I am scared of the state of healthcare system

[Notsurewhattheansweris]

I am going to start saying that I respect all the clinicians and doctors and my personal experience has generally been positivie (with the exception of one case which likely led to a physchological trauma).

Whenever I see things on Mumsnet, there are so many stories of negligence, people being fobbed off, missed cancers etc. etc.

I find it really difficult after my own experience to feel safe anymore. It did leave me with a health anxiety that I am in therapy for but I cannot see the end to it because ultimately, I do not feel safe anymore.

What do you do, how do you cope? Or is it just my anxiety talking and we only see the scariest stories here that are still rare and not the norm?

In 20 odd years in various countries in MENA, rich and poor, i have never been in a country where emergency treatment isnt free for residents and citizens, regardless of insurance status. Best model is Sri Lanka which has the UK system but modified. Government services are free and available to all residents but may take time so you can choose to pay private if you want. Maternity services are so good that there is no market for private, but if you are waiting for an ingrown toenail for example, you will likely have to wait for free treatment so can go to a private clinic and do it if you so choose. Sad that our colonies have managed to make a success and update the NHS model but we haven't.

The only boring posts on this thread appear to be coming from you.

That would be good if it is just paperwork. EU Food Standars are the stricters and highest in the world. Not being in EU opens a lot of room. GMO products (I am not necessarily against them), for example. But I am worried that standards can be lower now.

It is- I had missed the original posters question but I was surprised there is some kind of conspiracy around the “not for EU” stamps

I have a lot of experience of the NHS and hospitals.
Basically is there is an obvious and clear thing wrong with you that they have managed to diagnose (cancer, heart attack etc) there are straighforward pathways and generally the specialist clinics are quite good.
The general wards, and ALL the emergency/acute/triage services are dire, dangerous/badly run and negligent.
And it's not just the managers. The managers are absent, in meetings about budgets and KPIs. The clinical staff on general wards and on acute wards, particularly the nursing staff are, in my experience, overwhelmingly and variously lazy, bullying, cruel and/or negligent. Partly because there is nothing you can do about it. There's no recourse for meaningful complain really. They can't get sacked, and they have bought into the idea that they are incredibly put upon and hard working.
Honestly, I would bring back bursaries for nursing, pay them well, have wards run by highly paid nursing managers who really understand what they need to do, but implement strict psychometric testing for all clinical staff.

That won't happen @IfNot, its a far too sensible suggestion.

Sorry but I am so sick of reading crap like this. ALL the people I know who have had cancer, for example, have been non smoking, rarely drinking, vitamin popping and generally healthy people.
Its comforting to think you can prevent disease by "lifestyle" but you can't, and people trotting out things like this, and even worse trying to BLAME people who do get ill piss me right off.

100% what @IfNot said. That's my experience too.

Yes and mine. There's a lot we can't control. Our bodies can get sick regardless of what we do. But it's wise to do what we can to be healthy, such as to avoid being overweight and relying on processed food etc..

@Idontknowhatnametochoose I agree. After a high cholesterol reading, I lost two stone, adjusted my diet and got it down from 7.8 to 5.6. I keep within 14 units a week too - more often 6.

There's a great deal we can do about obesity, blood pressure and diabetes.

Ok, sure, it’s wise to make healthy decisions. And I’m sorry to the poster I quoted, particularly as you had bad maternity service experiences (me too and that’s a whooole other thread!).
I think that you can probably cause illness with lifestyle, if you really give it some welly, but you can’t prevent it, and it can be a real insult upon injury when you do get ill, despite all your efforts not to, and people want to know what you DID to invite it.
I’ve just seen it too often, and lost a friend recently who was an absolute paragon of health so I’m raw about it.