Has the pandemic made you think about your NHS impact?

[reducingfootprint]

Aside from having children, i rarely have doctors appointments. I am the lower end of healthy weight, good blood pressure etc and think overall i must have a low impact on the NHS. I dont smoke, dont drink often but rarely exercise and probably have too much sugar
With covid devastating the NHS has it made you want to change your ways, like stop smoking and lose weight, to decrease your impact on the NHS?
So AIBU to think you should really complain about the stress if the NHS if you have an unhealthy lifestyle?

@seaturtles92 I would love to never have to access it because it's a mismanaged, underfunded bag of shite that lets people down left right and centre. That is not the fault of the individuals using it, that's just what the government wants.you to think so you don't point the finger at them. We all deserve better than the NHS we are saddled with. There are better health systems in the world than our one, sorry to the hero-worshippers - you must have been lucky with the treatment you received but there are plenty of people who aren't and that seriously needs to change.

@reducingfootprint

Aside from having children, i rarely have doctors appointments. I am the lower end of healthy weight, good blood pressure etc and think overall i must have a low impact on the NHS. I dont smoke, dont drink often but rarely exercise and probably have too much sugar With covid devastating the NHS has it made you want to change your ways, like stop smoking and lose weight, to decrease your impact on the NHS? So AIBU to think you should really complain about the stress if the NHS if you have an unhealthy lifestyle?

Those children would have had a huge impact to the NHS in terms of research. In other countries it can cost up to £60k to have a baby from conception to the postpartum period, for a like to like service that the NHS offers. That’s why people from abroad often travel here to pay for care.

If you research

I’m sorry, should my severely mentally unwell DD now add guilt for her NHS patronage to her problems? Or my friend with cancer?
Ridiculous thread.

How can anyone reasonably assess their impact on the NHS?
We are told how much is lost in missed appointments- why does that happen?? (Prior to the pandemic, as well as during the pandemic). People could just pick up the phone and cancel.
We are told how much certain operations cost and training etc.
I have a daughter with serious disabilities. I can tell you that most of her appointments could have been done by Zoom or phone, rather than in some instances, have 4-5 Great Ormond Street consultants and physios sitting around looking at her for 5 minutes.
The NHS wastes its own resources in this regard...
and yes I’d rather it made the appointments rather than not but there’s a lot of waste that’s unnecessary,
In terms of being more healthy for the NHS...?
What the actual fuck???
You do realise that doctors and nurses etc have trained to heal/help sick and disabled or dying people?? Not healthy people!! It isn’t largely an organisation trying to boost health...
That’s a different industry.
And fat smokers who drink pay lots of taxes too..

You also realise too that doing anything “for the NHS” is really doing it for the government...

I’m looking forward to the legal action I’m taking against the NHS teaching the executives a lesson- hiding sexual misconduct by their staff is deplorable, no matter how many fit and healthy people you don’t have to treat!

Thankfully , I've very little contact with the nhs but was happy to avail of the covid vaccine recently. The fairness of the vaccine roll out has really shown the nhs at its best, it's been a huge leveller.

Avoiding the NHS where ever possible was already high on my list of priorities. The pandemic has done nothing but reinforce that decision.

I can’t understand why everyone earning more than £40k can’t pay £10 or £15 for a GP appointment. It would mean more people turn up and contribute to costs. If you’re on benefits or a SAHM or a child under 16 then it remains free.

There must be a reason for this? Does anyone know what it is?

To be clear by “more people turn up”, I mean fewer no shows at the surgery.

I have a chronic health condition not linked to my lifestyle. It requires appointments at my local surgery every 3 months for blood tests and blood pressure monitoring and also check ups and monitoring every 6 ,in this at the hospital. I take medication, via the nhs, for this condition daily, injections weekly and steroid injections for pain control as required, normally 2-3 times a year.)

I have developed very high blood pressure after having covid. The type isn't linked to my lifestyle or health. I will need medication, via the nhs, probably for life plus check ups every so often for monitoring.

In the past I have had infertility treatment, pregnancy treatment and monitoring, an emergency c section, treatment to correct Asherman's Syndrome, ablation surgery for SVT as well as a and e treatment for it in the past. I've has inpatient treatment for pneumonia in the last, and more recently inpatient treatment when I had covid. All of these things weren't caused by lifestyle, weight, etc. I did use the opticians for glasses but paid for laser surgery privately.

So I do use the NHS a lot.
Private treatment would be far too much for it all and unfortunately I'd struggle to get medical insurance at this stage, I'd have had to taken it out when much younger. My arthritis, for example, was diagnosed in mid to late 30s.

I do need to lose a bit of weight - and will aim to do so this year.
However, losing weight won't do anything to prevent my use of the NHS for the above.

That's kind of the beauty of it. Everyone pays in and some people use it a lot and some people hardly at all.

No one knows how much they will cost the nhs. You could have a premature baby, or be diagnosed with a life altering condition. Even if you're so healthy that you have zero risk of getting ill, you could still be hit by a bus. It's not about who gets more from it, it's there for all of us.

porchie I would happily pay £10-15 (maybe even a bit more than that tbh) to see my GP when I need to, as I generally don't need to see them very often. I also feel a bit embarrassed that I don't pay for my prescriptions even though I can afford to, just because I'm diabetic. I think they don't charge because some people would put off seeing their doctor when they need to because they've earmarked that money for something else, leading to a bigger problem needing to be fixed later. As it is, lots of people like me put off seeing their GP because it's difficult to get an appointment around full time work, so if it's not an absolute emergency I think "it can wait til I'm not so busy" until it becomes an emergency. If I could pre-book an appointment for my holidays from work I would (as a teacher it's usually not long til the next holiday, I'm not talking months away). That's one thing my surgery have improved since covid, we now all have access to an online appointment booking system (it's for telephone appointments right now, but they have plans for us to use it to book face to face appointments in the future).

I try not to use the GP, A&E etc unless I really need to but I have an underactive thyroid and pernicious anaemia so require regular medication and blood tests so not much choice there. I have private insurance and would probably use it for anything major or things like physio or mental health care but only because the NHS waiting times are so long. But many people have no choice about using the NHS because of illnesses or disability they can do nothing about.

The sort of people who do waste NHS time and resources won't be the ones who are bothered that they do! They just think its there to use however they like.

Plus the government are purposely underfunding the NHS so they can privatise it and hand out more contracts to their mates. So no matter how much people try to limit their use, there still will be a shortage of availability.

Oh and I do pay for prescriptions. When I say via the NHS I mean an nhs prescription, rather than a private one. I have an annual pre-paid account to cover the cost of my medication.

I don't pay for private appointments as I go so often for my chronic health condition. The cost for all of those, plus the hospital monitoring, and other treatment, etc would be very high and medical insurance to cover it isn't an option.

The SVT ablation surgery is over £10k done privately. That doesn't include the various monitoring, check ups, a and e treatment including drugs needed there, etc. Even on a good salary, without medical insurance, it just isn't really feasible.

The NHS piss money up the wall too (having worked for them for years) - the problem isn’t necessarily the patient but how the NHS is run and who runs it .

Endless, endless waste at ward level; constant mismanagement, and pissing about with paperwork and people in offices - and chronic underfunding . Any other business running that way would collapse in on itself . It’s little wonder GP services are breaking apart tbh .

Blaming the patient for being fat or being drug addicted or an alcoholic is too simplistic and takes the blame away from the people at the heart of the problem - a government that cares more about itself than its citizens .

I'm significantly overweight and have used the NHS a considerable amount but none of it was weight related. I've had 13 abdominal operations and it's those, and the long term effects that come from having so much surgery that mean I'll always need the NHS.

It wasn't my choice to develop an auto immune disease that led to the "choice" of surgery or death.

@Porchie

I can’t understand why everyone earning more than £40k can’t pay £10 or £15 for a GP appointment. It would mean more people turn up and contribute to costs. If you’re on benefits or a SAHM or a child under 16 then it remains free.

There must be a reason for this? Does anyone know what it is?

I think it’s because even if people earn enough that they can afford it they still might be very careful with their money and put off going to avoid wasting money leading to a bigger, more expensive problem. Also I doubt it would make the NHS my money as the vast majority of GP appointments are taken by people who would be exempt from charges-OAPs, people on benefits, children, people earning less than say £40k. Also charging even a small amount goes against one of the founding principles of the NHS-that it is free to access

@lljkk

My hostility to all the control measures and the coercive atmosphere around vaccination certification has made me especially want to avoid all cancer screening & flu vaccines.

I'm trying to convince myself that it's great there will be some kind of effective treatment if I have a terrible accident or cancer (etc), and I should be very grateful for that. I don't want to have any NHS treatment contact otherwise. I feel suffocated not protected right now.

Me too

Thinking about it, actually pretty much the only thing that you choose to do that you 100% know will result in the use of the NHS is have a baby...

I was 8 weeks premature in 1971. It was only because my parents lived in a city with a university teaching hospital with incubators that I am here now.

DD was born by emergency C section.

I have asthma.

So, very grateful for the use I have made of the NHS.

I am a higher rate tax payer, and happy to be so.

I don't worship the national religion of the NHS - the waits are poor, even before Covid.

But - nothing lifestyle related for me.

What about the impact of a whole household having to self isolate if a household/family member has a routine op. How are people going to be able to afford to do this?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4224035-do-you-still-need-to-self-isolate-before-surgery-if-you-ve-had-the-vaccine

I think it's an interesting thought. We never know what illnesses and diseases we may have, and obviously you need the NHS when this happens. But you could take your thought and extend it.

If people, or society enabled us to give individual health a higher priority, and we all took responsibility for factors we can control, could it not only reduce the burden on the NHS but also reduce the impact on the environment.

If we consumed less, drank less, smoked less, ate more natural food with less processing and packaging, we may not need the NHS as much, less medication, which would also reduce resource usage there too.

Obviously there are many 'what about', but I really think these type of discussions are important for the sake of the earth and not disregarded for having too many variables, or being too difficult.

Well I had the good sense not to be born poor and made sure I had sturdy welsh genes. Where do I claim my prize?

I assume that was what you wanted OP?

None of my health issues are lifestyle related so no
Just checked the NHS app and these are my meds just since 2007, and about 70% of them are antibiotics. Shit happens and i have conditions that occurred randomly, out the blue and now have to live with

Honestly, people, no one here has to explain why they are using NHS.

The National Healthcare System is there to be used for whatever reason, not to be just awwwed at from a distance.