To think the NHS is bloody wonderful and that we're very, very lucky?

[ScaredyDog]

I know everyone will have had a bad experience (I know I have) but generally, I think we're so lucky.

I've been to one hospital today as an emergency and been referred elsewhere. I don't have to pay to see a doctor, the staff have been absolutely lovely (which I hope they will also be at the other hospital) and I was seen immediately. We even had a laugh about my ridiculously sized elephant foot :)

I know prescriptions can seem expensive, but really, that's the only bit we pay for upfront so to speak (and most people don't pay for their prescriptions, I'm told).

Hoping for another good experience at the next hospital anyway :) Yay for HCPs and the NHS.

Watched Baby Hospital this evening and a Kuwaiti couple who had a seriously premature baby were liable for the £175k costs unless thier Government agreed to pay. They did which was great news but made me realise that in situations like this, when you are already so worried about your little one, the sheer sum of how much the care costs could make you ill in itself.

We are very lucky and YANBU...

I could tell you all my shit NHS stories (and I have some real doozies).
Or I could tell you my amazing NHS stories (less colourful and exciting than the shit stories though).

Either way - they have saved my life on more than one occasion and I am eternally grateful.

Yeah.... I'm talking SALT, OT, places that got cut first unfortunately. So my non verbal DD isn't getting any.
Or the fact I've worn hearing aids all my life, it's been proven that they chafe the tops of my ears and they get sore (genetic deformity of the top of my ear) and in the ear aids would stop this, but I don't get them because of the budgets.

Never once have I felt nobody cared, I've always known it was resources, but it does impact on people's lives, and I do worry about DD's development.

Yet.... I've had cardiac surgery and so has my DD, we may not have been here without that... my emcs.... a friend had cancer treatment all were first class.

I want to shout it from the rooftops.
The NHS is bloody wonderful and we are very very lucky

Agree with the OP-my OH had a triple heart bypass 6 years ago. His treatment was excellent-2nd to none on NHS. Can't even imagine how much it cost......

The NHS is great, but it needs reforming.

Needs trimming back to basics. They should NOT fund health tourists, IVF, cosmetic surgery (unless really medically necessary) - and Friday night (or any other night) drunks and brawlers should be turned away.

An so provide improved care for those in genuine need.

yes the NHS is bloody wonderful and I miss it.
Having just had to pay AU$95 for 2w worth of a medication that I might have needed for a few months, I would gladly have the prescription charges instead.
Whenever DS has a need for antibiotics (he's 3) it costs me AU$18 (about £12) and would be free in the UK.
There is no free dental treatment for pregnant women here.
There is free dental treatment for children but DS is now on a waiting list to be seen and it could take weeks (routine check up only but still).
Anything outside of normal emergency treatment needs to be paid for - seeing a consultant gynae re. fertility issues costs me AU$150 each visit (about £100).

It's expensive when the NHS isn't there. :(

NHS nearly killed my dh by delaying vital scans by 2 weeks due to queues (radiology department told us "even cancer patients have to wait"). Private care has saved him. Not my words - our GP's. Same consultant operated him mind you, but via the private system. Because for our private health insurance he is alive.

I have had undiagnosed infection and gave birth at 24 weeks to a baby girl that died three weeks later. The consultant admitted that NHS does not do routine tests as they are expensive, but I would have paid myself had i known the risks with my history. My beautiful healthy baby is dead. Not through negligence or mistake, but because this system cannot cope with situations like mine. I was told next time they will treat me differently. But my first baby is already dead.

If you want to see a better system that is free at the point of need - look at the Dutch one.

to clarify my post earlier, my dh had pseudo aneurysm not cancer, which was brought in as a "shut up and go to the back of the queue" argument. for those who do not know, aneurysm of aorta (and its "pseudo" counterpart) is a fatal condition unless treated pdq, not "if" but "when" condition kills one.

i asked our private consultant (choking back tears) what should I do if dh collapses with burst aneurysm whilst they are urgently arranging the operation and was told that death normally occurs within mins and calling the ambulance is rather pointless.

please come and tell me how wonderful the NHS is

Bemybaby
Two tragic tails and i am so sorry for your loss.
The reason the NHS don't 'perform' routine tests is not due to expense. It is a careful consideration of the risk of an bad outcome versus the potential (guaranteed) benefit.
The NHS does not withhold treatment because it is expensive and occasionally will pay through the now for private health care to helpmeet national targets!
Expense in health care is made with careful consideration of the potential benefit.
I could not comment on ur case but take urine resting. Dipsticks are cheap and effective detecters of a number of potential problems during pregnancy and are performed routinely at each visit to pick up problems. Full lab tests would not add anything for the majority of individuals.
I have chronic kidney problems and can submit a sample any time I feel the need. They offered to test me weekly but I declined as I know it's unnecessary even for me.
As for your husband, the NHS realised that it was failing it's cancer and AAA patients and there are now tight targets from referral to treatment.
Our local health board has managed to achieve treatment for 98% of cancer patients from 1 week from their initial referral.
The turnaround time for a suspected AAA from referral to diagnosis will be 48hours and 72 hours to treatment.

The Fundamental principle that sets the nhs apart is that it is a non profit making organisation. In private health care you may receive investigations/treatments you don't need that will not benefit you just for the purposes of making a profit. Now that is a fundamentally flawed principle

bolted why on earth should IVF not be available on the NHS??

I have family abroad in countries with nothing like the NHS and couldn't appreciate it more knowing what healthcare could be like without it.

Of course many improvements could be made, but overall I am grateful.

re. burst aneurysms. Depending on where they are, death is not always within minutes. As a blood transfusion scientist, the letters AAA on a form (ascending aortic aneurysm) always sent a shiver down our spines, especially if on call in the middle of the night. A leaking AAA can be taken to theatre and up to 100 units of blood would be needed for an attempted repair. IME, ~20% of ruptured/leaking AAAs would survive emergency surgery. ~80% would survive elective surgery (i.e. prior to rupture). What did NOT happen is anyone say: he/she will die in a few minutes so let's not bother.

Having lived in the US and the UK, I definitely prefer the NHS, by miles.

It may not be perfect and mistakes can happen, but the principle of care that is free to the patient, and doctors who are motivated to provide the best care rather than to make a profit, is worth fighting for.

I agree with OP. Hope your foot gets better soon!

Bemybebe - I am sorry to hear what happened to your baby. And at the distress that your husband went through while waiting - but good to hear he had his operation and that it was successful. Serious mistakes and oversights are tragic.........the same thing that happened to your baby happened to ours too. Because while the care in one NHS hospital was neglectful, the care in another NHS hospital was thorough, efficient and supportive, and pretty much saved the life of my second child.

I would still defend the NHS system in this country and say it is a good thing to have. Similar errors and oversights happen in other countries and other systems too - even in Holland; these are due to human error, not the system. And I can think of many instances of similar oversights that occur in private healthcare in other countries that led to tragic outcomes.....but the patient or deceased patient's family still has to pay the bill. (Unless they decide to sue). And in many countries, if you cannot afford insurance or to pay your bills directly, your care pretty much ends - essential medicines that we would consider cheap and simple in the NHS (and available free to the patient) are even denied to these patients. Of course, these patients overseas aren't usually told about this fact or what they are missing out on.

I have also seen many instances in British private health care where less thorough checkups were done than in the NHS, but the patient survived anyway, because they were lucky. And not many people mention when the training standards that are expected in the NHS (and non-existent in private care) lead to many lives being saved as a result of a junior nurse or doctor being thorough - because most patients aren't even aware it has happened.

The private health care system is good for getting things done quickly and for clean, neat, sometimes luxurious, surroundings, but I wouldn't consider it a benchmark for top clinical standards - it depends on which doctor you pay to see (and there is a huge variation in quality of doctors). Private healthcare isn't as tightly regulated as the NHS. We need both private care and the NHS in Britain, and both systems need each other really.

With regards to one's health or one's family's health, I think at the end of the day, regardless of whether it is free or if it's private, if you don't feel comfortable with what you've been told by an expert or professional looking after you, or your gut instinct tells you something is wrong, get a second opinion and push for something to be done.

Nellie there is absolutely no need to get personal or nasty on this thread. Of course there are problems within the NHS and everyone, including me have had bad experiences within it.

I am passionate about the NHS and part of that passion stems from my experiences as patient and practitioner in other systems, which are more expensive, deliver less and are less equitable. Of course others (as evidenced by this thread) do appreciate the NHS as much as I do. So your snide comment was nit only unnecessary but also plainly wrong.

There are many aspects in which the NHs needs improving but privatising (as the proposed legislation paves the way for) it is not the answer.

kipper, following on from what you said about the private health standards, the hospital I worked in picked up the "mistakes" and disasters from the attached private hospital - they did not have the facilities to rectify problems. For e.g. - one of our own staff had her varicose veins done at the private hospital, but when she developed a DVT, back to the NHS she was sent.
In our case, any operation that required intensive post-op care had to be scheduled for when an NHS ICU bed was available, as the private hospital didn't have the facilities.

Another - a friend of a friend was having her baby through a private maternity hospital - her waters broke 2w before her EDD, she went in to the hospital and told them and they told her she was mistaken and sent her home. 2w later she was back with a severe uterine infection and the baby needing paediatric ICU care immediately post-delivery - they shipped her straight over to our NHS hospital because they couldn't deal with it.

Private healthcare has its place - but the NHS is amazing, considering.

"I have had undiagnosed infection and gave birth at 24 weeks to a baby girl that died three weeks later. The consultant admitted that NHS does not do routine tests as they are expensive, but I would have paid myself had i known the risks with my history. My beautiful healthy baby is dead. Not through negligence or mistake, but because this system cannot cope with situations like mine. I was told next time they will treat me differently. But my first baby is already dead"

Bemybebe - you poor love. I can understand how this thread might have been a bit triggering - when you've been through a tragic experience like that.

I agree the NHS is amazing. I guess people's opinion on this will depend on personal experience but what they have done for my friends and family over the years has been wonderful.

Anyone who has any illusions about the US system should read Lionel Shriver's fascinating (though v dark, be warned!) novel 'So Much For That'.

Vive le NHS!

All these stories about failures of the NHS...do you imagine you would have done better in the US without good insurance?

YANBU. I live in a country where I would be very uneasy about my ability to cope with any major medical issue without health insurance. I have to scrimp and save every year to pay for it, and as this month is renewal month I will mostly be eating lentils.

I look at the UK and I am desperately envious.

on the whole think nhs is great .Mistakes happen hell one put me in this wheelchair but then need to balance it out surgeons and the nhs aalso then manged to limit what damage was caused and now provide ongoing support that do not need to pay for

Same with dd midwife did not beleive waters had gone so mistake but then the fnatstic staff in scubu saved her life and then paeds that thought her illness ater one of those things but then have the paead that dx and has kept her alive for the last 8 years and all the staff in itu and hdu

on the balnace of it i think that we ar elucky that we have it and not the first word out of a mouth iswho are you inusred with or do you have a credit card

siami

no I do not beieve it infact i know of people with same problems as me in the us and even with good insurance they are struggling as it is a long term health problem and it makes a lot of differance to what they will be covered for and how much and then sometimes as othe rproblems happen becuase of the other they are not covered for them and they have worry about whether they see or not

Also same condtion as me they often end up on a long term old peoples nursing home even when they are young as there no or little out reach support and takes longer than the uk to support

Thank feck for the nhs

i would love if Ireland had similar to the NHS.

unless you qualify for a medical card it costs 50 to 60 quid to see a doctor every time, adults and children are same price.

myself and dp are on medication and pay 120 every month (thats the cap reached)

i visited a&e with a miscarriage and wasnt allowed sit down til i handed over 100 euro

scripts are also expensive. waiting lists are long. and top of this i pay 200 quid a month private insurance for me, dp and ds.

its very expensive. we have missed our meds some days as cant afford the monthy 120. have not gone to doctor myself when feeling sick i save it for ds. waiting to go to dentist in october as you can only have one free visit for a check up once a year.

appreacite the NHS its a wonderful system.