To be so glad we have the NHS.

[Manchesterhistorygirl]

Well am I?

Background: ds2 was fine yesterday, not ill at all. He went of to bed happy as larry, but woke at about 8:30 ish screaming and burning up with a nasty pinprick rash and rolling eyes, cold hands, feet, etc. called ooh who said 999 immediately. We were at hospital by 9:30 after a ride in the ambulance and home by midnight after he came round and seemed fine again, sent home with high dose call pol and Brufen to keep his temperature under control.

He's doing ok now.

So here's to the NHS. Thank you.

NHS amazing. DS1 stayed in SCBU - amazing care, followed by a major operation 3 years later.
My complicated pregnancy with DS2 - 3 weeks stay in hospital and weekly units of blood held on the ward for the last 6 weeks (I'm definitely giving blood as soon as I can)

Staff have been amazing in all experiences.

Thank you NHS

Another here who is grateful for the care given, dd1 13 is undergoing care for bi polar and self harm.
Care I couldn't have possibly afforded otherwise.

Miaow I think this thread is fairly balanced, even I have had reason to complain about the service and am not blind to realities, but I'm glad we've got it.

MiaowTheCat I agree with you about the doctors. Not acceptable at all. I had a similar experience after an ectopic pregancy. It was traumatic and I really didn't need the consultant to be an arse on his ward round. I've had complications since.

However, this does not mean we should do away with the NHS. Many of the NHS doctors also work privately. Those dickheads you came across will most likely be doing private work or sometime in the future.

YANBU. I have long term conditions that I couldn't afford to treat if we went private. And the NHS has saved my life on more than one occasion.

I'm not without criticism of the NHS, but I'm overall very grateful.

RevoltingPeasant, I'm glad you sister got good treatment and there are certainly are good and caring Dr's in the US - but the point that stood out to me in your post was the comment "They told my dad not to worry about the bill until the surgery was over" he still had to pay and operations don't come cheep in the US - many many people are just one hospital stay/accident away from bankruptcy.

I agree that this thread is balanced. I do sometimes feel like defending the NHS becomes a point of national honour - you know, Gawd bless our NHS sort of thing.

But genuinely - why do people always act like the choiceis between NHS and private? My Swiss friend laments her old medial system, which she paid for through taxes.

It's not NHS or evil Tory private healthcare - there are other models.

Yes I know GenX which is why I said I know the US system is problematic!

Actually he didn't have to pay, the insurance did, but yeah, I agree the US system isn't better. Not by any stretch.

That doesn't stop us being grateful to the world class drs who saved her, and it doesn't stop me worrying about how my dc would fare here in similar circs given my own experience of NHS waiting times.

firesideskirt I agree wholeheartedly. I also fear that people view it through rose tinted specs and don't realise how many parts of it are being quietly privatised. Our tax monies are being used to pay private companies (which often behave as if they are accountable to no-one) that are handling many aspects of the NHS. (I know this from close family who were hired as NHS staff, fired, then re-hired on lower pay by a private company.) We need as a nation to get furious about this before the principle of the NHS is dismantled entirely. An NHS 'love-in' is a handy distraction and also faintly nostalgic. The NHS has never strictly been free, and it's about to get more expensive and less effective. Having lived in the US as well, of course, that system is the least desirable, but we might be sensible to look at something like the Australian Medicare way or Swedish model with modest fees for GP visits. I simply cannot see how we can sustain a "free" healthcare system for our older ailing population, which is growing larger all the time, ironically due to better medicine. (Which is wonderful, I must add, I'm not a Eugenicist by any means!!!) But we shouldn't let mercenary governments con us into "aren't we lucky" rhetoric. We pay for this, along with education it's one of the things that mitigates my anger over my tax money being spent on illegal wars.

I can't walk unaided because of the poor care I received by two different NHS hospitals.

DS1 went 3 years vomiting blood and we were labelled neurotic parents because one hospital refused to investigate. It turned out he had 2 stomach ulcers, that were easily treated. He had lots of admissions, time off school and pain that was unnecessary.

DS2 almost died of pneumonia at a year old. He had a temp of 40.8 and I was told he had a virus and to put him a cold bath to bring his temperature down.

When my Gran was dying, literally taking her last breaths, my mum went to get the nurse who said "tell her to wait, I am doing the drug round!"

The NHS is good in parts, but there is certainly a hell of a lot of room for improvement.

Our hospital bills in the usa are in the thousands, after insurance has paid their share. I have had a c section (15,000), gall bladder removal (10,000) and most recently my son had severe pneumonia. Total hospital bill of 80,000 (7,000 our responsibility). Just baby vaccinations and a well visit billed our insurance $1,200 ($125 to us). Our family health insurance is $450 a month. A regular doctor visit is now a $35 copay... Previously it was $100 so we never saw a doctor. Our income here this year is less than $15,000. It is crazy. An E.R visit? 1-4000 without ambulance, an extra 800 with ambulance.

landofsoapandglory.
fwiw, I know a couple of families like yours, where a number of things go wrong, hospital wise for them, through no fault of their own, whereas for lots of others, no significant problems.

I think what I sometimes wonder, is, even in the countrys where the general citizens pay a lot for their healthcare, is it on the whole better than the NHS is currently?
My absolute guess is that it is better in some countries and not others?

YADNBU. Of course there is room for improvement, but the NHS is amazing. I often think, thank goodness we live in the UK! Both my mum and I would not be alive without it and my DD would not be about to start walking without the special care she has received. My sibling's MS would also otherwise have gone without getting specialist care, causing even more pain and misery.

Yes it's not perfect of course but its FREE for everyone and it is there when you need it. It's also actually an incredibly efficient system for the costs we put in and what we get out of it- and especially when you consider what a massive organisation it needs to be.

I am absolutely terrified of the Tories privatising all the easy bits of healthcare for their mates' companies to provide on our taxes. This will leave the NHS to struggle on less money than now to provide basic care for the remainder with complex or expensive to treat conditions. There will be a massive postcode lottery and much worse coordination between the different parts of the system. I really dread the prospect of American-style healthcare coming over here. Btw sorry to hijack but if people are worried and want to take action/ get info - 38 degrees and Keep our NHS public have done a lot in this area.

Minnesotanice
Usually all UK residents are eligible for NHS care regardless of citizenship. Visiting tourists are also covered for emergency.

I have lived overseas in several places and it isn't until you don't have it that you appreciate the NHS

dd2 had 13 operations over a year, and that would have costs us thousands and thousands of pounds

My mum is currently very sick in hospital and she has seen highly qualified experts across several specialities and all covered by NHS. In the middle of worrying about her, we don't have to worry about where the money is coming from.

And crucially, the doctors and consultants we have seen are the best of their kind in our area, not some second best because we can't afford better.

I know it isn't perfect, and we should never stop striving for improvement, but the principle is so amazing and we just don't realise what we have a lot of the time.

agree with a comment up thread about it not being a choice between NHS and private.

In Holland, the health care is the same at point of delivery, but different in how it is funded.
So those on low incomes and benefits are paid for by government health care insurance.
As your income increases you pay towards private health care insurance, usually through your job.

So when you visit the gp, it is the same, but they ask which insurer (government or private) you have, which then determines who pays.

I am so glad your DS is ok! I also love the NHS in the past 3 weeks they have saved not only my sister's life but my best friend's husbands too. I am so glad we have them. HUGELY admiring of all the people who saved my loved one's lives.xxx

My friend's husband has had a nurse by his side whenever he was afraid or confiused...he's had pints of blood (thank you to those who donate!) and my sister has had blood too. I can't donate which annoys me.

I think the NHS is amazing, quite frankly. I'm currently 16 weeks pregnant (almost) but when I was 6 weeks gone, I had some bleeding. I had no idea what to do about it and I was having a blind panic (overreacting, I know) so I called NHS 24. They had me up at the out of hours GP service at the hospital with an appointment for half an hour after I called them (ten o'clock at night, Friday night), did loads of tests, sent me to a fantastic doctor who really calmed me down and made me see reason and then called me the next morning to tell me that they had booked me in for a scan at the EPU for 2 O'clock the same day.

Amazing, amazing people. I am so, so grateful to live in a country with free healthcare.

In some ways, but, as someone rightly pointed out, the families of the Staffordshire Hospital victims won't be thinking so highly of the (sometimes disgraceful) NHS!

"larrygryllsHowever, the idea that the choice is no paediatric care or the NHS is nonsense.

hmm That comment is nonsense. Many families will have no paediatric care without the NHS. Many can just about manage to feed, clothe and pay their day to day bills without having to pay health insurance and a hefty bill after care too."

Please tell me one G7 country where, if you took a child with breathing difficulties (for instance) into an A&E (or equivalent) department, they would ask you to pay before they treated the child.

I so often read "the NHS saved my life" or equivalent comments and I just think that is so wrong. A doctor working for the NHS saved your life. A hospital within the structure of the bureaucracy which is the NHS saved your life. If you sold that hospital to a private company and gave everyone some form of insurance so everyone could access it, your life would be equally saved.

As I said upthread, modern medicine is almost miraculous. Those who give their lives up to practise it as a vocation are wonderful people. On the other hand, the bureaucrats from management consultants and ex nurses on £100k+ who are now NHS bureaucrats are less wonderful people. The concept that medicine is "free" when it is very expensive is dishonest and leads to this absurd concept of ridiculous gratitude.

YANBU. A few months back I was rushed into hospital with suspected septicaemia after a suspicious non-blanching rash appeared on my arms and legs. I was fortunately discharged after blood cultures were taken and they told me I'd had an allergic reaction to some medication which had caused the rash.

2 weeks ago I ended up in A&E at 3 am with terrible pelvis pains 3 days after finding out I was pregnant. I thought I was miscarrying. I was able to have an early scan the next morning to check for ectopic. Two possibly life-threatening situations that I wouldn't have been able to afford to go to A&E for without the NHS.

My dad lives in the USA and his partner suffers a plethora of health issues. Last summer when I was there she ended up in the A&E with a horrific migraine having pain medication medicated intravenously. My dad told me that without her insurance that trip alone would have cost them 3000 $.

steppemum brilliant name btw - quite - but I sort of disagree that you only appreciate the NHS if you've lived outside the UK. Living abroad lets you see the good and bad about it, rather.

My German colleague misses her national system terribly and cannot believe how slow the NHS is - she has a 9mo with terrible eczema and cannot get a referral till the baby is a year old. I am in a high risk group for skin cancer and have been told I should have certain moles checked every year by a dermatologist. This happened when I lived in CH but not in a million years am I going to get an NHS referral to a consultant just for a regular check up. So I just hope I don't have something quietly metatasizing!!!

OTOH, my sister who lives in the US got bitten by a venomous spider last year and reacted badly. Her insurance decided that 'attacks by dangerous animals' weren't covered so she'd have to pay for treatment herself. She didn't have the money. Luckily she recovered okay on her own.