We should treasure our nhs here’s why

[Workingclasslass]

As people know there was a CEO of a health insurance company in America that has just been shot and killed.
Anyway I happen to be watching YouTube. I am British and one of the bullets had written on it deny did you know that this particular health insurance has the biggest record for denying claims?
That’s right, people can’t get money for being ill and that medical bankruptcy is a major thing in America right now
I will note that there was no flowers or anything like that put after he got killed. I get the impression that for a lot of Americans they can see this thing coming to happen to these people because they really are adapt at not paying out when they should.
So my point is, yes the NHS needs a lot of work it’s not perfect but I’m telling you now as somebody that has been in hospital a hell of a lot if I was in America I think I would be totally screwed with how much it would cost me.
what are your thoughts?

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My thoughts are that I havent been able to see or even speak to my GP in 4 years.😙

I'll treasure it when I experience a half decent service. I can never get a GP appointment. I begged for HRT but was told I needed antidepressants. In the end I purchased patches privately which have been a godsend but cost me ££££. I caught sepsis...WHILST IN HOSPITAL. I've been suffering with rectal prolapse which the NHS don't deem serious enough to warrant treatment. I ended up paying for private treatment. I could go on ...but I'm sure you get the drift.

I think just because there are parts of the world where it’s even harder to access free healthcare, it doesn’t mean we should put up with shoddy service from ours.

I certainly don’t ‘treasure’ the fact that I need a root canal and can’t get in with an NHS dentist. I do not ‘treasure’ the fact that they dismissed my friend’s breast cancer when it was staring them in the face because she wasn’t in the expected age bracket for it.

Of course I’ve experienced good service along the way, and I’ve been very glad of it, but there’s a hell of rot to it too because it’s not been managed properly. The fact that we are all meant to suck it up and be grateful because it’s ‘free’ is part of the reason it’s been allowed to continue in the state it’s in.

The us system is not the only alternative

Or how about we recognise the failings in our own system and for once acknowledge the working non-NHS systems in other countries and maybe learn from them instead of always defaulting to comparing our shit system to the only system shittier in the entire western world?

There are plenty of working public healthcare systems, and part-paid ones, but while we're so defensive about the NHS and glorifying it, no one is actually sorting out making it worthy of all the praise we're supposed to have for it.

Well, I don’t understand that because I can call my GP practice in the morning and pretty much get a telephone appointment in the afternoon with a one of them associates that are like a GP and also I’ve had a gp to.

I completely get it and it sounds to me like you’ve had such a bad experience. I will say that I’ve had the opposite. I have been looked after really well.

It's like saying your abusive husband isn't as bad as another persons abusive husband so you should be grateful. Erm no.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t change or do things in the NHS that would be better. I’m just saying it could be a lot worse.

Again, I think what you are saying is completely right but what I’m saying is I have been and looked after in hospital so many times that I can’t say that I’ve had a bad service and I certainly didn’t come out with a massive bill

Nope, it needs a complete overhaul. I'd be ok with a system like they have in France.

I've had experience of the same condition in both countries and the treatment received in France was far superior to that received in the UK, including daily nurse visits.

Well if it gets much worse for some services there will be no point to it at all. There are no NHS dentists within an hour of where we live, and partner recently went private for skin cancer treatment as he didnt want to wait 1+ years.

Yes we should cherish it. It is one of the few places in society where the value of a person is irrelevant to money and status. Pauper or King they will help you, and I think that's remarkable. I am aware of its issues, but I think if we lose this essential value we will move further towards a society where poverty, disability, race, sex and class will be discriminated against.

It's good that a very basic level of care is there when you need it, but it is very basic and unless you've experienced a proper level of care like I have in other countries which I did have to pay for, you will not see how bad NHS is.

Many nurses are tbh not very bright and ignorant even. I burned my forehead with hot grease and rather than helping me a nurse decided to talk about me a meter away like I did not understand English. She said to her colleague look at her forehead ugh. I am here, I'm not white but I'm an ivy league grad. While my English isn't perfect I can perfectly understand you and it's fucking rude!

My BIL's partner's daughter also decided to be a nurse caring for the elderlies. She laughed about the people she cared for with her mom which disgusted me. There is nothing funny about vulnerable elderlies. Let's say I ain't clapping for the NHS again.

Exactly

I think two things can be true - we're in a good position that we have a system set up and offering 'free' healthcare, but also it's systemically underfunded/badly managed and it needs 'fixing'.

DM is terminally ill (a diagnosis, by the way, which was possibly preventable should the GPs have taken her seriously the 9 appointments she made over 7 years for symptoms, instead of palming it off as 'anxiety' when she has never experienced that in her life!) ~ I've seen lots of good and bad in the NHS whilst helping her navigate it all, and I know although affordable healthcare is important, people are dying because the NHS cannot cope as is now.

How can you not undersatnd someone else's experience just because yours has been different? You only have to read the childbirth threads on here to see that there is a massive range of experiences across the UK. Just because one person has a good experience, that doersn't mean it is automatically replicated across the country.

When I say I don’t understand it doesn’t mean to say I literally don’t understand what I’m trying to say is why is it that there are GP practices out there? That seem to be doing a damn site better than other practices? I don’t think that’s the NHS. I think that could be potentially up to individual doctors as I said I have been looked after rather well in hospitals as well I think again it depends on trust which is why Wes Streeting is talking about putting a like polling of certain trusts so we can see the worst ones and the good ones and try to sort it out like a league

Frankly, (in Wales where NHS has been run by Welsh Labour for 25 years) it couldn't get much worse.

I am in SE London- v busy practice- and I am not very ill. Just niggling menopausal issues. Which drs mostly cant be bothered with.

Completely agree with you and the NHS needs I’m trying to say is that we should be also grateful that we do not have massive bills because trust me there are many people that just wouldn’t cope with that

i treasure those NHS staff members who are dedicated and work hard.

But - I live in an area of Scotland where my nearest hospital declared an emergency and shut A&E last week.

Where I am about to bury a friend whose cancer was dismissed by GPs until it was too late.

Where NHS dentists are as rare as the proverbial hens teeth.

An area where it’s very clear that our devolved government have run out of talent to fix the problems.

As many have said , on this thread and others, there are several countries with better long-term models than the UK and the US.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head as well. There is a massive disparity between the south and the north I actually think because I’ve spoken to people that they seem to think that you are more likely to get looked after better up here because it’s not as overcrowded, maybe that’s not true generally but it does seem to be when I read post like this on here.

I agree. It's a postcode lottery in the UK at the moment. I had much better care for my long-term health conditions in Ireland than I've ever had in England, Scotland, or especially NI.