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AIBU?

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Original poster

Cat versus human a&e

311 replies

catmummy22 · 04/03/2026 21:46

My cat was a bit poorly last night so I took her to the out of hours cat hospital. I called them at 8 pm and within 1 hour, I had booked the appointment, had her checked over and was back home.
My friend’s mother also took a turn for the worse last night. They drive to a&e at the same time as I went with my cat, but had to wait to be seen until 4 am. Suspected heart issue so quite serious.

I paid 350 pounds for my cat to be seen. I have pet insurance. I really wish I could pay £350 to be seen if I needed a&e too. I rather pay that than wait a. Ight to be seen.

My AIBU is in the different health care offered to pets versus humans in this country. As a human you can’t even pay your way to be seen in an emergency. Brits seem to think as long as it’s free, it’s good, but is it time to start thinking about charging in the NHS too? I think so!

OP posts:
IsEveryUserNameBloodyTaken · 05/03/2026 10:49

moggerhanger · 05/03/2026 10:40

You said drunks and time wasters, didn't you?

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Does that mean if it’s right wing that the left champion the drunks and the time wasters.

moggerhanger · 05/03/2026 10:40

catmummy22 · 05/03/2026 10:23

What is right wing tropes? It’s true that a&e is full of people who are there because they are not able to access primary care or mental health care or who need care, but not a&e care. It’s also true that when people don’t have to pay, the threshold to go to a&e is lower and people go for minor complaints. Why is that right wing to say exactly?

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You said drunks and time wasters, didn't you?

Original poster
catmummy22 · 05/03/2026 10:33

Babyboomtastic · 05/03/2026 10:31

It is true, you just need to look at the data. We hear disproportionately about the delays, not where it works well.

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Wait time in a&e in DDs hospital last night was 10 hours. Also for urgent cases yes. She had one patient die with a bleed on the brain, because there were more than one emergency at the same time and no one to attend to this patient. Might have died either way of course, it point is no doctors to attend to him. This is just example from last night. A lot of the horror stories are never even published I. The newspapers. It’s worse than we think I have learnt.

OP posts:
Babyboomtastic · 05/03/2026 10:31

catmummy22 · 05/03/2026 10:30

Simply not true unless you live somewhere really amazing.

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It is true, you just need to look at the data. We hear disproportionately about the delays, not where it works well.

Original poster
catmummy22 · 05/03/2026 10:30

Zov · 05/03/2026 10:29

So, the rich get good quality instant care, and the poor are left to suffer?

That's what you're proposing @catmummy22

We already have rich and privileged people having private medical care because they can afford it, isn't that enough?! Hmm

No then you misunderstand my posts and need to read the thread again.

OP posts:
Original poster
catmummy22 · 05/03/2026 10:30

Isekaied · 05/03/2026 10:27

The people waiting in a and e are usually waiting for beds.

The people who don't need tp be there are usually sent home within the 4 hours or quickly transferred somewhere else like acute medical or surgical units.

It's the ones that have something serious wrong with them and need admission that are left waiting for days on trolleys on the corridors.

Show quote history

Simply not true unless you live somewhere really amazing.

OP posts:
Zov · 05/03/2026 10:29

So, the rich get good quality instant care, and the poor are left to suffer?

That's what you're proposing @catmummy22

We already have rich and privileged people having private medical care because they can afford it, isn't that enough?! Hmm

Original poster
catmummy22 · 05/03/2026 10:27

TheTortiePuffinNeedsHerBreakfast · 05/03/2026 10:24

You really can't compare to two. Animal care in general receives no government funding, so somebody somewhere is paying for it universally. But also there is in general a lot less demand for pet A&E because most pets don't:

Get drunk and have related accidents or fights
Beat each other up on a regular basis
Have drug addictions
Have smoking related conditions
Get kept alive if they have terminal illnesses
Struggle to get a GP (ie vet) appointment for non-emergency issues

Actually I have made 3 emergency visits with my cat recently due to her being in a fight, so that’s not fully correct. Can’t blame it on her being drunk I don’t think, but yes they do fight a lot my cats.

OP posts:
Isekaied · 05/03/2026 10:27

catmummy22 · 05/03/2026 10:23

What is right wing tropes? It’s true that a&e is full of people who are there because they are not able to access primary care or mental health care or who need care, but not a&e care. It’s also true that when people don’t have to pay, the threshold to go to a&e is lower and people go for minor complaints. Why is that right wing to say exactly?

Show quote history

The people waiting in a and e are usually waiting for beds.

The people who don't need tp be there are usually sent home within the 4 hours or quickly transferred somewhere else like acute medical or surgical units.

It's the ones that have something serious wrong with them and need admission that are left waiting for days on trolleys on the corridors.

TheTortiePuffinNeedsHerBreakfast · 05/03/2026 10:24

You really can't compare to two. Animal care in general receives no government funding, so somebody somewhere is paying for it universally. But also there is in general a lot less demand for pet A&E because most pets don't:

Get drunk and have related accidents or fights
Beat each other up on a regular basis
Have drug addictions
Have smoking related conditions
Get kept alive if they have terminal illnesses
Struggle to get a GP (ie vet) appointment for non-emergency issues

Original poster
catmummy22 · 05/03/2026 10:23

moggerhanger · 05/03/2026 10:04

So why are you repeating right-wing tropes about the kinds of people in A&E?

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What is right wing tropes? It’s true that a&e is full of people who are there because they are not able to access primary care or mental health care or who need care, but not a&e care. It’s also true that when people don’t have to pay, the threshold to go to a&e is lower and people go for minor complaints. Why is that right wing to say exactly?

OP posts:
KassandraOfTroy · 05/03/2026 10:14

We pay.

moggerhanger · 05/03/2026 10:10

Also, for me the severance of social care from medical care has been a disaster. (don't know if those are the right terms - I'm still not very well and not thinking clearly!) You get people bed blocking because there's nowhere safe for them to be discharged to.

And do not get me started on the appalling effects of the private sector taking over residential/care homes. There have been truly awful reports of neglect and abuse in homes where the private equity owners have utterly fleeced the taxpayers for negligent care. (Yes, of course it's possible to have that in state-run facilities. But at least each patient isn't seen as a cost to be minimised so that profits can be maximised.)

moggerhanger · 05/03/2026 10:04

catmummy22 · 05/03/2026 09:59

Consider myself fairly left wing actually.

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So why are you repeating right-wing tropes about the kinds of people in A&E?

Isekaied · 05/03/2026 10:03

I agree with all small.co-payment tp be seen.

But for me the problem is- once payments are introduced- it won't take long for the cost to escalate.

Whenever something. Same happened with uni fees.

Start off small then the costs snowball.

So it might start off as £20-£50.

But a few years later it will costs thousands as further cuts and savings are made.

If we could follow somw of the Europeans or Australian model i think that would be good. But likely if payments were introduced it would be the USA model that is followed.

TY78910 · 05/03/2026 10:03

I don’t think this has anything to do with paying vs not paying. How many pets are rushed to A&E vs humans? Come on 😂 not only actual emergencies but also how many owners would just ride it out because they don’t have £350 to spare!

Original poster
catmummy22 · 05/03/2026 09:59

moggerhanger · 05/03/2026 09:18

I was in A&E on Tuesday night. It was far from full of "drunks and time wasters". There were people there from every walk of life (as far as I could judge in my own very unwell state). Elderly people who'd fallen; one young man holding his side with tears running down his face; a teenage girl weeping with pain in a wheelchair; a glossy model-type woman with beautiful hair and eyelashes, repeatedly vomiting into a bowl. (And me, lying on the hard floor because if I sat up, I blacked out.) The problem is underfunding and lack of beds - they wanted to admit me but said I'd have to wait for a while, so as I'd perked up a lot after some IV stuff, I decided to go home.

I think you've swallowed the Reform/Tory Kool-Aid.

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Consider myself fairly left wing actually.

OP posts:
Original poster
catmummy22 · 05/03/2026 09:58

Dozycuntlaters · 05/03/2026 09:50

I think when the volume of cats waiting to be seen is the same as the volume of people then there would be issued with your very flawed ideal. I mean, on a Friday or Saturday night I cannot imagine the local vet is inundated with pissed cats needing stitches after a drunken brawl. You simply cannot compare the two situations, they are poles apart.

But on a serious note, YABU!

I think so took my cat comparison a bit too literally

OP posts:
nomas · 05/03/2026 09:57

Brits seem to think as long as it’s free, it’s good, but is it time to start thinking about charging in the NHS too? I think so!

You must be ashamed of this view OP, given you name changed before starting this thread.

Why so ashamed?

moggerhanger · 05/03/2026 09:57

This is what healthcare was like before the NHS. (Harry Leslie Smith, speaking at the Labour Party conference.)

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/E0FIFsgxJV4?si=y07Xtz3IoHYUElpd

Original poster
catmummy22 · 05/03/2026 09:57

CitizenofMoronia · 05/03/2026 09:24

you do, its called BUPA you pay your insurance and get seen privatly. what are you whittering on about?

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I already have Bupa thanks. What am I wittering on about? If you read my posts, I am saying we all need to pay. In my home country I pay £50 to see a GP or a visit to A&E. That’s pretty affordable for the majority of the population and then there are exceptions for people with chronic conditions, children and people who really cannot afford £50. Free doesn’t work.

OP posts:
Dozycuntlaters · 05/03/2026 09:50

I think when the volume of cats waiting to be seen is the same as the volume of people then there would be issued with your very flawed ideal. I mean, on a Friday or Saturday night I cannot imagine the local vet is inundated with pissed cats needing stitches after a drunken brawl. You simply cannot compare the two situations, they are poles apart.

But on a serious note, YABU!

KassandraOfTroy · 05/03/2026 09:43

Footballer is a much better career choice now than being a public slave in the NHS. I’ll remind you that many, many of the people in the NHS would not themselves have a spare £350 to pay to go to the front of the queue. You’d be a bit stuck for help once you’d killed all the people who might be in a position to help you wouldn’t you, money or no? And that is the crux of the broken greed-led economy. You need near-slaves to run it, and you can fuck off with that.

Some of us started to sound alarms about the broken economy in the 2000s.

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 05/03/2026 09:42

Maybe you could buy one of these for £28...

...and take your self to Vet when the need arises?

Don't forget NOT to speak directly to the Vet otherwise they may smell a rat.

Cat versus human a&e
Appleseason · 05/03/2026 09:35

So because I can’t afford healthcare or £99, much less £350. I should potentially die in a hospital corridor because my life is deemed less worthy, and someone else in the queue can pay and gets seen sooner?
The NHS was started because it wasn’t right that people with less means didn’t have access to healthcare.
I don’t think that should change.