Whaaattt?

I don't disagree that their private health care is expensive, nor that they don't have the best outcomes - hold our NHS against it as a comparator on the basis that the US can afford $5bn yet can't afford healthcare though... our beloved NHS costs a hell of a lot more than $5bn for a population the size of the US, and I most certainly wouldn't hold our NHS up as any sort of high-bar when the complete opposite is true.

 

It may be enough over the course of a year - however, that would then be ongoing, whereas the expenditure on war is relatively short term. Beside, it is not an either/or situation... look what has happened to the UK where in the past decade or so, the budget has gone from circa £130bn up to £185bn for our NHS and still it yells it is underfunded... meanwhile, our defence capabilities have been utterly decimated to the point it took us over two weeks to get one ship out to the Middle East. If any country (Russia, China being two prime candidates) actually chose to have a pop at invading us, we're knackered.

I cannot comment on the US healthcare accessibility as I haven't used it - nor, frankly, do I give a toss. What I can comment on is the NHS as it has let me, my family, my friends and my colleagues down time and time again. It goes WAY beyond improving efficiency and preventing avoidable illness - it is so bad now it is at a level where basic competence isn't even there. Only this week, one NHS trust has had a mental health hospital closed displacing almost 300 patients to other areas because the failures in care were so critical that the CQC had no choice but to call a halt. It is downright dangerous and the constant burying of heads in the sand, holding it up as though it was some sort of religion, is a massive part of the problem - - if it were able to admit to itself that it was a disaster zone, then maybe some meaningful reform might happen.

 

That and Tony Blair & Gordon Brown's PFI costs. For all Labour's posturing about NHS privatisation, they privatised more of it than anyone else!

 

The negativity has been well and truly earned, believe me.

Funding has increased already, to no avail and I certainly wouldn't be throwing good money after bad - it needs gutting out and reformed first. So much time and money is wasted by the NHS "just because" that is the way it has always been done - and the knock-on effects cause costs elsewhere.

Taking just the experience in our own household...

Last September, after a number of months of stomach issues, I approached my GP for advice/help. Indeed, my stomach has been less than fantastic for a number of years and I've manged it with over the counter medication, but from around March last year through to September there was quite a severe deterioration, coupled with my appetite all but going for a couple of those months, so I thought that I'd be mad not to get professional advice.

GP wanted blood and stool samples, all duly provided within the week and wanted to refer me to the local hospital to "rule out bowel cancer" -- that appointment letter came through last Saturday and the appointment is for September of this year. It will be cancelled as bluntly, if I did have cancer, I'd be past helping or dead by the time I got there. Appointment is not to actually do anything, just to speak to a gastroenterologist. Add insult to injury, on Saturday I got a letter from the NHS - the good old "you are now 50 so we are going to send you a bowel cancer screening kit" -- frankly, they are extracting the urine at this point.

Also myself, December 2024, I fell downstairs, fractured my wrist and smacked my face into a floorstanding speaker - couple of teeth chipped, so contacted my dentist for an appointment. That appointment was finally given at the end of October last year where I learned that I'd actually fractured all of my front teeth at the jaw line, so they had to go. That was then set for end of January. They started taking them out, got to my canines, loosening both and then snapped one in half, so stopped. They ground off the snapped one and said they'd refer me to a specialist and it should be within the next three weeks. Three weeks and two days later, the specialist decided to reject the referral on the basis of my "complex" medical history, so that has now been referred across to a hospital in Weybridge and goodness only knows when it will be. At the time of typing, I have only one canine tooth at the front and a stump of one. No denture as the denture they had made won't fit with those still in place. Hopefully, I will get something of a denture next week and then wait for the rest.

Also during last year, I had a recurring earache, so contacted the GP for advice. Got a message back saying they couldn't help me and said I should go to A&E. Needless to say I responded that I would indeed NOT be going to A&E with an earache and would simply continue to sort it myself.

And they wonder why men don't bother going to a doctor when something feels off???

My other half was diagnosed with gallbladder issues 15 years ago, but they didn't want to do anything with it at that point. Roll forward to early last year and her symptoms were remarkably worse, so she contacted the GP who referred her to the hospital again. A scan in August revealed one gallstone in particular to be an inch and a half in diameter. Referred to a consultant to see what the next steps are. She chased that appointment back at the end of January and was told it would be "at least" 42 weeks before she heard anything. You can guarantee when she does hear something, it will be to see someone for a chat and not to actually have anything done.

That is just our household - we have loads more around the family and friends.

This is what is wrong - you have three, maybe four appointments before something might actually get done... they bounce you from one waiting list to the next to the next and this is how they are massaging their target achievements.

They waste so much money bouncing letters all over the parish, yet seem incapable of sending an email? They can use technology when it suits them to send you a text message for your weight or height, or to try and badger you to download their 'My Care' app (they can foxtrot oscar!) or to invite me for a cervical smear test (I almost booked that one just to see them try!)

NHS and indeed any government procurement is an absolute joke - circa £9 for paracetamol for example and then they squeal they've no money....

It needs hard-nosed battle hardened managers from the private sector to go in and cut all of the fluff out of it and make it work properly. With some, that would be about as popular as a fart in a lift though as they know their cushty wee jobs would be on the line.