The NHS really is something to be proud of.

[Stat Brother]

24hrs ago Jnr Stat came off some monkey bars and smashed his arm.

Within minutes, less than 5, an ambulance was on the scene.
He was tended to brilliantly by the fellas there.
Off to and straight through hospital A&E, x-ray, specialist.

Within 4 hours he's being operated on, for 4 hours , through till midnight.

Obs done all night, then back home 24hrs after the ambulance was called.

I very rarely moan about the NHS, but probably have.
Then something like this happens and you realise just how bloody proud of it we should be, instead of kicking it around like a political football.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

This.

Best wishes to your lad.

 

[Stat Brother]

Oh and he got a free Pete Doherty trilby.

Well it was actually a papier machie sick bowl, but it looked good as a hat!

 

[Manx Shearwater]

My understanding is that Pete Doherty's hat is an actual papier mache sick bowl anyway. So, nice one.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

As a frequent user (not out of choice), I would say, that the people usually are really good (with one or two exceptions that spring to mind), it's usually the infrastructure and procedures that could be rather better. Glad everything is ok with Junior. My next scheduled visit to worthing Hospital is tomorrow.

 

[Triggaaar]

Then something like this happens and you realise just how bloody proud of it we should be

Indeed, it makes you appreciate where your taxes are going. My family have cost the NHS hundreds of thousands, I'm glad we don't live in the US.

 

[ferring seagull]

Unfortunately I have had too many hospital experiences however, that said, I hold the NHS in the highest possible regard.

Absolutely brilliant !

 

[dingodan]

Sorry to be negative but

NHS refuses free care for Alzheimer's gran who lived for four days with body of dead husband | Mail Online

NHS refuses to help diabetic Lindfield architect who could lose his sight From The Argus)

Drummer 'in agony' after NHS refuses treatment - Hounslow Chronicle

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5955840/Patients-forced-to-live-in-agony-after-NHS-refuses-to-pay-for-painkilling-injections.html

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/843400-nhs-refuses-patient-30k-tumour-drug-as-its-too-expensive

Ashbourne People | NHS refuses to fund drug for boy with rare food allergy

Fury as NHS refuses to fund therapy for Stockport mum with 'locked in' syndrome | Stockport Express - menmedia.co.uk

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1478803/NHS-refuses-to-pay-for-cancer-drug-which-could-extend-mans-life.html

Cumberland News | NHS refuses cancer drug cash – again

I dont think that the government should decide who should or shouldnt recieve care and under what circumstances. You and your family should decide on how you are treated and by whom. If there was a free market and competition in medicine, then just like in electronics (mobile phones, computers etc) the cost of providing medicine would go do down and the quality would go up. High quality, low cost medicine, can only be achieved through innovation and competition, it cannot be achieved through government planning.

Glad your little one is Ok

 

[Scampi]

If there was a free market and competition in medicine, then just like in electronics (mobile phones, computers etc) the cost of providing medicine would go do down and the quality would go up.

Go and research how much healthcare costs in the states and how poor a lot of it is. The NHS is far from perfect, but at least it's not the free market.

 

[DTES]

If there was a free market and competition in medicine, then just like in electronics (mobile phones, computers etc)...

...not everyone would be able to afford it.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Go and research how much healthcare costs in the states and how poor a lot of it is. The NHS is far from perfect, but at least it's not the free market.

That, and the malpractice suits/costs in the US has ruined parts of the medical system. My brother is a surgeon in N. Carolina, and the whole state is woefully short of doctors because they can't afford the hundred of thousands a year it costs in liability insurance. Something like a third of the income of his practice alone (5 surgeons , I think) goes on liability insurance for malpractice. Any claim against you, let alone a valid one, can bankrupt your business.

 

[alan partridge]

24hrs ago Jnr Stat came off some monkey bars and smashed his arm.

Within minutes, less than 5, an ambulance was on the scene.
He was tended to brilliantly by the fellas there.
Off to and straight through hospital A&E, x-ray, specialist.

Within 4 hours he's being operated on, for 4 hours , through till midnight.

Obs done all night, then back home 24hrs after the ambulance was called.

I very rarely moan about the NHS, but probably have.
Then something like this happens and you realise just how bloody proud of it we should be, instead of kicking it around like a political football.

good stuff

glad he's ok. 4 hour op? Must have been bad.

 

[Kazenga <3]

It's not the practical NHS staff that are the problem (in 99% of cases) as they do a fantastic job. It's those at the top who run the organisation that need to be looked at.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Sorry to be negative but

NHS refuses free care for Alzheimer's gran who lived for four days with body of dead husband | Mail Online

NHS refuses to help diabetic Lindfield architect who could lose his sight From The Argus)

Drummer 'in agony' after NHS refuses treatment - Hounslow Chronicle

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5955840/Patients-forced-to-live-in-agony-after-NHS-refuses-to-pay-for-painkilling-injections.html

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/843400-nhs-refuses-patient-30k-tumour-drug-as-its-too-expensive

Ashbourne People | NHS refuses to fund drug for boy with rare food allergy

Fury as NHS refuses to fund therapy for Stockport mum with 'locked in' syndrome | Stockport Express - menmedia.co.uk

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1478803/NHS-refuses-to-pay-for-cancer-drug-which-could-extend-mans-life.html

Cumberland News | NHS refuses cancer drug cash – again

I dont think that the government should decide who should or shouldnt recieve care and under what circumstances. You and your family should decide on how you are treated and by whom. If there was a free market and competition in medicine, then just like in electronics (mobile phones, computers etc) the cost of providing medicine would go do down and the quality would go up. High quality, low cost medicine, can only be achieved through innovation and competition, it cannot be achieved through government planning.

Many of your newspaper quotations refer to patients being, or wishing to be, treated with Avastin (Bevacizumab).
1) Do you think that the NHS should pay for drugs to be used in patients where the drug isn't licenced to treat their particular indication? Using the "Lindfield Architect" example, some might view an IV injection of Avastin into the eye as a piece of quackery.
2) The pharmaceutical industry is highly innovative and competative producing high quality and, if it wants to, low cost products. So, despite seeming to meet your criteria, why is the cost of Avastin That Roche/Genetech charges the NHS so high?

 

[dingodan]

Go and research how much healthcare costs in the states and how poor a lot of it is. The NHS is far from perfect, but at least it's not the free market.

The U.S. does not have a free market, especially in medicine.

 

[dingodan]

...not everyone would be able to afford it.

With innovation and competition the price goes down. Like with mobiles and computers now costing next to nothing.

People would have to be responsible and save money for their family to cover the cost of the family's medical care, but under these circumstances medical care would be much cheaper because you would not have all of this government money pumped into the system causing prices to rise, or inflation. And, most importantly you would decide what care you and your family get, you would not have some bureaucrat potentially toying with your life.

 

[dingodan]

That, and the malpractice suits/costs in the US has ruined parts of the medical system. My brother is a surgeon in N. Carolina, and the whole state is woefully short of doctors because they can't afford the hundred of thousands a year it costs in liability insurance. Something like a third of the income of his practice alone (5 surgeons , I think) goes on liability insurance for malpractice. Any claim against you, let alone a valid one, can bankrupt your business.

Its the tort law that is the problem. And I agree about this, what happens is doctors, to avoid being sued, exhaust all diagnostics available, and this all pushes up the cost of medicine. But this has nothing to do with a free market in medicine.

 

[dingodan]

It's not the practical NHS staff that are the problem (in 99% of cases) as they do a fantastic job. It's those at the top who run the organisation that need to be looked at.

These problems will always exist because its the philosophy of having an NHS that is the problem.

 

[sten_super]

What absolute nonsense.

With innovation and competition the price goes down. Like with mobiles and computers now costing next to nothing.

Pharmaceutical companies are often not in direct competition; patents exist which give companies exclusive rights to produce drugs for a time after their creation (to encourage R&D); what you are talking about is changing from the current system, where one large client, the NHS, is able to negotiate a price based on demand of thousands or millions of units, to individuals buying direct from the companies. That is likely to see prices rise, not fall.

People would have to be responsible and save money for their family to cover the cost of the family's medical care, but under these circumstances medical care would be much cheaper because you would not have all of this government money pumped into the system causing prices to rise, or inflation. And, most importantly you would decide what care you and your family get, you would not have some bureaucrat potentially toying with your life.

People would have to be 'responsible'?! Tell me this isn't what you really think. How can you responsibly save hundreds of thousands of pounds, which is what it would cost if a loved one got a serious illness which required heavy and extended medication/treatment?

In my student days I was fairly right wing, to the point of even agreeing with your viewpoint on the provision of medical care. However now I've mellowed rather, and you appreciate the wonder of the NHS; free treatment for all urgent requirements. The system isn't perfect, but it's a damn sight better than the US system, which is the closest to the 'free' market you'll find in the developed world.

 

[glasfryn]

here in Wales the hospitals are rather tired but the treatment in 1st class