Best wishes to your mother in law. The care in extreme cases in the NHS is absolutely amazing. I recently had a new baby that had to spend some time on the neonatal ward and the care was absolutely incredible. No doubt there are amazing people in the NHS that do incredible work. I think in emergency situations the NHS still is fantastic. The problem isn’t the fringe cases though. The problem is the major bulk of the work the NHS does. It’s the tens of millions spent on translators, health tourists and time wasters. It’s the hundreds of millions of pounds wasted on rents and contracts for unnecessary items. It’s the fact that the genuinely brilliant talent is lost to the private sector because of the horrendous working conditions. The entire thing needs a complete overhaul. It needs to put British taxpayers and the quality of care and staff above everything else. It’s far too simplistic to say “in this one instance the care was amazing, that means the NHS is working”.
“Fortunate” is a funny way of saying “you made good decisions relating to your health”. America has its issues but it is still fantastic for those that have a sense of self responsibility
Yes indeed and American healthcare is notoriously expensive and with insurance that often leaves people unable to afford treatment. "The average cost of hip replacement surgery is around $39,000 for a total hip replacement, but can range from $18,175 to $53,750." https://www.carecredit.com/well-u/health-wellness/hip-replacement-surgery-cost/#
Quote: "It’s far too simplistic to say “in this one instance the care was amazing, that means the NHS is working”. " But I guess it's not far too simplistic to say "in this one instance the results were merely a $4,000 bill (!) so that means private healthcare is working"?
No because the median in America is that the health care system is good. It’s awful for those that don’t have the money or don’t plan for their future. But if you have a good job and generally plan ahead it’s great - probably better than here It mostly comes down to how responsible you are for your own well being. For some reason many people seem to be incapable of looking after themselves though.
Yes. You are correct. Our NHS has a huge problem with wasting money on those that haven’t paid in to the system.
There are chronic illness insurances etc. At the end of the day someone still has to pay for the treatment. I am not against socialising some of the payments to help people, but England has gone way too far the other way now in my opinion. We socialise too much of the costs and it means money is wasted. I think it would be good for the nhs if people were charged small amounts for appointments etc. Even charging for missed appointments and wasting doctors time would be a huge leap forward. People need to feel the costs before they appreciate what they have imo
"The US health care system ranked last overall among 10 other high-income countries on key issues such as equity, access to care, and outcome measures, …19 Sept 2024" https://www.ajmc.com/view/us-health-care-system-ranks-last-overall-among-other-high-income-countries And https://news.gallup.com/poll/654044/view-healthcare-quality-declines-year-low.aspx
The problem with charging small amounts, as you put it, is that the costs of the extra bureaucracy involved in the charging completely offsets the money brought in, so it’s pointless. This has always been the case, as for example with prescription charges, which is another waste of effort. The NHS has been tasked with finding efficiency savings ever since the 1980’s, and every government since has made streamlining and efficiency in the NHS a priority. The 14 years of the last administration chose to save money by not awarding pay rises, which along with Brexit, led to wholesale problems with recruitment and retention, and the resulting losses in efficiency, so another waste of effort. Your analysis that everything wrong in the NHS is because of foreigners is, predictably, about as wrong as it is possible to be.
I didn’t say that everything is because of foreigners. That’s you (predictably) misinterpreting my posts. I said it’s one of many issues currently plaguing the NHS. As usual you blame Brexit and the Tories. Aren’t you bored of this? There are real systemic issues which you choose to ignore to try and score political points. This is why we never get anywhere in this country.
Well you chose to blame the cost of translators and health tourism, as well as time wasters, while ignoring issues such as the £19.2 billion spent on drugs in 2022-23, an increase of 8% on the previous year. After wages and salaries, that’s the biggest single cost to the NHS, and the rise is partly due to new medicines for diseases such as cancer coming online. As for Brexit, an estimated 4,000 doctors left the NHS because of the removal of the freedom to work here. That ‘s nearly 3% of the total. Nursing recruitment has shifted from the EU and EEA areas to Asia, which I’m sure makes you very happy indeed. I will defend the NHS to my dying breath. Despite it being a huge, creaking, inefficient sea of bureaucratic waste, it still happens to be, in my opinion, just about the greatest achievement of humankind in the whole of history, and the benefits to the people of this country exceed the disadvantages a millionfold.
**** off Musk. "The world’s richest man, who is a close ally of incoming US President Donald Trump, posted a series of tweets on Thursday stating “free Tommy Robinson” and in another said “a new election should be called in Britain”. "He added that “only” Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party could “save” Britain". https://www.standard.co.uk/news/pol...r-social-media-rant-uk-election-b1202664.html
Hasn't he been bigging up the AfD in Germany too? Too much wealth, too much power, too much attention to idiot ramblings; these international oligarchs need reigning in.
