Just privatise the NHS

[user1237865]

Totally prepared to be told IABU but I've just got to the point where I think the NHS is so far gone it should be privatised.

Totally outing so I've Name changed. In NI we have 2 private hospitals but they don't do emergency's, they don't do ante natal care. Really they only provide you with an appointment with a consultant who will then decide in treatment which in most cases will happen on the NHS. If it's something like cataracts they'll do it but the private hospitals here don't do anything major. Perhaps the rest of the UK is the same. I'm not sure.

Today DSis was sent to A&E by the GP. DM and her have now been waiting 7 hours to be seen. While waiting another man collapsed and died in front of them. I think this is beyond ridiculous how can they let this happen?! If people were seen in a decent time frame this would be less likely.

FIL has terminal cancer again nowhere to treat him when he gets recurring sepsis so most times he sits on a chair (around ever 2 months) for 36 hours getting an IV in A&E before he's finally gets moved to a ward.

I paid for private ante natal care each time I was pregnant. It did give me appointments every 3 weeks and scans with a consultant but when it came to giving birth it was a time when the consultant was working a shift for the NHS thus using their resources and beds. Yes the care was probably therefore cheaper than had I been paying for my stay in hospital too but it isn't an option here.

The whole things a complete joke. Those willing to pay/ have insurance are still stuck blocking the NHS which in my opinion should be there for those that can't afford their own treatment or can't get insurance through their job.

Surely if a lot of it was private, pay would be better, meaning more people choosing it as a career (and not leaving) meaning people actually get proper care! Though so much of what I think could be wrong as I don't understand it all fully.

The problem is actually local council not providing enough social care for those who are doing OK but can't be sent home unless they have some sort of care in place. These are the bed blockers. Get community involvement and clear tge hospital beds, reduce the work loads for the nurses and doctors. Remember that for anyone to form an operation there needs to be free beds.

I think what we need is to abolish private healthcare altogether and put the resources back into the NHS. It's a myth that private healthcare reduces the strain on the public system. Doctors, specialists and consultants regularly split their time between the private and public systems. The more people choosing private healthcare means that these doctors are spending more time in the private system and less time in the public system which results in much longer waiting times in the NHS.

Thank you^

@ScotInExile while I agree with you the drs obviously make more money from private clinics so again it comes back to pay.

@user1237865

Because its a myth.

See here for analysis from the Office for National Statistics.

Sorry, forgot to post the link.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthcaresystem/bulletins/healthcareexpenditureukhealthaccountsprovisionalestimates/2021

@VeniVidiWeeWee your comment shouldn't go unnoticed as you are correct. Another friend is a GP her and 4 other GP's own the practice they each work 3 days a week 9-5 and hire locum doctors to cover the remaining shifts.

Having worked in private theatres, you may get treated quicker, the surroundings and food may be 'nicer', but the benefits end there.

When Labour were in power they started using empty beds & theatre slots in private hospitals to get waiting lists for routine ops down. I had 5 ops in 9 months under this scheme, they need to expand this to get waiting lists down. But instead they make patients jump through hoops, no referral unless you have been to physiotherapy or pain clinic, it must cost more than just treating what is wrong with the patient.

I dont understand how you think I am going to be able to fund private healthcare, when I cant provide to food on the table for my own child?

And I wish I could say I was the only one, but there are thousands of people like me and my family and its only going to get worse.

You also have the fact that disabled people are dying due to benefit cuts and the waiting time for PIP, so the people who most need it, are going to be the people who can least afford it

@Nat6999 but then isn't labour just feeding the private health care market and no doubt charging the NHS more than it would cost the NHS to do the op. While all along it's the same surgeon that would treat you on the NHS?

@sobeyondthehills I think those that have the means to pay should have to pay more so that healthcare can still be free for those who can't afford it/ can't work etc but just those that have the means to pay more paying more doesn't solve all the problems the NHS has

This
We are so lucky to have the NHS

Speaking to people who work surgical theatres, I was amazed by how many operation appointments get cancelled due to no beds being available. They will literally have an empty slot and wait.

Surely you need to know something about politics, taxation, health economics to even try to give an opinion ion and even then it’s complicated.

The Tories who want to to run it into the ground, declare it unfit for purposes, profit form selling it to themselves via their own companies and profit it again from running it by putting profit above patients.

I agree it runs well when funded. But it has been deliberately and systematically underfunded for years. Healthcare isn’t a consumer industry. It has fundamental differences and patients shouldn’t be treated like consumers. Ever. It’s gone poorly for every other industry that was privatised - energy, transport, social housing - all costing loads, making profits for already-rich people from public money and people far more in need of wealth than those it’s going to.

I work in the NHS and never in a million years thought I would say this but I agree.

It’s too far gone. The situation is critical and it’s dangerous. Unnecessary deaths are already happening as a result. Something has to change.

@Eeksteek why do people continue to vote for them then?

You don't know how good we have it. Looking at my friends in America and even in Ireland, the state of healthcare is something else.

And to answer your question about voting in Tories - I live in Scotland and we don't vote them in because of abhorrent actions like this.

I've just thought of yet another problem with the NHS and the current system. I get a cream for my skin on prescription it's expensive around £50 a tube but it has to be prescribed in all honesty I shouldn't get this free my skin isn't causing me health issues it just looks bad. I think I should pay for this. An expense the NHS is forking out for.
Friend gets E45 for her DS on prescription she could well afford to buy it again the NHS is having to pay.

If you had to pay for the cream I get for my skin some people might not be able to afford it and they would just have to suffer which isn't fair but at the same time someone who has the means to pay imo should.

America is always mentioned in comparison but it's not the only country that operates a private healthcare system.

It's not the only one no - but it's the style of private healthcare the tories want us to have - shown by them visiting and "consulting with" USA healthcare companies (at our expense!)

But most GP surgeries are already private. Why are you not all up in arms about that?

Who says we're not? I am!

@downtonupton well said!

@debbrianna you do know that it's the tories behind underfunding of local councils and therefore social care too?

Op the people most in need of the nhs are people like me, disabled, mentally ill and unable to work as a result so on benefits.

I'm already dreading this winter with the cost of living rise as if I'm cold/hungry I'm in more pain and suffer more side effects from meds.

If the nhs is privatised people like me will die prematurely even more often than we already do! Premature deaths have escalated in the last 10 years.

NUMEROUS threads on why people do/don't vote Tory op - I'm not buying your wide eyed innocent act - from Tory hq?

I live in Scotland and we don't vote them in because of abhorrent actions like this.

Yep! Same here never voted Tory in my life never will - but not voting is also giving them a vote in effect (if that's even true)

I think I should pay for this.

Then why don't you? You could go to a private gp or dermatologist for it

Friend gets E45 for her DS on prescription she could well afford to buy it again the NHS is having to pay.

Not even a pharmacy issued medication she could easily just buy it

YABU

What do people on list incomes do? My DH had a private appointment for a very basic thing and it was £400.

OP you said you don’t vote,so stop asking asking about voting!

Why do people continue to vote for a Tory government if they are the ones who consistently underfund the NHS?

Thankfully noone really does here in Scotland but we are stuck with them because it doesn't matter. Main reason behind the independence movement, its not really about tne SNP.

I’m a survivor from a rare type of ovarian cancer. The NHS was brilliant and saved my life. I have to be monitored for the rest of my life, which is all taken care of by the NHS. I am part of a world wide group of women who have the same type of cancer. The NHS wins hands down as far as care is concerned. The American women are regularly refused treatments and tests by their private healthcare providers. As well as having cancer, they have to fight for their right to care. So, no keep our NHS and improve funding and how it’s run.