I hate NHS

You're talking to a political brick wall. Honestly.

It doesn't matter that NHS commissioners are legally obliged to provide contracts to the cheapest offers — private or otherwise — and therefore it makes no difference to the taxpayer. It doesn't matter than privatisation CAN bring efficiency, and for less.

They will still see our argument as being "tory" and therefore worth **** all.

Cheapest offer? Really.

http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Stoke-NHS-hospital-scanning-contract-won-private/story-25444112-detail/story.html

Efficiency. The battle cry of the privateers. The country with the most heavily privatised healthcare system in the world, the United States, is also the least efficient provider of healthcare. Anywhere!

I'm sorry, I'm not going to argue much further with someone who jumps straight to insults. Very clever...

You have produced zero evidence to support your own argument so why should the burden be on me? Provide evidence and I'll be happy to concede the point.

You label me a quack for broaching the macro economic implications, saves you from trying to refute me I suppose.

Good day.

Maria,

I suggest you go live in the good old US of A where you would be left to die before you would be treated if you had no healthcare coverage, where healthcare coverage costs hundreds of dollars a MONTH whether you use the service or not. Or Australia and much of Europe where you have to pay for smear tests, and to visit the doctor.

It sound to me as though you are a drain on the NHS, always at the doctors or hospitals expecting everything to be done free and now. If private is so great (and it isn't love) please use it forever more and everyone else's waiting times will be reduced.


For info, my dad's company provide private health insurance for employees & their families, through BUPA and Spire I had to wait 6 weeks for a small cyst removing. I waited just as long when I got to the private hospital in the waiting room for theatre as I would under the NHS and just as long to get there in the first place, and we paid for the privilege on top. The only reason I went private was because dad's company had already paid the premiums and it saved the NHS some money!

Me too I had X-rays and bloods taken for an appointment I waited months to get. Only to find out when I called about a month later (as I know they can be slow processing letters and referrals etc) that I had been discharged and they had written to my GP staying no further action. Even though she had promised to refer me as she didn't know what was wrong with me. So I'm back to square one with still no idea with what's wrong with me and no idea what my test results were and a cheeky receptionst telling me she was too busy to talk to me. Then transferring me to the doctors secretary who wasn't in left a message and I am yet to hear anything. Guess I'll just keep struggling on until my hips give way so badly that I can't walk anymore, cheers NHS.

Being an outpatient receptionist, we really don't tend to know anything about your test results or what's going on with why appointments are rescheduled or when you'll even get an appointment necessarily as we do what we're told. We're not medically trained and we typically do the grunt work. Secretaries on the other hand have some level of knowledge so it's standard to transfer you to the secretary for test results (which I know where I work we are't authorised to give you anyway so it has to be transferred) and any information on what the doctor has decided as they work directly with the doctor, and if you haven't heard from the secretary I would call her on a different day or at a different time (if you don't have the number call the clinic again and ask for it). Chase it up, don't just leave it. The number of patients that we deal with in even a morning is insane, we and the secretary are very much capable of making mistakes or missing a message and depending how long ago you left the message the secretary might be trying to chase up what's happening.

And generally we are pretty busy, especially for handling something we have no training to do and don't understand. Depending on the hospital and how they staff places it might not even be a permanent member of staff you get on reception, and where I am at least we certainly don't get paid extra to cover supervisors

My experience of the NHS has been generally great.

I've always been able to get a same day doctors appointment and they're always helpful. Admittedly a few years ago my old PCT wouldn't let me have a tonsillectomy, but that changed when I moved to a new PCT. Referrals have always been great too.

I'm not sure why you'd go to see the doctor about a sore throat until it's been around for a few weeks? They usually go away by themselves in a few days. Trips to the doctors for the reason described in OP is the reason that the NHS starts to get clogged up.

I cringe when I see these images. I get what it's trying to do, but it just doesn't work like this.

You need a bit of common sense to interpret these kind of images safely. Unfortunately, when it comes to health, this is something that the general public is lacking.

Can you think of a better healthcare service in the world? The NHS is amazing compared to any other healthcare service in the world. This incident should be blamed at the doctor and not an entire healthcare service. The NHS is saving so many people's lives so to say they should be abolished is just retarded. Some things cant be prevented, death can happen anytime.

I find them really useful and I think that the lack of common sense is what is clogging up A&Es.

So many people are quick to go to A&E, when they really really shouldn't. The thermometer graphic is a quick referral guide and makes people think whether or not they need to go and see a GP or to A&E. That said, 111 might do well to not send people to casualty when it's not needed.



- RF

Have you seen some of the horror stories recently?
Free healthcare is a blessing but i wouldn't call the nhs great in the condition it is now. We are facing a very real crisis in A&Es and ambulance services which this government is doing nothing to improve

Well, I dunno. I can think of many headaches/'belly aches'/back pains/vomiting that could do with being in A&E.

I personally think they do little to demystify health conditions and add to the confusion if anything.

We got people going to A&Es for petty things that are not emergencies. Thus they lose focus on the real emergencies. You will have to blame the people for that not the NHS. Atleast the NHS is trying to make an effort to sort that out. The current government doesn't care about the NHS, why do you think they are making all these cuts. No wonder why the ambulance cant improve.

I'm surprised they mention things like vomiting for the GP. I seem to remember they wouldn't see my dad until they'd established he wasn't contagious. (Ebola, norovirus, etc) I know there are notices up regarding that too.

I had to see the GP over something last year and whilst there mentioned a cough I had. Unfortuantely, because I have asthma, colds and coughs make it worse and they seem to last forever. I was told that really, none of the cough medications work. It's just a case of waiting for it to go.