It appears from the papers that further restrictions are to be placed on availability of procedures within the NHS according to judgment as to ‘erroneous’ lifestyles by the powers that be.
Isn’t it about time the contributing population to said organisation got on their hind legs? Since when is it morally or legally acceptable to decline service to those who have already paid?
Wogs from all corners of the earth are treated free, no effort whatsoever being made to collect payment. Bizarre surgical renderings of people’s sexuality. Tits enlarged or shrunk according to whim. Anything seemingly except hip replacements or eye surgery to render life livable for the elderly, fat or smokers! Especially if they are white!
Last autumn I managed to get pleurisy, again, in the UK. Through the good offices of my hostess I managed to get a same day appointment in Llandeilo, (still get them there, not overrun with gimmigrants.) Poor doctor, I announced that I had pleurisy and asked for a specific prescription of an antibiotic I can use, (totally fatally allergic to most). all of 30 seconds. A quick cursory exam to concur with my diagnosis, out of there in 3 minutes flat! Asked for a bill at the counter, to be told it was free. Not entitled to the NHS said I, being from abroad these days. A bill please. We don’t have the facility to charge! Was the reply. At which point I enjoined my familiar diatribe about taking what was not an entitlement, refusal to be classified as a gimmigrant, plentifully garnished with woggery slurs in a suitably carrying voice etc etc. In an effort to get rid of me they admitted to having a fund for wheelchairs, aids and the like for the poor. So I contributed a cheque for 40.00 as a reasonable conversion from US medicine charges for a short office visit. They were aghast, obviously expected a tenner or something like. I never did get a bill so could not send it on to my insurance company. However I thought it well worth every penny to see the faces behind the desk and the obvious enjoyment of the rapt audience of the waiting room.
Moral of the tale, if a few more people stood up and gave it all some welly from the GP’s office upwards, something might be done. As it is, people in the UK seem to take crap from their doctors laying down, rolling over and playing dead. Which is where you’ll end up sooner rather than later if things are allowed to carry on as they appear to be progressing. My God, none of them would DARE trying to treat their patients like that here. Not even the charity cases on Medicaid.
Boadicea's Chariot 
I don’t buy your last line! You are treated better over there because of MONEY! But on the whole I prefer a system based on welfare, even if the practitioners don’t kowtow!
I know so. I know several people who are disabled, on benefits and are entitled to medicaid which is paid by the state with very low patient contributions who receive excellent attention and are denied nothing reasonable. They are treated just like everyone else.
Illegal immigrants are treated by the hospital and the bill is put on the rates, which is why house taxes are much higher than in the UK.
Equally all over 65 here are entitled to Medicare, which is a state based payment system. Most people carry a private insurer on top of that, but the Medicare pays most of the bills I assure you.
Your information is woefully out of date.
Obviously nonsense like gender reassignment, cosmetic surgery, IVF and other elective surgery is not available on the state and quite right too.
The USA is more similar to France these days, The state picks up the basics and a secondary private insurance picks up the rest. Patients generally end up paying no more than ten percent of the bills themselves these days.
A lot of trash is peddled in the EU about medical stuff in the USA, Yes, it was so in the past but not now.This crap is promulgated by governments to stop people from demanding reform in state medicine.
Plus it is not a matter of kowtowing. It is running appointments to time, being able to get appointments in the first place. Getting tests done automatically and getting the courtesy of someone ringing you with the results. etc etc.
Last week I had a routine CT scan which I have every year before I see my pulmonologist. I was in the building precisely 9 minutes, job done, and the parking was free, try that in the UK!
Your data on the UK seems anecdotal, read Daily Mail. How much does it cost to see your pulmonologist?
PS Read articles.mercola.com – 10 ways the American healthcare system fails. Your views aee obviously not shared!
About $150.00 but the govt picks that up.
Lung tests about $200.00
CT scan about $300.
But I guess we get sent a bill for 60-80 , the rest is picked up by Medicare and the insurance.
The govt dictates how much it will pay for certain procedures, the doctors have to be happy with that or withdraw completely from the scheme and lose patients.
Mercola is an alternative medicine freak for God’s sakes!!! Definitely not covered by any govt. scheme!
A Prince Charles style nutter, really Janus!!
Tina, the headlines on this are a bit misleading. This latest, and they have been muttering about this for ages, is just a proposal from one hospital trust, who like many have wildly exceeded their budget. It’s a cost cutting exercise.
As far as I can tell, it is not yet government policy.
Regarding your experiences with not charging, apparently it costs too much to collect and added paperwork for the GPs. I’m not entirely sure I believe that though.
As far as the NHS goes, I have luckily not needed their services much. I avoid doctors and hospitals like the plague. I also have private medical insurance which is hideously expensive but I have only had a couple of claims on that for the last thirty years. I can guarantee that the moment I decide to cancel it though, I will probably succumb to something ghastly, so I better keep paying!
It is all very well some ‘right on’, nannying NHS Trust asserting that lifestyle choices dictate whether an obese smoker is treated or not. Anyway, It does not seem to prevent some lycra-clad pie magnet who has probably never paid a penny of national insurance in her miserable life getting a free gastric bypass and boob realignment surgery ‘cos I got rites, innit, nor a rich health tourist with a dickey hip or imminent triplets flying in for treatment before buggering off back to Lagos or Marrakech or wherever leaving the UK taxpayer to foot the bill.
I would support such actions only if said Trust had the ‘courage’ also to deny, for example, a liver transplant to an alcoholic ‘celebrity’ such as George Best before his wholly avoidable demise or antiretroviral drugs and treatment to promiscuous homosexualists because of their lifestyle choices. The squeals of outrage in the latter case from the politically prominent and very vociferous BLT community would be deafening.
OZ
Offering free chest meds to a distressed female visitor from the US! Madness, I tell you.
I was listening to the news last night, and the NHS powers that be have instructed the trust to rethink this proposal stating that it is not NHS policy.
Re my comment at 9.06 am, here is a link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-37265752
My mum works in healthcare in California — one of the states with a stronger social system. It’s still unbelievably expensive and many insurance companies are cancelling policies because they face financial collapse.
I guess CO lives in a relatively civilised corner of the US. I really can’t believe that the notorious Inner Cities enjoy such polite efficient service.
Janus: she lives in a relatively affluent, sparsely-populated area in a state with a very strong social system. It’s a different world in major urban centres and in poor regions. Many inner-city hospitals struggle to stay open.
There is a reciprocal arrangement between Oz and the UK as far as medical treatment is concerned – but try getting any doctor in the UK to honour that agreement.
The NHS was a brilliant idea – until it went beyond its remit to deal with real health problems. So you don;’t like your nose, your gender or whatever – get on with it – that’s life.
On the subject of life-style choices. Nicotine is a legal drug, as is alcohol. I pay an enormous amount of tax for the privilege of smoking – I’ve never let my children starve to support my habit, never mowed anyone down in my car, killed or beaten anyone under the influence of nicotine, and I’ve never robbed any old age pensioners to get money to buy cigarettes. I am extremely polite and do not smoke in other people’s homes or cars, or in areas where there are ‘No Smoking’ signs. And I have never abused any medical person who has treated me for my addiction.
Those who abuse alcohol do pay something on their choice of addiction – but not at the same rates as nicotine users. Those who use illegal drugs pay nothing. I am thoroughly fed up with being singled out for exorbitant taxes and social abuse while addicts of alcohol and illicit drugs are not taxed to the same extent or subject to the same social stigma that smokers are.
Not sure how to compare the tax rates on nicotine and alcohol, Boa. Mrs J is a smoker too – and very careful not to pollute our home or other people’s. But on an everyday basis I think nicotine has the greater potential for annoying non-partakers than booze. From nubends strewn around doorways and streets to smelly groups of smokers taking a fix. I also suspect that drivers are as likely to lose control lighting up as using a phone. But none of this concerns the NHS. Diseases due to the two curses are – and who knows which is the greater cause?
Oops! Last sentence should say diseases do concern the NHS.
I am one of those people who think the NHS is pretty good. A phone-call in the morning gets me a GP appointment that day. Alternatively I can prebook an appointment. Blood tests, X-rays and scans are easily arranged, my medication is regularly checked and I am quite contented. Now when we travel we no longer rely on the EHIC, knowing the dire straits some economies are in and have so far never needed to use our private insurance. And I was delighted to eavesdrop on one of our practice’s receptionists dealing very firmly with a young man from the sub-continent who was trying to get free NHS treatment while visiting family.
I think drugs should be legalised, though I am aware that this will lead to overdoses and deaths to begin with. The old “Just say No” still seems the best answer.
Hi, CO.;
Not happy with ‘malefaction’, pedant-wise. Emphasis on a criminal element which is not, for me, present in our NHS.
Struggling for alternatives. ‘Maladministration’ is probably a wee bit pejorative. ‘Malfeasance’ doesn’t work for me either.
So, I’m gong for said NHS being a wee bit crap and creaking but, on the whole, not as inept as some people choose to depict it. There might well be one word for that condition, but I have not happenstanced across it yet.
I’m with Sheona. They have done their best for me so far.
There might be better potential models of health care, had we but the chance to start from scratch. Which we have not.
So, our NHS is not that bad. In my opinion.
I’d been hovering over a pedantic comment, JM. Malefaction is almost archaic and definitively legalese. So maybe the simpler ‘failing’ would do.
‘Wee bit crap’ and ‘failing’ are seriously not up to scratch as examples of pedantry.
Archaic, my arse! Good old Middle English, no specific legal meaning and in regular use in my household as are many old English words.
Apart from that, the NHS is a total crapshoot. Good in places like the Curate’s egg.
CO, maybe misfeasance covers it! 😎