Health care waiting times

[MrJonno]

I've always found the NHS to be excellent. The only time I've had to wait a long time was when I took my daughter to see a consultant dermatologist. They have this annoying habit of giving everyone a 9am appointment, and you all wait form then to be seen.

Compromises of course have to be made when you treat everyone, conveience to some extent is one of them but combine with relatively generous holidays (compared to the US) in the UK and that most employers are generally understanding its not that much of a problem

[Coito ergo sum]

I agree, every interaction I, my close family or my friends have had with the NHS have been spot on.
IMHO the NHS is worth the money we pay in taxes to fund it.

Here's the thing about private care. It is a requirement for it to make profit (for owners/shareholders). So instantly by choosing private someone has to pay that profit.

http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/topic.jsp?i=66

For 1/2 the cost (per capita) we do not have one twice as worse as the US system.

You've done it now, AB, there's gonna be a statistics war with CES and Seth.....

Not from me, actually. I think if you read the OP, I posted some material from the UK and asked for statistics.

I am not now, and never have been, despite the attempt of many to say otherwise, someone who has claimed that the American system or a for-profit system is the end-all-be-all system or the best system possible. Nor have I been against all health care reform, nor am I against subsidizing health care for the needy.

And, for those that lump me in with Seth, I think Seth even he will say that he and I disagree more often than we agree.

[Coito ergo sum]

Every interaction I've had with the NHS has been entirely admirable. Nothing but good stuff to say about their performance, professionalism and humanity.

Yay for commie-pinko-subversive medicine!

Its the biggest employer in Europe and one of the top 5 or so in the world, you are going to get cockups in any organisation that size but generally it does a good job

Same with the health system where I live, incidentally. There are cock-ups, buts so far every interaction I've had with doctors has been entirely admirable.

[MrJonno]

The statistics for success in medical treatment is actually extremely similar in all 1st world countries (for people who actually get treatment). There is quite a bit of variation in how the data is reported but the same drugs, the same surgery etc is used everywhere any differences in success over the whole population is generally other factors than medical care like diet etc.

There simply arent any wonder drugs which cost a million dollars/pounds and if you take it you live, if you don't you die. The reason for this is quite simply while healthcare varies between private and public throughout the world medical drugs development is all private. No one is going to develop a million dollar cure for cancer as there arent enough millionaires out there to justify developing it.

Probably the only way money could really make a difference in survival rates would be if you could buy organs something that is illegal everywhere

[maiforpeace]

Yesterday I went to the medial clinic for a test. Bastards kept me waiting for HALF AN HOUR! Don't they realize MY TIME IS VALUABLE. I could have been online, proselytizing for Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or Ann Coulter, but no, there I was twiddling my thumbs in a Commie medicare clinic! Shades of Castro.
If we had decent health care, like in America, as the Televangelists point out, if I was rich like a Saudi, I could just jump to the front of queue. How I spend my money, even if on bribes, is nobody's business. Just ask Seth! Vote Republican!

Believe me, we wait here too...I had to go to one of those Doctors On Duty clinics to get a TB test to volunteer in a nursing home, and was made to wait almost an hour to get a simple skin prick. Same long wait when I returned to get it checked, despite the fact that I arrived 5 minutes before the clinic opened. Additionally, if you miss an appointment and don't call 24 hours beforehand to cancel, many doctors will charge you $25-$50 for a missed appointment fee.

Uh, I wuz being SARCASTIC!!

I know you were honey...sadly, I wasn't though.

When you get to know me better you will know that I am 100% in support of Nationalized Health Care. I have family members in the UK and France, I've seen first hand how good it is.

[egbert]

[Coito ergo sum]

Two patients died after being left waiting in ambulances outside an over-stretched hospital.

The patients, believed to have been in their 80s, couldn’t get into the Royal Oldham Hospital for seven and 20 minutes respectively.

They were assessed by ambulance crews as ‘very sick’ and were both suspected of having suffered heart attacks.

The A&E department was so busy that all but the most urgent cases were being sent to other hospitals at the time. All five resuscitation beds at Oldham were full.

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... pital-unit