The NHS. We need to fight to keep it.

[Differentforgirls]

My Mil is 87. Last year (around September) she was bleeding from her vagina and went to her GP.

The GP referred her to hospital for tests, which she got quickly.

It was cancerous polyps in her womb so she got further tests to ensure they hadn’t spread and was referred for surgery.

Tonight she has been discharged from hospital after numerous tests over the intervening months and a surgery yesterday (keyhole).

She’ll get follow up treatment too.

All NHS, where she has been treated with dignity, respect and kindness.

It might not be what it was due to cuts but it’s still something we should be proud of.

She’ll celebrate her 88th birthday next month, as an OAP in social housing with nothing but her pension, because of the NHS.

AIBU for thinking the NHS is something to be proud of and fight to keep?

It has huge problems, but yes, we really need to fight for it. We're banjaxed if we lose it.

Why? Are the French, Germans and Swiss “banjaxed” if they get ill and happen to be low paid? Or more accurately, do they receive a better quality of more timely healthcare paid for according to their means, with an element of choice over who provides it? I imagine that very few people in the UK would choose their local NHS hospital over a fully equipped private one.

I have some knowledge of the Swiss system - you can be automatically enrolled on insurance schemes if you don't have insurance, but if you fail to pay, your treatment will be emergency only.
Look at what's happened to dentistry in the UK. Many people simply can't afford to go. The NHS has deep faults, but it is still something that we would be foolish to lose.

I agree that dentistry is an absolute clusterfuck, but you haven’t answered the question. Why would it be “foolish” to lose a system that every single other country in the world manages perfectly well without? And still manages to treat those with limited means to a higher standard than the NHS? I really don’t understand why - other than misplaced sentimentality - British people don’t appreciate how Luddite this sounds. “The NHS” did not save your life/your granny’s sight/your MIL’s leg etc - modern healthcare did, and every other advanced economy also offers it. Most of them offer it in more modern facilities, with shorter waits and achieve better outcomes. Why not just learn from the people who are already getting better outcomes and higher patient satisfaction? To do otherwise is surely British exceptionalism at its worst.

I’ve no time for Farage or any of his moronic entourage - but he’s right about the NHS needing to go.

My dentist improved massively since stopping NHS work. They now have better kit and it is much easier to get an appointment. I once was involved in a ludicrous debate with someone who said they wouldn't pay a professional to look at their teeth because it should be free but yet they were quite happy to pay to have their nails done every month.

We’ve been private for years, but tbh Denplan seems pretty cheap on a monthly basis. Nice things cost money. I don’t understand the “what if people can’t afford Paracetamol” crowd - it’s <30p in Savers FGS.

There is definitely an aversion to paying for things we are used to getting “free” in this country. Nails and facial injections seem to attract an unlimited budget, but any suggestion of paying for dentistry or GP triggers howls of rage. I’d rather have all my own teeth and a few wrinkles, personally.

Yes, of course we need to fight to keep it free for everyone. If Reform get into power in Westminster they want a US style health system where thousands lose their homes every year because their insurance no longer covers their illness. Evil companies like Palantir, should never be involved with the NHS.

It isn't free for everyone. It's free at the point of delivery.

What’s your data on the nails and facial injections?

I think it’s a bit late in the thread for you of all people to start worrying about “data” @Differentforgirls! But I have eyes, and I see many young women - including my cleaner, my nail technician and my physio, along with most of my professional colleagues - who have suspiciously unlined foreheads, duck lips, 3-inch lashes and who wax lyrical about the skin enhancing properties of salmon sperm. It’s almost ubiquitous in the under-30’s, as I’m sure you’ve also noticed. In my day we made do with St Ives Apricot Scrub and Vaseline, but I appreciate things change. It’s laughable to say you won’t pay £50 for a dentist appointment, but £200 for botulism to paralyze your face is entirely reasonable.

Right 😬. So it’s anecdotal. Could be the circles you keep

Oh wait - you have a nail technician ( do you mean someone who paints your nails?) That’s hilarious 😆

Yes it’s entirely anecdotal - rather like your “well I just prefer it anyway” upthread, which made me chuckle.

And notwithstanding “different circles” I cannot accept that you haven’t noticed the tendency towards identikit plastic faces and trout lips, but that’s OT.

Well I have totally shit nails, so they take a bit more than painting, but I’m not responsible for her job title so maybe take it up with her? You can admire her filler and Botox while you’re at it!

I’m 59 with no forehead wrinkles…wondering now if everyone assumes I do bottox 🤣🤣 when actually it’s years of holidaying in Ireland and a good spf

Ah don’t worry @StandingSideBySide if you can still move your brows, everyone knows there is no Botox involved! (I’ve had the forehead botulism myself and know of what I speak!) You must just have VG genes. 😊

Is it your toe nails?

🇮🇪

Westmeath bogland…you can’t beat it 😁

Why??

I've sort of explained elsewhere, but I just don't think a private insurance/payment model will work. The NHS has faults, but it's worth keeping.

The best way to keep it is to give it clear parameters of what it does and does not cover, rather than expecting it to cover everything.

Agree
We should knock corrective surgery for botched cosmetic surgery undertaken abroad on the head for a start
£20,000 average per person with over 1000 people a year

People who go abroad should have to take out insurance to pay privately if there are problems

I agree tbh. I’m 35. I have paid for some treatments but not a lot. I see so many other women who have had loads of work done… a lot of younger women… I wonder how they can afford it. It’s not cheap. I get botox twice a year, that’s all I can afford!

Ironically the young women receptionist at our GP surgery has had such a lot of filler in her lips she literally looks like a duck. Its certainly something the young are doing more and more. I wonder if its something to do with living with parents for longer hence the spare money. I dont get my nails done but cerainly where we are the cheap nail bars which dodgy chemicals and products are rammed. Whether those women can afford it or whether they are crap at budgeting and are wasting money they dont have is open to debate.

Yes on the telly but not in real life.