[makkan00]

Originally Posted by Vaheed1

Personally, I think we should be grateful for having the NHS, because care like this isn't available anywhere else in the World for Free. They have a thankless task, that's for sure.

I'll forever be grateful for the tremendous support and treatment i received for my cancer.

Private care isn't any different, just quicker.

Very good comment.
There are many people out there who cannot afford private insurance, and they do get treatment under NHS umbrella.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by SteveC

You pay 40% tax AND National Insurance AND private health insurance if you're insured privately.

Good arguments.
In the whole world NHS is considered as best health care system (FYI).
Although many things go wrong in NHS, but idea is great.

American pays taxes (although less than us) but they have to still have their insurance. I hope people remember that even in states, there were recommendations to start health system like NHS here, but that meant their private health was going to suffer and hence the idea was dumped.

We all pay taxes, and we all are entitle to have NHS treatment. You have every right to ask for your right when you go in NHS.

NHS is not bad, but due to politicians poking their noses in every system and trying to save money, they are increasing pressure on every system.

I must admit that lately, things in NHS are shifted toward numbers and statistics rather quality of care. And I dont know how far our politicians will stretch this system, because at the end we all suffer, directly (as a clinician / patient) or indirectly (relatives / general population well being).

[JLR1969]

Originally Posted by makkan00

I would be very interested to know what you do for living. Are you athletes or does your earnings depend on your athletic activities?

Just to share information, if your ACL was snapped, and you did not want to go back to any sports, you could have lived without surgery.

Did you had arthroscopic reconstruction?

This is typical example where private insurance helps. But if I was you, I would think twice, 'can I live without this surgery?'
Reason being, your ACL deficiency can be compensated by strengthening your muscles. It is not CITICAL (life and death) matter, and hence some people live without srugery.

Well done as your private insurance settled it.

Hello Mate

I decided not to have ACL re-construction as I do not play football/rugby etc, I did have the ligament removed and cartilage trimmed via an arthroscopy as it was slightly torn. I worked really hard at the physio and do a lot of mountain biking so I have strong legs, I recently had a draw test on the knee and the doctor could not believe the ACL was removed as there was practically no movement.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by JLR1969

Hello Mate

I decided not to have ACL re-construction as I do not play football/rugby etc, I did have the ligament removed and cartilage trimmed via an arthroscopy as it was slightly torn. I worked really hard at the physio and do a lot of mountain biking so I have strong legs, I recently had a draw test on the knee and the doctor could not believe the ACL was removed as there was practically no movement.

Brilliant example and I really respect your decision. If I was you, I would have done the same.

Like I said, Quads / Hams can take over the deficiency of ACL and its not always good to have the surgery.

I am not sure if you went through the private or NHS. Lets say if you had to wait 6 months for NHS surgery, it would not had made any difference.
(Except your rehabilitaion was 6 months delayed and its critical if you are top athlete).

In those 6 months, you may have some episode of freezing knee or springy knee, where your torn ligament may get 'stuch' b/w bones, but nothing serious.

Glad to hear your story and your progress. All the best mate

[DrunkenMonkey]

Originally Posted by makkan00

IMO you have done wrong. Sorry and regrest about what happened to your family, but if he was not given medication on time, you should have made a complaint.
There are many black sheeps out in every organization and they get away because we people are so much afraid of complaining. And such sheeps carry on working and destroying others.

What if same nurse did not give medication to another 1-2 patients and they suffered?

Please if you know something went wrongs, always complaint and let the inquire handle it.

In each trust / hospital, there is departments which is know as PALS (Patient advice and Liaison Service) and you can always contact them about any complaints you have.

http://www.pals.nhs.uk/

Dont think that you are trying to be nuisance but think about other patienst aswell.

All the best.

Did all of that mate, PALS, Trust directorate boards everything after the events.

And believe me when we found out about the medication there wasnt a single person working in the hospital that didnt know about it that day.

It is not us that did anything wrong, that's a stupid and ignorant thing to say.

[DrunkenMonkey]

Originally Posted by makkan00

Very good comment.
There are many people out there who cannot afford private insurance, and they do get treatment under NHS umbrella.

How is the NHS free ?????

what the hell is wrong with people

jeez

[DrunkenMonkey]

Originally Posted by makkan00

Good arguments.
In the whole world NHS is considered as best health care system (FYI).
Although many things go wrong in NHS, but idea is great.

Do you realise how wrong you are ? Can you even quantfiy that statement ?

"Although many things go wrong in NHS, but idea is great."

what the hell are you trying to say ???

[Boyd1963]

I really don't rate PMI. My daughter had her tonsils out last autumn courtesy of BUPA. The operation went well and she seemed to be making a good recovery. After about 4 days however she started to bleed. We rang the private hospital where she was treated and surprise surprise they told us to go to casualty at our local NHS hospital. Well they had already been paid so obviously didn't give a f*ck. we got our daughter to casualty where they discovered that she had a huge clot in the back of her throat which if it had burst it could have killed her. She spent a week on an NHS ward before she was fully recovered.

I don't believe that the private hospital made any mistakes during the operation this was just on of the possible side effects. What I resent is the way that private health care dumps all it's difficult cases on the NHS. The whiole model for private health care in the UK only works because they cherry pick the work that they do.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by DrunkenMonkey

Do you realise how wrong you are ? Can you even quantfiy that statement ?

"Although many things go wrong in NHS, but idea is great."

what the hell are you trying to say ???

Hi mate,
Take a chill pill and get your facts and figures right. I am not here to promote Nhs neither correcting mentality of people like you.
You better read health system of world and you will get better idea.
All the beat.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by Boyd1963

I really don't rate PMI. My daughter had her tonsils out last autumn courtesy of BUPA. The operation went well and she seemed to be making a good recovery. After about 4 days however she started to bleed. We rang the private hospital where she was treated and surprise surprise they told us to go to casualty at our local NHS hospital. Well they had already been paid so obviously didn't give a f*ck. we got our daughter to casualty where they discovered that she had a huge clot in the back of her throat which if it had burst it could have killed her. She spent a week on an NHS ward before she was fully recovered.

I don't believe that the private hospital made any mistakes during the operation this was just on of the possible side effects. What I resent is the way that private health care dumps all it's difficult cases on the NHS. The whiole model for private health care in the UK only works because they cherry pick the work that they do.

I also know many Surgeons who cherry pick the surgeries. Any complicated case, they will dump it to nhs.

[DrunkenMonkey]

Originally Posted by makkan00

Hi mate,
Take a chill pill and get your facts and figures right. I am not here to promote Nhs neither correcting mentality of people like you. You better read health system of world and you will get better idea.
All the beat.

No, you're here just to make flippant douche bag comments and judgments without any facts or figures.

Not man enough to apologise for your unfounded ignorant comment ?
Who the hell are you to comment on my situation and turn it around saying I was at fault ???

You ignorant half wit moron.

And yes I've taken that personally, you come here and act as some sort of rep for the NHS - well youve done a great job of representing them :

You are a complete bell end and cannot even manage a sentance, I sincerely hope you arent managing more than a wheel chair in your occupation.

All the best

[Mike in Hampshire]

Originally Posted by Boyd1963

The whole model for private health care in the UK only works because they cherry pick the work that they do.

Spot on Boyd, absolutely spot on.
Things private health care won't touch (not an exhaustive list):
A & E
mental health
long term geriatric care (which is actually often mental heal
cases caused by their own errors
ill people with no money (AKA fellow citizens, even if they don't pay 40% tax and drive BMW's)
training of all the consultants, junior doctors, nurses in the first place

Yes the NHS is imperfect, and yes we all have tales of woe. But at least it asks "can we help you?" not "can we profit from you?"

Mike.

[rich1068]

Originally Posted by DrunkenMonkey

No, you're here just to make flippant douche bag comments and judgments without any facts or figures.

Not man enough to apologise for your unfounded ignorant comment ?
Who the hell are you to comment on my situation and turn it around saying I was at fault ???

You ignorant half wit moron.

And yes I've taken that personally, you come here and act as some sort of rep for the NHS - well youve done a great job of representing them :

You are a complete bell end and cannot even manage a sentance, I sincerely hope you arent managing more than a wheel chair in your occupation.

All the best

Wind it in mate. Your comments are bang out of order.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by DrunkenMonkey

No, you're here just to make flippant douche bag comments and judgments without any facts or figures.

Not man enough to apologise for your unfounded ignorant comment ?
Who the hell are you to comment on my situation and turn it around saying I was at fault ???

You ignorant half wit moron.

And yes I've taken that personally, you come here and act as some sort of rep for the NHS - well youve done a great job of representing them :

You are a complete bell end and cannot even manage a sentance, I sincerely hope you arent managing more than a wheel chair in your occupation.

All the best

No comments. Your comments tell about you.

For your references
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...ess-healthcare

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...the-world.html

I am going to refer to this survey

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Surv...al-Survey.aspx

This survey, which undertakes healthcare research, publishes comparisons of patient’s experiences across 11 nations each November. Respondents in each of the 11 developed countries answered a series of questions about the healthcare they receive by telephone.

The results of these direct reports of real experiences for November 2010 make fascinating reading:

In the context of unsustainable year on year rises in healthcare spending since 1980, the UK still spends a relative low amount (about 8%of GDP) on health, one of the lowest in all of the 11 countries considered.

Of people asked whether, if they fell seriously ill, they felt confident or very confident of getting the most effective treatment, 92% of British respondents with below average incomes agreed and 95% of those with above average incomes. Not only is this the highest number in any of the countries surveyed, it is also the smallest variation between the richer and poorer citizens within it.

Further examination of some of the headline grabbing aspects of healthcare is also surprising.

Whilst only 45% of people in Canada or Norway were able to see a doctor on the same day when they were unwell, 70% in the UK were able to, with only the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland performing better.

Of those needing to attend A&E, only 4% in the UK waited four hours or more to be seen, with only the Netherlands performing better, and 31% of people in Canada waiting for this length of time.

For those needing to see a specialist, 72% of respondents in the UK waited less than one month. This compares to a low of 41% in Canada and a high of 83% in Germany. For planned surgery 59% of UK respondents had their operation in less than one month, compared to lowest number of 34% in Sweden and a peak of 78% in Germany.

79% of UK respondents had experienced very good or excellent care in the preceding 12 months, compared to a low of 43% in Sweden and a high of 84% in New Zealand.

Of course, there are areas for improvement.

38% of UK respondents had difficulty accessing the out of hours care system without going to A&E. (This compares to a low of 33% in the Netherlands and a high of 68% in Sweden). More worryingly, people with below average incomes appeared more affected by this difficulty than those with above average incomes, which is not in the spirit of the NHS.

Although the UK system and GP role mean that doctors mostly (89%) know important background medical information about their patients (compared to a low of 57% in Sweden) and are effective in terms of coordinating peoples’ care (19% of UK respondents reported a problem with lack of care coordination in the past two years, the lowest of all the countries surveyed) the UK and France both scored poorly on communication. Only 59% of respondents in each country report always feeling they had the chance to ask questions about recommended treatments, that explanations were made easy to understand, had enough time and involved them in decisions.

(Another plea for a system where appointments are longer than ten minutes – you probably spend longer than that in the shower!)

Asked about changes to their current healthcare system, only 3% felt that the NHS needed to be rebuilt completely (the lowest of any nation surveyed). 34% felt fundamental change was needed (the lowest of any nation surveyed) and 62% felt minor changes were needed (the highest of any nation surveyed).

Whilst you can obviously criticise the methods of the research or my picking out a few of the variables studied, it does seem to me that we have the only system where the number of people reporting out of pocket spending of over $1000 on healthcare is 0%, where 4% (the lowest of all nations studied) have had problems with access to healthcare due to costs and on a broad range of measures it still meets people needs.

My question to politicians, Do we really need a radical overhaul to improve the situation?


All the best.