Felicity McKee, who ironically is a nurse, has moved from Northern Ireland to Wales to get proper healthcare, after getting the brush-off from one health worker after another in her home country. In Wales a patient is nearly 50 times less likely to be waiting over a year for care than in Northern Ireland.
The main reason for the crisis in the NHS is the 2½ years shutdown of the Stormont government because of a row between the two big political parties. There has been no Minister of Health to take the necessary decisions, and the civil servants have had to keep things going as best they can.
The reason I tell you all this is because I dread the possibilities if my trace of prostate cancer turned into something much bigger, or if I developed some other major illness. How long would I have to wait before I got the necessary treatment? Would my health have got a lot worse by then?
Of course there's always the option of going private, but our savings are limited and if I needed major treatment on a regular basis, we simply couldn't afford it. If I arranged a private session with a consultant, the NHS wouldn't accept the consultant's findings and I would still have to wait to see an NHS consultant before I could get any treatment.
In any case I'm strongly opposed to going private (a) because I'm fiercely loyal to the NHS and (b) because if large numbers of people go private and vanish from NHS waiting lists, then the situation in the NHS doesn't look quite so bad.
There are rumours once more of a return to direct rule from Westminster, in which case the situation might improve. But at the moment things look pretty bleak.
*Out of a population of 1.7 million. That's 17 per cent.
Pic: Health workers at Ulster Hospital.
Ever since I arrived in England I have heard numerous complaints about the NHS. Maybe I am exceptionally lucky (and, possibly, exceptionally healthy) but I have nothing but praise for the NHS. Maybe its due to my charms but whenever I needed attention they have sprung into action immediately, be it my GP (who attends to me beyond the call of duty), A&E, or being referred to specialist consultants. I recently had a bit of a surprising blip; now I am being processed in both neuro and cardiology and their various scans and tests so fast I am spinning and so is my diary. It appears that I am not destined to be left waiting on some long list. Don't tell the Reaper.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I am glad to hear you are loyal to the NHS. (English)father-of-son alas is not. He and his American wife will go private over a stubbed toe. Indeed, some twenty seven years ago, he wanted me to go private to give birth to the Angel. So, sure, and been given my marching orders, I did see a private consultant. The funny part being that he was also the Chief Obstetrician at our local hospital. He was frank with me. Sure, he said, and tell your husband, I could charge you a couple of thousand to give birth privately or you could just give birth in a hospital that delivers dozens of babies a day (by which he meant with all the expertise and facilities that comes with it) and under my tutelage. And so it came to pass.
Anyway, good luck with your prostrate. My father had bladder cancer some fifteen years or so ago (he is as good as new). As part of the surgery he also had his prostrate removed - he argued it was a precaution, just in case. Do have to admit that I am not particularly familiar with that part of human anatomy.
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I remember a Canadian blogger who had similar horror stories about the wait for an appointment. I wasn't able to view the article, but how does one wait to see a doctor if you have pneumonia or other life threatening emergencies? It seems to reduce you to third world status.
ReplyDeleteNo thanks! I can only hope to keep privatization here and continue to receive same day appointments.
Ursula: I'm glad you're having such a positive experience of the NHS in Southampton. My sister and brother in law also have very positive experiences in Cambridgeshire. It seems a lot of money has been pumped into NHS England to cut waiting times, but NI hasn't been so favoured, I don't know why.
ReplyDeleteYou were absolutely right to give birth in an NHS hospital, where as you say there's a massive back-up team to cope with any emergency. If there's an emergency in a private clinic, they would probably send you back to an NHS hospital for further treatment.
Most of my prostate was removed during surgery to reduce it because of peeing problems. So hopefully there's not much chance of the prostate cancer growing, but who knows.
Bijoux: Oh, any life threatening emergencies would be treated immediately, you'd go straight to the top of the queue. It's mainly the non-life-threatening conditions that leave you languishing on a waiting list. There's certainly a third world flavour to the current situation.
ReplyDeleteThat is appalling Nick, but as you said in subsequent comment nothing life threatening is put on extended waiting list.
ReplyDeleteTwo tier health plans bother me. I remember this situation in Ireland with one friend going in to the private clinic for her mastectomy and another with no such coverage waiting six months.
Health care for profit gnaws my gut. We only have to look at the US.
What is going to happen in NI anyway with Brexit, etc. The world is changing daily and so is the planet. Worrisome.
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I'm confused. Am I misremembering? I thought you were pleased with your prostrate treatment. How long did you have to wait to get that looked at and to get treatment?
ReplyDeleteNot great in Devon. They shut down my surgery, and still haven't told me who my new GP is, and that was a year ago. I now go to a surgery in the nearest town and see any doctor who's willing to look at me.
ReplyDeleteThey were good at getting me a referral for my tinnitus.
Sx
www: The health service in the Republic is getting worse as well. Long waiting lists, patients on trolleys waiting for a bed, all the same old problems. Goodness knows what Brexit will bring, if it ever happens. Trump is said to have his eye on the NHS as part of a new UK-US trade deal.
ReplyDeleteJean: I was pleased with the prostate reduction surgery once it happened, but I had to wait 18 months for it. I did see the consultant pretty quickly though.
ReplyDeleteMs Scarlet: I gather surgeries are closing all over the UK because so many doctors aren't interested in general practice. And presumably EU doctors are keeping away from the UK because of Brexit and its xenophobic overtones.
I have no complaint with speed or quality of care I receive here in the US. Only the cost is a problem. Insurance grows yearly more expensive and consumes more of my limited income. The cost of drugs is impossible to track and might as well not be covered by insurance for the amount of the staggering co-pay. Yet the information I receive on how much of the cost is covered by insurance is unbelievable. I cannot believe it costs so much to manufacture drugs, and we all are aware of outright fraud, where an epi-pen went from a few dollars to thousands.
ReplyDeleteJoanne: The two things about US healthcare that stagger us Brits are (a) the astronomical cost (b) the fact that so much of the cost falls on the person treated. Whatever its current problems, I'm thankful for the NHS and its "free at the point of use" principle. My prostate operation was free, scans and tests are free, and any medicines I need are free. And even the bus trip to the hospital or the doctor's surgery is free because of my age.
ReplyDeleteYes, some of the drug companies quote outrageous prices for drugs that probably only cost a few pounds (or pence) to manufacture.
It's still the best system in the world x
ReplyDeleteJohn: Well, as an NHS nurse, you would say that! But I must say, my sister and brother in law seem to get excellent service for their various medical conditions.
ReplyDeletein 1979 Bob's cancer and treatment literally wiped us out. we were young and as yet hadn't signed up for our insurance's 'Catastrophic Claus.' seriously! the subsequent surgery and care just erased us! we got excellent care but I wonder now where all the money went. they were STILL ordering tests and xrays when he was in the hospital and I had just been called into the hall to be told by the doctor that he was dying and I MUST accept it. (and they're STILL ordering tests???) what kind of weird horror factory were they running? I stood outside his room and told the Xray technologist to leave. he was very disgruntled and had me sign a paper saying that I refused it.
ReplyDeleteperhaps I shouldn't feel this way but I have the WORST attitude toward the entire Medical Industrial Complex in this country of mine. it's ALL ABOUT THE MONEY. but then everything here is or seems to be. always PROFIT and the bottom line.
Tammy: It must be frighteningly easy to be bankrupted by the stratospheric medical charges in the USA. When I look at a typical US medical bill, the prices seem to be so much higher than the (estimated) cost over here. He was dying and they were still doing tests? That sounds crazy. I'm not surprised you're so angry about the US healthcare system.
ReplyDeleteI guess all you American folk are thinking, so there are long waiting lists? But what the heck, it's all FREE!
ReplyDeleteThe NHS in Southampton were super for my moher...hip replacement at 95, knee replacement at 96, all to keep her independent. Physio when she was lesss mobile when over 100...and a GP surgery who really cared about their patients. Just apalling that since 2012 the private sector have been snaffling NHS contracts, I have no confidence there, feeling it to be just about the money.
ReplyDeleteHere in Costa Rica we have an NHS...the CAJA. Long waits for non urgent, swift treatment for important stuff, and a lot of emphasis on preventive medicine. The last president but two tried to push for private sector involvement and people came out in the streets en masse to protest.
Helen: Hip and knee replacement in her mid nineties, that's amazing! Glad to know there was mass protest when your government tried to woo the private sector. No such mass protest in the UK, I'm sorry to say. In five years Richard Branson has landed £2 billion worth of NHS contracts, and barely a murmur of discontent.
ReplyDeleteThe NHS is wonderful and the way it is being allowed to fail in order to argue that privatisation is the way forward is appalling. It does sound bad in N.Ireland.
ReplyDeleteLiz: The hypocrisy of the government, persistently claiming they have no intention of privatising the NHS, is so transparent. Of course they want their business pals to seize any opportunity to make money out of an essential public service.
ReplyDeleteFREE? Someone is paying for it . . .
ReplyDeleteI assume it is paid through your taxes. Our taxes are already so sky high, I can't imagine having to pay more (my husband currently works till July till he actually gets to keep any of his money - and that doesn't include real estate and local/regional income tax or even our 8% sales tax).
Sorry to rant, but it's a pet peeve of mine when people in the US think that they will be getting 'free' health care or 'free' college tuition if they vote for whomever. Doctors and professors aren't going to be working for nothing.
Bijoux: I take your point, but we call it free in the sense that there is no specific charge over and above what we pay in taxes, like most other public services - roads, refuse collection, pre-college education, libraries etc.
ReplyDeleteDoctors, nurses, professors, teachers etc are paid by the government out of tax income.
Perhaps the word free should be replaced by "tax-funded".