To think a privatised health service would be an improvement?

[WhiteStars]

At the moment we all have to be grateful for the overstretched and often inefficient service we receive. I had a 9am appointment today with a nurse practitioner. At that time in the morning she was already running 25 mins late on her appointments- how?!

She also couldn't use her computer system so I had to then wait for a doctor to come and issue the standard repeat prescription (I couldn't get this over the phone as needed a blood pressure check). The doctor then issued the wrong medication and only corrected it when I noticed she had done the wrong thing on the screen.

All very minor but not a great service at all really. We all know how over stretched the service is and everyone says it's at breaking point. Why is everyone so against paying for health insurance and getting a better service or going private?

It's not uncommon to hear of people waiting weeks to get an appointment and not being able to book in advance. The government would save an inordinate amount of money that could be ploughed into schools whilst subsidising some health services but with people paying an annual health insurance fee. We already pay for prescriptions in England. I would rather have a better private service than the NHS as it is now- on it's last legs and not really fit for purpose any more. AIBU?

Between me, DP and our two sons we've survived all of these over 20 years:

Breast Cancer
Testicular Cancer
Sepsis
Kidney failure
Brain tumour
Brain surgery
Cochlear implants
Knee replacement
Hip replacement
Blood transfusions x 2
Skin graft

And various other things like broken bones, cuts needing stitches etc.

The NHS is fucking amazing. Wouldn't go private ever.

When Obamacare was first introduced, the BBC did an interview with a woman who hadn't been to the doctor for 25 years.

"They didn't understand that every women goes through labour differently and didn't listen to my needs and what I knew was going on and that just wouldn't have happened in America."

Of course they understand that, a mistake was made is all. That happens in America all the time, just look at how many doctors get sued.

It's a bizarre situation to us here. someone I knew was in a very serious accident the conversations that were happening simultaneously doctors saying that at first they didn't know if he had brain damage then he is likely to be partially paralysed (he was) while also sorting out his insurance and having to instruct lawyers to sell the business as his insurance turned out to be inadequate for the treatment he needed this was all within a few days. I found it really shocking that they were having to taking on money issues while dealing with the terrible shock of what had happened

Obamacare is a great thing though I know many people's polices have risen greatly hopefully it's the start of a fair system of healthcare affordable to all it will take sometime to get to that point

I have come over from the USA and I would honestly prefer paying for the private healthcare

And there is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing that.

OP asked for an opinion and I gave mine. No need to attack.

Wasn't there a hospital that was privatised? The business handed it back going "we can't do it" with no notice.
I can't remember which hospital it was.

I have come over from the USA and I would honestly prefer paying for the private healthcare. The attention and help you receive is so much different.

No, it really isn't. Your experience is not representative of 2 entire countries and 2 very different systems.

I'm not attacking you, talk about oversensitive.

You have just as many private options when giving birth in the UK as you do in the US. You're not obliged to use the NHS!

I'm in Ireland and we pay 60 euro for appointment with gp. The free gp service for under 6 was brought in a year and a half ago, it's a god send with a preschooler but honestly I'm always reading on here about having to wait weeks for appointments in England.
If I ring my gp I either get a same day app or next day if not urgent. This is because we have to pay for service we don't go unless we really need to see gp.
we also pay for private health insurance so if we need to see a consultant we only have to wait two weeks instead of the year long waiting list in the public system.
Also we have to pay for prescriptions.
I think if there was a charge for gp in the uk there wouldn't be such a long wait, even 15 pounds a visit would make a massive difference

I'd like to see people charged for missed appointments.

So would I Chipped. Especially for ones made that day, they havent bothered turning up for.

The prescription service could also do with overhauling, prescriptions in my opinion should be dispensed on production of photo ID and checked against your records.

I was trying to convince one of the consultants at work yesterday about how we need to stop prescribing paracetamol for people in discharge. That they can go to Tesco and buy it for 50p. He was horrified and said why would they do that if they're entitled to free prescriptions, that they will want it for free. But it costs the hospital more than 50p to provide that box of paracetamol and I think we just need to say to people to buy their own, perhaps with infrequent exceptions for genuine hardship but the majority of people can agpfford a box of painkillers.

I used to work in the NHS in one of the busiest departments in the hospital. Due to workloads and patient demand we started offering clinics in the evening, mainly for preoperative assessments because you only needed a receptionist, a nurse and the consultant there to do those. So regular clinic would end at 5pm and from 5pm until 9pm, two evenings a week, we'd do these preoperative assessments. Within a month the extra clinic was cancelled because it had a higher number of DNAs (Did Not Attend) than all of our other clinics combined (we ran clinics 9-5 Monday to Friday and 9am to 12pm Saturday). Those that did call to cancel would do so at the last minute and would cite reasons like "I just got home and can't be bothered to come back out" or "7pm is a bit late in the evening for me". They would then want an appointment during the normal 9am to 5pm clinics to complete the assessment so that their operation could still go ahead. We'd have to squeeze them in, often over-booking the clinics, for that very reason as cancelled surgeries are even more expensive than cancelled appointments (although we'd still get people cancelled those, you'd be surprised the number of people cancelling a surgery the day before because they've decided to go on holiday instead or cancelling on the morning if the procedure because they got hungry and decided to have a big breakfast instead of sticking to the nil by mouth. They then expect it re-booked at their convenience).

Charging for DNAs would be great, people might think twice about just not showing up. If you can't make it to an appointment then call and cancel in plenty of time, it's not hard and that appointment can then go to someone else. It also means that staff hours which could be used elsewhere won't be wasted preparing your file/notes ahead of the appointment.

First DNA - warning letter.
Second DNA - £30 fine
Third DNA - discharged

charging for dna's would only work if the patients are aware of appointments before the appointment.
we frequently receive the app letter aftee the app for dc chronic condition.

Booking should be - go to desk pick an appointment time, receptionist texts you the appointment whilst you are standing there, letter handed over saying what the fee is if you miss the appointment. Reminder text sent 24 hours before.

Whether the NHS actually ever manages such a scheme is of course debatable.
In all honesty though, bed blocking is a bigger issue in my eyes.

If the NHS wants to charge for DNAs, it would have to sort out its admin first.

I've just got home (NHS Consultant on call today).

There were two elective lists running today. Both finished at lunchtime as 2-3 patients/list didn't turn up. That is 5 people who could have had surgery today but didn't because 5 others took the piss.

In the private sector you would be billed.

Anyway I digress. The NHS offers great affordable care. Introducing a marketplace working the system costs more and disadvantages the most vulnerable is society.

All that is needed is the government to start funding it properly. The proportion of GDP that goes on health is much lower than otherEU countries. The USA spends about 4x as much and has massive massive health inequalities. We do not want to emulate their system.

And IMO care is going to get work. Staff have been giving 110% for years and the goodwill reserve is empty. If Jeremy fucking Hunt implies one more time that doctors are lazy I will lose it. I routinely work hours more than I am contracted to per week as do almost all my colleagues.
No one is ever in the private sector when they should be in the NHS. In fact they are much more likely to be stuck in a late running NHS clinic getting their private sector secretary to apologize profusely to the waiting patients.

Many of my colleagues do private work as in London it is the only way to keep afloat financially.

5% of my consultant colleagues have resigned in the last 30months (about 50%of the new appointees) because they couldn't afford a house within the oncall radius of the hospital that offered decent schooling for their kids. Many many of these were two doctor families. The Daily Mail never prints statistics like that!!

Booking should be - go to desk pick an appointment time, receptionist texts you the appointment whilst you are standing there, letter handed over saying what the fee is if you miss the appointment. Reminder text sent 24 hours before

That sounds like a good idea. Quite similar to the way blood test laboratories work where I am - I book a time online and can get the time text messaged to me (or emailed) and get a reminder text the day before. Although I still managed to forget to go to my pap smear with that system so its not quite foolproof...

The way my local health centre operates is that there's two different numbers to call, the first one is for booking non-urgent GP appointments and the wait can be long for those, a week or more, although it varies, you can generally get in the same day though if you choose to see a nurse instead of a GP. The other number is if you need an appointment that day, and you'll be given a time to come and wait but its not the appointment time itself as it depends on how many people need to be seen and more urgent cases go first so can sometimes be waiting just ten minutes and sometimes a few hours.

mummyof2 I live in the Us and had my babies here. People in the UK will lose their child through horrible practices and swear the NHS is still better. When it comes to maternity care the UK is behind Canada, US, France, Germany, Scandinavia and the Netherlands. If you live close to London take a look at the Chelsea and Westminsters private wing. Outside of London you have no choice but to go with the NHS.

opinionated freak The number of people on here who didn't believe that my friend and her DH, both doctors, with twins were skipping meals because they didn't have the money for food was shocking.

supermum I can't fault the birth I had here in the us either .. But I don't know if it's true that the us has better practices than the uk? I was pretty sure the stats show the us has some of the worst maternal outcomes in the world and are in fact behind some third world countries ... I'll see if I can find some of those studies. I've never heard the uk referred to in those types of terms.

Actually at birth maternal outcomes in the US are ahead of the UK. It's later on 9-12 months post partum that there is an issue which is being addressed through WIC and housing plans.

The UK has very different policies when it comes to epidural and forcepts. They will do a CS here and in other European countries before they use forcepts to assist delivery because of the impact to the mothers health in the long run (3rd degree tear and bladder issues) which a CS has much lower issues with.

I also find it shocking how women are seen by midwives in the U.K. Many more women need to be seen by an obn than are. I can't imagine going into a CS under the care of a doctor I've just met. My obn and her two colleagues monitored my pregnancy and the same obn and resident delivered all 3 of my babies. You just don't get that level of care in the UK when it's obvious that you will most probably need a CS.

'At birth maternal outcomes...'should be, 'at birth outcomes'

The US has a far higher infant mortality rate though.

Want2b you're very partisan in these matters so I take your input with pinch of salt.