GP has told me I need to go private to have cataracts surgery

[user1474095534]

It seems like they will only do surgery if it gets so bad you are loosing your eye sight, by this time it's too late! It's surgery that isn't too expensive and has a great success rate so it should be readily available.

I did work for over 30 years, always paid my stamp in return for cradle to grave health care, but I don't think the government are sticking to their side of the contract.

[user1474095534]

Thanks Ididthattoo, I am doing something similar at the moment. But I know I am much better off than many pensioners, I do worry for ones without the funds or the get up and go who will just accept going blind.

[OhTheRoses]

Ididthattoo, I hadn't seen a deterioration until I started dealing with MH/CAMHS services - well it might not be a deterioration - I've been dealing with them for less than two years.

I am very grateful we are blessed with wealth. I am on first name terms with my MP and Senior staff at the CCG. I will get some changes if it kills me.

[Ididthattoo]

Pacific, I think the NHS is great and it is really the best it can be considering the demands of an "ageing population". I am always emailing PALS to compliment the doctors that see me (I have a chronic condition that causes other complications) and to give advice (although to be honest, they have never followed my advice I guess it is not in their remit to change the way hospitals are run).

I have not noticed any serious deterioration in service since the New Labour days, maybe it started before but I have had the best treatment with the best doctors.

Even if the budget increased by 20%, there would be disgruntled people. To the OP, as I said, maybe it is not the right time yet for you to have the cataract surgery and you will only know if you go to an excellent surgeon to have a second opinion.

We can't diagnose from here.

[Chippednailvarnishing]

Well said pacific

[PacificDogwod]

No, it's not fair and I would not be happy either.

But it is what it is.
And what grates with me is the suggestion that it is somehow personal or because somebody or other can't be bothered or that being declined surgery at this point is worse for the OP because she paid 'her stamp'.

I applaud anybody who takes their dissatisfaction to their MP or counsellor, who is constructive in their dealings with a behemoth of a system and who tries to find solutions rather than feeling hard done by.

The NHS is about to die and it will be far worse when it's gone.
So please read beyond the DM headlines, support the Junior Doctors, jump up and down about postcode lottery and unequal provision of services.
But address that to those who can actually affect change: politicians. Not individual GPs or even hospital doctors.

I qualified as a dr 24 years ago when if you had a stroke or a heart attack, well, you either lived or your died - there was relatively little anybody could do about it. Now, a person with a stroke or heart attack who reaches hospital quickly enough will have dozens of highly qualified staff look after them, will have £££££ spent on them and will have a far better chance of surviving, and surviving with a better quality of life long term.
When we talk about 'ageing population' then that is shorthand for more chronic illnesses, more medication, more treatment, more needs (including cataract surgery).

Aneurin Bevan did not see this coming at the inception of the NHS.
So bandying about the phrase 'cradle to grave' is really, really irrelevant.

[allegretto]

I can't believe that so many people think this is acceptable - no wonder the government get away with cutting back NHS funding! Yes, I would probably pay as eyes are important! But I wouldn't be happy about it. The same is true for lots of things though - I wouldn't get my varicose vein treated on the NHS as it is considered cosmetic - although it was causing me a lot of pain. Not fair either.

[PacificDogwod]

I think that is a very sensible and pragmatic approach, Idid.

Nothing wrong with being assertive and a bit proactive.

[Ididthattoo]

I very successfully combine NHS and private healthcare (I have BUPA insurance). What I would do is: 1. Find the best ophthalmologist in London (Moorfields possibly) and see what he says, whether you need the surgery urgently.

If he says you do, go back to your GP and ask for an explanation of why they see things so differently from a specialist.

I have done this very successfully many times, always got my way.

Never get angry, always smile and look professional and you will get everything you need from the NHS and also in no time. Once they told me one surgery would take 6-9 months so I called the hospital every day for 5 days to ask if they had a cancellation. The fifth day they said if I could be at the hospital in 40 minutes, they would do it. I rushed there from work and I had the surgery (removal of a suspicious mole which thankfully was benign).
Good luck!

[Chippednailvarnishing]

Yes I have already paid for cradle to grave health care for serious conditions, I think going blind is one serious health condition

But it won't kill you. So how about skipping your holidays this year and sorting out your eyesight. Or are your priorities as skewed as your statistics and prices.

[PacificDogwod]

I'd pay more tax.

The only thing that is holding the NHS together just now is the 'attitude' of staff at the coalface.

Yes, it provides a service.
But not a service int he sense that your, say, hairdresser, provides a service: if the hairdresser does well, has more clients, they make more money and employ more staff.
If the NHS provides a 'service' that has many 'service users' (I detest that phrase), then it needs more money. Of which there is none, and ever less. It has less staff/theatres/beds that get spread ever thinner.

Tell me, user, which services would you cut for you to have your cataract operation when you decide you want it?
The NHS does a fantastic job for what it is.
'Cradle to grave' health care was a radical idea at its inception when people had to decide whether to heat their house, feed their children OR call the doctor.

So, give yourself a shake.

And no, no 'gratitude' required.
A sense of realism would be nice.

And your Tesco example is facile and daft, you realise that, don't you?? The more bread you buy, the more money Tesco make, so the more bread they will buy, while bringing the wholesale price they pay down.

I'll just leave this here but don'e let facts get in the way of your indignation.

[user1474095534]

thanks teatowel it does seem to be a lottery based on where you live!

You have not 'already paid' - NI/taxes are not a savings bank.

Yes I have already paid for cradle to grave health care for serious conditions, I think going blind is one serious health condition. Would you go into tesco buy some bread, then be expected to pay for it twice?

[OhTheRoses]

I'd pay more tax. I'd expect not just better services but a better attitude too. The NHS doesn't do me a favour. It provide a service, often a poor service, for which I'm supposed to be grateful. Alternatively we'll opt out and have a tax rebate.

[latebreakfast]

This is what the people voted for

And it's what they'll continue to vote for. Those who didn't by and large didn't because they expected "the rich" to pay where "the rich" equates to "anybody earning more than me".

Go out on to the street and ask people if they'd be happy to have a tax increase that affected them directly (perhaps 50p on a litre of petrol or £1 on a packet of cigarettes) if it meant that the NHS was properly funded. I don't think you'd get many takers (present company excepted of course...)

[Chippednailvarnishing]

Or of course the fact you aren't working which automatically sends you to the back of the queue.
Nothing to do with clinical need and a lack of NHS funding.

[expatinscotland]

'I depends on how 'mature' your cataract is, not on age.'

Or how many teddies you throw out your pram because you 'paid your stamp'.

[PacificDogwod]

I depends on how 'mature' your cataract is, not on age.

[OhTheRoses]

My mum had one done followed by the other six weeks later. On the NHS and perfect. She spent six weeks with won't vision because she refused to spend £70 replacing a lens in her glasses .

[teatowel]

My optician referred me to the eye clinic. I was seen in 6 weeks and operated on about a month later. They did the other eye soon after although there was nothing wrong with it. I was -13 in one eye and -12 in the other. When they did the first eye they brought my sight up to -3 .It was impossible to see properly with that extreme difference. I consider myself very lucky. I am in my fifties. I know lots of people who have cataracts done . Perhaps it depends where you live?

[PacificDogwod]

According to WHO cataracts are the major cause of blindness worldwide.

Yes.
Unoperated cataracts. Or even congenital cataracts.

You have not 'already paid' - NI/taxes are not a savings bank.

[user1474095534]

thanks for that dillyduck :)

I'm sorry to hear others are going through this, I guess we will all just have to pay up even though we have already paid.

[dillyduck]

SauvignonPlonker you said As has already been said up thread, you do not go blind from cataracts.And if you spend 8k or more a year on holidays, you clearly have a lot of cash to splash.

According to WHO cataracts are the major cause of blindness worldwide.

[OhTheRoses]

My mother had hers done about four years ago. Aged about 76. She says she should have had it much earlier. Now has 20:20 vision. My optician said that if people with eye sight as poor as mine (-7.50) get cataracts they refer immediately as it's so life changing. That was a couple of years ago though. I guess I'd just pay.

[Julia001]

I had mine done 2 years ago, on a Saturday morning in the local private hospital on the NHS, it was great and yes, my eye was VERY bad to the point that I could no longer drive at night and was falling over because I couldnt see properly, the waiting list is about 6 weeks once you have seen the consultant, I have another one growing in the left eye but it isn't "cooked" yet.

[PacificDogwod]

I really think I have to step away from this thread now, but fwiw:

goose, I am in no way denying that rationing of health care exists. Of course it does: finite pot of money, there will always be somebody who falls just on the wrong side of what is funded.
However, wrt joint replacements: you do understand that prosthetic joints have a finite lifetime? That joint replacement is a big operation, with considerable risks and that revision surgery 10-15 years later is MUCH more difficult and beset with more risks??
The timing of a joint replacement must always be a fine balance between benefit and risk and if you are not happy with the explanation given to you, or if your pain/functional ability is decreasing, get a second opinion.

As a surgeon said to me when I was being assessed for pelvic floor surgery: "Whenever one operates on anything, we need to be very clear that you can never un-operate. You anatomy will forever be changed. And if anything goes wrong you cannot undo it".

If you do not trust the advice you've been given, get more a second opinion.
IMO and IME, surgeons want to operate but equally usually have the ethical responsibility to be quite clear on what they can and cannot achieve.

Anyway, I'll leave you all to it.
I'm sure once the NHS is entirely dismantled, all our health care is going to be much much better AND will cost us less.

Oh, wait....

[goose1964]

I have something similar with my arthritis, in this area they won't operate until you are 70,as I was told by the specialist that I would have on morphine long before then. , A bit annoying when some people lie about conditions to get some treatment.