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Hospital

232 replies

Igottastartthinkingbee · 11/01/2017 21:34

Anyone watching? A stunning insight into the running of a busy London hospital. Cannot believe the amount of time highly skilled doctors are forced to waste waiting for beds to become available. And the poor man with oesophageal cancer who's operation was cancelled for the second time. Wow. NHS is at breaking point!

OP posts:
Pomegranatepompom · 02/02/2017 08:21

I suppose I meant afterwards, did not seem very grateful. Also agree, if you have money to fly here, you should pay for insurance.
I do believe we should help people when we can and probably very small percentage that come to uk as health tourists.

EssentialHummus · 02/02/2017 08:37

What I hope this programme doesn't do is add fuel to the fire of the immigrant = scrounger rhetoric which is so prevalent at the moment.

Pomegranatepompom · 02/02/2017 08:47

Absolutely agree. Unfortunately it will to the daily Bile readers.

LouKout · 02/02/2017 08:48

I think it will and has :(

Bestthingever · 02/02/2017 11:46

Before dh became a British citizen, he had to apply for a schengen visa for France. He was required to purchase travel insurance. Why don't we require this?
I have to say the sister of Sonia really pissed me off. She kept saying she'll do whatever it took for her sister but as soon as Terry asked for a 'small deposit' she started with the sob story. She knew fine well there wasn't much that could be done to recover the money. Yes it's a staggering amount of money but even £500 would have been a nice gesture.
Dd (8) made me laugh. She said if someone asked her for money if her dad had just had a heart attack she'd have ripped up the paper! (We watched it on catch up btw she wasn't up that late!)

Sidge · 02/02/2017 13:49

Just watched last night's episode.

What an emotional situation - and so frustrating. I thought Terry actually handled situations pretty well, he was sympathetic and didn't go on and on but his job is to issue invoices and discuss costs with people. Everyone in hospital is unwell, or recovering from surgery - you can't just keep putting it off until they're better as I'm sure there's never a good time. I expect he has a contractual obligation to record evidence of costs discussion and billing. His job would be on the line if he just put them to one side for a few weeks...

Also I expect may patients have no concept that they will be billed for treatment they are not entitled to - I got the impression from the Turkish man's daughter she thought he'd covered by virtue of the fact she was resident. They need to be told pretty early on that they will incur costs for their stay and treatments.

I do think it's outrageous that Sonia and her family, and the Turkish man and his family didn't even make a token gesture of payment. I mean, even offering a hundred quid would have been something.

I can't understand people who travel to the UK without insurance, in the same way I can't understand UK citizens who travel abroad without insurance and then pop up on the front pages of the papers when then have an accident and can't pay their hospital bills and expect the Government or the public to bail them out.

No easy answers.

EssentialHummus · 02/02/2017 13:56

I posted this on another thread, but would like to hear others' views:

I still can't make my mind up about the mum with quads. OK, she had no intention of going near the UK - she'd been forced back from the States. But quads from IVF is an ethical minefield in itself - some physician out there implanted 4 (or more) embryos. And it looks like she was refused entry to the States precisely because she couldn't prove that the hospital she was heading to had agreed to treat her - so was she attempting health tourism in the States, or did she just not have a document that the border force wanted?

I also wondered why these debts were not passed on to debt collectors to pursue. Is it not viable internationally?

Elendon · 02/02/2017 14:16

May the two little ones she lost RIP. Hope Elijah and Esther pull through.

Is there a fund page for the mum? I would like to donate to the hospital. She was extremely brave, all alone going HOME from Chicago - they turned a pregnant woman back. What a nightmare for her.

I know someone who has had twins at a late age via IVF in this country. It's been a similar nightmare, but she hasn't had to face the bill.

Bestthingever · 02/02/2017 14:21

It's funny because Priscilla has had some very negative headlines but when actually got to know her story you couldn't help feel very sorry for her. She is going through an awful situation all alone. It would break a lot of people.

Elendon · 02/02/2017 14:25

This is the difference between one million and one billion.

The NHS spends 100 billion pounds per year. Those who happen to come here without insurance and are treated 455million per year.

Here www.tysknews.com/Depts/Taxes/million.htm

motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/whats-the-difference-between-a-billion-and-a-million-anyway

LouKout · 02/02/2017 14:26

I dont think we have to make up our minds about Priscilla and judge her or not really.

Dulra · 02/02/2017 14:29

I have watched this and think the NHS are right in treating people as they present and not refusing treatment on ability to pay. However I think personal responsibility comes in here both the Turkish and fillipino women were elderly and it was completely irresponsible to travel to another country without health insurance it should be mandatory to enter the UK. I am young and healthy but would never travel without proper travel insurance. The Nigerian women is a different situation she was en route back to Nigeria when she became ill but why did she not have adequate travel insurance? You can get world travel insurance now and again i feel it is extremely irresponsible to travel when pregnant with quads without proper cover.

Elendon · 02/02/2017 14:31

Sorry, meant to name mum: Priscilla.

Elendon · 02/02/2017 14:39

I think the question that has to be asked is why is the NHS so expensive?

I was told by my consultant not to travel to the USA and that the insurance would not have paid for anything that might have happened to me (pre existing condition).

Same will apply now when travelling to the European mainland, though you can still apply for the EHIC card. But not after March.

MrsBotox · 02/02/2017 16:21

We should not admit foreign visitors without health insurance. I can't understand why Priscilla was en route to the USA for the birth - would they treat her for free? Is IVF cheap in Nigeria?
Sonia had obviously been diagnosed with a heart condition before she came here to stay with her sister. Anyone presenting with chest pains is treated and I notice the sister said she was retired 'with a huge mortgage'. The two don't go together. Plane fares aren't cheap either. I think they are taking advantage. Even a small contribution would be something.

awishes · 02/02/2017 17:16

@ssssm isn't it a terrible shame when it's a vocation and they have such high expectations of making a difference.

Draylon · 02/02/2017 17:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

rivierliedje · 02/02/2017 20:31

Elendon The NHS isn't expensive, it's one of the most efficient health care systems in the world. Spend as a percentage of GPD is one of the lowest of the OECD countries and one of the lowest of countries which provide health care to all (the US, which doesn't, has a much higher spend).
The NHS could have tons more to spend if it was brought in line with say France or Germany or something. But for that government needs to spend money on it.

LuluJakey1 · 02/02/2017 22:01

Boston The insurance did pay for the bills for baby Dax and his parents kept the crowd-funding. They publicised it saying the insurance had said they might not pay but actually they then did and the couple kept the money. They were looked after in a free house provided by a Ronald McDonald charity and they did not even give the money to the charity that looked after them. Scammers in my opinion.

Bostoncremecrazy · 02/02/2017 22:28

Oh yuk...that makes the Dax story even worse then :(

LlamaBananas · 02/02/2017 22:57

I thought the Nigerian lady said that she was yold by her ivf dr in Nigeria that their hospitals were not equipped to cope with special care babies/multiple births and therefore suggested she fly to the US.
Absolutely totally irresponsible to impregnate someone without the facilities to cope with the outcome -multiple premature birth. Its no secret ivf can result in multiple birth.
Horrendous situation for that woman to find herself in.

All of those people should have made some kind of payment. Out of sheer gratitude if nothing else. £5 a month or a couple of hundred quid. Whatever they could afford. If people can find the money for a flight here then at the very very least they should be able to offer something to the NHS that they are apparently so grateful to for saving their lives. More of a moral thing than recouping the actual full cost.

Draylon · 02/02/2017 23:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ssssm · 03/02/2017 10:50

@awishes It is a terrible shame - the reality of everyday life on the wards/in clinics is so disheartening - that coupled with the whole Jeremy Hunt issue is hugely demoralising.

Bestthingever · 04/02/2017 16:08

MrsBotox I agree. I noticed she said her sister wasn't suffering chest pains 'any more' which suggested this was a symptom she'd been experiencing for a while. They were so brass necked.

Bestthingever · 04/02/2017 16:15

I understand emergency services need to be free but once someone is transferred upstairs they need to show insurance or give their credit card details. This is what happens abroad.