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

As previously pointed out, on 30K a year you get more from the government than you contribute. And surely the size of your credit card bill from private health care shows you just how expensive healthcare is? The NHS system means people have no idea of the true costs of healthcare.

Private health care won't usually cover pre-existing conditions so she could take it out but anything she's had problems with before will be excluded.

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

It would be wrong of me to call you a liar, but I do not believe that for one moment.

HPV is linked to 99% of cervical cancer. It is a more sensitive and specific screening test than examining cells.

There aren't 9 million unemployed - that's a made up statistic.

Anyway the main cause of unemployment is long term sickness, largely due to inadequate health care! All those people waiting 2 years for treatment will probably never get back to full health.

Well obviously it's not free. It might be tax payer funded

My mother was told by doctors to go back to her home country when she has suspected cancer, because she would get treated more quickly. That was in 1978. I don't know why we are kidding ourselves that the NHS is better than anywhere else in the western world. It's about the worst example of a universal healthcare system anywhere in the world. The fact that it's "free" (it isn't) doesn't excuse it.

There was a woman on the radio recently who had to sell her house to fund private treatment in her heart as she could have died whilst waiting for an operation on the NHS. These stories are common now. My oncologist friend says ‘don’t get cancer’ as the waiting times are so long people’s cancers become terminal.

We have an increasingly two tier health service as everyone who can go private does.

Well it is definitely one of the worst performing especially for cancer but think it is funded somewhere in the middle. The model doesn't work that has been clear for years (was clear to me when I was am NHS accountant in early 2000s). And I agree with @cuttysarcasm that there are too many taking out and not enough contributing (that goes did the whole system). All made massively worse by the Covid response.

@CornflowerSky

It's one of the best-funded health services in the world and yet one of the worst performing. Pouring more money into it is only making it worse. It needs to go.

This is utterly false. Please check your facts before spouting such damaging untruths

It's the system not the staff. I say that as an NHS worker.
The NHS is chronically under funded and is on it's knees.
Much much more needs to be invested or we really will all be paying for health care and the we're all screwed

Okay but others aren’t having a wonderful time as you said so we’re going to complain about that. If that’s running it down then so be it. You’re allowed to dismiss op with talk of health anxiety but people who have had awful nhs treatment (or lack there of) We mustn’t talk about it 🙄

It's not the same for everyone as a previous poster said her and her daughter wouldn't be alive without it. Me included. So no I do t want to run it down I'm thankful for it.

If it wasn't for the NHS neither me nor my daughter would be sitting on the sofa right now, for different reasons. Thank goodness we have it, though it is chronically underfunded.

Who is giving patients a smear every year and who is paying for that? Is it the patient that pays or an insurance company or is it free?

. The doctor would send you for the test if they thought you had cancer. You won't have. Your choice to waste the money. Maybe you have health anxiety you need help for.
I hate this maybe you have health anxiety bs and the dr is always right, the drs won’t always send you for a test, I’ve posted about it (it was dismissed as health anxiety) others have posted about it in this thread, someone posted about their dil having to go private to get their brain tumour diagnosed, I had to go private to get my cancer diagnosed. You’re lucky that you haven’t had to deal with shit in the nhs, it exists, we’re allowed to talk about it and “run it down” if it’s being shit.

If it made economic sense it would be done that way. As it happens the HPV test as first line is more sensitive (I.e. will pick up more cases than a ‘proper smear’) so catches more cases. I believe cases are more likely to be caught at an earlier stage as well.

You're only in the position to come out with your sanctimonious clap trap because by your own admission, you've never had a problem with the NHS. You've been incredibly fortunate. The rest of us can see it for what it is which is incompetent and outdated.

You have no choice but to pay tax. Why do t you get private health care if you're not happy. I've never had a problem with the nhs and hate it when people run it down. The doctor would send you for the test if they thought you had cancer. You won't have. Your choice to waste the money. Maybe you have health anxiety you need help for.

This! In France you have a smear test every year even without precedent. For the NHS it would be cheaper to detect cancers early because radiotherapy is expensive. So even from an economical standpoint it makes sense to have free smears once a year..

Oh forgot to say. I put in a formal complaint listing my symptoms what these could be and that I was being refused the needed test for it. I demand led they put in writing to me that with all my symptoms they would not do the test. They then did the test. Make the consultant put in writing they are refusing despite you having symptoms once faced with this they may baulk.

You also have a right to ask for a second opinion. I never would have done this but I had one consultant write up all sorts of incorrect shit after an appointment of waited months for after multiple referrals round the different departments. I phoned the secretary in tears and she got me seen my different dr within a couple weeks who at least write up my symptoms correctly. Definitely try calling the secretaries they are actually really helpful and amazing people.

Honestly considering leaving the UK at the moment, just had a serious chat with DH about it. Not enough people pay into the NHS, for the amount that use it.

The tax in this country is going to get ridiculous (it’s already pretty bad), to support the 9 million unemployed, no thanks. This country is going bust.

Another thread entirely but starmer is going after the working middle classes, not the old and asset rich, or the billionaires, or trying to get people into work, and we’re going to bloody leave!! Had enough.

I'm with you it's crap op. But I couldn't loose it. Due to being dismissed and not taken seriously I now have life long disability. What I have is degenerative, it can be slowed not improved. They wouldn't look at me or test until I've lost bladder function, grip strength, I fall over frequently shit myself. Im a fucking state and now will need the NHS and the care system for the rest of my life to a much larger degree than if I'd got the treatment I needed 3 years earlier when I first presented with it.

But I've watched the NHS save my child's life when she had meningitis they moved so fast. I was unsure if I should take her in or not and if I'd of had to pay for that trip I would have waited a few hours longer and lost her

In France you’ll get an HPV test every 5 years rather than every 3 I think. I don’t think they do ‘proper smears’ over the age of 30.

The NHS screening guidelines for asymptomatic women are fine. It’s in line with European and other international guidelines. The OP’s issue is that she isn’t asymptomatic so what she needs is an urgent gynae referral not a screening.

If I’m reading the OP right, the GP did refer to gynae and the gynae asked for a colonoscopy. It’s the colposcopy that got refused and that probably is worth bringing up with PALS.

Most people have had a good experience of the NHS, but they usually have a terrible experience too. I nearly died when my condition wasn't picked up, despite numerous visits to the Dr. The stuff I hear about is incredibly worrying. I'd be happy with a German type system.