Health Care in the UK

[JayTee]

Article from the Telegraph

Any Brits here want to chime in? I've read about a two tier system where the rich receive better care. Can anyone elaborate?

[DblBarrelJ]

[ QUOTE ]
More than 70,000 Britons will have treatment abroad this year – a figure that is forecast to rise to almost 200,000 by the end of the decade. Patients needing major heart surgery, hip operations and cataracts are using the internet to book operations to be carried out thousands of miles away.

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C'mon Brits! Someone must have something to say about your "Broken, crumpling" health system!

[ QUOTE ]
Record numbers of Britons are flying abroad for medical treatment to escape NHS waiting lists and the rising threat of hospital superbugs.

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Surely someone must have a response.

[zasterguava]

We will never have a privatised health care system in replace of the NHS in the UK. Nevertheless, people are very agitated by some of the failures of the NHS and wish it to become more efficient as opposed to more privatised.

Don't know what the OP is asking (don't want to read an article from the Telegraph either) but, yes, the rich have the option of going private and recieving quicker and better care in some cases.

[zasterguava]

.... saying that UK Health care is far better than the American health care system which is (according to Chomsky);
"the most inefficient healthcare system in the world, double the per capita cost of other comparable countries, some of the worst health outcomes, mainly because it is privatized."

[adios]

[ QUOTE ]
.... saying that UK Health care is far better than the American health care system which is (according to Chomsky);
"the most inefficient healthcare system in the world, double the per capita cost of other comparable countries, some of the worst health outcomes, mainly because it is a combination of government subsidized setting prices and privatized."

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FYP

No way is the U.S. even close to 100% privitized.

[tomdemaine]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
.... saying that UK Health care is far better than the American health care system which is (according to Chomsky);
"the most inefficient healthcare system in the world, double the per capita cost of other comparable countries, some of the worst health outcomes, mainly because it is a combination of government subsidized setting prices and privatized."

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FYP

No way is the U.S. even close to 100% privitized.

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Agree! Corporatism is the worst of both worlds.

[AJW]

The NHS is certainly far from a perfect system and being friends with a couple of NHS doctors I get to hear a fair bit about its short comings.

Id like to see a brake down of the number going abroad for treatment. I’m pretty sure that dental care would be the single biggest group and then Cosmetic surgery.
The problem with long waiting times for non emergency has been greatly reduced over the term of the current New Labour government. It is worth mentioning that the Conservative Party that the Telegraph champions was spending less then other western European nations on health care during its twenty years in power and it was during this period that waiting list first became a feature of British health care.

NHS Dental Care is in a mess I can’t deny that there are too few dentists. Thanks Conservatives your decision to fund tax cuts by reducing training places for dentists worked out great. The Labour party also have their share of the blame they renegotiated contracts with NHS dentists that paid by the job regardless of time taken to complete it This made NHS dentistry far less lucrative then private work and saw large numbers of dentists leaving the NHS for private practice.
NHS dentistry has been under funded for years and booth parties have treated it as a low priority that doesn’t win votes as a result Patient charges have been allowed to creep up which means that fairly miner dental treatment now caries charges that are too high for low income workers to comfortably afford.

As for MRSA this is a relatively recent phenomenon that seems to have happened after the contracting out of cleaning services to Private companies under a centrally planed contract system that protected cleaning companies from dismissal and forced NHS trusts to accept the lowest bids. Resulting in a rush to the bottom as companies submitted bids that were based on business models that cut costs to the bone reducing staff numbers and pay.

Tomdemaine Said “Corporatism is the worst of both worlds.” Well sadly that seems to be the way the current Labour government is heading Its plans to force internal competition with in the NHS and between the NHS and private medical providers in an effort to bring market forces to bear and drive down prices have been poorly thought out and heavily favour the private medical providers.
The Government decides set amounts that will be paid for each medical procedure and providers bill the treasury accordingly.
A private facility can pick and choose which operations and procedures it carries out an NHS on cant. A private medical facility doesn’t have to train junior doctors an NHS one does. You can see the problem I’m sure if private providers can monopolise the profitable minor surgeries and avoid the unprofitable surgeries the NHS will be forced to carry them out making the NHS hospitals look as if they are inefficient and losing money. The profitable procedures can all be carried out by qualified surgeons imported full trained from abroad as these routine minor surgeries are an important part of a junior doctors training and the companies have nothing to gain by training doctors you can see that several years down the line there is going to be a big problem for Britain in producing its own fully qualified specialists and consultants.

I’m really tired now I can hardly keep my eyes open so I’m sorry if this doesn’t have sources or links and if the spelling and grammar are bad I will try to provide some tomorrow.

[tolbiny]

[ QUOTE ]

Id like to see a brake down of the number going abroad for treatment. I’m pretty sure that dental care would be the single biggest group and then Cosmetic surgery.
The problem with long waiting times for non emergency has been greatly reduced over the term of the current New Labour government.

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The rumors I've heard from relatives in england are that quite a few of the reductions in waiting lists and lowering of costs for hospitals have been fueled by reductions in eligibility, not by increases in efficiency.

[Ron Burgundy]

The UK has dentists? When did that happen?

[lehighguy]

Ever since the negative PR from the Big Book of British Smiles.