What’s the point in the NHS?

The NHS is very useful. It keeps the population down.

The examination suggested she may have torn her ligaments. That may require surgery and intensive physio.

An MRI alone would be 1500. The physio and rehab treatment for torn ligaments would be the same regardless of whether you have a scan or
not.
The NHS as an entity is a truly wonderful thing. It has saved my life on more than one occasion. The problem is decades of very deliberate underfunding by consecutive governments. It is a political issue, not an NHS issue.

The moral thing to do is look after people already using an overstretched service, not inviting more people to use and abuse it.

In America, sometimes people don’t even get treated for cancer if they don’t have adequate insurance.

Hav3 you had occasion to actually use it recently? Usually, people who spout this are just quoting something without actually having experienced it themselves. No one is saying it doesn’t work, sometimes, but we need it to work for everyone, and it really doesn’t. My mil died on a trolly in an A&E side room where she had laid for 12 hours as there were no beds. She didn’t die because of it, but her last hours should have been lying in a proper bed on a ward being cared for by nurses, not in a side room which was used to store equipment with chaos around her in A&E, where we had to track down someone to give her pain relief. Or my bil who had an alcohol problem, who displayed all signs of having had a stroke, who was admitted and his condition assumed to be alcohol related, with no tests for a stroke until 48 hours later. He was then deemed to have had a stroke, but we all know delays in diagnosis means the condition worsens. I could go on. The NHS is dire, and people trying to tell us ‘nothing to see here’ are not helping get the issues in the NHS sorted.

Pretty sure stalking someone and bringing up posts they made from other threads is against talk guidelines. HTH

How odd. I fell over and severely injured my ankle 20 years ago. It swelled like a balloon, couldn’t work etc. they couldn’t xray it straight away due to the swelling. Once I got it down a bit it was found to be severely sprained, not broken, was sent away to rest it etc.

Advice was given but there certainly wasn’t all the follow up you’re talking about, or even physio, not just for a sprain. Now 20 years ago the NHS already wasn’t what it had been for the baby boomer and older generation, eg the weeks stay in hospital for broken legs and after birth had already gone, but most would say it was functioning better than now.

There seems to be an odd dichotomy at the moment between the very real issues of big delays in ambulance response, corridor care which all the staff hate, genuinely third world stuff: and on the other hand a small minority expecting some truly luxurious personal care that has never been possible except for a few aristocrats, maybe even people like King Henry 8th with his army of carers and bearers himself!

I'm sorry your GPs are so poor.

Mine are excellent. I like the fact that a lot of things can be dealt with by a telephone appointment, which is usually the same day or the next day. If they need to see you in person, you usually get an appointment within 2 working days. You don't even have the hassle of hanging on the phone, you can tell them what the problem is via an online form and they do what's necessary without seeing you if they can.

Last year, I got a next day appointment for a sudden onset severe pain in the side of my head. I was a bit surprised to see a physio, not a doctor, but he explained that it could be temporal arteritis, prescribed the high dose of steroids which is the treatment, and referred me for an urgent neuro appointment, which happened the next day. Two working days later, I was having a biopsy, results came the next day and confirmed the diagnosis.

I thought that was fucking amazing, frankly. Although the year on steroids was bloody unpleasant, I didn't have a stroke or go blind, which can happen if temporal arteritis isn't treated promptly.

It’s better not to have them here at all. NHS is over used, over subscribed and under funded. Stay where you are and get treatment there, rather than come here to put even more strain on a health care system which currently isn’t fit for purpose
You can't be real! Get treatment there...yeah ok. You're right, the NHS should continue to treat all those whose poor health is the result of poor lifestyle, who gave not paid a penny into the system as a priority, that's the moral thing to do.

The service is free at point of use and the amount we pay on average is way less than most people around the world need to pay

your service might have been better if we paid the equivalent of the EU average but we would rather pay money to banks and landlords than taxes

and also / they only use a boot and crutches for the most severe sprains and that’s been the case for decades. If the sprain isn’t that bad then it’s better that it isn’t restricted that much

Not free. Did you read her post? She works and therefore pays taxes to fund NHS for everyone.

A typical dog xray costs around £370.

Consult with an ANP would be another £80-£120.
£50 for investigations & care OP got is not enough.

But the poster implied it is working, when many of us know it isn’t. You can’t say something is universally brilliant just because you’ve personally had a good experience. I’ll admit the nhs is pretty good for cancer treatment. I have two friends who have had exemplary treatment for breast cancer, but I can still see that overall, the NHS doesn’t work for a lot of people.

I would never vote reform and I think it should be privatised with the European model. It’s not fit for purpose

I'd rather have something similar to Dutch or German system

What did you actually want to be different.

You were seen and had an x-ray to exclude a fracture. You were correctly diagnosed with a sprain.
The evidence for physiotherapy for grade 1-2 sprains is quite poor.
Theres no evidence showing all ankle sprains should receive a CT scan.
No evidence for surgery at this stage.
Theres some evidence showing an ankle support might be of benefit, but it seems reasonable for patients to purchase their own. They’re generally less than £20.

Ive sprained my ankle in the UK and in Aus. The management was identical.

Yes, let’s put up with shit service because it’s free…

It’s not the exception. Every second of every day the NHS is saving lives and is free at point of access for everyday single person in the UK. We are beyond lucky and like Brexit until it’s gone some won’t realise that. Interesting the anti NHS spiel is another ignorant Reform hobbyhorse.

Well, as someone with a long, complex medical history, I have received a lot of care that I and (when I was a child) my parents probably wouldn't have been able to adford. It's not perfect, but it is far from pointless either...