two upper spinal disc probs) was done outside of working hours whereas my local NHS physio centre could only accommodate in the middle of the working day.

I felt the NHS was better to deal with the Diabetes as the private healthcare is very limited for chronic conditions. The waiting times have never been that bad to be honest. However, I've had to take quite a bit of time off work this year though for all the appointments. Mercifully I have a great manager who's never asked me to work it back (I owe a couple of weeks worth!) and is perfectly encouraging for me to do what I ever I need to do to look after myself. I've learned about some poor Diabetics that are getting a rough deal though, I think there needs to be serious awareness and education at work places for management and colleagues to learn about Diabetics.

I pay my NI contributions and my tax on the private healthcare which is classed as a taxable benefit.

I'm so glad I'm not in the U.S! I would have so much added angst with having to get the right insurance to cover my problems, and in cases people who have insurance still need to spend quite a lot of money to get their medications.

 

[duranie]

I don't feel at all guilty - as guilty suggests you were in some way responsible. I've spent a lot of time in hospital over the past 12 months following an episode of DKA & the diagnosis of a couple of complications. My employers try to make me feel guilty about the amount of time I've had off work and the amount of appointments I attend, but do you know what, I don't feel guilty about that either - that's their problem, not mine. I only have one life & I'm going to do whatever it takes to stay as healthy & pain free as I can...
As has been mentioned, drunks & drug users, the super obese, sporting injuries, these are what "waste" resources as they are lifestyle choices.

 

[Snodger]

Agree with everyone above.
To be honest the worst culprit for making me feel guilty about costs is actually Diabetes UK. They seem to exist to tell everyone how expensive diabetics are. I went to an event they were holding at which everyone there was Type 1, apart from the DUK staff, and the non-diabetic staff gave a little speech about what a terrible killer diabetes was and how much diabetics cost. To this day I'm not sure what they thought they would achieve by telling us this, apart from making us feel bad. The event was billed as celebrating T1 achievements - so it was possibly the most inappropriate speech they could have made. I came away feeling awful about myself, then angry.

 

[sugar2]

Agree with everyone above.
To be honest the worst culprit for making me feel guilty about costs is actually Diabetes UK. They seem to exist to tell everyone how expensive diabetics are. I went to an event they were holding at which everyone there was Type 1, apart from the DUK staff, and the non-diabetic staff gave a little speech about what a terrible killer diabetes was and how much diabetics cost. To this day I'm not sure what they thought they would achieve by telling us this, apart from making us feel bad. The event was billed as celebrating T1 achievements - so it was possibly the most inappropriate speech they could have made. I came away feeling awful about myself, then angry.

:shock:

A bit, butthen I think what the NHS spends on smolers, or people who broke their leg doing something fun...and remember that I need teh NHS through no fault of my own.

 

[copepod]

I try to ensure that I use only what I need, for example, I choose to reuse my pen needles and lancets, when given the option when making a clinic appointment over the phone I decline the offer of a letter (unless I need it to show employer to get time off), but that doesn't mean everyone should do the same. For me, it's as much about saving environmental, as NHS, resources.

It's not juts some people with diabetes who want to reduce use of resources - I sometimes help a severely disabled friend when her husband is away - she needs to be lifted by a hoist between bed and chair, and used a urinary catheter. She used to have resusable nightime urine bags, but these are no longer available on prescription, only single use ones. So, her husband and her have adapted a plastic bottle to colelct urine overnight and be washed each morning - clean not sterile approach and care to prevent bacteria going up tubing towards her small bag and body.