AIBU to think the NHS is bloody brilliant sometimes?

[BarbaraVineFan]

I crushed my finger on Tuesday in a silly accident. Popped a plaster on and hoped for the best, but by yesterday evening it bore a strong resemblance to ET’s finger so I thought I’d better get it checked out. Quick trip to the pharmacy, they advised 111. Called 111 this morning, got through almost straight away, was sent to urgent care.

Went to urgent care this morning and waited about an hour. While I was waiting a chap came round with a trolley giving out free tea, coffee and biscuits. Brilliant! Then i was seen by a lovely specialist nurse who checked for tendon and nerve damage and said i needed an X ray to check for fractures. Waited about 5 mins for the X ray, the radiographer sent the images back to the nurse and I was seen again within 5-10 mins to be told I had a fractured bone in my finger. She put a splint and dressing on and sent me on my way with another splint, some gauze and tape for when I need to change the dressing. At all times, everyone was kind, patient and explained everything to me, I didn’t feel rushed in any way and came out about 2 hours after I went in.

And ALL FOR FREE (I know, I know, it’s not really free, but still!). It just made me think how lucky I am not to live in eg the USA, where a minor injury like this would probably cost me thousands of dollars. Thank you, NHS!

Quite a bit of US care is state funded. Medicare and Medicaid are government programmes. The Affordable Care Act wouldn't have happened without the Obama administration pushing it through. I'm certainly not advocating for their system, but it's not entirely private.

I saw some Financial Times figures a while back showing that UK out of pocket spend on healthcare is rising sharply. That's certainly been my experience. I just couldn't wait any longer for DH's skin cancer to get sorted. The NHS had already been fobbing him off for nearly a year.

YABU and for the following reasons
It isn’t free - we pay for it with taxes.
That’s a good wait time but by no means standard across the board. It should be standard.

Much less of US medical care will funded after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Insurers refuse to sanction medical treatments that doctors prescribe, even in the most blindingly obvious and critical cases.

$2050 billion spend on Medicare and Medicaid p.a. I think that averages to about $6,000 per American if I've done my sums right, although only about 40% of them qualify.

I'm not advocating for the US system. It's wasteful and leads to perverse incentives like people staying in jobs or marriages solely for the healthcare.

I just feel we should all be better informed about the different ways of funding healthcare.

But we wouldn't pay that if we had a European/Nordic style system. How is that so hard for people to grasp ...

And it's not moaning, it's saying it's not good enough. The UK deserves better.

I once read an amazing story how NHS took to court a wife of a young man who wanted to switch him off, because NHS doctors felt he had a chance to recover, whilst she 'wanted to put it all behind her and get on with her life'. I was so impressed, especially after reading all those stories of Alfie and other children who the NHS wanted to 'switch off' from life support.

I had pre-eclampsia, my daughter was born early and very small.
My dad has had prostate cancer for 11 years.
None of us would be walking the earth without the NHS. I’m very happy to pay towards it.

Also I’ve been a cardiac patient for years. My brother had to have chemotherapy quite a while back. My mum has needed support. Imagine our medical bills if we had the USA insurance model!

Can’t say anything negative about the recent experience with DS a couple of weeks ago. DD’s treatment however does leave a lot to be desired.

sk the German and Dutch healthcare system is crap because they just have the same services as us??

They have better healthcare

Anything you can get done in the NHS can be done in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore etc