That is exactly how our GP runs his surgery Audrey.
Looking at it we don’t really have a national health service now do we ? it’s good in some areas and diabolical in others. Some treatments are offered in some postcodes and not others too.
My area is probably one of the diabolical ones. 5 minute consultations even though I haven’t seen a doctor for the last 5 years or so. There is no distinction between me, and someone who goes every week. I am, or was, a big fan of the NHS and would HATE to see its demise, but the only thing it has done for me in the last decade is provide a referral to a hospital where I need ongoing treatment for a specific thing. I can’t fault the hospital treatment I get.
But to be honest, I can access private treatment if I need to, due to medical insurance, and if the NHS goes on the way it is deteriorating, I will be one of the lucky ones who can do this. I don’t want to have to, really. I prefer the NHS. But the GP service I get, is, quite honestly, pants.
Yes Julie, that is the way it seems to be, some trusts are able to budget better than others demographics play a big part.
Still You don’t want the type of health care model we have. It is employer based and if you are unemployed you do not have healthcare. If you lose your job, you lose your healthcare. It is run solely for the profit of large insurance companies. who up until the Affordable Care Act under Obama could deny health coverage for ANY pre-existing condition. If you went to the Emergency room without insurance, you would be charge quadruple the amount an insurance company would pay for the same service. If you could not pay, you would be taken to court and you could lose everything you owned. Therefore, most are forced into bankruptcy and their credit ruined.
It’s not until Americans reach the ripe old age of 65 do we have any healthcare security with Medicare. AND even that is being eroded by politicians who want to give it to Insurance companies so they can make profit off of the illnesess of the elderly.
I would take your NHS over this system any day. Even if it meant waiting for appointments or surgeries.
Audrey, does Medicaid no longer exist?
Just checked, and it does. So that means there is in fact a means-tested system for those on low income to get state funded care. So it’s not quite as dire as portrayed, although it certainly isn’t great.
Yes it exists… BUT… you have to be VERY poor to qualify. Up until recently, working adults without children could not get Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act changed that, but still the income requirement is so low… a working adult must have below $15,000 annual income to qualify. If families made $1 over the maximum yearly income, the children could get healthcare, but NOT the parents.
15,000 USD = 8740 pounds
Yes… it’s as dire as that… for the reasons I just stated. Many of the working poor have not been able to see a doctor for years… If their employer does not provide healthcare… and they are not mandated to provide it for people working less than 40 hrs per week. Many employers keep employee hours below the 40 hour per work week so they do not have to. They will schedule people for just under 40. People are forced to work 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet, but still do not get healthcare, because they make over the maximum yearly amount to qualify.
Also, if you own a modest home… have a bank account no matter how small… you probably do not qualify for Medicaid. You will lose your house, and savings if you get sick.
We would gladly have your NHS any day…
well what a jolly discussion - do you trust doctors - from where - Russia, England USA, burma, australia etc etc - we are all talking at crossed purpose to no avail - yes it many make a jolly discussion but we are just going around in circles - which doctors are we discussing by the way???
Well I was able to follow the discussion without getting confused. Not sure it was that difficult to know who was talking about what.
Our GP is very good, despite the limitations of time and budget imposed upon her. She actually cares.
My faith and trust in our NHS hospital care has been severely shaken in the past few days however.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, my 22 yr old son was the victim of an unprovoked attack by a group of young men. He was taken to our local hospital A&E (it is a “flagship” teaching hospital btw) for treatment. He had been punched (with a knuckle duster) and kicked in the head several times and had also hit his head on the kerb as he fell. They were concerned about his condition so gave him a CT scan which found bruising to one side of his brain and a slight bleed on the other. As a matter of course, the scan was forwarded as a matter of urgency to a central London hospital (a centre of excellence for neurological medicine). Upon receiving the scan, the consultant at the second hospital contacted our local hospital saying that my son should be transferred to them as a matter of urgency. Instead, they moved him to a ward and put him on a drip and prescribed him Paracetamol and Ibroprofen (which had little or no effect on the level of pain he was experiencing). On Tuesday, he was still showing no sign of improvement and was still in agonising pain, so we insisted on a further CT scan which showed that the bleed had worsened. We have been totally aware of everything which went on as we stayed with him 24/7, sleeping in his room, since Sunday. I stayed with him on Tuesday night and he managed to sleep pretty well (despite the 2hr observation visits from the nurses) but he woke up in crippling pain again. He has not been able to eat since the attack and has been on a drip. On Wednesday morning at about 6.30am his drip ran out and I told one of the nurses who said she would refill it. At 7.30am it hadn’t been done so I told another nurse who again promised to do it. At 9am I told another nurse that he was waiting for it to be refilled and she promised to do it. At 10am a nurse brought a bottle of fluid into the room and placed it on the side, but didn’t hook it up. At that point I had to go home for a few hours, so I said goodbye and mentioned the drip again to a nurse on my way out. When I saw him later he said it was another two hours before the drip was actually running again. In the meantime he was in increasing agony as pain from the injuries was being augmented by pain caused by dehydration. The final straw was that when we got back to the hospital at 2.30pm he was in such pain that he was crying (now he, like me, has a very high pain threshold and usually doesn’t even acknowledge an injury unless a body part is hanging off). When we talked to the staff nurse she checked the records and said he had refused his last three lots of medication. When we investigated further it was apparent that the nurses had simply put the meds on his table without helping him to take them, he had fallen back to sleep and they had taken them away again on three separate occasions. Luckily for him, by this time the consultant at the central London hospital had analysed his latest CT scan and had rung the hospital insisting that they transfer him urgently to them. So, at about 5pm he was hurtling through London under Blues and Twos and put into a room which looked like the command centre of a spaceship (which being a true child of the technological age, he loved). In comparison with what I can only describe as the lackadaisical “care” recieved at our local hospital, the quiet, confident,efficient authority of both staff and doctors at the central London unit gave us a lot of confidence. At our local hospital we had not wanted to leave our son alone for a moment - in his new room at the central London hospital we felt quite confident in leaving him in the charge of the medical staff.
This isn’t a dig at the NHS - far from it, but it is a concern about the level of consistency in care between hospitals in the system.
In the meantime, our overworked, overstretched, under pressure GP has rung us three times since Monday checking on his progress - as I said, she really cares.
So sorry to hear that, MickB, but glad that your son is now somewhere in which you have more confidence. And also glad to hear how good your GP is.
Your tale illustrates the problem with this thread. As I said way back, there are good and bad in every profession, including the medical profession. What we tend to get is anecdotes from individuals who have had bad experiences and sometimes seem to extrapolate these to form their opinion of an entire profession. Which is, of course, ridiculous.
Your GP sounds like a fine example of the many thousands of doctors out there who really make a difference to their patients.
Audrey, I live in Ireland so don’t have the NHS…and here, where the cost of living is considerably more than in the US, the cut off income level for state funded treatment is not much more than the figure you have stated. So there are many here who are probably worse off with regards to healthcare. And it is only when they are over 70 that their entitlement increases. Even then it is means tested so not guaranteed.
Just as ridiculous to rubbish claims of those who have had problems which has happened in past threads. We all talk from our own experiences I think, I mean how could we not do so ?
Julie, I’m not rubbishing claims and I know that you seem to have had really bad experiences with the medical profession in your area. And I’m not saying all doctors are saints. I’m just trying to balance the discussion with the fact that there are good as well as bad doctors. And I’ve certainly experienced both!
Sorry didn’t mean you did it’s just every time anyone makes a negative point it does seem to get rubbished, I know some people here work in the NHS and don’t like their NHS criticised but unless we do speak up how will we get anything made better in the areas where it isn’t good.
We don’t have it good here, and even the local pharmacies are up in arms about it, wrong prescribing is latest complaint.
As I said I wasn’t having a dig at the NHS - I still think it is the one crucially important institution which makes the UK a better place to live than many other countries. But like anything else, we have to maintain vigilance to ensure that (a) standards don’t slip; and (b) creeping privatisation doesn’t replace customer care with profitability/money saving as its main motive force.
A brief update on our son - he has improved more in the 18 hours or so he has been under the specialist care of the neurology team at his new hospital, than he did in four days at the other place. They have already discovered that his issues were caused by a small clot in his brain which they are now treating medically.
Glad to hear the update. Good luck to you all.
I thought your initial post was very balanced, and does indeed show the good and the bad. Unfortunately I think it is inevitable that both (a) and (b) happen, or, rather, continue to happen as they have in recent years.
we all expect all police to be shining examples of good policing; all nurses to be shining eamples etc etc etc - all doctors to be shing examples ; all lawyers to be shining examples and all of US to be shing examples - were does it all stop??
Ps: best wishes for your son Mickb by the way! - nt a situation that anyone of us would want to be in