Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think free healthcare as we know it won't exist in five/ten or so years from now?

166 replies

flashbac · 14/07/2021 10:46

And the NHS bill going through parliament is a confirmation of that?
Proposals are that:

Private companies will be able to offer services without any tendering processes (we know from the PPE fiasco how bad that is for the taxpayer),

the statutory duty to provide hospital services will be removed

private (FOR PROFIT) corporations to play a huge part in shaping virtually every aspect of our healthcare.

There's a demo about it today.

OP posts:
pubble · 14/07/2021 21:02

@Blossomtoes aren't you bored of typing?

Taliskerskye · 14/07/2021 21:04

People don’t want to die., even if they do, it’s a fact.
Do you can’t kill people and very few people want to end their life. Vanishingly few

Taliskerskye · 14/07/2021 21:05

You can’t kill people even

pubble · 14/07/2021 21:08

I'm not that old so appreciate it may change but I'm a bit scared of being in pain & not being able to advocate for myself in hospital etc.

Bargebill19 · 14/07/2021 21:10

But surely we need that discussion? I’m assuming euthanasia not out right murder. At the moment even discussing advance directives and living wills is disapproved off ime. Society expects you to want to live for ever and acts all shocked when you say well actually no I don’t.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 14/07/2021 21:11

@pubble

The fact that we can keep people alive longer doesn't mean we should...

I definitely think it should be discussed, I find it odd that people are so squeamish about it.

It's selfish. It's because we so fear loss we rather selfisly keep someone alive even when their wauality of life is very close to 0. And taht selfishness became a moral and that moral became a standard.
pubble · 14/07/2021 21:13

Id like to think I wouldn't want my parents to suffer. We lost an inlaw last year in a care home but in someways it was a relief.

TheKeatingFive · 14/07/2021 21:17

This was coming looooong before Covid.

But I agree it’s a shame that it never seemed possible to have a grown up discussion about what the nhs should be for and how it should be funded in the 21st century. Politically it appears to be easier to let it collapse. Odd .

SchrodingersImmigrant · 14/07/2021 21:17

@Taliskerskye

People don’t want to die., even if they do, it’s a fact. Do you can’t kill people and very few people want to end their life. Vanishingly few
I heard from many people that in the moments of lucidity people with dementia/Alzheimers/after large stroke etc say they wish they died. My own grandmother said that. Repeatedl before she lost the lucodity. Now she is mostly in.1970.

More people wish to die when they are losing capacity whether physical or mental, than some people accept. Many people wish to die. And I believe that they should be allowed to go in peace and with dignity. Not in nappies and not knowing what year it is and getting randomly distressed because their son isn't there, when he died 10 years prior.

It's not humane. It's a fucking disgrace

Bargebill19 · 14/07/2021 21:23

So given the above discussion, what would that mean for the nhs in the future? Rationing of services so that if you got xyz - no treatment? Or if you reaches a certain age, no treatment? Or something else?

Taliskerskye · 14/07/2021 21:30

@SchrodingersImmigrant
I totally agree with you. But if you ask someone who is in a nursing home. Almost always they don’t want to chose death.

So we now have a form you can fill saying you don’t want any ongoing medical care, but even then it’s over ridden.

My mother said she didn’t want to die. Then she got close to dying and she wanted to live. So we only get rid of people who aren’t lucid enough to make a choice? It’s beyond complex. And in reality I have found very few people want to die.
This is from a care home

Blossomtoes · 14/07/2021 21:32

My parents lived to their late 90s. My dad expressed a wish to die on numerous occasions.

Taliskerskye · 14/07/2021 21:32

Also dementia is a totally different thing. You can’t consent to anything. And before you get to that point you don’t want to die.
It’s horrendous

TheHateIsNotGood · 14/07/2021 21:37

The NHS does need reform in many ways because in its current form it leaks money, taxpayer's money, our money.

Parallel to this is the expectations of the taxpaying public, which appear to be infinite, in terms of expecting NHS Treatment for every ailment. Whilst I appreciate that many want to keep themselves and their relatives alive irrespective of any other considerations, there are times when expensive treatments are futile.

My DM had L4 cancer, aged 78, but still aggressive treatments were used and ended in an early, quick, painful death due to sepsis; my own thoughts were considered an heresy, that really all she needed was help to accept the inevitable and die in peace in her own home with palliative care. Instead she died tubed up in an impersonal HCU environment, after an ambulance, A&E, etc.

The costs to the NHS were not viable and cost many thousands that could have been spent on people that had a good chance of living for many more years.

The NHS has saved my life many years ago, after an accident, and afterwards too, and so much I appreciate that, but there does come a point where we have to accept our own bodies, our own health and the lifespans that 'life' deals us isn't always what we, or our relatives, would prefer.

HollaHolla · 14/07/2021 21:53

@user27424799642256

I'm already disabled and therefore not eligible for private health cover. As soon as you develop a health problem you get put in the dustbin. So I'm fucked.
Sadly... I’m in the same boat here. I really worry about what will happen as I get older, as I’ve not been able to have kids either - so no-one to help look out for me. Time to think of a move to another country?!
BigWoollyJumpers · 14/07/2021 22:00

berkshireandsurreypathologyservices.nhs.uk/default.aspx

Here is a "private" service provided and run by an NHS consortium, contracting out to the local area. They are the reason why we now get blood tests back next day locally to hospitals and GP's. In the bad old days it used to take a week to 10 days.

This service is classed as private as the have contracts with other NHS services and the private sector.

Likewise a local hospital located GP contracts with other GP's to provide ultrasound appointments, which we can now get within a week.

Just for balance and an example of best practice.

A local MRI scanner, state of the art, is located at the local general hospital. Used by both the NHS and the private sector. The NHS do not need to invest upfront, and the private use subsidises the NHS use. The NHS charges them land rent. They are excellent.

Virgin Care do all the local breast screening. They are timely and efficient.

None of this is paid for by patients.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page