Re: Health Care in Your Country (Thoroughly Off Topic)

DaveLaw wrote:

ijuggle42 wrote:

isaac wrote:

So, here in the States, we're going through a debate about having
public option for health care (which some see as the first step
towards socialized medicine). In the debate, the Canadian and UK
systems are often shown as both negative and positive aspects of
socialized medicine. Citing waiting times and rationing care on the
negative and decreased cost and public satisfaction on the positve.

I know there are a fair number of Brits and Canadians on here. What
do you think of your health care systems?

Obviously this newsgroup can not be an indicator of true public
feeling in either country, but I'd just like some perspectives from
real people.





Great question, I would like to hear more too.

Mike

Ok it's time I chucked my tuppence worth in, I'm in the UK and as an
accident prone child had my fair share of visits to casuality, and yes we
moaned about having to wait for a few hours in casuality to be seen, then
many years later my mum needed a knee op and we moaned when she had to
wait a while for that, I can't remember how long the wait was but it was
at least 3 months.

Then two and half years ago I had a car crash, I have hardly any personal
memory of the time from just before the accident to a couple of days
later, although I never blacked out the brain has just decided to blank
that bit of memory, anyway from what I've been told by my partner who was
in the car with me, the emergency services were called, the paramedics
gave me initial treatment in the car, then the fire brigade cut me out of
the car and then the ambulance men transferred me to the ambulance and of
I was on the way to casuality, I wasn't kept waiting, I didn't moan, it
was straight through to an emergency resuss room, then cat and MRI scans,
then there was some operations involving a couple of lumps of titanium and
a dozen or so screws and some very delicate surgery on my radial nerve, X
rays, a week or so in hospital, then home to recover, with frequent visits
back to the consultant for more X rays, then there was the physio and
hydrotherapy, then the nerve testing.

just as things were beginning to look better i rather foolishly fell over
and landed on my arm with one of the bits of titanium in it, an X ray at
my next visit to the consultant revealed that I'd bent the titanium. oops.

A few days later the titanium snapped and my arm went all wobbly, so back
to the consultant, more X rays, "yes it's broken, we'll need to operate
and replace it, I'll just go and see if there's a bed free" he says,
anyway a bit later, there's no bed available for today (Friday), we'll
ring you up next week and let you know when to come in.

Next week sure enough on the Friday I was back in hospital ready to go for
my op, it was delayed. apparently an emergency had come in, I didn't moan,
many delays later the op was re-sheduled for the morning, another op,
another bit of titanium, another bone graft, back home for more day trips
to the hospital for follow physio etc.


So you ask me what are my thoughts on the British NHS.

It's the best there is, yes we moan when we have to wait for a non urgent
op, but when the *** hits the fan (or the car another car in my case)
it's the best there is, I wouldn't want to guess at the cost of all the
treatment I had, but it didn't matter, it was going to be paid for by the
system, I didn't have to check if I was a millionaire or if my insurance
covered me for this bit of treatment or not, and I was no position to do
so anyway.

It's not perfect, but it's the best there is out there.

Sorry for the long winded reply but the NHS is an issue I get a bit
passionate about for some reason :-)

Dave

PS Now fully recovered thanks to the emergency services and the NHS, so a
big thank you to all the UK tax payers who made it possible for me to sit
here and type this.






"you are quite a lucky man." [1]
that is what a doctor told me after my motorbike crash. they cut no
corners and treated me with dignity and respect until i was deemed fit to
leave. i could not be happier with the way it went.

i am stunned at this onslaught of abuse from the USA. there are things
which could be improved, probably things that the USA could work on to.
but what i have seen on the news is wildly untrue claims about the NHS and
is quite raciest at times.

jimi from the uk.



[1] so are by the sound of things ;-]

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