To feel angry at celebrating the NHS

[TaylorSwifting]

The NHS is falling apart and today people are all full of glee at the NHS yippee 75 years today, it’s making me so angry!!!!!!!!!
My family member has been diagnosed with cancer, 2 months down the line and has had no treatment and terrible delays for tests…..still yet to see an oncologist. 2 months!!!!!!!!! Family member only has pain management because us family have begged and fought to get it. It is an utter disgrace and I had no idea how bad things were until this awful diagnosis in our own family.
We are not alone / it hasn’t been a mistake or being lost in the system by accident! Record high cancer patient delays - this is what so many people are facing. I am in utter disbelief!
I won’t be celebrating today.

That’s good to know. Thank you.

I think the NHS is pretty good at actually saving lives, utterly shite at quality of life care.

And I think we have the worst of both worlds. Public healthcare quite bad, private healthcare/insurance expensive and restrictive.

How are wait times to see specialists and surgeons?

I wouldn’t be alive without the NHS so I’ll raise a glass to them

When I had back pain it took me a week to see the orthopedic surgeon I picked but I think it depends on your consultant's private waiting list.

It wasn’t shit in 2010 when the Tories got their hands on it. Waiting times across the board were negligible.

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/summary-high-performing-nhs-progress-review-1997-2010-ruth-thorlby-jo-maybin-kings-fund-april-2010_0.pdf

You wouldn't be alive without healthcare. Nothing special about the NHS

Oh wow. Sounds a lot faster than the UK

Have you bothered to research the healthcare systems in Europe, Canada and Australia at all? Their part private(insurance)/part national healthcare systems aren't run on the same kind of private healthcare we have in the UK. They are usually part private/part govt funding, and the private healthcare (insurance) part isn't allowed to exclude pre existing conditions.

Yes it used to be so good. My sister had really bad scoliosis and she was operated on in 2008. She only had to wait a couple of weeks and they even put it in the summer holidays to minimise disruption to schooling. She said she remembers the nurses and doctors being amazing and feeling so safe and reassured. I don't know if the NHS is now too broken for us to move it to back state now though.

@Happyfluffball not having an issue with lack of universal healthcare sounds a bit 'I'm alright, Jack'. And that's putting it kindly.

It wasn’t shit in 2010 when the Tories got their hands on it. Waiting times across the board were negligible.

Yes that's why I posted

Yes this is my memory of it. Waiting lists were lower and there were new hospitals but a hell of a lot of money was spent which meant we then got austerity from the Tories.

Labour spent a lot of money on the NHS but when they left office there was no money left, one of their staff at the treasury left a note literally saying 'there's no money left'.

I agree with that. In the UK private healthcare is so expensive because they can charge very high prices because it's aimed at the richer people. It's basically just good old "rip off Britain".

"Paid for" healthcare in lots of other countries is a lot cheaper because it's usually co funded between government (tax money), insurance firms and with a relatively modest patient charge too!

Have you bothered to research the healthcare systems in Europe, Canada and Australia at all? Their part private(insurance)/part national healthcare systems aren't run on the same kind of private healthcare we have in the UK. They are usually part private/part govt funding, and the private healthcare (insurance) part isn't allowed to exclude pre existing conditions.

I thought that poster was referring to the private medical insurance available to people in the UK today.

@Sweetpeasaremadeforbees the note has been a long standing tradition of outgoing governments for many decades, though the wording varies. It's meaningless. It's just that the Tories are the first government to have used it for political gain. People don't know this, which is tragic.

Oh that old chestnut again. That note was a standing Treasury joke weaponised by the Tories. It was started by a Tory chancellor.

Nearly 50 years on, politicians talk of Reginald Maudling, outgoing Tory chancellor in 1964, bumping into Labour successor, Jim Callaghan, a personal friend, as he cleared his desk. "Sorry old cock, to leave it in this shape," he said. Eighteen months later Labour turned a near-hung parliament into a 100-seat majority. Some joke.

@Blossomtoes

It wasn’t shit in 2010 when the Tories got their hands on it.

Well, I'd expect better outcomes etc when funding was trebled in around a decade! In fact, I think we should have had even greater improvements when you treble spending on something! Trouble was the funding wasn't sustainable. Even Labour said a measure of "austerity" was required around that time, due to unsustainable public spending.

Blair’s government was playing catch up after 18 years of Tory neglect and underfunding. That period was transformational. I know because I worked in the NHS for most of it.

Agree op, it's horrible.
I had a gynaecology issue and waited 9 months for an appointment that took 10 minutes.

It doesn’t here. In countries with social insurance systems eg Germany insurers can’t exclude pre-ex and policies are required to be very comprehensive. Local regulations prescribe what cover has to be provided in a lot of detail.

Hmmm, and I was experiencing it as a user at the same time, and it was really not great then either. A lot of the problems that are really hampering it now were developing then.

Once again it seems top need pointing out that data trumps anecdote.

The NHS is a well funded, inefficient monolith. It needs root and branch reform.🙄

@AgathaSpencerGregson I am not opposed to a social insurance based system per se - I am Dutch. But if you think it will be cheaper for the exchequer, you're fooling yourself.

Not saying it doesn’t - I was just responding to another anecdote.