To be so glad we have the NHS.

[Manchesterhistorygirl]

Well am I?

Background: ds2 was fine yesterday, not ill at all. He went of to bed happy as larry, but woke at about 8:30 ish screaming and burning up with a nasty pinprick rash and rolling eyes, cold hands, feet, etc. called ooh who said 999 immediately. We were at hospital by 9:30 after a ride in the ambulance and home by midnight after he came round and seemed fine again, sent home with high dose call pol and Brufen to keep his temperature under control.

He's doing ok now.

So here's to the NHS. Thank you.

[loveliesbleeding1]

No yanbu ive felt this way many times when one of mine have been poorly and its been sorted, glad little ones ok now

[ChairmanWow]

Had a similar experience with DS, who was absolutely burning up. And a night stay when he had severe croup. And I had a night being observed a couple of weeks ago with chest pain on a ward with the loveliest staff ever.

So, so glad it's there. So, so sad it's being gradually dismantled and sold off.

[Berts]

Yes! I was abroad recently and DD had chicken pox. I had to take her to the doctor to get a letter to say she'd broken out in spots on x-date (so she'd be allowed to fly home) and a GP visit was 60 euro!

[flatpackhamster]

Well I think you're BU if you imagine that no other nation has a system which delivers such healthcare.
I'm sure the children of the hundreds of Mid Staffs victims will have a different take on how marvellously wonderfully lovely the NHS is.

[Pobblewhohasnotoes]

One (terrible) incident does not make the whole of the NHS bad.

[Cravingdairy]

YANBU. I hope your DS feels better and makes a speedy recovery.

[ghayes]

The NHS is good but should not be held up as a sacred cow. It is ridiculously inefficient in places, and many people don't care because it's not something they pay for directly.

[Forgetfulmog]

Anyone who has ever had a prem baby in NICU & taken into account the huge amount of care & money that goes into caring for 1 baby, would always be grateful for the NHS. I think they're bloody amazing.

You know what, yes sometimes mistakes happen. Sometimes bad things happen in the nhs, but, in the majority of cases, they provide bloody good, FREE healthcare for everyone.

Did I mention the NHS was free?

In the US, healthcare has to be paid for & there was a recent case in the news whereby a surgeon was performing late term abortions, for money. So, there you go, no system is perfect.

[LadyRabbit]

Free AT POINT OF USE.
So not free at all. It costs us taxpayers' money. Therefore we shouldn't be grateful for it as if it was a gift from our benevolent government. We should expect it to save lives, manage budgets sensibly, not employ overpaid managers who pass the buck shamelessly (à la Stafford) and provide healthcare for whoever needs it. But we should stop lionising it and imagining it is some sacred cow never to be complained about or taken to task. I have had some excellent NHS experiences and some terrible ones. Unfortunately the terrible ones tended to be in more important situations.

[Wibblypiglikesbananas]

As a Brit in the US, I think the NHS is great. It's not perfect, I had my fair share of good, bad and indifferent experiences in the UK but compared with here, it is excellent.

Yes, here you can get great healthcare if you can pay for it, but you're at the mercy of your health insurance provider and the biggest businesses in the US are, yes, you've guessed it, the HCPs. Every 'customer' is in fact a vessel for money to be siphoned off at every single stage of the process.

And don't get me started on calling 911 after witnessing a cyclist knocked off his bike and being put ON HOLD!

[SquinkiesRule]

As another Brit in the US I think for all it's faults the NHS is wonderful.
Most don't appreciate what they have until it's gone. Here it's all based on how much money you have or whether you have good insurance. It's dire for anyone living paycheck to paycheck or poor.

[Longdistance]

Yanbu. My ambulance was $860 Aus when I broke my leg two months ago. I have Bupa health care which we pay for. If I didn't have it, the ambulance would not be covered.

Alleluia to the NHS. The best system as far as I'm concerned. Another reason why I want to come back to the Uk.

[NameThatTuna]

Anyone seen the film Sicko? About the US healthcare system?

I watched that and cried my eyes out.

Yes, our NHS is flawed in some places, and it should be made public when things go wrong, but it doesn't just happen in the UK.

Do people really think our taxes pay for our care throughout our lifetime? After childbirth, emergency surgery, GP visits, broken bones, xrays scan etc I know my taxes haven't covered even a fraction of what I have got out of the NHS.

I am an NHS worker, I've seen good, bad and amazing in the time I have worked on NHS wards.

I'm still thankful we have it.

What I worry about is what is happening to it now. I've seen massive changes due to budget cuts, some of it would make your toes curl. And it is NOT because of poor nursing care. It's all to do with money.

[RevoltingPeasant]

I think the NHS is fantastic in theory and mostly very good in practice.

However it's so subject to how you as a patient feel right then. When I was told last week I will probably have to have yet another major kidney operation which will ultimately extend my life expectancy, i was bloody grateful I didn't have to think about how i'd afford it.

Equally, 2 years ago when another kidney op failed, the total lack of aftercare and alternatives was terrifying - I was turned away by an OOH Gp and instructed not to attend A and E. when I was finally admitted to hospital 12 hours later, I was left for 6 hours in so much pain that I was throwing up before anyone saw me. The consultant was arrogant and rude, I was not given pain relief, the x ray staff did not pass on the scan results to the surgeon so he was all set to go into theatre for a corrective op without having seen the scan, and the pfi catering staff didn't understand what NBM above my bed meant and persistently pressed me to eat in the hours before an op under GA. I felt alone and abandoned and the attitude was that others knew best and I should shut up.

The NHS does some amazing things and I will say that every single nurse I have seen at my local hosp has been wonderful and caring. But there can also be a heads down corporate culture and massive admin errors with real consequences and we should be able to talk about these things.

Because it's not free, we pay for it, it belongs to us - all of us - and that means feeling pride in it but also taking collective responsibility.

[LookingThroughTheFog]

They saved my daughter's life.

Not only did they save my daughter's life on that occasion, but they did so again 3 months later.

At no point have I felt guilty or silly or been made to feel it was a waste of time or money to take her to a GP. I'm so, so pleased that I'm not faced with a bill of £30+ every time I need her to see a doctor. There have been a number of occasions where if I'd dithered about whether I could afford the charge, it would have been too late. Not least on the week where I had to take her three times.

So basically, yes, I'm grateful, and I'm happy for my taxes to be going on it.

[BaconKetchup]

YANBU

[Titsalinabumsquash]

YANBU, 2 out of my 3 children would be dead without the NHS.

[infamouspoo]

its fucking awesome. I have a friend with cancer in the US and no health insurance. We are fundraising for treatment or he will DIE. How awful is that.

[RevoltingPeasant]

Infamous I know a woman whose treatment is effectively being stopped by her consultant. She will also die. That is also tragic. She has dc.

The thing is, so many emotions come into play that it's very hard to discuss the NHS without becoming massively polarised. We are very lucky but that doesn't mean we should be uncritical.

[SorryMyLollipop]

It saved my life last year. Yanbu

[KateCroydon]

This is interesting (honest).

Relative to GDP we spend 40% of what the US does on healthcare: www.oecd.org/unitedkingdom/BriefingNoteUNITEDKINGDOM2012.pdf

And this Commonwealth Fund comparative study of healthcare systems says the NHS ranks highly on 'efficiency and equity':

mobile.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Fund%20Report/2010/Jun/1400_Davis_Mirror_Mirror_on_the_wall_2010.pdf

I do love data.

Of course, that doesn't mean there's not room for improvement.

[MammaTJ]

My DD was very poorly when born, so much so that when the consultant who was sent form another hospital as part of the team who came to collect her was asked by my then 10 year old DD 'Is she going to die?' a question that her parents were too scared to ask he said 'I don't know'. She was taken to this other hospital by a team of 5 people, in a special travel incubator which cost £50,000.

She was looked after in that hospital for a few days, then transfered back to the original one. We were in hospital for a total of a fortnight.

It must have cost a fortune, probably far more than me and my DP have ever paid in to it. DS has had more than his share of hospital care and operations too.

Mid Staffs however, was not just One (terrible) incident though, it was a catalogue of terrible incedents, caused by terrible circumstances. The Francis report makes dire reading. I know, I have read it. One of the most telling phrases in that is point no 34 'However difficult the circumstance, there is no excuse for staff to treat patients in the manner described by some witnesses n the Inquiry. Respect for dignity must be a prority of care and must be at the forefront of clinicians' minds' Anyone who needs telling that should not be in a caring role.

On the whole, I would rather have the wonderful system we do, than be in a country covered by insurance. The insurance in the case of one friend, does not cover her child treatment for ptosis, the same condition my DS has. We get the treatment fully funded here.

[Thereonthestair]

Forgetful, I had a baby in nicu, scbu etc. then children's wards etc. I am profoundly grateful for the NHS, and have walked in those shoes.

However..... I firmly believe that the costs spent on keeping children alive, and saving the lives of children in some cases is misspent. If those children have a 9% chance of surviving with no disability and the NHS can't or won't fund the treatment and care of the rest of the child's life with those disabilities. I personally think we should fund those costs, but when we don't because we and the state can't or won't afford the continuing costs of keeping those people alive with a quality of life it is not always right to save the child.

I realise it's an unpopular opinion, and I love my child deeply. But if you walk in my shoes you know that the pure financial cost of treatment the NHS won't pay for is currently running at £5-£7,000 a year, and that is without the £50,000 bill I know is coming down the tracks for treatment which would be funded anywhere else in Europe or the states. I am lucky, we can afford that, just. But why should treatment depend on my bank balance (which it does), in a free system.

Despite this I actually think the NHS is fantastic, but we need to pay far far more to keep it that way, or understand that a different system is needed sometimes, as we are still left with holes, postcode lotteries and decisions we don't understand.

[heronsfly]

YANBU,
My lovely ds1 would have died after a routine dentist visit if it hadn't been for the NHS.

[infamouspoo]

oh I'm not uncritical RevoltingPesant. DS has spent months in hospital and there have been many fuckups. But I have never ever had to worry about cost. Nor the fact that DS is rather expensive (and yeah, there are people who would see him dead because he is disabled )
I dont have to worry when my elderly mother is sick either.