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?

This.

Your taxes go to general NHS funding. Which pays for everybody, it's not a personal pot.

Well... you could always pay privately for your own health needs too.

I’m not a medical professional but I assume it’s easier to medically treat cats vs humans. A different level of education, logistics, space, laws and ethics. I mean just the size difference of a cat vs a human adult alone, you’re not going to get a full checkup of a human done in 15 minutes. You would expect the treatment of a cat in the same timeframe to be more efficient in time and cost, particularly as you just left with painkillers.

No - you cant - not for emergencies. As stated above, there are no private A&Es in the UK outside London. We’re all doomed in the same way …

You could get seen really quickly at a private GP if you paid £200.

That said, a lot of people can’t afford £200 even if reimbursed, so wouldn’t even take cat in, hence vets have lots of availability.

I have to say, I use emergency hospital care often (I have cancer), so A&E or direct access to the ward. And I have been very pleasantly surprised with how swiftly I’m looked after, from straight in as soon as I arrive to the longest I ever waited was 3-4 hours. But I am genuinely ill and not a time waster and they know I have genuine urgent medical needs, so I do probably get treated a bit differently.

Even our GP though responds to an eConsult in about 5-20 minutes, and I’ve been offered an appointment as quickly as 45 minutes later.

Correct.

✅ Because you are paying for it!!

You wouldn’t need to attend a private A&E in most cases though - you could get a same day GP appointment and they could either treat you or refer you.

@Noalcohol26 because the government have decided anyone can do a doctors job. So they are employing less doctors and more of anything else. Weirdly, having a 5 year degree, 2 years foundation, endless tough professional exams and many years of extra training can not be easily substituted by anyone else. So things take longer, need more visits and so the NHS becomes more inefficient. Almost like they are trying to get us all to go private !

I pay for pet insurance and also vet monthly membership (for which you get the jabs and health check etc). I live near the vets which has a hospital section and is 24/7. My dog can, and has, been seen at any time of the day or night pretty much immediately. Me and DH joke that if we get ill ourselves, we should visit the vet.

In contrast, our NHS GP never has any appointments and if by a miracle you get one, they are dismissive and just send you away with no help. This has had major consequences for a family member.

MN is a social media platform and so everyone focuses on complaints because that is what SM is about.

I found a lump in my breast in January. Used the online GP system and was seen and examined by a GP within 2 days. Seen at the breast clinic within 2 weeks (after contacting them as instructed 5 days after referral and being told they were so busy it could be up to 28 days wait)

Had 2 mammograms and an ultrasound, saw 7 practitioners including a consultant radiographer within 2 hours and sent home with the information that it was a cyst. The clinic was hyper-efficient. everyone was not just professional but lovely and caring.

A family member was diagnosed with cancer last year, had surgery within weeks and given the all clear with future check ups planned.

My Grandmother fractured her hip Nov 2024, surgery within hours, treatment in hospital for weeks then transferred to paid for nursing home which we only paid for for a few weeks as she had another hospital admission and was discharged on end of life pathway which meant the NHS picked up the tab and she died May 2025 after a few months of exemplary care at 92.

We need to address problems in the NHS but many, many systems are working well but not acknowledged on SM.

I also have an NHS dentist with regular check-ups. I did go a year or so without an NHS dentist but once was in post, I was contacted to make an appointment.

It's not all shit but SM focuses on that. Same as it focuses on shit service by Tesco etc when the majority of the time, it works really well for most of it's customers hundreds of thousands of interactions a day.

I don’t know about you but it’s emergencies that most concern me.

Emergency admissions from A and E to other wards are a problem right now as it's Winter and because of bed-blockers but if you just need A and E assessment and care then most of the time, you won't be in A and E for more than 4 hours.

Which is what the OP is talking about. Quick check-up and out because it's nothing serious.

Unfortunately there are more people wanting an NHS GP appointment than there are appointments available. There are private GP appointments if you’re prepared to pay.

Because there is no money given to employ GPs. Lots for nurses, pharmacists, PAs. But doctors ? Nope. Whilst we have 0000s of unemployed fully qualified GPs.

I understand that’s what you think. But our recent experiences with A & E have been appalling and contributed to / caused the death of two older relatives.

Press reports in the Times suggest that this isn’t unusual in Scotland’s A & Es and I know too many doctors on the frontline here and in England to give much credence to political statements about A&E waiting times.

I’m not criticising the staff. God knows, with rare exceptions, they work miracles in a toxic environment that treats its employees appallingly.

I don't think you read my post or didn't comprehend the information?

I said waiting times for people needing admission from A and E are lengthy due to it being Winter and bed blockers. If not, most people seen and sent home within 4 hrs.

Which sounds like that happened to your family members. Elderly people needing admissions from A and E.

So my post was correct.

Its probably because healthcare for Cats and healthcare for humans is vastly different, and obviously private

We put Cats to sleep for a lot of what people are in hospitals for. There's no wards of demented Cats waiting for a care home bed. Or falls risk Cats needing home adaptations. Cats all have carers (at least the ones that make it to the private vets). There's someone to feed them, syringe feed them meds if necessary, someone to clean them and change them if they are incontinent. You don't have bed bound, incontinent Cats needing 24hr care without owners

There aren't Cats in acute mental health crisis, alcoholic cats, cats in police custody. We don't really resuscitate cats.

If we started telling humans "hey you can pay 10k for your hip replacement or be put to sleep" I'm sure waiting lists would be a lot shorter. "Sore foot? Have a cone and some sedatives". A&E would be pretty empty if a)everyone had a carer and b) we put people to sleep in the same way we did cats