Do people stand in lines for hours for medical care in your country?

[dogsbody70]

I did not understand the riots against Health reforms.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Aniki

I thought that's what the whole new health care fuss was all about - that America will have the same health care as other nations.

Single-payer was off the table almost from the start. The private insurance industry in America is very rich and very powerful. Their industry would be in ram-shackles if this were to pass.

[NanteNa]

Yes they do. If you break a leg (or in my brother's case - a collar bone) it's not unusual to wait up to 5-7 hours to get treated. They simply refer you to the waiting room. Many parents bring a packed lunch or snacks when they go to the hospital, because it takes so long.. My mom packed a lunch for my brother when he (at 7-8 years old) broke his collar bone on a field trip with his school. They waited for 5½ hours to get treated.

[missprincess]

Originally Posted by RobinMask

No system is perfect.

Also I think your comment on the 'idiots' getting priority over those who had 'heart attacks' or 'strokes' is perhaps wrong.

Personally I think the British healthcare system is excellent.



Edit: If the staff are arrogant it's due to long hours, lack of good pay, and the fact hardly anyone respect them - whether they work as a surgeon, or as a consultant, or even as the coroner - and you'll be suprised how much crap people give the nurses especially. The MRSA is a problem, but at least they're working to prevent it, such as hand sanitizers in every ward and public space and restricting visiting hours.

i dont know, i dont think thats an excuse for rotten behaviour i remember goin to the hospital coz my dad was diagnosed with cancer and he was having an operation to remove it, but they just stiched him back up without being able to - we didnt know anything at this point other then the operation was not succesful - so he was lying in the ward unconcious and i asked the nurse in charge to explain why and what had happened becoz we were crazy with worry - and she said to me 'let me take my break and ill be back in 20 mins'! lol i wanted to put her in a hospital bed! hed been in surgery for 13 hours and me and my elderly mother were stood in the ward waiting for him, worried beyond belief because we were told it was a very risky operation and she didnt feel the need to explain it she just left for her break! - and thats not a one off! we had to wait 1 whole day thats 24 hours b4 my friends mother could get her stroke, seen to by anyone! because guess what theres not enuff doctors on the weekend so GOD forbid you shud fall ill on the weekend! you might have had good experiences but i can say anything but, i think alot of stuff like this happens its just that no one really reports or mentions it coz the duty of care for a doctor is very low in the courts.

even now its coming out on the news about all these hidden cases of deaths due to negligence in certain hospitals - "Nineteen hospital trusts are today exposed as having alarmingly high death rates in a major report that also reveals how hundreds of people are dying needlessly because of substandard NHS care" - HERES THE LINK TO THIS ARTICLE - Exposed: the hospitals whose high death rates are failing the NHS | Society | The Observer

i remember about 10 years ago, how fantastic our hospitals and staff used to be, granted nurses dont get paid as much as they shud (cant say the same for doc's coz my cosins one and he gets paid thousands a week) but thats NO EXCUSE for bad behaviour if u dont like the job work somewhere else, there are other nurses who are more then happy to help and be polite and considerate, granted those ppl are few and far between now - but others shudnt treat patients like cattle.

[missprincess]

ok i totally posted in the wrong thread !!

[dogsbody70]

why do you say that. I am very sorry to hear what happened with your dad.

I can't give a reason of course. I hope your dad is alright now.


Also its worrying re strokes. we are told that instant treatment is necessary. I suspect it often is lack of staff and even equipment. or even beds.

There often can be so many patients that it must be so difficult to cope with them all as swiftly as they really need.

Nurses and doctors are humans just like us. If a nurse is overworked having to cover staff that are not there they must be under a lot of stress.

You would need to speak to nurses or doctors to maybe see it from their viewpoint.


when it is our loved one it is hard to deal with when we don't know what is going on.


from what I hear, since there have been changes for junior doctors-- who used to work terribly long hours-- they now work less hours-- which seems to mean that in emergencies there are not enough doctors to deal with everything.


Also maybe it depends what area you live in-- whether there is extra demand for hospital treatment in some areas. after all we have a lot of immigrants and their families.

when I take my animals to the vet I do get good attention-- but I also have to pay for that treatment. we tend to take so much for granted.

[evanny]

well here no one stands in lines since everything goes by appointment system.
but: dental care is free until you reach age of 18. after 18 you have to pay. well...before i turned 18 i visited dentist for the first time in my life (i have good teeth) and he did some minor fixing on government's expense however for anyone else it would have costed 200$. well here wages differ and actually dentist is considered to be very expensive.

[dogsbody70]

Many dentists here are private and it can be difficult to find an NHS Dentist.

I am fortunate-- Never had aprivate dentist-- but pay for any treatment I have, but I believe it is less than I would have to pay privately. That can be very expensive.


In hospitals we can have out-patient appointments, and often do have to wait a long time-- depending what we are going to have done.

There seems to be changes now in that certain hospitals specialise in certain procedures and have all the necessary equipment for that. So one can have to travel some distance away for some specific treatments.

I believe that some hospitals do not have maternity units so young mums have to travel a long way-- which of course is not a good thing.


So many changes happening. But I believe there will be more walk-in clinics being built which could be very useful.


I am lucky where I live although there is a large population of elderly people who have retired to the seaside-- so that gives extra stress on the NHS and social services.

[SSJup81]

Originally Posted by dogsbody70

I did not understand the riots against Health reforms.

Those who are against it, don't want to have to pay into such a system. They have this mentality of, "Why should I pay for my neighbor's healthcare?" and they don't want to have to "wait". That type of attitude. I personally have no problem with that type of set up. I like the idea of paying into a system that I will, eventually use, and it's nice that I'll be helping someone else too.

[SSJup81]

Originally Posted by NanteNa

Yes they do. If you break a leg (or in my brother's case - a collar bone) it's not unusual to wait up to 5-7 hours to get treated. They simply refer you to the waiting room. Many parents bring a packed lunch or snacks when they go to the hospital, because it takes so long.. My mom packed a lunch for my brother when he (at 7-8 years old) broke his collar bone on a field trip with his school. They waited for 5½ hours to get treated.

I'd rather wait 5 hours for treatment (unless it's life threatening) instead of not going to the hospital at all because I can't afford it because I have no insurance, due to being rejected because of a "pre-existing condition". I'm really glad I'm in Japan right now. At least when I'm sick, I can go to the doctor and not debate on whether or not I should go if I'm not feeling well because of cost, like back home. Already had to file for bankruptcy one time back home because of healthcare issues. I'm glad I'm in a place right now where bankruptcy wouldn't even be an issue.