To think it's easier to access high quality medical care for pets than humans?

[Noalcohol26]

This morning my partner came home from work at approx 6:30 to find our cat meowing in pain with a significant limp outside. We rand our vets with an attached vet hospital and arranged to go in. We were in there approximately 15 minutes, with our lovely cat having a full check (thankfully seems to be nothing serious) and sent on our way once they had given her a painkiller. Total cost £200 (will be reimbursable with our insurance). If she had been a human it would have been hours and hours sat in A&E and it's made me feel cross (I work in the NHS so this isn't an NHS bashing thread). AIBU to think something needs to change when I can access this care for my pet but not my (human) family?

It's still better than I'd expect for my pets with no outlay.

I agree we could be doing uthoverhaul but people don't notice how much the nhs gets right because we're so used to it while we'd be effed without it.

Some kind of co-pay system, possibly with employer contributions, as happens in most developed countries, to flatten the cost of premiums and widen coverage.

It's not no outlay! My mother paid tax and NI for fifty years to spend 25 hours falling off a trolley in a corridor last autumn.

You can have that too depending on the employer.

As you say, on a piecemeal basis.

Have a look around - I think I saw one of the premium bank accounts including private GP access.

One of the private providers round us does a subscription service that gives access to private GP appointments.

This is not completely true. There are huge staff shortages in the veterinary industry due to fewer overseas vets coming post brexit and poor retention of experienced vets due to burnout and relatively poor pay for permanent staff. Most practices are relying heavily on locums.

there are a lot of school leavers desperate to go to both vet school and med school and a lot more unis offering spaces. Unfortunately there is a shortage of new grad/junior doctor training places for medical graduates and new grad jobs (with mandatory supervision) for vets - so lots of graduates can’t find work/ end up working in bars and coffee shops and there are still ongoing shortages of fully qualified/experienced medics in hospitals and vet clinics.

The two professions do mirror each other somewhat in this regard. Though veterinary services are private services which are market lead while the nhs has a fixed budget which has to be rationed/shared out amongst an ageing, sicker population.

Yes but no outlay on the day. I pay tax, ni etc as well. I'm happy to have that cover kids and people who can't pay for themselves too.

But it does exist, which is the point. I had private healthcare through my previous employer and we're not talking some highly paid, highly skilled role either - it was lower end management.

We have lots of options in the UK it's just that we're so used to the NHS that nobody wants to explore the other choices.

It's no outlay upfront, though. You can show up to the hospital now and get treated - if you have a pet, it's often several hundred just to get through the door at the weekend.

It's not not wanting to explore them, it's more that not everyone has the same employer as you.

@Barnbrack I should bloody well hope there's no outlay on the day, for spending 25 hours on a bloody trolley.

You are comparing private healthcare for the cat with socialised healthcare for the human population.

Nothing indicates outcomes would be the same.

My cat broke her leg at the same time my mum was as diagnosed with cancer. I received more kindness, more information and better care from the vet. Pity he couldn’t have been the one to break the news to my mum of her diagnosis and look after her instead of a few of the bloody horrible nurses on her ward.

Obviously everyone's standards are different but I would have thought most people would not class repeatedly falling off a trolley in a corridor as "medical treatment".

I don't think I ever said it was okay, did I?

But it's still true that there's no outlay at the point of access.

You don't need to go through an employer - that was just an example. There are lots of options available for private healthcare - as PP mentioned, some bank accounts provide access. You can go "PAYG". You can sign up to prescription services. You can pay for things like Denplan that offers you X and Y per year for a set monthly cost. You can use credit cards (not ideal, but possible). You can pay monthly like you can for animals etc.

No it won’t. Because - outside London - there are no private A & Es. And it isn’t the case anymore that the NHS excels at emergencies. Tell that to those who die in pain waiting for or in an ambulance or in a hospital corridor.

Absolutely bloody this! Currently have an elderly relative in this situation. Emergency at 2am…no ambulance available so taxi to A&E. He’s been in hospital for 2 days now, every Dr that comes tells them something different. No coherent plan, no communication, lots of medical staff saying of “it’s the weekend” or “it’s busy”. No actual idea of what is wrong with him. And a ton of excuses. This shit show is what I pay 7 figures a year in tax for?

It's not just "not okay". It's not even treatment. There was none.

@Buildingthefuture it's shocking isn't it. There were many many points during that 25 hours with my mother where I felt just utter despair. We were in a hospital, but she wasn't being treated, and the only thing stopping her from dying on that trolley was me. It's a terrifying situation to be in, when you realise that, actually, even when you're in hospital, there is just no help. You are on your own.

A friend moved to Australia a few years ago and can access this sort of health care for herself and her dog. Different system there, but still gets most of the cost of hers back.

The NHS could well work better as a different model and that doesn’t mean current NHS or it will be like America. However a lot more public money is invested in some of the European systems.

Public health systems also needs to cover services people won’t pay for under private model ot private health may not cover. I have a friend who is a doctor examining children for abuse and neglect. For our collective safety they need to reach as many people as possible for vaccination and tracing of some STIs who could not pay.

The NHS is not free, but it is free at the point of use unlike the vet where there can be upfront cost and co-pay so not an equal comparison.

I have had excellent care through the NHS. Access to menopause meds. I have had consultant appointments and a dexa scan recently, including an endoscopy. I do have access to private medical insurance through work also. Our Trust is really good. My GP has also improved and they made me an appointment based on the consultant letter a few days before I received it, which meant I didn’t have to chase them up.

I pay £55 private pet insurance for my cat and her teeth need taking out. The insurance won’t cover that (most don’t) so will cost me between £1000-1500 on top. People in the US see premiums double, triple and become bankrupt because they can’t pay their medical bills. They’re even charged to have a baby. Let that sink in. we won’t have a European based healthcare it will be American all the way, if Reform get in.

Your cat insurance is private treatment, the NHS obviously isn’t private. An equivalent private health insurance is easy to obtain but you pay for it in the same way as paying for private pet insurance.

Further to this there’s an article in today’s Times suggesting that you will die or run a severe risk of serious disability if you have a stroke in Scotland at the weekend. Apparently there’s no surgery availability till the Monday morning. Hopefully that’s a localised issue, but who knows?!

it’s not just Scotland either. A German friend of a friend has been left severely disabled following a stroke a few years back which occurred shortly before landing at Heathrow. Despite combined efforts of pilots, doctor on board, air traffic control etc it took hours to get an ambulance and the window for treatment was lost. They think that their equivalent of the British foreign office should put a travel warning on coming to the UK due to the likelihood of severely delayed emergency treatment.