• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

NHS

noblehead said:
Said this before, it would be a very brave (and foolish) PM & government that tried to privatise the NHS entirely, the repercussions would be enormous and everlasting IMHO.
Click to expand...
I used to assume so, but these things tend to be done by stealth.
 
donnellysdogs said:
I think some of our NHS is good but some of that may be due to fact that private insurance schemes do take some of the...
Click to expand...

Where were the doctors working privately trained; and who paid? If the doctors working privately DON'T work in the NHS part of the time, does that really ease the situation. Surely it's just about making money and not caring for patients.
 
Last edited:
Mr_Pot said:
The best thing about the NHS compared to medical insurance is that the cost to the consumer does not depend on risk. What are the chances of getting private medical insurance to cover you for a heart attack, at an affordable price, if you have had a heart attack before?
I had private healthcare paid for by my employer for many years without ever using it. At 64 it cost them about £600 a year, at 65 it jumped to £1,800 as I was deemed a bigger risk being older. So just when you need insurance you can't afford it.
Click to expand...
You usually find that making a claim on any insurance policy immediately invalidates it In the US the system Trump is trying to scrap prevents people being declined insurance for previous conditions. Of course, Trumpcare is not a health policy; it's a tax cut policy.
 
Prem51 said:
We know that there are problems with the NHS, largely due to financial constraints, but the staff are in the main dedicated and caring people. I'm glad we don't have the US system where a third of the population can't afford healthcare. But that is what our Government want to move towards, a privatised profit making business.
Click to expand...
I think peoples different experiences of the NHS is dependent on which PCT you happen to be in. This fact in itself should be an inkling that it is not a NATIONAL health service any longer and hasn't been since the DOH started giving individual trusts their own budget to manage. When we had the National health service in true form the care would be the same wherever you were in the country and now it is not as it depends on how each trust decides to allocate the budget for different things and which services they decide to buy. The NHS has been gradually getting privatised for so many years now that it should probably be renamed as NATIONAL it is not.
 
nebraska_beauty said:
I think peoples different experiences of the NHS is dependent on which PCT you happen to be in. This fact in itself should be an inkling that it is not a NATIONAL health service any longer and hasn't been since the DOH started giving individual trusts their own budget to manage. When we had the National health service in true form the care would be the same wherever you were in the country and now it is not as it depends on how each trust decides to allocate the budget for different things and which services they decide to buy. The NHS has been gradually getting privatised for so many years now that it should probably be renamed as NATIONAL it is not.
Click to expand...
I think that is true. It will become increasing fragmented in the care that it offers.
 
Things have moved on since PCT's.... CCG's are so different and people do not realise that each CCG is able to differentiate and make up different rules and availability of drugs and meds.
We had it for years with some being able to get pumps fairly easy and some having to fight.
But it even comes down to drugs. I need lidocaine patches for pain on chest from being thin and eadiotherapy and muscle damage from 1st mastectomy. Some CCGs fund and mine doesnt. I have to pay £109 for 30 days if I buy through Lloyds.
Then you have healthwatch as a business ... really??? What do they really do? Some of their annual reports are dire to read for actual achievements.. again who funds Healthwatch?
Meds, care, NHS etc is just a business being pretty poorly managed with top heavy management.. everybody needs it at some point and it is just a business...
 
dbr10 said:
I used to assume so, but these things tend to be done by stealth.
Click to expand...
Interesting article by George Monbiot in the Guardian. I picked it up today but it maybe a few days old. Offtopic and slightly not to most peoples taste so I will not look for link. I think you may find it informative though.
Back to healthcare with the American slant. My sister in law was American and died of cancer nearly 2 years after diagnosis. They were fortunate in that it was covered by the insurance policies. They both worked and how the policies interacted I cannot say. Suffice to say the cost of treatment exceeded the cover so they lost the house. They had two young children at the time so there was some rule that stopped whoever taking the property but it ended up very heavily mortgaged. In the end he had to hand the keys to the mortgage company and walk away with nothing.
 
That is very sad @covknit and makes me so relieved that I had the wonderful NHS to sort out my cancer. I was diagnosed with the most aggressive form of breast cancer there is, caught very early because of our essential National Screening Service. Within 3 weeks of diagnosis, including Christmas and New Year, I had surgery to remove the cancer. The oncologist said my tumour was all out and in a jar in the lab, but as a belt and braces exercise I was given 6 sessions of chemo plus a very expensive infusion drug called Herceptin. I had 6 infusions of chemo plus 18 infusions of Herceptin over 12 months. In the midst of that I had 15 sessions of radiotherapy. Throughout all that time, and ever since, I have been monitored by the oncologist and also the surgeon. My treatment also included 4 ultrasound heart scans (cautionary, due to the Herceptin being hard on the heart), and when I mentioned to the oncologist that I was experiencing a few intermittent twinges in my head, I was immediately sent upstairs for a brain CT scan. (They actually found my brain!). After my first chemo infusion I was unlucky enough to have neutropenia (lack of life essential neutrophils in the white blood cells) and was immediately sent to hospital, by-passing A&E and straight to the Medical Assessment Unit where I spent 4 days having IV antibiotics in a side room that was partially barrier nursed to avoid infection.

I will continue to have annual mammograms rather than the normal 3 yearly ones, although the oncologist has now discharged me. If I suspect anything amiss that could be secondary tumours I will go straight back on their books without reference to the GP and have any other treatment appropriate. So far, so good. 4 years clear.

How fortunate I was in the UK under NHS care.
 
donnellysdogs said:
Things have moved on since PCT's.... CCG's are so different and people do not realise that each CCG is able to differentiate and make up different rules and availability of drugs and meds.
We had it for years with some being able to get pumps fairly easy and some having to fight.
But it even comes down to drugs. I need lidocaine patches for pain on chest from being thin and eadiotherapy and muscle damage from 1st mastectomy. Some CCGs fund and mine doesnt. I have to pay £109 for 30 days if I buy through Lloyds.
Then you have healthwatch as a business ... really??? What do they really do? Some of their annual reports are dire to read for actual achievements.. again who funds Healthwatch?
Meds, care, NHS etc is just a business being pretty poorly managed with top heavy management.. everybody needs it at some point and it is just a business...
Click to expand...
Yes. Beware when you hear administrators talking about customers and NOT patients.
 
covknit said:
Interesting article by George Monbiot in the Guardian. I picked it up today but it maybe a few days old. Offtopic and slightly not to most peoples taste so I will not look for link. I think you may find it informative though.
Back to healthcare with the American slant. My sister in law was American and died of cancer nearly 2 years after diagnosis. They were fortunate in that it was covered by the insurance policies. They both worked and how the policies interacted I cannot say. Suffice to say the cost of treatment exceeded the cover so they lost the house. They had two young children at the time so there was some rule that stopped whoever taking the property but it ended up very heavily mortgaged. In the end he had to hand the keys to the mortgage company and walk away with nothing.
Click to expand...
Yes. Crippling health care costs in the US and here too before the NHS. David Blanchflower tweeted earlier "30 million got health insurance under Obamacare & these heartless evil GOP want to take it away from them...just heard a GOP congressman doctor say that people do not have a right to health care even though he has it - seems evil to me". Sums up the attitude.
 
My step niece also just had £80k biill for brain tumour op.. in US. Healthcare not cover it all. Relatives paying... thats without any further treatment that may be necessary..
 
Re cancer treatment. I found myself the other month at a high-falutin' dinner talking to one of the country's top oncologists (who must have been wondering what on earth I was doing there) -- a really impressive and inspiring man who emphasized over and over again that Cancer Research UK is the very best health charity in existence and has been absolutely indispensable for all developments in cancer research and treatment in the UK. Unlike drug companies it is scrupulously ethical and long-term in its funding strategies. I switched my charitable giving right away and would urge everyone to do the same. As NHS funding becomes more problematic and short-term, it is these independent charities that will have an increasingly vital role to play.
 
donnellysdogs said:
Things have moved on since PCT's.... CCG's are so different and people do not realise that each CCG is able to differentiate and make up different rules and availability of drugs and meds.
We had it for years with some being able to get pumps fairly easy and some having to fight.
But it even comes down to drugs. I need lidocaine patches for pain on chest from being thin and eadiotherapy and muscle damage from 1st mastectomy. Some CCGs fund and mine doesnt. I have to pay £109 for 30 days if I buy through Lloyds.
Then you have healthwatch as a business ... really??? What do they really do? Some of their annual reports are dire to read for actual achievements.. again who funds Healthwatch?
Meds, care, NHS etc is just a business being pretty poorly managed with top heavy management.. everybody needs it at some point and it is just a business...
Click to expand...
Just like I said. Its a postcode lottery. To this extent the NHS ias already privatized. I am so sorry that you can't get the care you need. Yes there are too many BUSINESSES involved already. The whole thing needs to be re nationalised in my opinion then we would all get the same care regardless of CCG's Its a national scandal not a national health service. As for top heavy management you have hit the nail on the head. I do not think that throwing money at the NHS will ever be effective as it all seems to go to the finance departments of hospitals and never reaches the front line of patient care. The whole business of how it is run needs to be reorganized starting with slicing off the fat cats at the top
 
Nothing but praise from me a little underfunded and very badly abused But its there when you need it most
 
For those of you for whom it is working I am pleased for you. That is how it should work and it would be nice if it did that nationally. In my area the hospital got a cash injection and a senior doctor told me that the offices all had new computers and carpets although there was not much difference in his workload or waiting list. My own area does not instill me with faith
 
I'd like to add a post-script to everything I said here.

It's been more than 4 weeks since I went for an investigative X-ray that would, hopefully, reveal why I'm losing mobility so quickly. We're not talking "I can't be bothered" to walk, but that I actually can't at all. Since that X-ray, I've found myself stuck in the bath, I've required the assistance of 2 people to get to my feet, and I'm now crying out in pain every single time I stand up.

Yesterday I called my doctor, again to beg for some kind of concern and action, and she was surprised to learn that I've already been for an X-Ray because she can find no mention of it in my records.

This would be because no-one has bothered to put it under the nose of a consultant for examination and report yet.

The NHS may be wonderful for cancer and heart disease (and I'm truly delighted that it is - congrats to all survivors <3) but it's far less concerned about anything that isn't immediately life-threatening.
 
nebraska_beauty said:
For those of you for whom it is working I am pleased for you. That is how it should work and it would be nice if it did that nationally. In my area the hospital got a cash injection and a senior doctor told me that the offices all had new computers and carpets although there was not much difference in his workload or waiting list. My own area does not instill me with faith
Click to expand...
I can understand new computers new computer=new operating system=better malware protection.
But new carpets?

Ah thinking about it health and safety wouldn't want some one tripping over on thread bare carpet would we.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top