To wish I could stop paying into the utterly broken NHS black hole

She wants the NHS now. But yes, great, we can always find something much worse to compare it to if we really want to. Always see the positives & all that.

OP, I hear you and often feel the same.

The one time I've needed the NHS - despite paying 30+ years of tax - it wasn't there for me. In fact, not only were the staff not there for me, they made my condition worse to the point where I very nearly died in their 'care'. Luckily, my health insurance enabled me to be admitted to a private hospital which saved my life.

I would frankly rather pay double into a PHC plan than pay towards the NHS. There I said it.

A weeks wages every month towards the NHS - slight exaggeration dobt you think?🙄

You're misquoting the process. It's for those in receipt of a letter inviting them for a screen. OP hasn't received a letter.

I get what everyone is saying, but it's important public health screening policy is based on evidence. Otherwise we'd all be having full body MRI's every year.

But in the UK the HPV test is a pap smear, they just don't bother looking at the cells if HPV negative. So an unnecessarily invasive test for women, and just as labour intensive. May as well just look at the cells if you have them.

No gyn professional has been able to adequately answer this for me - if you have HPV infection and abnormal cells at 30, then biopsy (fine) and then HPV negative a year later, what's to stop the cells becoming abnormal again without another HPV infection/activation? I could test negative for HPV on smear but have abnormal cells, in theory?

you're being unreasonable and incredibly short sighted

I'm sure the NHS has provided lots of services for you and your wider family.

Having had a couple of things over the last two years I can understand why you are so angry. Some of the treatment I have had had been excellent, some has been frankly rubbish. The rubbish part was so scary. I felt that there was absolutely no one who would help me. I joined BUPA but I don't have young kids and can just about afford it. It's for peace of mind more than anything else. The NHS is in a very bad state and I think we need different thinking across the whole system from social care so people can leave hospital when they are well enough to be discharged to GP access. I do hope that things improve for you. I am crossing my fingers.

I understand that the NHS sometimes fails. I think OP’s story is an example.

but the NHS is often incredible for acute care, it is one of the cheapest systems there is. We have a lot of old people, a lot of unhealthy people and not much cash.

I hate the way it’s seeming to be briefed against. Also, looking at other privatised industries doesn’t make me feel full of confidence.

I had a baby in the Us on private care - I really, really prefer the NHS model. I hope we find a way of re-forming it

A smear test is a screening test designed for asymptomatic women, it was the right decision not to offer you one when you presented with symptoms (and a waste of money paying for one privately). You should have been referred to gynae/colposcopy clinic, that’s the correct pathway for women presenting with symptoms of possible cervical cancer.

However it sounds like you WERE referred and seen by a gynaecologist and they don’t feel colposcopy is appropriate in your case, but you’re not happy with this response.

Have you considered going through PALS in the first instance to ask for a second opinion and/or get further clarity on why they don’t think colposcopy is necessary? Or even book a consultation with a private gynaecologist for further advice? That would be significantly cheaper than going straight to paying for an expensive invasive test that may not even be helpful.

It helps with easing her delusion that she pays 25 percent to the NHS.
Her treatment and diagnosis delay is one thing but to say you pay a week's NHS wages, really!

But this is because we have an NHS, and aren't set up for acute private treatment..? If we moved to a private/insurance model your A&Es, ICUs etc would be private and staffed by (current) NHS staff. It's not comparable to the current private situation which is basically for elective treatment, and diagnosis.

So much contempt for people just trying to get medical treatment - and you claim to be a nurse. no wonder the NHS is in this state if staffed by people with your attitude. You may have been lucky enough to get appropriate treatment but many others aren't, hence this thread.

Most people go private after having been driven to desperation - after weeks and months of waiting. They're not Kate Middleton, wanting to give birth in a private wing in the Lindo hospital in utmost comfort.
They're sick people, suffering and in pain, just wanting treatment to get on with their daily lives.

What exactly do you expect people to do?

FYI I'm sure you know this but while private isn't everything most consultants also work for the NHS. And many times refer the patient back to their 'day'job, going privately just allows people to skip the queue.

Very few people go 100% private for everything.

And that comment is supposed to help the OP how exactly?

A Pap smear will pick up 50-80% CC cases, takes longer to get the results and is more labour intensive.
The HPV test picks up around 95% of cases.

The world health organisation recommends screening should be an HPV test every 5 years. The European Cancer Agency the same. The NHS guidelines go beyond that by having a higher frequency of 3 yearly testing.

This. You don’t pay a week’s wages in tax overall, let alone for the NHS.

I’m really confused now. On a salary of £30,000, you are paying £116 a month in national insurance. Where is the 25% coming from?

Even if you add in tax contributions of £290 (which don’t (all) go on the NHS), then that’s a total of £450 a month being taken from a £2,500 salary. That’s 18%.

Every month I pay out about a weeks worth of wages in tax towards the NHS

Really? Since when was NI 25%? I thought the Tories cut it twice and it’s now 8%?

😂you earn less than £30k - do you really think your puny taxed income makes a difference to the NH?!!!
As someone else said the 2 kids you have, you wouldn't be able to pay the cost of that if you had 10 lifetimes on your salary.

Agreed. But it's often that or nothing so I understand why people opt for it when they can.

Also to add the posters lording it about private healthcare - ive seen many times that go wrong and get blue lighted to NHS acute trusts to clear up the mess that’s been made. Private isn’t all it’s cracked up to be

Free at the point of use would have been better phrasing.

yaNBU that the NHS is broken but be glad you’re not in America- you’d be in even more debt even with insurance most likely. I say this as someone who’s had a year of free (and mostly excellent) cancer treatment over last year and has 2 children under 6. I am also a nurse. It is not the nurses and drs who broke it. Blame the years of conservative rule, lack of investment, poor pandemic planning, brexit reducing staff from overseas, the list goes on

I’m sorry you’re having a hard time and of course you are frightened. The uncertainty is crippling,
you are also right it can be tricky to get past GPs who deal in probabilities to pay for tests.
I really hope your mind is put at ease soon and you can pay off the money asap. Definitely speak to your MP - but make sure your anger is directed at the right people.

I have had several experiences with the NHS over the past 2 or 3 years and am frankly astonished that my family members are still with us. Not because the nursing care was poor, but because the NHS is the most poorly managed organisation I have ever come across. Schedules are unclear and constantly changing. No-one appears to talk to anyone else, so no-one seems to know what is going on. Activities got missed, information from scans got lost, doctors repeated checks and then left them incomplete. The processes are wholly inadequate , numerous and conflicting. It is absolute chaos.

Throwing money at it, without any clear plan to resolve it, is just throwing money into a black hole. It needs a complete overhaul and a VERY brave person to oversee it. My personal opinion is that it needs to broken up into manageable chunks, before we have any chance of getting to the root of the problem. We need to simplify the processes so that they are properly understood by everyone and actually used.

There's some misunderstanding here. Smear tests are not suitable for people with symptoms. Arguably the private service should have explained this to you instead of taking your money for an inappropriate and pointless procedure. You should be referred to a gynaecologist instead. Which you were by your GP. The fact that they refused to investigate further is the problem. Nothing to do with your GP practice or refusal to do a smear.

Also how does your NHS gynaecologist know you don't have HPV? Or have cell changes? Are they going off your private smear, which you say they refuse to acknowledge?

The story makes no sense. If you are symptomatic they don't do a smear and shouldn't be considering results of a smear when deciding what action to take. Go back and ask them to explain it again. Ask them to put it in writing that your symptoms are not consistent with recurrence of cervical cancer

YANBU. net contributor or not, the changes to smear tests are shameful. too many women will now slip through. the whole thing is a mess. I had debilitating pgp during pregnancy. it's been 18 months and still not seen a post partum nhs physio or gynaecologist (referral nearly a year ago for the latter). paid for physio, with the help of insurance. made no difference. nothing they can do in the meantime. what do I do, stay off work and claim pip?! the failed nhs costs so much more than our health. People cannot work because of waiting lists.