To be annoyed at how some people slag off the NHS?

[snowtunesgirl]

No it's not perfect but I'm still grateful that we have a National Health Service where if you need an ambulance, they don't first check you for Health insurance.

A friend of mine wasn't feeling well and had a bad experience with his local GP where he's not registered and for some reason they wouldn't let him temporarily register as an emergency. Therefore, he had to go the Walk-In Centre which was about an hour away.

It turns out that he has an ear infection and tonsillitis so felt pretty rotten but he's making out that he was on death's door and is banging on about how the NHS is shit because the first doctor wouldn't see him. He's also saying that lots of people die on the NHS every day due to neglect. I'm not saying that this doesn't happen but surely it's more of a rarity than the norm?

I've had some shitty experiences with the NHS but on the whole a REALLY positive one. I think it's a shame that all the bad bits of the NHS gets reported in the papers and somehow all the good stories never do.

not deserves it,but if you know you are not entitled to free health care then you make it a priority to be able to afford it.

utter rot.yiu see the disadvantaged,ill,and marginalised never get the breaks
they dont have a level playing field to pull self together and make opportunity
a liberal society humanely deals with need.it doesn't just leave folk to fend alone

Yeah. Or you eat?

how does someone with chronic illness make it a priority to be able to afford health care?

YABU. If we took this reverence to its logical conclusion, no-one would ever complain or grumble and the service would never improve. How do you distinguish between "constructive criticism" and "slagging off"? Does a bad experience have to involve death before we solemnly allow that the complaint about it is justified?

Your friend with the tonsilitis makes a point about the occasionally insane bureaucracy regarding temporary residence that, sadly, I recognise from my experiences and those of friends. As someone under 35 with chronic conditions who has mostly lived in urban areas, I have mostly rented, have moved around a lot, changed doctors a lot, and frequently found myself in need of treatment miles from where I am registered. I don't drive, so walk-in centres are a problem for me. Both DP and I have had problems with the residence thing several times, and different surgeries seem to have different policies on it. It's a pain in the arse and there's no logical reason why it should be like that.

I don't think this is the end of the world, or a sign that the NHS should be dismantled, but nor do I think there's any problem with flagging it up. Whether or not it's "only" in connection with tonsilitis.

This whole argument will soon become irrelevant, as this government is determined to pull the NHS apart, piece by piece. And we are just sleepwalking into it. When this has happened, and the NHS - and it's founding principle of healthcare free at the point of use - is gone, I fully expect we will all be wishing we had fought harder to hold onto it....

It's really not that simple Amber. The reality for some in America is that they have to choose between health insurance or feeding their children. That's employed people.

You realise in America that people deliberately commit crimes so they can be sent to prison and receive treatment for illnesses/medical issues like cancer,diabetes,crohns etc because prisons have to provide treatment for inmates? Can you imagine how desperate a person must be to do that?

But of course,they "deserve it" for having a blue collar job/not having the foresight to see they'd be made unemployed and be unable to afford to keep up the payments.

Nice.

Understand to a point op. I certainly wouldn't publically go around slagging off NHS like your friend. After all my dd probably wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for my emergency csection.
However, that is not to say that individuals don't make grave errors.
A younf father of 3 I know recently died of cancer. He had syomptons for ages and GP diagnosed hernia. By the time they realised it was too late.
My mum also had a serious heart condition which was again not diagnosed until it was too late.
Also lost a sister to lung cancer which again GP's faoiled to diagnose.
So, no, it is not perfect but is perhaps better than other systems overall.

what faxthapam said
it's very scary!

I'm shocked at the amt of posters not distinguising between rightly complaining about sub standard incidents, and slating the whole concept of the NHS

really must preview my posts.

"However, that is not to say that individuals don't make grave errors"

individuals make errors in all health systems
there are absolute shits who shouldn't be let near people working in all systems

I do think that in this country we are very lucky to have the nhs and I have had some very good experiences.

However, some people 'slag' off the nhs with good reason and just because you have had good experiences doesn't mean everyone else should agree with you.

I was very ill a few years ago. At the height of the swine flu epidemic. I was mis- diagnosed with swine flu. As a result I was denied treatment and left at home to truly suffer for weeks. I made 11 calls to my doctor and nhs direct and on each occasion they stuck to their diagnosis and refused to see me as I was in quarantine at home. I begged them for help and steadily declined over a period of a month. Eventually, my doctor eventually listened( after I insisted that bloods were taken). I was so ill had septaecemia and liver failure. The blood results came in and they sent an ambulance to the house and took me to hospital.

I was placed on a isolation ward for 3 weeks, I did receive treatment but the actual 'care' I received was appalling and worse than many third world countries. You wouldn't believe me if I described it.

I was eventually moved to a private hospital and I made a good recovery.
My doctor launched an investigation and lessons were learnt. But a more vulnerable person would not have survived.

So yes, the nhs can be great but it can also fail you when you need it most.

I am proud that the UK acts like a civilised nation and that almost universally everyone believes access to healthcare is a basic right regardless of wealth. I am horrified by the US system.

There are some extremely hard working dedicated and actually world class people in the NHS too.

What I am far less proud of is the crushing bureacracy, waste, inefficiency, laziness, utter ignorance and indifference shown to patients by the organization itself.

I always defend the NHS when others complain but I had a horrible experience last night. Dirty waiting areas we dealt with but to sit in a cubicle with an overflowing hazards bin full of other people's blood full swabs

"I am proud that the UK acts like a civilised nation and that almost universally everyone believes access to healthcare is a basic right regardless of wealth"

not the vibe I'm getting from this thread , seems quite a few posters who would prefer a direct insurance based system

I'm shocked at the amt of posters not distinguising between rightly complaining about sub standard incidents, and slating the whole concept of the NHS

True, but I think that's mostly because they're responding to the original post, which didn't really distinguish between those two things either.

I see the OP subsequently did concede that constructive criticism was fine, but it sounds to me like that's exactly what the friend with the tonsilitis was doing - unless he also went off into a rant about the inherent superiority of insurance-based systems that has not been recorded here.

As long as some people read every specific criticism as an attack on the whole idea of the NHS, and as long as other people read every defence of the principle of the NHS as being a defence of every single thing it does, we'll have stalemate.

madbuslady, some individual examples on here are directly followed with something like "if you paid as you go you'd get better service than that"

so it's not "reading into" it, that is what people are saying! they are blaming the individual incidents on the fact that we have a NHS system.

baubles Yes, but the OP is effectively saying something similar in reverse - that her mate with the tonsilitis shouldn't "slag off" the NHS because the concept is wonderful, even though it sounds to me like he has a legitimate specific complaint.

Stalemate, as I said.

I'm so grateful for the NHS, and it genuinely scares me that this government are closing specialist units left, right and centre, and focussing on money & managers rather than frontline staff and saving/helping people.

but is it not fair to say that the OPs friends shouldn't slag off the NHS, which is a system/concept, but should slag off/complain about the individual department/individuals?

I really, really don't think op's pal had a bad deal there. He is a temporary resident, he was seen by a doctor at a walk in clinic. He only had tonsillitis which sure is miserable and needs to be treated, but he is not a priority.

People expect the NhS to be like McDonalds. They expect service NOW and dpn't seem to understand that the only reason they have to wait is because people with more serious health problems need to be seen ahead of them.

And yet, people ca blue light ambulances and then ask if it can stop so they can get some fags on the way to hospital, they miss OOH appts and then demand another and are furious that they have to wait.

The NHS is not perfect - I know from the care my grandad received how bloody frustrating it can be - but some people do not respect it at all.

Right, basically my friend said: The NHS is shit because of what I wrote in my OP. I said that I was sorry for his bad experience but on the whole the NHS does good stuff.

What I was trying to say to my friend is basically what baubles above said.

Yes aboutlastnight, my friend was saying that he was, in his words, "extremely ill" and might not make it to the walk-in clinic. However, he WAS well enough to walk to the walk-in clinic and provide a running commentary on FB.

I completely agree. Tomorrow will be our last day on medical insurance in our country because we cannot afford it anymore. I now have to hope and pray none of us ends up seriously ill or in hospital, as our state hospitals are horrible.

Sorry to hear that notmydog. Wishing you good health!