What should the NHS not fund?

[Username721]

Saw a thread on IVF for lesbians and some people felt that IVF should not be for anyone on the NHS. So it got me thinking.

Is there anything you feel should be exclusively private treatment? The ones often debated are things like weight loss surgery, cosmetic procedures, treatment for avoidable illness such as smoking-induced ones, liver failure through alcohol abuse, drug rehabilitation…

Thoughts?

I thought ventilators got switched off when there is no hope of recovery?

I'm talking people losing the ability to swallow and cachexia but they still keep going because of artificial nutrition and Antibiotics. They can get contractures and just remain in the foetal position.. Some people who are bed bound have been that way for years because death can be delayed and delayed.

How is IVF extremely low???

The odds of getting pregnant naturally on first month of trying is only about 35%

And the majority of the time it's a medical condition that is being treated. What other medical conditions aren't treated?

Nope , you will be kept alive in a vegetative state if that's what the family want. You aren't brain dead but minimally conscious.

@Sugarfree23 yes but you're not curing anything. You're giving something to someone they want, but don't need

Obviously you can argue about maternity care all you like but that's when there's already a pregnancy to care for, for the health of both mother and baby.

@Fifi0000 then why was Archie Batterbes mum forced to turn off his life support? Genuinely curious. I didn't think you could just keep someone in a vegetive state

Has anyone seen the film Logans Run?

You can have a permanent tracheostomy put in place.

😮😀

I agree. All the coverage then said Drs can legally decide to switch a ventilator off. But in Archies case they went to court as back up for this decision.

Because he was brain stem dead , i.e cannot do any functions by himself cannot maintain hormone levels . Vegetative state is different to brain stem death.

I know that! I know someone who went to an exercise class for disabled people who had one.

@dontyouknobwhoiam because he was dead. There's a difference between brain dead and persistent vegetative state. It normally never goes to court because 99.9% of the time family consent to turning the machines off in that scenario.

OK it might not cure a womans PCOS or lack of fallopian tubes. But it helps her get to the end point, and helps her body do what it's meant to do - reproduce!

Why are women trying to take treatments away from other women?
It's up there with the shit from yesterday, "I never got free childcare so why should you?"

Think how hurtful it is for women struggling to get pregnant, and other women seem to get it handed to them on a plate, and a years mat leave and a small fortune in childcare.

Okay, so what's the clinical difference in patients best interest between being brain dead and just in a vegetive state? How can a hospital force withdrawal of support by a court order for being brain dead but not for being in a vegetive state?

This in spades. I had my kids at 35 and 37 but desperately wanted to conceive ever since leaving uni at 24. Fiancee of the time disagreed and left me and it took me until I was 30 to meet someone who didn't run when I mentioned kids. Hideous marriage now ended as I settled. What I wish I'd done, however, is just stopped taking my pill without telling the ex that left me and cracked on, but having seen the reaction on here to that suggestion, it appears that you can't do right for doing wrong sometimes!

"How is IVF extremely low???
The odds of getting pregnant naturally on first month of trying is only about 35%" @Sugarfree23

Under 35 years perhaps. Yet the average age of people seeking IVF funded by the NHS is 35+ Success rates drop significantly after that to around 5%, if I recall correctly for 40s. Depending on the cause of the infertility, of course, which can also impact.

@Sugarfree23 but it's not a need or a for a woman's safety. It's a want, not a need for her health

Whereas pregnant women need that care being they are pregnant

Archie wasn't in a vegetative state, he was brain dead.

Does anyone else find using the words 'Vegetive State' highly offensive?

I have never said pregnant women shouldn't be cared for.

But I can totally see why the poster who did say it in frustration. Women arguing to remove treatments from other women.

Maybe infertile women should get tax breaks for
not claiming their year or two mat leave, not claiming child benefits,
not burdening the NHS with antenatal care
not getting childcare costs.
not costing money in schooling

The cost of IVF is peanuts compared to the cost of having children. Honestly you'd never get men arguing that other men shouldn't get a treatment on the NHS.

@MeinKraft yes and I was trying to ask what the difference was, as to me with 0 medical knowledge, I thought that meant they were already gone really and still breathing because of machines etc

Feel awful typing that out but that's what I meant

Oh sorry I didn't realise that. If someone is brain dead they have no chance of recovery, their body is dead too. If someone is in a vegetative state they are still alive because the parts of the brain that control the bodies functions are still alive and working.

With my Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis shall I just save everyone a few quid and end it now?

Good job I’m not overly sensitive and have a somewhat twisted sense of humour.

Agree.

Also paracetamol on prescription.
Endless face to face appointments for the elderly that in some cases clearly aren't needed. (Especially if hospital transport is needed)
After X amount of children, fund the medical expense of birth etc.
IVF for non-medical reasons shouldn't be funded. (I've paid 11k for successful IVF after chemo wrecked my insides. I couldn't get it free..) so I don't think it's fair that able bodied women should have NHS paid IVF. Insemination is cheaper.
Gender reassignment surgery / treatments.