Cat versus human a&e

My husband nearly died from sepsis around Christmastime. The ambulance came within 20 mins, he was seen in A&E promptly, was on a ward within 3 hours and had emergency surgery the next day. We could not have afforded that. Emergency care is based on clinical need, not the ability to pay. There is no profit in emergency care or private hospitals would provide it. They just cherry pick the bits of healthcare that make them money.

Thank you for the answer earlier. At the risk of turning this into an AMA 😀 how would you change care of the dying?

"Pets have the upper hand again... " is such a weird take.
It is not pets vs humans.
NHS and vet care are totally different things. You are comparing apples and oranges.

I mean, we could look at ways in which humans have the upper hand. If your dog has a stroke or funny turn in the middle of the night, no one is going to come and take them away in an ambulance, treat them as best they can in the ambulance and take them to the vets. No vet is going to come and visit you unless you pay serious £, and then it will be a euthanasia case.

I don't understand what you are suggesting. Yes a lot of people can afford to pay a token amount to attend ED, to use your examples of £50, £99, or even the cost of your vet bill £350. But that really is not going to get you much treatment. Once you start to factor in medications, x-rays, scans, staff, equipment, procedures, specialist treatments, potential admissions to wards or the extremely expensive ICUs, theatres, recoveries... Your £350 soon snow balls into thousands, tens of thousands if you are unlucky enough to find yourself in the latter. Then I would imagine not many people can realistically afford that. You say you go private when you can. Then you must have some grasp on the actual cost of human healthcare, a lot of people can not afford that.

I agree the system is broken, I'm working in a broken system. However it is not comparable to visiting the vets.

The NHS has more money, more personnel, more equipment than ever. Productivity is still falling. In other words they are doing less with more. At what point exactly do you say enough, and reform the whole crappy system.

For some of them (I'm not talking the nails, I mean people with a condition that needs attention, but not from AE) they can't get help elsewhere. Our GP tries to send people to the walk-in ten miles away, so lots of people who can't drive/afford a taxi just get an ambulance to AE because they feel that's the only way they can get help.
I know we're supposed to be grateful for the NHS, but like you, I know people who work in it who are sick of their old loved ones, who have willingly paid tax all their lives expecting care to be available when needed waiting literally days, in a chair (that would be uncomfortable for fit healthy 20 year olds). Would I be happy that some people can pay and get better treatment? No, but I'm not happy that the GPs we used to see easily are now running private clinics and that so many people can only get a GP (or dentist for that matter) by paying.
Pets are treated much better than many of my family have been, We also need to change the way we treat the dying. Of course a person isn't a cat, but it's wrong they're left in agony and miserable, instead of having a quick dignified death with the people who love them present. Yes, the system makes me angry.

@XenoBitch my a and e is ages away down treacherous country lanes esp at rush hour

Also, more vet practices to human hospitals.

One A&E department where I live. Loads of vet practices.

Once you start down the road to private medical care you end up like the USA where millions of people cannot afford basic medical treatment even when dying. No thanks.
Big Pharma is rich enough.

Vet bills have gone through the roof in the past decade because the profession was deregulated and now any business person can run a chain of veterinary practices with vets as employees instead of running their own practice.

Many poor people can no longer afford to bring their pet to the vet.
They don't have £350 to spare even for themselves.

Op and to be blunt seeing as you are making this comparison...if God forbid your DM is facing a long painful death ...that's it for her whereas your cat will be saved form it's misery

More humans to cat ratios?

There's no private A&E as a pp has suggested. Private hospitals are not for A&E cases.

I think it’s not a great idea for a number of reasons.

1. Do you know the salary difference between the most senior consultant and a band 5 or 6 nurse? It would be a huge waste of resources and also quite insulting to ask someone who has spent over a decade studying and possibly several more honing their skills to spend the majority of their time just sat in a room signing in people with colds and sprains.

2 - for the same reason if you need bloods drawn or a cannula put in, you ideally want an HCA, because they do it all the time - a nurse is going to be absolutely quickest and most efficient at triage because they see the sticky end of medical care day in and day out. For hospital consultants, they likely won’t have seen some of the minor issues and ailments since they were an SHO. They really aren’t best places to triage efficiently.

3 - if the shit absolutely hits the fan and there’s an emergency or a trauma where every second counts, do you want the most senior consultant right there in resus to lead and make potentially life changing decisions, or do you want them down the hall in the urgent treatment centre, telling someone with an ingrown toenail to go to their gp?

What I would love to see are GPs full time in every A&E so that primary care patients can be weeded out and seen quickly, and more Emergency Nurse Practitioners, because they are experts in injury and again that would greatly improve flow.

But the single thing that would make the most difference is not triage on the way in, it’s discharge on the way out. That’s the root of it all, really. Social care and mental health services.

Hair cuts and takeways are routine and normal for lots of people.
A&E visits are not.

I was going through stomach issues at the same time as our dog's - he got way better and faster treatment than me.

"you lot"
Nice.

Lots of people don’t pay that for a hair cut or a take away. I don’t. I can’t afford it.
We do pay, we pay through taxes.

So what about all those people you would push in front of just because you can pay? There is a shortage of doctors so it’s not as if there are enough for a private A&E without affecting NHS patients.

Not even that.
I used to work in an NHS children's hospital, and on weekends the theatres had a private list.
Same equipment, wards, and the same staff as NHS. No extra comforts at all. Just queue jumping. The staff got paid more, although the porters had a battle to be paid more too, but thankfully they did in the end.

The vet you see is invariably kind, sympathetic, gentle with their touch and listens to you. Doctors are usually none of these things. I’d rather be seen by a vet.
I would certainly visit a private A&E if one was available, too many people die waiting to be seen in the NHS which is just a sacred cow to some people. The French system sounds good to me.

Apparently not