IS THIS WHAT YOU VOTED FOR

[poledark]

I, and my wife, and 2 of my sons. and all my grandchildren, and several of my friends and their fanilies, have used the NHS, and the service and treatment has been first class. I also have no doubt that if any of you doubters were to be taken ill then you would also get first class treatment.

 

What I and many others like me fear, is that the NHS will start to get selective and little changes like part payment for certain parts of the service will gradually be introduced. All we want is to be able to continue to rely on being seen by a doctor and sent to hospital if needed, without any financial considerations.

 

A gov't which can even attack the OAP pension allowances is not one I would trust.

 

Den

[Sportsman]

The problem is Den that most people assume they receive first class treatment because they are unaware (quite rightly) just what treatment they should receive.

I qualified as a State Registered Nurse in 1969 and worked in the NHS as a staff nurse / charge nurse and nursing officer so I have a good idea about standards of care that may be expected.

More recently I have been a patient on several occasions and have been in the unfortunate position of being on the receiving end of slap dash attitudes and incompetent practices from GPs, Junior hospital Drs, Ambulance crews, Nurses and out patient department staff.

I could spend the rest of the day quoting chapter and verse and to be honest many of the occurrences would not be obvious to someone without my knowledge and background. Suffice to say that the fact that I am still able to walk or even possibly breathe is despite the care I received from a large proportion of NHS staff. I will however state that the three Consultant surgeons involved in my care recently were uniformly brilliant.

[Ken L]

It always makes me laugh that there appear to be two types of Americans.

Those that see the NHS and similar systems as vile socialist control of the medical choices available to the public.

and those that have actually had cause to use such systems in an emergency.

[chesters1]

i think i would prefer a mediocre system i can afford than a top class one i cannot

[grumpybum]

A lot depends on which hospital, unfortunately. My wife suffers with several medical complaints. So we have experienced the best and worst. In the last year she had to have a MRI scan we explained that she couldnt lie on her back so after several phone calls and being accused of being awkward they refused to do it. Cue the next hospital after a 5 min discussion no problem.

 

My wife needed a scan by camera both ends. The hospital gave her an enema pack which contains eggs. To which shes allergic. The out come we are not doing it your being awkward. Cue the next hospital, thats not a problem scans carried out.

[Sportsman]

There is an old saying that you get what you pay for, or in the case of the NHS you might get what you pay for.

It costs the taxpayer well in excess of 100 billion pounds a year and just doesn't deliver value for money.

[chesters1]

they are getting crafty ,one year they insisted my mrs had a scan at chertsey which is a fair hike from here never mind at 9 am when the appointment was.

i phoned them up asking for it to be done at frimley park (this was frimley park telling us to go to chertsey) sorry she said chertsey is the only place that does it!

 

i said she was telling lies and could we have it at the royal surrey where she had had the scan before ,a minute later she confirmed not only did they do the scan the appointment could be had before the chertsey one

 

half the problem is they will not talk to each other ,when my prostrate problem began i was having tests done at two hospitals under two consultants and in this case to get the notes from frimley (i preferred the royal surrey its easier to get to) i had to pay £10 (which my doctor refunded) to get my notes from frimley as they refused to send them to the royal surrey ,so i got them gave them to my doctor who passed them onto the royal surrey !

 

my mrs is high risk for getting colon cancer and she has pipe up the poopa every three years ,this year the appointment was for last month which was then moved to the end of this one ,now a letter has appeared cancelling until further notice the appointment because the criteria are changing

i think i would prefer a 3 year growth if the dreaded thing took hold than a 4 or 5 year one whatever the discomfort in having over frequent investigations

Edited March 22, 2012 by chesters1

[Ken L]

It costs the taxpayer well in excess of 100 billion pounds a year and just doesn't deliver value for money.

 

No doubt it could be better but the US system is massively more expensive as a proportion of GDP because so many people have their fingers in the pie.

[DavyR]

No doubt it could be better but the US system is massively more expensive as a proportion of GDP because so many people have their fingers in the pie.

 

Exactly right, Ken. It was the introduction of US-style methods by the Thatcher government in 1982 that was responsible for the current huge expenditure on management. New Labour carried on with the same policies, but reversing them by the time they got in would have been even more expensive than carrying on digging the same hole.

[chesters1]

most to blame was labours ballooning private enterprise scheme where the tax payer doesnt stump up for the hospital but is screwed for the rest of its life renting it ,even if the cons wanted to ditch it the clauses labour excepted would ruin the country trying to get out of them ,the cons started it but if labour thought it so bad why did it avalanche in their time?

 

http://www.bma.org.uk/press_centre/pressnh...sp#.T2s1p9Wa8T8

 

i saw somewhere it cost £400 to replace a wall socket ,whether its true i dont know

but it must cost a fortune printing "please take a seat" in 28 languages i spotted at one hospital

Edited March 22, 2012 by chesters1