AIBU to say its not about the NHS?

[Summerhillsquare]

Or the media, or even just this election? I’m just surfacing after 3 days inside with a particularly nasty cold. It’s gone to my chest, and as I’m asthmatic such colds always make me a bit anxious.

But no photo of me on the floor of A&E waiting to be seen.

Why not?

The NHS provides me with good preventative care, despite my GP practice being so busy that people are queuing at 8.30am: medicine at a modest price, appointments I can easily book online, regular tests and a flu jab.

My employer is obliged to give me sick pay, which means I can stay in bed, and recover more quickly without worrying about paying the bills.
My decent pay as a result of my good state education means I could afford to insulate and heat my home (renewably), and prevent cold, damp and draughts exacerbating my asthma.

A decent society and government PREVENTS most problems before they arise. The prevention is CHEAPER than the cure. An even better one might deal with our atrocious air quality so that I didn’t even need the above things.

I will be out to vote tomorrow if I have to crawl to the polling station.

[JasonPollack]

No matter the outcome on Thursday we will be reaping the rewards of the last 10 years of Tory rule for the next 50. Ask any teacher, our young people have been let down and they will be the adults who make up our world very shortly.

[custardbear]

Very good you're living in decent area with the ability to go to the GP easily, and you have a job, and you live a naice life - it's not like that for so very very very many people (including some poor NHS workers!) rose tinted specs springs to mind

[PinkiOcelot]

What’s the actual point of this thread?

[HuloBeraal]

I think what the OP is saying you don’t need to see the photo of a kid sleeping on the floor in A&E to think that we need a safety net for people. That having a society where people can’t be fired at will and lose health insurance, have access to health care and medicines at an affordable price should be the very minimum we aspire to.

[Foslady]

Well I’m glad you have your life.
I don’t.
I gave up my career as it wasn’t child friendly and husband said he had a great pension. Then he buggered off with someone else, leaving me to find work that fitted around childcare.
My state school education hasn’t lead me to a great job, despite taking every applicable course I could find in each job and constantly looking for the next step up, and it’s only in the last few months my employer has given us the right to sick pay rather than the paltry amount of SSP - I’m fact I had to delay treatment for a condition to save up to have time off and still be able to pay my bills.
So yes I suppose you are right - it’s not about the NHS, it’s about the whole bloody shit show of the last 20 years that includes the NHS

[katmarie]

Preventative action is always better than the cure. However, state education doesn't always produce a well educated, socially mature employable individual. It fails people for all sorts of reasons. And those people need safety nets. Not everyone can access preventative medicine quickly and easily. I'm facing a 10 week wait just to have a coil fitted, for example. And yes, my employer is obliged to pay sick pay, but only at statutory minimum rates, and only after 3 days off sick. Being off sick costs money, and when you're on minimum wage, that loss hurts badly. None of that is good enough in one of the world's wealthiest societies.

We have so much more to do to truly be in a position where we're giving everyone a decent chance of lifting themselves up.

[skidley]

I'm sorry, what's the point of your thread? Tour suck, git got meds and paid ti be off work. Well woop-de-doo. In our family, lots of missed diagnosis because drs wont/dont have time to listen and even then you treated for one bloody symptom when they need to start seeing patients as a whole not as a list of symptoms to be dealt with one by one (and wont actually treat symptom #2 until they work out what causes symptom #1). Some of the illnesses (dementia, parkinsons)your going to get if their going to get so no preventative medicine. We have a decent income but also get paid for sick leave. I dread to think how ill some people are turning to for work because they simply can't afford to have no pay for 3 days. And with some illnesses its contagious soo the misery spreads around. We've had good care and bad care with the nhs and much of that is down to personality as much as under funding/overwork and staff morale. But OP, you seem to be ok, so of course the rest of us must be grateful for the system that has helped you be ok. I'm ok too (thankfully) but you know what, it's a quick slide down and I might not be ok again. That and because I dont know what it feels like to try and make a tenner last a week, I'm more than happy to vote for a govt that helps the poor not makes them poorer.