Imagine life without the NHS?

No NHS. The death rate and quality of life for very sick and disabled will be unbearable. For too many years the NHS has been abused by many people from abroad coming here for treatment, people not turning up for appointments it all has to be paid for. There has been too many managers and not enough ground staff. The benefit system will go as more will apply and it becomes unworkable, so the only people ok will be the wealthy and people with private health care. It's the most valuable thing thus country has and it's going, already doctors choose where they practise, not in run down areas but where their children will be educated properly and they have the amenities they desire. It's already fast becoming the haves and have nots, the gaps widening.

happycatholicwife1

When you're poor and middle-aged, you don't go to Medicare in the US, unless you are on disability; if you're not disabled, you go to Medicaid. When my husband received a very serious cancer diagnosis, the chemotherapy would have been $144,000 a year. The doctor gave me the name of a company which gives grants for very expensive health treatments and my husband wound up getting a grant which has taken care of all of his chemo needs. There are very many scary situations out there, but there are also very many solutions out there for ill people. Since people don't share as many of these stories as they do the shocking ones, I thought I would add something hopeful.

I’m pleased your husband received a grant, but there is nothing hopeful (or equitable) about a system in which healthcare depends on charity.

Health

Elizabeth27 Your post is a while ago. But you are correct, people’s idea of the heath system in the USA is much misguided.

RichmondPark1

I adore Bill Bryson. He said he wished Britain would stop focusing on economic growth and just concentrate on making life wonderful for everyone. I agree.

This morning I called into my GP surgery as I have a changing mole on my arm. The receptionist said there had been a cancellation and I could see the clinical practitioner immediately. He was kindness itself, examined me, took photos, mailed my details to the local dermatology unit and said I would hear back within a week. Just amazing, especially on the busy morning after a bank holiday weekend. The NHS is phenomenal. I can't imagine life without it.

I adore him too. In fact I was only thinking about him today and wondering what he was thinking about the state the countries in at the moment. Someone whose books used to make me look at my own country and think how lucky I was to live here.

When you're poor and middle-aged, you don't go to Medicare in the US, unless you are on disability; if you're not disabled, you go to Medicaid. When my husband received a very serious cancer diagnosis, the chemotherapy would have been $144,000 a year. The doctor gave me the name of a company which gives grants for very expensive health treatments and my husband wound up getting a grant which has taken care of all of his chemo needs. There are very many scary situations out there, but there are also very many solutions out there for ill people. Since people don't share as many of these stories as they do the shocking ones, I thought I would add something hopeful.

Some very subjective stories here which is understandable but for every bad experience I am sure there are many more good.
You get bad doctors in the private sector too
My DiL left her job in a NHS hospital (she's a senior nurse) to work nearer to her home, in a new private hospital.
She found the bad practices so distressing - patients did not come first - that after a few months she begged for her old job back which luckily, although it had been filled, a new job was created for her.
God help us if we follow the US down the private route.

Chatting to a hotel manager in USA, he was disbelieving that it only cost £1.80 per day (Car parking for partner) This was for open heart surgery including medication etc. He had had to pay $1,500 even with insurance when his daughter broke her leg
I will fight to keep the NHS within the public domain

It is a bottomless pit where money is concerned.

It isn't.

Funding reached a high point in the last years of the last Labour government. Since then, over the past 12 years, it has been cut back heavily in real terms by successive tory governments. If were to be properly funded, with some investment into updating its IT, it would work far better.

sorry OPD

Callistemon21

MaizieD

I'll get on my hobby horse and remind you, again, that taxation doesn't fund spending and that state investment in the NHS is probably better for the domestic economy than a privatised service as no money is taken out of the economy by the way of profit.

And, while we're at it, the current dire state of the NHS is entirely due to tory governments since 2010 cutting its funding on ideological grounds.

I know that I'm incredibly thick but I do understand borrowing, quantitative easing etc but I still don't understand why, if spending s not funded by taxes, we pay any kind of tax at all.

When I was a nurse in OPS we had many patients who had moved to Europe. They used to hop on a cheap flight home have their consultation and fly back. I often heard these patients talking to each other in the waiting room about their flights. They may be finding this a bit more difficult these days!

Like Countess Fosco I also lived in the EU for 25 years...in Spain and then in France. The healthcare in France was exceptional ..you get what you pay for...my friends still there have had NO operations, care, etc cancelled because of COVID ...doctors have seen people face to face throughout (a little different...you are asked to turn up AT your appointed time and not before...I had very expensive treatment for cancer, my late husband had everything he required for Parkinsons, dementia and cancer .including a prescription for a riser recliner chair that cost 900 euros ! Taxis to appointments were free of charge ....the mutuelle insurance (a 3 tier system you can pay basic, upgrade, or highest level which covers consultations etc as well !) for my husband and I we paid just over 180 euros a month and received excellent immediate care. Here, since I returned, I had to pay over £2,000 for a private MRI scan as the NHS wait list was 16 months, and it was urgent ! plus £200 each time to see a private doctor ...now waiting for eye treatment which I will not see the specialist for until God knows when ! I may be forced to either lose my sight or go private again ........and to those who say it is unfair and unjust and 'all very well for those who can afford it'..........no it isn't ...most of us struggle to afford it and go without other things like holidays, new clothes, etc ..PLUS it releases a place on the NHS waiting list for someone else !!! how can that be wrong ! I think we should pay, like we did in France, 25 euros per visit (all but 2 euros is refunded by the CPAM (French health insurance)...also might stop non shows at appointments ! There is ONLY so much the NHS can afford ...people are living longer and new treatments are keeping us alive for longer ......but the government actuaries were unprepared for this, and the NHS underfunded for so long (I worked in a hospital before I left to live in the EU) so could see the wastage ...top heave management, PAYING for translators (in Spain there was a notice on my doctor's wall 'IF YOU DO NOT SPEAK FLUENT SPANISH YOU MUST PROVIDE YOUR OWN INTERPRETOR ..QUITE RIGHT !!! cost me 20 euros for the interpretor, plus travelling time, plus a coffee to explain what my appointment was for (it was a simple follow up to a mammogram (which I could understand myself !) so I think we should all pay more than the NI contributions ....after all, any incomer to this country gets it all for NOTHING ...care, heat, food, money .....whereas this winter many will probably die due to the cold, heating, lighting and food being unaffordable ......this government has a lot to answer for .euthanasia by another name whilst refusing those who wish for it, an end of life choice (my own MP said she could not support this, as 'there is excellent palliative and end of life care available;.IF ONLY this were true ! No country for old men (or women !_ or anyone in need

I belong to an international diabetes site and have lost count of the number of Americans who can't afford the medication they need. I now also belong to a breast cancer group. Some Americans are in awe of the treatment I'm having. Even though they are insured, the insurance companies just wouldn't pay for all the scans I've had. I've also had a heart attack and had a stent fitted within an hour of ringing 999. Thank you, NHS!

Beautful

I have private medical insurance , have for years ... saying that it does cost ... used it a few times ... NHS ... I am not rich far from rich, but would willingly pay into it, out of my pension to keep it. I think it is wonderful to know people can get treated, without worrying about the cost, although some could pop to the chemist to ask for advice , even cheap medication. Years ago when I went to the doctors told me the medication was cheaper over the counter. I know people who have medication delivered regularly, but don't need it as already have loads , people should just contact chemist & say , as this takes a lot of wasted money , especially if free ... my opinion ... KEEP THE NHS

Private health insurance is fine for things like planned surgery but useless if you need dialysis, cancer treatment or have a chronic condition. If you become very unwell post surgery in a private hospital and need intensive care you'll be transferred to an NHS hospital. Many years ago Emma Nicholas, an MP in Devon raised this after her husband ended up in an NHS ICU after routine surgery in a private hospital.

If it is every completely privatised what I will do is crowdfund for treatment. There are alot of wealthy people still in this country so I would put it on facebook and let them pay for it. Lots of people already do that and quite often it gets support.

I adore Bill Bryson. He said he wished Britain would stop focusing on economic growth and just concentrate on making life wonderful for everyone. I agree.

This morning I called into my GP surgery as I have a changing mole on my arm. The receptionist said there had been a cancellation and I could see the clinical practitioner immediately. He was kindness itself, examined me, took photos, mailed my details to the local dermatology unit and said I would hear back within a week. Just amazing, especially on the busy morning after a bank holiday weekend. The NHS is phenomenal. I can't imagine life without it.

Rosina

In one of his many books, Bill Bryson commented that the US is a county that doesn't see anything wrong in sending a child home to die because its father has run out of money.

Yes, I read his comment, too.

He thought we were more civilised and compassionate with our socialised (as the Americans call it) healthcare system and it is one of the many things he admired about our nation.

Fleurpepper

sorry to hear you've been through the mill elaine, but please

''I knew that already.''

How could you possibly know that?

And why would a privatised health system find out the problem any quicker?

sorry to hear you've been through the mill elaine, but please

''I knew that already.''

How could you possibly know that?

In one of his many books, Bill Bryson commented that the US is a county that doesn't see anything wrong in sending a child home to die because its father has run out of money.

Well the NHS has let me down for decades, inferring psychosyomatic illness when in fact it was brucellosis, with incompetent GP's and various departments including not x-raying my back after a fall with severe osteoporosis recorded and for 13 months suffering from "unexplained back pain" which was a compression fracture. Then "above the normal range, to be expected" for 4 years with hyperparathyroidism so I had to pay £11k three days before lockdown in 2020 for a operation. It is only now when I am old and past it that have a wonderful consultant who has ordered many tests and MRI within 6 months and confirmed peripheral neuropathy which "quite possibly was caused by the covid vaccine. I knew that already. I wouldn't be sorry to see it privatised.

Bijou

I was born in 1923. The doctor would visit any time day or night. Visit to surgery was half a crown. Two shillings and sixpence.
My daughter was born early 1947 in St George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner (now a hotel) Bill for ten days was six guineas (six pounds and six shillings)
In. 1984 we were in France when my husband was unwell. Went to village doctor and he advised seeing specialist in nearby town. Went next day and after examination diagnosed stomach cancer. Back same day to doctor who booked hospital for following day. Five days later my husband had operation and he was in hospital for four weeks. There was no cost for us because we were in the EU.

Goodness Bijou, I wonder if you are the doyenne of GN.

Anyone here born before 1923?

Well done you.

Elizabeth27

Over 90% of American citizens have health insurance, either employer or state paid. There will be some that fall through the net but it is available to all.

There are many countries without the NHS that cope very well.

The health insurance does not cover everything by any means. For example, it doesn't cover taking you to hospital unless you are in danger of dying. My friend fell in the street, broke her leg and had to call for an Uber to take her to Emergency - using an ambulance would have cost her up to $3000: she is fully insured. As for state paid ... that is a joke. Another friend without insurance (unaffordable) had cancer diagnosed and was only allowed free medical care to cover immediate issues - didn't cover any scans, or on-going treatment, or chemo! We take our NHS for granted and we are sleepwalking into the American system at present with so much coming under private American companies.

At the risk of causing a backlash, the NHS is an organisation which requires a complete overhaul. It doesn't seem fit for purpose due to consecutive governments imposing impossible targets and expectations. It is a bottomless pit where money is concerned. No amount will be enough. The more money thrown at the NHS will just be swallowed up. Administration and targets seem to have overtaken the care and treatment of patients. I stand in awe of the drs and nurses that work for the NHS. However it is well passed due the time we as a country had a calm, honest debate on the NHS and its future. It cannot continue this way.

Five years ago I was in great pain with crack in the base of spine caused by radiotheraphy for cancer. It was seven hours agony waiting for the ambulance.
Recently I had a fall and had to wait four hours for ambulance then twenty six miles over bumpy roads to A and E . Two hours in the ambulance queue outside the hospital. Then all night before being seen. Fortunately I wasn’t seriously hurt,