Private Healthcare Question - How to avoid NHS

[Old Greg]

Why?

Me and all of our 4 children were born there - not a problem.
My father was treated for stomach cancer there in 1989...he is now 79 and fit and healthy.
They saved my eldest son's life when he was glassed in the neck with a broken bottle.
My eldest daughter had private treatment there for an ear poroblem 5 years ago without a hitch.
The north east isn't all about bloody NewcastleGateshead.

What about the oxygen starvation you suffered at birth?

[Sausage Surprise]

What about the oxygen starvation you suffered at birth?

That's how I ended up contracting....

[CoolCat]

The Quality of A & E varies massively across the country.

If you are like the Duke of Edinburgh and can find out which A & E is best suited to your needs, and can get helicoptered over all the other A & E's which are closer to you, and taken straight to a half decent A & E for your condition, then yes you can do ok in an NHS A & E.

If you are an ordinary punter and get taken to the closest A & E the chances are somewhat more variable, and the odds are you will get sub standard care.

Friend of mine was told openly in A & E he needed an emergency stent that day, but being the NHS they sent him home to wait for one, and he was dead a week later. Of course if he had been the Duke of Edinburgh he would have been done the same day and would still be here.

Indeed friend was taken ill in Belgium and had a stent fitted within an hour of arriving in their A & E. Thats routine in the rest of the developed world, back in the UK pretty unlikely.

So no A & E care is not decent in this country.

[SueEllen]

Typically, the insurer.

What if there is no insurer?

For example you can just pay to have a hip op privately if you need one rather than waiting in the NHS queue. If something went wrong were you need intensive care who would pay?

[Old Greg]

What if there is no insurer?

For example you can just pay to have a hip op privately if you need one rather than waiting in the NHS queue. If something went wrong were you need intensive care who would pay?

Hmmm. I'm not sure whether you are paying for a package (hip op) or for the entire care. I suspect the latter, but I don't know.

[SueEllen]

Hmmm. I'm not sure whether you are paying for a package (hip op) or for the entire care. I suspect the latter, but I don't know.

Hip ops don't tend to go wrong as the private providers avoid the complicated cases. I have to think of one op that is more likely and investigate.....

[doodab]

Hip ops don't tend to go wrong

But when hip op goes wrong, it goes very wrong indeed

[d000hg]

The Quality of A & E varies massively across the country.

If you are like the Duke of Edinburgh and can find out which A & E is best suited to your needs, and can get helicoptered over all the other A & E's which are closer to you, and taken straight to a half decent A & E for your condition, then yes you can do ok in an NHS A & E.

If you are an ordinary punter and get taken to the closest A & E the chances are somewhat more variable, and the odds are you will get sub standard care.

Friend of mine was told openly in A & E he needed an emergency stent that day, but being the NHS they sent him home to wait for one, and he was dead a week later. Of course if he had been the Duke of Edinburgh he would have been done the same day and would still be here.

Indeed friend was taken ill in Belgium and had a stent fitted within an hour of arriving in their A & E. Thats routine in the rest of the developed world, back in the UK pretty unlikely.

So no A & E care is not decent in this country.

I don't think "my mate" stories really carry much weight for generalising how things happen across the country.

[northernladuk]

I don't think "my mate" stories really carry much weight for generalising how things happen across the country.

^ Completely this.

[CoolCat]

I don't think "my mate" stories really carry much weight for generalising how things happen across the country.

How many UK A & E's regularly fit stents within an hour of admission? A simple cheap life saving operation, which transforms chances and gives reasonable chances of multi decade survival? How many fit hardly any at all?

This is the routine stuff where medical intervention really can transform survival life chances, this is exactly what A & E should be for.

In comparison to the rest of the developed world we are getting rubbish service, there is much more to it than “my mate” stories, chat to some docs and nurses.

I would have thought the duke of Edinburgh being taken by helicopter over the top of several closer A & E's to one of the few that are decent at this would tell you all you need to know.

Being at the funeral of someone told he needed an immediate stent who died without one a week later told me all i need to know.