Cat versus human a&e

[catmummy22]

My cat was a bit poorly last night so I took her to the out of hours cat hospital. I called them at 8 pm and within 1 hour, I had booked the appointment, had her checked over and was back home.
My friend’s mother also took a turn for the worse last night. They drive to a&e at the same time as I went with my cat, but had to wait to be seen until 4 am. Suspected heart issue so quite serious.

I paid 350 pounds for my cat to be seen. I have pet insurance. I really wish I could pay £350 to be seen if I needed a&e too. I rather pay that than wait a. Ight to be seen.

My AIBU is in the different health care offered to pets versus humans in this country. As a human you can’t even pay your way to be seen in an emergency. Brits seem to think as long as it’s free, it’s good, but is it time to start thinking about charging in the NHS too? I think so!

£350 is an absolute fuck-tonne of money for a lot of people…..

Wes Streeting, is that you?

You can pay for a&e - please contact a private hospital who i am sure will be happy to take your money.

For the rest of us, a&e should be free for all, and people should be seen in order of sickness, as they already are. Paying to skip the queue in an NHS hospital is immoral.

LONG LIVE THE NHS

Yabu.

So if people didn't have chunks of coin... They just die instead?

I have insurance. So I only pay £99. I would like the option to pay to not wait 10 hours to be seen.

The NHS is being systemically underfunded and destroyed so that people like you decide it would be better to have a different system thereby making millions for insurance firms.
When that happens, even though there are other models that could be used that work in other countries there’s a high chance we’ll end up with a shitty American style system run by American insurance companies, so look forward to going bankrupt when your insurance doesn’t cover your condition.

I couldn't afford 350 so grateful to the NHS who see us for free in a&e if needed. You don't realize how lucky we are.

I would sincerely hope you couldn't pay your way to jumping an A&E queue just because you have money.

I recently spent 11 hours in A&E with a very sick and relatively young family member (50s).

He was eventually admitted to a ward after spending two nights in a corridor and sadly died last week.

ETA: Imagine how he would've felt if wealthier people could come in and go ahead of him?

NHS is not fit for purpose. You need to rethink the model. The fact it is free attracts people with “broken nails” type complaints. Daughter works in a&e and I hear horror stories about what people come for as it’s free.

There was a thread on this a couple of weeks ago, re cats and vet care vs a and e.

to be honest I’d support a move to an insurance type/co pay system similar to some European countries and others.

Lucky to wait 10 hours to be placed on a trolley on a corridor?

Sorry - I voted by mistake. I agree with you OP.

Hmm, a very similar thread to one the other week.

Private hospitals don't have an A & E but you knew that already, didn't you?

I don’t spend all my time on MN so haven’t seen the other thread. I kicked this off after my experience last night. Cat versus human healthcare in this country. I would like to pay to receive good healthcare. I am not stinking rich. I just don’t think the model of not paying is working.

I work in AE. People coming in with ‘broken nails’ isn’t the problem. We can redirect them to other services or we can treat them and send them home. They might have a long wait, they might fill up the waiting room but they’re don’t need admitting so they’re not the biggest issue. The single biggest problem facing AE is a lack of hospital beds meaning that patients can’t be moved out of AE, clogging up departments with patients who need to be moved to non existent ward beds. This is what puts the pressure on staff, this is what causes the nightmare of patients waiting for hours on a trolley. We don’t have enough beds in the NHS. We have premises that are too small for the populations we serve. We have a massively overstretched primary care service. We have an ageing population with inadequate social care. Fixing all that would cost money though and wouldn’t make millions for private healthcare firms.

There is no private A&E for humans. Are you daft?

I already pay privately for GP, but there is no private a&e’s. Just a&e’s mostly full of drunks and time
wasters.

I agree with you @catmummy22. Prefer my vet to my GP. Fully syppprt a European type co-pay system. We have private health insurance and it's no help in an accident and emergency.

I spent two hours on the pavement in the pissing rain with a broken wrist and broken back and then spent 12.5 hours in A&E, standing room only and had to listen to staff speak to and shout at other patients like shit. And they insisted my back wasn't broken despite an Xray. It was. I'd have happily have spent a couple of grand to avoid that.

Have you done the Perfect Day model? We did at Middlesex and Kings… works brilliantly if there is money to support it. Chromic underfunding is killing the NHS isn’t it.

I think the population of cats and veterinary hospitals compared with people and A&E is the clincher here. I live in a hamlet with a population of 15 people and 1 cat. In our nearest town, there are not one but two vets. Our nearest hospital, however, is an hour away and serves 2 cities and towns/villages as far away as 2 hours. There are way more vets per cat than there are A&E doctors per person here. Because vets are huge profit making corporations who generally put making money over animals. That’s why so many people just have their animals put to sleep instead of paying thousands for care. That isn’t an option for people for obvious ethical reasons, so we have to spread care to achieve the greatest benefit for as many people as possible. There are, however, private GPs and some private urgent care centres who will gladly take your money.

I know all about these issues thanks to my DDs job. I wish I didn’t. I was a much bigger fan of the NHS before I add this insight. People die needlessly every day due to lack of good care.

When you look at the data, most people do not spend huge periods of time sat waiting on A&E. A minority do, and that's unacceptable, but as always, people are more inclined to talk about bad experiences.

It all runs pretty efficiently in my corner of the UK, so there are pockets of good, and pockets of bad.

YES YES YES…say this louder!

This is exactly the problem facing emergency medicine right now.