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!

Ha ha, as if anyone goes to the GP for a sore throat or has done for about a decade!

You’d be surprised

A lot of people who can afford to don’t prioritise their health and hope for the best on the public waiting list.
The delay is life and death though I think a lot of people have health insurance these days, I’d imagine that this will increase while public healthcare declines. It isn’t cheap. It is a few thousand a year, not for the average family.

I’m actually for the NHS privatising select services. My husband has worked across private and NHS healthcare his whole life. But the scope and how to dismantle an ingrained model matters far more than what an alternative model ‘could’ look like – that’s where lala land comes in.

This is turning into the national service debate thread, which was also ignorant.

And this is why most adults in the UK are not receiving adequate dental care

By having people pay who can you’d be injecting money into a system that’s no longer fit for purpose, safe nor humane. There are some heroic people working in the NHS but it’s an awful job watching people die you could have saved if there were beds/doctors etc. Paying would decrease the pressure on the system by creating more beds and more staff.

The issue is that NHS dental care was only ever just about adequate. It was never optimal and my mother always ensured our dental was private. I am 65. Neither of my children had perfect teeth; they were not imperfect enough for the NHS to prevail.

It is sad that some people are now left in pain. Indeed very wrong. However, my dentist has stopped all NHS work, not because of profitability but because the local CCG or Integrated Care Board (or whatever ot's now called) is so difficult and bureaucratic to deal with and puts so many barriers in front of claiming a metaphorical tuppence, he has washed his hands of it.

I read an article recently on how NHS dentistry has been far more liberal than necessary with patients who have good dental health and no risk factors. Through a host of studies it was demonstrated that these patients do not require hygienist or general check ups more than once every two years. Whereas almost all NHS dentists were insisting to see these patients once every 6 months for both hygienist and general check ups. This is to maximise on finding and reduce number of patients. I found the article very convincing.

My local surgery will chuck you off the books if you miss more than one appointment.

But yeah, it should have nothing to do with money.

If you want private healthcare you can have it. You just have to be prepared to pay for it.

There isn’t private A&E but there are private cardiologists/concierge doctors who will see you then arrange admission to a private hospital as required.

It will be a lot more then £350 though.

This is my own experience... but I have an NHS dentist and I am exempt from charges. I have pain and decay. I go for a check up, and it is to tick a box. I get no treatment at all.
The people I know who have an NHS dentist, but they pay... they get treated.