Why Socialised Medicine Does NOT work…
Gastric Bypass, Todays Top Tips August 4th, 2007I have been having a bit of a medical problem, and was discussing it on another board, and got onto a bit of a rant.
I thought I would share it with you, and see if any of you have had any different experiences.
(I removed the graphic discussion of my issues)
Looking back, nothing relieved my pain until they gave me Buscopan. I had tried everything, including the migraine-inducing Verapamil.
The pain kept me up most nights, and when I did drift off, I would be awoken just a couple of hours later with spasms, feeling raw and irritated, and being reduced to tears.
Some days were only manageable with either codeine or diazepam. Thank goodness for modern medicine.
Luckily, my surgeon is a gastroenterologist, and I will request to see him this week and request a colonoscopy.
Unfortunatly, I have worked for the NHS and have been a patient, and I know exactly what kind of beaurocratic crap each and every doctor must go through for each and every patient.
In socialised medicine (well in the NHS), for a referal you have to do the following:
1. Get an appointment with your GP - sometimes can take over a week.2. If your GP thinks you need a referral, or if you have something wrong with you that they can’t or do not want to deal with, they get their secretary to send a letter off to a specialist - which can take up to a month to be sent. Sometimes this doesn’t happen for weeks or months because the GP may want to just observe the problem instead of referrring you - after all, they have budgets to adhere to and referrals deflect on them.
3.Upon recieval of your referral, the specialists secretary logs your letter and gives a copy to the specialist, who then decides if you need to be seen urgently - this can take up to another 3-4 weeks.
4. Then, unless you are urgent, you go onto a waiting list, which vary. Some are as little as a few weeks for a consultation, some as much as 18 months.
This process is for everything, regardless of severity. If you have an urgent concerm, your best bet is to go into an A&E (ER) department to get reffered directly.
Saying that, I had 4 visits to an ER before being admitted with an MRSA infection (which ironically was caught in one of the dirty hospitals here) last year - the infection site (abcess) at that time was the size of a tennis ball - grew to the size of a grapefruit before it was removed.
My little sister works for a major insurance organisation, and works with people who are always rattling on about how the USA needs socialised medicine. Once they visit a country with socialised medicine and realise that it would result in a lesser-quality of care and a increase in taxes much higher than what you would pay for insurance care, with no choice of who you can see, they soon change their minds.
The tax rates for the UK are:
Starting rate 10% up to £2,230 - so if you earn up to £2,230 you pay 10% tax on your wages
Basic rate 22% from £2,231 to £34,600 - so if you earn up from £2,231 to £34,600 you pay 22% tax on your wages
Higher rate 40% over £34,600 - anything over £34,600 you pay 40% of your wages.Then you still have to make a co-payment for each and every prescription you need, and they are only allowed to give you 28 days worth at a time, to ensure that the government gets plenty of money out of you.
Would you want to pay 40% of your wages towards a system like this?
Don’t get me started on differences in the way medicine is practised here either.
Its safe to say that in my experience, if you get some types of cancer here, it most likely will be watched and left to spread instead of being removed (but hey, they will give you pills and hormones to try and “treat it”). I am a big believer in treating cancer agressively.
/end rant LOL
September 27th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
mate, have you been into a hospital in the last ten years? true, the waiting lists for knee replacements a decade ago were as high as 18 months in some parts of the country. It is now, however, unusual to find them longer than 3 months anywhere.
regarding what you say about cancer treatments - it doesnt matter what the hell you believe about treating cancer agressivly. prince charles rekons cancer should be treated with coffe enemas, but we dont listen to him, do we? the evidence base (RCTs, cohort and case control studies) do not show any benefit in treating cancers agressivly in some types. In fact an agressive treatment with little benefit is more likely to have negetive side-effects than and equally ineffective, oless invasive treatment.
A classic example is locally advanced prostate cancer - treatment with radical prostatectomy has not been shown, says clinical evidence 14 (the book), to be more beneficial than combined hormone and radiotherapy.
i am sorry you have been in pain, but if you can think of a better way of giving everybody equal treatment with a set budget for the whole system, then i would like to see it. the aargument that you should have better care because you can afford it is fallacious if you believe that healthcare is a right and not a privilage. if you do not believe this, then i pity your cold, cold heart.
enjoy!
steve
September 27th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Unfortunatly I have been in the hospital a few times this past year - was admitted this time last year after catching MRSA from one.
Unfortunatly I have to agree with you on this Steve, no one has all of the answers.
I would, however, like to see Budget committees and Trusts STOP spending millions on trivial things like artwork for the hallways and hire staff that are competent.