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?

@Scandala. Demand may be higher although the younger population demographic probably means different services are under pressure (for example, frequent closures of maternity units). But I would have thought the concentration of services allows for better management of spikes in demand than if there is only one major hospital in a particular area (I might be wrong though!).

we live in north london and my DH went to whittington A & E yesterday. went there at 8 am, was sorted by 12 noon. Pretty ok for today's standards.

You’re better off staying in or near a large city. Anywhere with large retired population will be dire and limited in range of services. I live on Devon/Cornwall border working for large hospital in Plymouth. It’s grim in the whole of Devon and Cornwall. Not as bad as the in-laws in West Wales. We really wish they had retired to Cardiff. Their healthcare provision is a disgrace.

London seems terrible for GP practices but good for hospital care.
We moved to Scotland in the summer and our local GP practice is fabulous. I can get appointments fairly easily on the same day except on a Monday. Only have experience with Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, but they were amazing as well. With the hospital, the only way treatment could have been improved in a fancy private hospital was with Michelin-star quality meals. It really was superb. This was just a few months ago and I was shocked at how amazing it was.

Private or move abroad

@Scandala The GP chain thing is awful. We saw this before we moved. It is an American private firm that runs them and they are dreadful. It is what the whole NHS would be like if it was all privatised.
The GP surgery we are now in is run by a couple of GP partners and dedicated GPs and nurses. They are brilliant.

Erm, Australia? Only semi-kidding, like I say pressures, lack of resources, lack of staffing are real issues anywhere in the country, and can sometimes be worse outside London. I don't think there are many hospital consultants anywhere in the NHS that have an easy ride. Of course lots of doctors do train in London then move out for their own personal reasons but usually that would be to return to their home towns or to the popular areas outside London like the home counties, or nice rural areas, I don't think I can point to any one area that is particularly popular.There is a big push from Health Education England to move more doctor's training posts out of London and major cities to more understaffed areas like Norfolk, the rural North West, parts of the midlands, in the hope those trainees will eventually stay there as consultants but that will take many years to work through in terms of on the ground improvements and many people feel it won't work (already some training posts in these areas go unfilled as some trainees would rather apply to a different training scheme or take a non-training post than move to an 'undesirable' part of the country and it can be a bit of a vicious circle).

I think if you don't want London it's a good call to look at the outskirts and suburbs of more middle sized cities that have very well-respected universities such as Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol, Manchester, York, Exeter as you will usually find good hospitals there are well as nice villages or small towns with easy access to the city?

Your best bet is prevention. Do as much as you can now to secure your physical and mental health & wellbeing now and into the future. No smoking, moderate alcohol intake, regular cardio, flexibility & strength exercise, eating a healthy balanced diet and maintains a healthy weight. Maintain normal blood pressure range. Keep your brain active with reading and puzzles like sudoku. Plus look after your mental health and stress levels, get help as soon as things start to get on top of you.

It is impossible to predict the future. Hopefully the NHS will have become an insurance-based system by the time you retire. But presumably a city would have more options & better access. I am close to retirement & wish I could afford to move to London (for lots of reasons), so why not just stay put?

Addenbrookes has centres of excellence, but overall seems overwhelmed, the population growth has not been matched by increased provision. DS living in London, had treatment there, seemed much better.

The consultants in the major London teaching hospitals don’t tend to move for lifestyle reasons. If they move, it maybe to set up a service or develop research elsewhere but usually within London or possibly to another major city.

Move to another part of London if can afford it. It is not one big homogenous place

If you own your own place in London, I'd sit tight at the moment. Move out when you really need to, because who knows where will be best in the future.

I would agree. It also suffers from right to chose where lots of people flock to the specialists from a broad area meaning that the services are often overwhelmed.
I am under 2 departments there and in general the consultants are excellent BUT access to them is atrocious. At one stage on the major departments in the hospital had 1/3-1/2 its staff off sick for over a year recently - straight from the consultant's mouth.
Above all a good GP is needed. I am not convinced they exist anymore really. My mum died at home with terminal cancer because she had a great GP to support her. The GP did regular home visits while she was dying. She'd known my mum for probably 20 years at that point (maybe more), knew her health issues well.

DH and I go to the Isle of Skye every year via Fort William. Twice now we’ve had to go to Fort William A& E and each time had much the same experience as you!

The NHS is over stretched and under funded but medical care is best in areas where there is a teaching hospital linked to an excellent medical school.

So (sweeping generalisation apart, and from my own experience) London, Cambridge, Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle have medical schools, teaching hospitals and much better healthcare than Durham, Staffordshire, Somerset and North Wales, where there are none.

I have had fantastic healthcare and hospital treatment in Berks (RBH) and Oxon (JR and surrounding community hospitals), as has my family. Couldn’t fault them actually but I appreciate this is purely anecdotal! More generally, Oxfordshire is just a blimmin lovely place to live ❤️

Avoid West/North Norfolk like the plague. Kings Lynn Hospital is currently crumbling and being held up by more than 3,000 metal props. Also West Suffolk has the same problem, but they are at least getting a new hospital in 9 years. There is nothing in the pipeline for Kings Lynn.

Addenbrookes is good, but starting to suffer with the increased population. Our winters are a little bleak North of a Cambridge but the upside is very few people (mostly because it looks bleak 😁)

There are still great GPs, we have one.
But you need to avoid the American health chain GP practices like the plague. I can only assume they suck so much money out for profit, that they have very little left to run the practice. I heard so many horror stories about a very large practice like this where we used to live in England.

Our brilliant GP practice is linked to a teaching hospital. So people training as GPs do placements there. Maybe that is why it is so excellent? Or maybe it has been accepted as a linked GP practice because it is so excellent?

You are better staying in London or another major city. They tend to have a demographic of more young people who move to cities for jobs.

Younger people tend to use healthcare less. You really don't want an area where loads of people retire to as health and social care will be swamped!

Also in rural areas delivery of healthcare is more problematic and expensive

And in cities cleaners, delivery of meals and carers are easier to find than in rural areas.

What fantastic advice. I need to get into shape - really neglected myself these last few years. Basically based on this post I think we are stuffed! No family in this country outside our nuclear unit. So no obvious place to retire to, no network of school or uni chums etc. We are rootless metropolitans!
@maxelly ’s point about not thinking somewhere beautiful is the answer is correct. The problem is we have very little outside of work/education/travel and no time for hobbies outside ferrying DC around! So there is no obvious place to call home.

As for private healthcare, I have just spent 15 minutes on hold for Axa and gave up. Their chat bot online even cuts you off! Emails come back saying ‘we will respond in five working days’. Basically, you can’t even buy your way out of queues!

In the meantime, does anyone have advice for where you can get a type of well woman scan? Would like to explore HRT but not before I know whether I have estrogen sensitivity (cervical polyp found so just want to see if there is anything else going on, very sore breasts before period etc). Maybe that’s a different thread!

Best thing to do is to live in a place where you can adapt to reduced mobility both within your home (eg compatible with a stairlift), close to public transport and you can get to most day to day things on foot without a car eg on a mobility scooter. I have this - supermarket and bus stop 200m, drs 1/2 mile, cafes, library 1/2 mile, active community with drop ins, games afternoons, crafts etc, big city 30 mins on bus (stops by theatre!) for health get insurance!

We live in the north east of england and love it. We have excellent hospitals and decent schools. Close to the beautiful coastline of northumberland and short drive to the Lakes, North Yorkshire and the borders. council tax is high though.