The NHS

[joe123]

Probably slightly more complex than this, but if you can afford it and don't like the NHS and the way it's run, just go private? I get healthcare insurance through work so on the rare occasions I've been in hospital, have just done that so it's one lesson person taking up NHS time. It's not like we don't have the option to go private if we're so averse to the NHS.

 

[cjn]

You can move to the states if you'd like. Here when regular folks get seriously ill without insurance they either go bankrupt or die. Medical debt is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy and many more can only afford catastrophic insurance with deductibles high enough to be worthless under all except the most extreme cases.

 

[kaz7]

Thankfully, I've never had to use it often, but when I have, for me personally, it's been excellent.
The wife has had to use it an awful lot though, and again, broadly it's served her well.
What I will criticise though, and someone may be able to justify this criticism, is when I was younger, nurses.
of both sexes, looked like they worked a lot harder than those I see now, I've regularly seen groups sat around chatting at desks,
whilst auxiliaries are slaving away cleaning, comforting, and chatting to bedridden patients. Also, the number of
obese nurses now is frightening, I don't know how they're going to convince folk to lose weight, if they are massively
overweight themselves.

In the old days everything was done by hand,you never left the patients as there was always some observations to do,now everyone is hooked up to machines with alarms,the closeness has been replaced and they just read the screen,that is a generalisation but it's a lot to do with it,there has always been times when nurses at at the computers as there is a ton more paperwork to do on every patient and three times a day there is handover between shifts where they all have to be together

 

[journolud]

We've had posts bemoaning the standards of cleanliness and the food. Both of these generally outsourced to private companies. I'm sure its coincidence.

Is it the fault of the NHS that these things aren't in house?

 

[kaz7]

We've had posts bemoaning the standards of cleanliness and the food. Both of these generally outsourced to private companies. I'm sure its coincidence.

Is it the fault of the NHS that these things aren't in house?

It all went to shit when cleaning was outsourced,the in house cleaners were part of the team and they had pride in their work,one of the worse things to happen by far

 

[Withnail]

And I might add, I completely refuse to accept that providing healthcare services is so completely and utterly different from providing any other sort of services, that no commercial models involving any sort of private enterprise can possibly work.

The sort of stuff Bob likes to spout about it not being a shop and patients aren't customers. Well why aren't we customers? Why is it that the sorts of customer experience we all expect to receive, is suddenly not applicable when dealing with the NHS? Why is "because it's the NHS" an excuse for giving poor service, and that this is perfectly fine?

The claim is made that medical care - i.e. providing a service which costs money - and a profit motive are not compatible. The implication being that private enterprise will try to avoid doing the right thing because it costs money. Well how do Marks & Spencer manage? Or John Lewis? How is it John Lewis can give such great service when all they care about is bottom line profit? Taking a 3 month old shirt back that doesn't fit - or doing a mammogram twice (at their own cost) because the last one wasn't clear. These are both costly services, and we're being asked to conclude that no private company would do the latter, because of a profit motive, and yet our best private businesses can offer the former?

So the argument doesn't hold water. Those opposed to increasing privatisation are imo not opposed to it for pragmatic reasons, they are ideologically opposed to it. If it costs the NHS to undertake activity X for Y pounds and a private provider can do better service for less than Y, people like Bob still won't consider it. Maybe that's why they like to big up how marvellous it is.

I am not saying all privatisation in the NHS is bad , but your belief that the private sector will always improve service is not always true. My partner works as a heart failure nurse and one area in her dept has been privatised and the service has been appalling and they are now referring patients back to the NHS because they can not provide an adequate service.

 

[BobKowalski]

What a load of tripe. There's nothing "combative" about saying the NHS is far from perfect.

I'll give you combative: If you stopped blowing smoke up its arse, then maybe we could start a sensible discussion about how to improve it. But no, all we get from you is how fucking marvellous it is and that everyone who works in it is a saint. Well it isn't and they aren't. You're talking out of your arse.

Your attitude epitomises why I started the thread.

How's that for combative?

Not bad. I’d give it a six out of ten.

 

[journolud]

Just out of interest can anyone give an example, with evidence, of where a privatised part of the NHS (ran by virgin for example) has drastically improved the service?

 

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

It's worth bearing in mind that most 'private' healthcare just works like a premium merlin pass at legoland. It's all the same staff and facilities , you're just paying to jump the queue.

 

[Gelsons Dad]

It's all private here and fucking fantastic compared to the shite back in the UK.
Oh and it costs me 243ch per month. That's £196 or £2352 per year. How much is the average cost per capita in the UK? More ;)