To ask where in UK has consistently good hospital and health care so we can plan a move there in later life?

[Scandala]

We are not ready to move yet (young DC and careers in London) but we won’t be fit forever so I have one eye on the future decade/s.

Inspired by another thread about over-stretched local hospital, I wondered whether there are any hospitals/trusts that are consistently well run, despite current cuts and pressures?

I know nothing stays the same forever but where would you move to based on performance in previous years for later life if you wanted access to hassle-free NHS care?

Are there any areas of the UK that offer great quality of life and great healthcare?

Yes, I believe 1965 was pretty reasonable.

I’ll always speak highly of Addenbrookes (Cambridge) and am fortunate to live nearby.
I’ve been in and out of hospital for the last 15+ years and have always experienced wonderful care by HCP who have gone above and beyond to sort me out!

The whole of the NHS is underfunded, understaffed and poorly run (by the UK Govt, not the NHS hierarchy). None of it is going to get better soon, if ever.
I agree that time-travel is as likely to get you what you want as taking a punt on any area.

Time travel is your best bet. Good luck with that. Or don't get ill, that's a good un

Thank you @GoodnightJude1 . As it happens I do love the area too so worth bearing in mind. I have heard winters in Cambridgeshire can be bleak though.

@heldinadream I do worry you are right, not least because of demographics and a paucity in working age people here. Is the UK destined to get poorer regardless of who is in charge? Just seems we are on a path of managed decline here with the Brexit own goal speeding it all up.

Haha.

I live in a retirement area. The hospital here is really stressed by the older demographic plus tourist influx. It's now in special measures & friends cry if they have to be admitted.

Think really carefully.

But if lots of people do the same those areas will become stretched. I think there are too many variables to predict where will still work well in the future.

You might as well stay in London. Just because a health care trust is performing well at the moment doesn't mean it will still be performing well in 10/20/30 years.

Plus in London we seem to have access to more than one 'big' hospital, so that offers more opportunities.

No real idea. Only thing I would note is that some rural areas can be pretty poorly served. It’s not that the hospitals are no good, it’s just that it can take ages to get there.

for example, I really love Cornwall, but the poor hospital provision is one of the many major factors that would put me off.

Pay BUPA or the Spire for private healthcare would be my advice

A retirement area is not going to be a good bet

Plus I can’t see it improving as the population ageing issue gets worse

Stay close to your dc and maybe they’ll be a benefit when you age - just lower level caring stuff so you’re not too isolated from help

I mean the problems the NHS faces with resources, demand, workforce are fairly universal so you aren't doing to be able to escape those anywhere in the UK unless you can afford to go fully private for everything (and possibly not even then, the private sector is struggling to keep up with hugely surging demand too).

Personally I think the best thing you can do in your old age in terms of access to healthcare is live centrally in a major city, ideally London but also Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Oxford, Cambridge. There you will find (a) several major teaching hospitals and also specialist hospitals e.g. an eye hospital, a neuro hospital, a cardiac hospital - the very best clinical staff will usually be attracted to larger/more specialist hospitals with strong associations with well-reputed universities and this also attracts resources and funding into the hospital. (b) you will have easier practical access to different hospitals and different specialists which can mitigate the impact of changes over time e.g. in London if Guys and Tommys has a disaster and becomes rubbish you could go to Kings or UCLH or Georges instead. Or within a specialism, if you need access to a sub-specialist consultant or simply to see someone different it's much easier in a big department with say 20 oncologists than a smaller hospital with 5 (I know it's not that easy to change hospital or change consultant before anyone leaps on me, but certainly easier than if you lived very rurally with only a DGH in easy driving distance and a single major tertiary centre 50 miles away). (c) you will have much more of a choice of GPs and other healthcare providers within easy reach including on public transport e.g. physio, social care, hospices, voluntary organisations. In smaller towns you are often stuck with what you've got especially for older people with limited mobility.

We're the same in North Wales retirees swamping our health board

I'm in a retirement area and the hospital is filled with 40% of people requiring social care provision. The hospital isn't so much the issue, the lack of care has a huge knock on effect.

Nowhere really but definitely nowhere known as a retirement area.

Surely you are better off in London than anywhere else! Far more NHS facilities in London, so more chance of accessing care.
Yes it’s pretty shit all over, but some places are having a shittier time than others.

Don’t bother coming to Gloucestershire, we’ve totally imploded.

And I'm not being ageist here, it's the prevalence of chronic conditions (common as you age) plus lack of social care that makes things very difficult.

This. I had to leave the town I grew up in because it is full of retirees and students so there isn’t enough council tax being paid to fund basic services and all the medical stuff is overstretched, even the gynae ward was packed with elderly bed blockers. I don’t know how funding is allocated relevant to amount of income tax paid but that’s something to look into as well.

The car parks are perpetually full because so many people can’t walk far and there is very little left for maternity and other services relevant to the economically active younger people who the elderly need to care for them, so the younger ones move away as soon as they can.

We really don’t need people flocking to create age-related ghettoes based on idealised views of certain places, society needs mixtures.

By the time any of us get to old age the NHS will be completely fucked or (most likely), non-existent so doesn’t really matter where you reside. Best to start saving real hard because it looks like only the well off or those with a decent private health scheme will enjoy good health care in the future.

good health care

I was about to say that as well. SW London and have a teaching hospital just down the road whose treatment of my condition has been exemplary.

Stay in London, for the public transport too

@maxelly That is super helpful advice, thank you. Must admit I find it slightly depressing too though to think this is as good as it gets! We have utterly rubbish GP practice and the whole of our part of London is the same as they’ve been put into some sort of chain. The hospital is walking distance but very tired and not one of the ones you mentioned. Also, god forbid you need urgent patient care as you will be waiting in a waiting room reeking of alcohol abuse etc.

Interesting advice from others to avoid the retirement areas…. Does that mean avoid Dorset, Devon, Norfolk?!

I wouldn’t want to live anywhere too rural anyway BUT I do hanker after somewhere cleaner, more beautiful with less of the anti-social grind of London. Is there nowhere in the UK that fits this AND has reasonable healthcare?

also how expensive is private insurance if it’s not subsidised by an employer? Once we are older and inevitably fired we won’t have access to this (not that we avail ourselves of it now as thankfully had little need).

Beneden healthcare is a middle ground between NHS and private. Maybe look into that.