Re: I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:01:36 -0500, "David V. Loewe, Jr"
<daveloewe@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:38:05 +0100, Alan Woodford
<alanw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:51:03 -0500, "David V. Loewe, Jr"
<daveloewe@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:16:34 -0400, mike weber <fairportfan@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:40:06 -0500, "David V. Loewe, Jr"
<daveloewe@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 02:56:02 -0400, mike weber <fairportfan@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

If it's contrasting people who *get treatment*, then quite likely it
*will* show an advantyage US - but, consider that, quite probably, a
greater percentage of cancer victims *get* treatment in the UK than in
the US...

WHY do you believe THAT?

Because treatment for cancer in the UK is not predicated in "can you
pay for it", as it all too often is here in the US.

Watching the legions of poor people flood the Siteman Cancer Center,
something tells me this phenomenon is not as prevalent as you
believe...

Besides, we've all read the stories about how Brits don't receive a
lot of tests with any urgency and that leads to many of them having
their cancers advance too far to be treated before they know about
them.

Furthermore, I have a sneaking suspicion that, if I had presented at a
UK NHS Hospital with the classic symptoms of a kidney stone (as I did
here), the confirming scan would not have been a CT scan, but rather
an X-Ray (because the progress scans taken after diagnosis were Lower
Abdomen X-Rays), and my pancreatic tumor would not have been noted and
treated beginning from that point.

You are going to have a hard time convincing ME of what seems to be
your point, given what has happened to ME over the last 12 months.

Another anecdote about how crap the NHS can be.

On a Wednesday evening last year, my main boss's secretary noticed a
lump.

On the Thursday morning, she went to see her doctor.

On the Friday afternoon, she had the lump removed.

On the following Tuesday, the hospital rang her to confirm the
surgeon's opinion that the lump had been benign.

OK, that is the quick end of things, but -thirty years ago-, it took
less than a month for my mum to go from spotting a lump to it being
removed (again, it turned out to be benign)

The NHS is not perfect, but it is not as bad as you are making out.

When one reads stories that British ER patients are kept *in
ambulances* until they can be seen within four hours what IS one
supposed to think?

In an ambulance for 4 hours?
My first thought would be "what ambulance service can afford to have
an ambulance and crew tied up for 4 hours?"

Certainly patients sometimes wait that long to be seen, but it isn't
common, or it wouldn't be news.

And yes, I'm aware that my last point also applies to tales of the
American health system, too.

Alan Woodford
The Greying Lensman
.

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