To wonder if this doesn't upset you, nothing will

[ThirdWorld]

I've name changed for this as it's very identifying.

I live in a small village and and as a treat after a long hard day at work popped into my local pub for dinner.

Lying on the floor was an elderly woman. She was covered with a warm blanket. She had tripped and fallen at lunchtime, and obviously badly hurt herself.

An ambulance was called at 12:30, she is still lying there in the middle of the pub waiting for an ambulance.

I've obviously read about how broken our NHS is and even read the thread on here where a poster had written about her aunt who had fallen and was waiting for about 12 hours for an ambulance. But reading about it and actually seeing it for real is even more heartbreaking.

This poor old woman has been lying on a cold wooden floor for 7 hours! The owners and bar staff have been amazing and are looking after her. Well as much as they can.

I can't tell you how useless I feel. There is nothing anyone can do. The woman has obviously been refusing food or fluid in fear of wetting herself.

I know from reading the thread I mentioned previously that there is nothing anyone can do but wait.

As we left they were getting her a pad to relieve herself. In the middle of a pub!!!

This is 21st century Britain! I don't know what I'm expecting from this thread, am tempted to call the local press to see if the publicity could hurry things along, but that would probably be even more humiliating for her.

This woman has no family and is cold, miserable and in pain lying in the middle of a pub.

I just can't believe our country has fallen to this. God knows when an ambulance will arrive. She will end up getting more dehydrated and probably go into shock. And there is nothing anyone can do.

So distressing to see and my heart bleeds for the poor woman. Just prey that none of your relatives ever have a fall.

Let's hope an ambulance comes soon.

So what's the difference between that and the current UK system?

We pay NI and those who don't get credits and health care?

Well you choose your insurer and your policy. You can pay more to have additional cover, eg additional physiotherapy (more than what’s covered in the ‘basic package’, which is determined by law), can choose additional dental cover, glasses/contact lenses, various other things. Children are covered under a parent’s policy until the age of 18.
I recently had to see a neurologist and the waiting time was about ten days. Then maybe another 4 days for an MRI (it wasn’t urgent). I think I had to wait about two weeks to see a psychologist recently.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not paradise and our health care workers are also striking because they’re overworked and underpaid. The system is overloaded and the flu epidemic this winter had my GP’s surgery struggling to cope. But it does seem to be working better than the UK’s system at the moment.

Also when I say you get the equivalent of tax credits, I mean you have to pay your insurance bill every month and the tax department puts money into your account every month for you to pay it with (depending on your income).

An NHS-style system would definitely be better/fairer if it worked, but this type is much less vulnerable to governments trying to defund it/dismantle it through the back door. If the bloody government would look after the NHS it wouldn’t be in such a state; it’s not that it’s a flawed concept or anything!

IDK - what happens in France, Germany, Italy, Spain... we don't hear of millions of people without access to healthcare so I guess they have a system which works.

Perhaps any mums in European or other countries with insurance-based healthcare systems could give us some details - not US!

I just did above (obviously only for one country though), I don't know if you saw? I don't want to take over the thread!

There will of course be people who don't have access to insurance because they are undocumented/not here legally, but this the same in the UK where some people don't have access to the NHS due to their nationality or lack of legal residency status. There are a few clinics etc in place for these people here, so in practice nobody will actually be refused treatment if they need help but don't have insurance.

I did see, thank you for your comments. It sounds like it works well. Do you pay other similar tax levels as well as your insurance (we always have the argument that we all pay for NHS via NI)?