Its a pretty miopic gov if thats why things are not done for prevention.
You sound surprised.
Which is precisely why health care needs to be delivered centrally.
The UK model wasn’t too bad, a decent national service and small private sector for those that had the means to have low risk procedures done a bit faster in slightly nicer surroundings.
But we are currently breaking both systems, in favour of nothing in particular - except large US providers swooping in and taking the profit.
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Not always the case.
I had to wait a day in Macon for a private room and I only got one in Lyon because I would have to share with a man!
Its the pledges made and broken that I dispair of, why vote for any of these anus’s if they pledge and then revoke.
Very simplistic Billy.
If you’re in your 70’s and have been diagnosed with cancer avoiding the NHS waiting lists by paying privately could prolong your life by several years, I know what I’d do in those circumstances.
The surgery they would do but the longer term care in an NHS cancer specialist unit is way better than private unless you are a king.
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LOL - I had one better when my feet were done last year, the crematorium was the next building! Good wheelbarrow and cut out the middle men!
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Well, somewhat necessarily as this is the Internet.
Ideally no one would wait even 62 days but that is the target - from the latest data about 65% of patients are treated within that time (source: NHS England)
However the nice thing about the private sector (well, its nice for the private sector) is that they don’t have to publish the equivalent data.
There aren’t actually that many cancer operations that are done in the private sector anyway - looking at my local private hospital it’s breast cancer and maybe some bowel cancer but that’s about it.
I have calmed down a couple of people who had bowel cancers as they were at that horrible point of realisation we all go through with the diagnosis. I explained that bowel cancers are slow growing compared to some that double in a month or so. I asked them to take some deep breaths and be grateful they didnt have one of those cancers and waiting a few more weeks while urgent cases are dealt with wont hurt.
My brother had his surgery privately but by the same surgeon that did mine as he had cover via work. All his after care is NHS where the surgeon works for both private and NHS.
I get what you say Billy.
I have had thats as well.
My breast cancer was only diagnosed because I was in a private hospital.
Not blocking the waiting list then.
Obviously he is paying for his treatment which is allowed at present.
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Dr s strikes have done untold damage.
Fixed that for you.
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The point, as Gareth makes, is that the strikes have actually had modest impact - more outpatient appointments are lost because people cancel at the last minute or just fail to turn up, for example.
Our doctors are facing unprecidented falls in the amount that they earn in real terms compared with other groups - even within the NHS
We are losing 30% of medical graduates as soon as they leave medical school and as many as 50% after thair basic two year training.
The NHS cannot sustain haemorrhaging staff like this.
But that is exactly the government’s plan - they know that destroying the NHS would destroy any party which tries. But setting things up so that it rots from the inside is easy.
That is why the doctors strikes are important.
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And to add to @billybutcher’s post, here’s an interesting clip from the Fact Check team at Channel 4 News discussing how the NHS in England has suffered since 2011, the first full year that the coalition Government was in power.
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Also the Dr’s have to do a heap of tedious paperwork just in case a lawyer has them in court for something. The NHS pays out huge amounts to people via ambulance chasing companies
If the NHS has done people harm it does not seem unreasonable that patients get compensated, it also does not seem unreasonable for them to want representation.
The NHS paid out about £2.6 billion in 2022/23 - about 1.5% of its budget, I have no idea how France compares but it is much less than the money wasted on dodgy PPE, about the same as a dodgy floating prison hotel for asylum seekers and only slightly more that was “lost” scrapping HS2 north of Birmingham.
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And the current Chancellor screwing over junior (ie everyone except consultant) doctors when he was Health Secretary. I hate the way creeps like him just walk away from the mayhem they have created.
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