To hesitate to move back from US to UK because of terrible state of NHS

you are definitely not being unreasonable op. It’s a shit show here and the labour party are awful (as are all the others ). Society is changing, and not for the good

What is fhe reason you want to move back? It’s just perspective and what you want
from life. Yes if you need a&e you may be waiting around in a crowded waiting room foe a bit. But you will still get seen and dealt with for an emergency. If you have private healthcare as well you’ll be absolutely fine.
If you have money youll be ok. Personally everything else about the usa sounds scarier but I dont live there.

Some pharmacies can prescribe antibiotics for certain conditions. There are also out of office GPs and Same Day Emergency Care within hospitals. It’s not just A&E. Although yes broken bones, heart attacks etc have to be A&E. Answering this is probably similar to someone from the UK saying they are worried about shootings if they moved to the US. It’s a risk but depends on whether you feel it is worth it. I do get the impression you would struggle not to worry about it most of the time if you lived here.

The OP doesn’t have any choice other than to sort out private healthcare since they won’t be eligible for the NHS anyway.

Do the seemingly endless mass shootings not worry you?

Its also not universal, I have had the mis fortune to visit A&E twice this past year, only my second and third times, I too am 46

I waited 1.5 hours the first time and only 45 minutes the second to be seen - I can't knock the service at my South West but London commuter zone hospital.

I think the difficulties in the NHS are over egged a bit but we do not live in London or the South East. My husband was diagnosed with cardiac valve failure a few years ago and was in having open heart surgery within the week so if anything urgent there is no waiting lists. I have friends on cancer pathways and hernia issues and all have been seen relatively promptly. My son in law is on a list for hip replacement which is expected to take place shortly. So it is not all bad but it may be regional.

Surely in the US you have to pay for private healthcare so you can always pay for a private health insurance policy here too?

Do you/are you planning on having kids, if so I’d say UK is much better bet… you can send them to school fairly confident they won’t be gunned down in their classrooms which is a massive bonus

Do you have an illness or expect to be ill? In my 30’s it wouldn’t have crossed my mind - rightly or wrongly! However your parent is probably right they probably did receive more timely treatment. In the US your healthcare is private and you can get the same in the UK if you are happy to carry on paying.

My DH would say the same, sadly. He has cancer and it's been a real hard slog, firstly to get a proper diagnosis, and then to organise treatments, consultations, etc. It is indeed an almost daily fight just to get the basics sorted, such as the monthly pre-ordained series of appointments etc for blood tests, two different infusions, collection of drugs, etc. - it's the same pattern every month, but the NHS staff are unable to sort it properly - it's literally "cut and paste" from what happened the previous month, but they just can't do it. Some don't understand that there aren't 4 straight weeks in a month, so that the dates are 28 days afterwards and not the same day of the month. It's as if they've never done it before! One of infusions was temporarily moved from being on a four week pattern to being on a 5 week pattern and it fried their brains trying to work that one out!

I have had use private healthcare in the UK recently because the NHS let me down. Same for my dad, my BIL, my MIL and FIL. My mum was also let down by the NHS recently but didn’t have private healthcare to fall back on so she really suffered, for a long time and in excruciating pain. I wouldn’t come here without sorting health insurance before you even step foot off the plane. It won’t help in an emergency, we’re all at the mercy of A&E for that which is worrying. I was sent to A&E recently by my GP and what I saw there was harrowing. I’d stay in America if I were you.

Where i live (south east near london) we have:

• minor injuries which is walk in and where you'd go with broken bones etc, including on a weekend
• out of hours GP who'd get your antibiotics prescribed for an infection, including evenings and weekends (usually you get referred from 111 etc)
• normal hours GP (can get same day appointment via online system).
• if you had a serious infection (eg sepsis risk etc out of hours then there's A&E

Our local private hospital has its own urgent care department that you can access through private health insurance. London is bound to have similar

Oh yes that’s the other side of US medicine my dc hates.

the over treatment and over medication of heath.

we’ll do x, y and z. Here’s drug a and b. For a common cold you’ll get given a whole pharmacy. Chicken pox is anaesthetic dressings and antivirals.

the idea of “wait and see”, or self care at home seems completely alien. No well we could do an mri, but the treatment would be the same so it’s a waste of time. It’s straight to whole batteries of tests.

being able to demand treatment, even when it’s futile and will worsen quality of life with no increase in outcome.

and don’t get me started on yearly pelvic exams at the age of 18.

overtreatment can actually be counter productive, or even dangerous.

as long as you’re insured, of course.

My experiences op:

• top notch antenatal fetal medicine care
• excellent nicu
• world class picu treatment
• expensive medicine for my daughter's health condition
• plus a couple of surgeries etc

My DD has had care that would cost an absolute fortune in the US.

I live in the outskirts of London and our A and E is awful. The waits are horrendous, the place is packed and the staff are (understandably) grumpy.

The last time I went to A and E , I had injured a knee and couldn't put any weight on it so couldn't walk. I asked the triage nurse where the loo was and she pointed and then said "I'm not taking you and nor is anyone else'" . I then had to hop on one food to get to the loo in front of a packed waiting room - so embarrassing. Then I saw the doctor and he diagnosed a Baker's cyst at the back of my knee without examining it. A few days later; a physio examined it - there was no Baker's cyst.

I complained to PALS in writing. A doctor phoned me up and said that both the nurse and doctor had now followed their training and they would be individually reprimanded plus all the safe would get some extra training as a reminder.

A friend of mine reckons it's quicker to drive to A&E in Norfolk because the wait times are so much shorter.

OP- if the shit really hits the fan, the NHS will look after you but if you have a non life threatening injury, I would expect to be waiting a minimum of 4 hours in my local A and E and it wouldn't surprise me if I had to wait 10 hours.

Friend got a brain tumour. We both know our way around the internet. Concluded the NHS treatment path she was going to be put on was exactly what she would have received at the Mayo clinic so she did not pursue private options. We do not live in London or SE.

You only wait ages in a&e if you basically don't need to be there.

Believe me, go in with a child struggling to breathe, whether its a baby with bad bronchiolitis, or a 5 year old with severe croup, and you get seen pretty damn instantly.

A lot of people in the UK do not understand what "emergency" means.

People don't tell you the good bits only the bad experiences. The key is knowing what service you need and not sitting on problems until they get worse. There are always a few people in A&E who could have been seen by out of hours or minor injuries or by a pharmacist when the issue first started.

Honestly even with all of its faults I'd rather a system like the NHS whereby if I feel poorly I don't need to consider how much this will cost me to sort or even if my policy covers it.

Do you have health issues that make this such a key factor in your decision? People complain loudly about things that go wrong but don't talk so much about what goes well.

I've been to a&e once for myself and several times with family and always been seen in a reasonable time. Once with my child we were out in an hour including seeing a dr. My child was referred to SALT end of may and we had triage app in July. I called my GP surgery last week and they saw me same morning parts do work as expected

@Jabtastic I’m not sure that’s strictly true- I had pretty good care atA&E here in Bath, we have a fantastic new cancer centre ( part privately funded) and they sometimes use a really nice modern private hospital In Recent times for quite a lot of non urgent surgery and my GP is good too . Admittedly it’s ‘a posh area’ - but the same may be true in certain other non south east areas -

The NHS is far from perfect ,but it's free at point of contact
My son is an insulin dependent diabetic and all his insulin ,needle, s Dexcoms ,eat etc are free ,as are all his other medications
Compared to the American Facebook group om on where many US citizens are genuinely worrying about how they will afford their insulin ,which they can't live without ,I know where I would rather live....

My local hospital has a minor injuries section, an urgent treatment unit and the usual A& E area, which includes a mental health unit. There is also a separate A& E for children.

Everyone is triaged pretty quickly then sent to one of the three areas. We have used it quite a bit over the years especially as you can legitimately go there with minor injuries.

We also have a bigger hospital a few miles away which has a dedicated heart and stroke unit, plus 24 specialist services like ENT.

We have found the treatment to be excellent in all of them.

Also, if you call 111, they often set up an appointment for you at one of the bigger GP surgeries, or get you an emergency appointment at eg the eye clinic.

One of my daughters has epilepsy and has had numerous visits to A& E, hospital stays, tests etc. She sees a consultant every year and the epilepsy nurse every quarter and is on a cocktail of drugs - she will never have to pay for any of this (she will never work).

Once you get into the system it is amazing.

I have private medical cover and wouldn’t be without it for routine medical issues. It includes virtual GP appointments, however the few times I’ve genuinely needed the NHS - ie child having a serious asthma attack, she was in resus within mins of us presenting at a&e, child with a dislocated shoulder (on multiple occasions) was put back in within 30 mins, child needed major spinal surgery was done in 14 days (admittedly took a long time to actually get to see the neurosurgeon, but once they realised how serious it was. The care was great). So in actual emergencies they are generally pretty good.

We’ve then used private for the shoulder repair surgery, physio, knee surgery, numerous other investigations.

I’ve just had the misfortune of being admitted to A&E twice very recently (first time in 55 years) and both times it was nothing short of caring and professional.
I’m not naive enough to think this is always the case for everyone, every time, but wow, it was slick (and free!)