Neuroma and bad NHS service

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I sympathise with you OP. My parents have had good experience with the NHS in the past, but I know that other people's experience can fall woefully short of that.

This is where I can appreciate the US healthcare system. If you're fortunate to have the funds for self-paid treatment or good insurance coverage, like my family and I do, you can get seen quickly, and with a nationwide PPO plan like ours, self-refer to almost anyone. We have many choices.

Many friends in the UK laugh when we tell them that we have a $3500 annual deductible and insurance won't pay for anything until we hit that amount, but given the variable, but generally greatly declining state of the NHS, I'd rather that because we can see specialists in days or weeks, and not have to wait months or even years.

It's the same here in the uk, you can pay for private healthcare insurance and skip all the queues and get seen for non emeregency stuff very quickly. my excess is only £100.

The difference is if you can't afford it you'll still get treated, you just have to wait a bit longer.
Emergency cases are always a priority.
 
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NHS - average health system at an average price.

The envy of the world it is not.

As long as I can afford it, I wouldn't be without my private insurance covering my family.
 
Caporegime
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NHS - average health system at an average price.

The envy of the world it is not.

As long as I can afford it, I wouldn't be without my private insurance covering my family.

Your private insurance only exists because the NHS does all the expensive, unprofitable stuff.

Without the NHS you'd be paying an awful lot more.
 
Caporegime
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Your private insurance only exists because the NHS does all the expensive, unprofitable stuff.

Without the NHS you'd be paying an awful lot more.

A lot of NHS treatment costs more than private even without insurance.

Pay >£50 for half a day off work for some absurd 2pm appointment or just £3x for a private physio at your convenience.

Not to mention the money the NHS rake in on prescription charge profits, charging almost £9 for a prescription that costs half that amount privately!
 
Caporegime
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A lot of NHS treatment costs more than private even without insurance.

Pay >£50 for half a day off work for some absurd 2pm appointment or just £3x for a private physio at your convenience.

Not to mention the money the NHS rake in on prescription charge profits, charging almost £9 for a prescription that costs half that amount privately!

Why are you paying £50 for an NHS physio appt?

Some drugs are cheaper than the flat fee, some are vastly more expensive, this is hardly some secret NHS racket.

The NHS provides nationwide emergency care and intensive care, from a pre-term neonate to end of life care in the elderly. If you're private healthcare had to cover that it'd be a fair bit dearer.
 
Associate
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A lot of NHS treatment costs more than private even without insurance.

Pay >£50 for half a day off work for some absurd 2pm appointment or just £3x for a private physio at your convenience.

Not to mention the money the NHS rake in on prescription charge profits, charging almost £9 for a prescription that costs half that amount privately!

You've got your head in the clouds, try looking up the cost of prescription drugs in the US...

£9 is cheap. A lot of medications cost a factor of 10 or more yet we only pay £9.
 
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Your private insurance only exists because the NHS does all the expensive, unprofitable stuff.

Good, that's exactly how the private sector works well with the public sector and the model that the Germans and French use - their health system is a lot better than ours.

Private sector is terrible at complex and risky, public sector is generally rubbish at easy, quick and efficient.

Without the NHS you'd be paying an awful lot more.
I pay a lot already. Its called tax. I don't get a discount for paying for medical issues that I'd otherwise use the NHS for.
 
Soldato
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Patient liason service, however dont expect miracles from it. You may get an apology, they may say someone will get disciplined, but that will be about it. Will need someone like your GP to push for something meaningful.

I feel your frustration.

e.g. I believe I have arthritis I have all the symptons, but simply because they not severe enough the NHS didnt want to treat it and not even diagnose it properly. The letter to my GP which I got a copy off was along the lines no severe symptons detected so discharging, note they didnt say nothing detected just no severe. I expect im a victim of budget constraints where they can only afford to treat people with severe symptons now days.
 
Soldato
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Good, that's exactly how the private sector works well with the public sector and the model that the Germans and French use - their health system is a lot better than ours.

Private sector is terrible at complex and risky, public sector is generally rubbish at easy, quick and efficient.

I pay a lot already. Its called tax. I don't get a discount for paying for medical issues that I'd otherwise use the NHS for.

both countries also put much more money into healthcare per adult head. Healthcare costs a lot of money, ours is under funded.
 
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Your private insurance only exists because the NHS does all the expensive, unprofitable stuff.

Without the NHS you'd be paying an awful lot more.


5% of your income for basic health insurance , which is only £25 a week for me compared to my NI contributions of £50.50 pw.

We've been getting royally stiffed for many years via the pisspoor NHS.

I had that Morton's Neuroma for a few weeks or so last year, like walking with a stone in your shoe, not agony but slightly debilitating,
a few days after visiting the doc the symptoms disappeared never to return.
 
Caporegime
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We've been getting royally stiffed for many years via the pisspoor NHS.

That's just not born out in the real world though is it. Our percentage spend per capita is well below mnay European nations, let along the US. Our outcomes are comparable, apart from in cancer survival (which is poor), pretty much across the board.

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2...nding-compare-health-spending-internationally

When there's enough money the UK is capable of world renowned medicine if you look at places like Great Ormond Street. But to achieve that you need funds, are we are just running it into the ground.
 
Caporegime
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He's saying that's what the time off work would cost I believe.

Exactly, you have to take into account the overall cost, the NHS appointment availability for a simple GP or physio appointment is around 4 weeks and it's in the middle of the day which means half a day off work which is around £50 on an average salary, with private healthcare even without insurance you can usually see a doctor in a couple of days outside of work hours and pay less for the prescription, the vast majority of prescriptions cost less than the NHS charge which brings them a ~£140 million annual profit. So the overall cost is comparable but the service is much better.

You've got your head in the clouds, try looking up the cost of prescription drugs in the US...

£9 is cheap. A lot of medications cost a factor of 10 or more yet we only pay £9.

The vast majority of prescribed medications are generics costing a couple of quid to the NHS, that's why they make such a high annual profit from the prescription charge.
 
Caporegime
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The average cost of a GP prescription is £8.34 according to this:

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/rising-cost-medicines-nhs

So considering a huge amount of people are exempt from prescription charges I'm not sure your numbers add up.

Even if they did make £140 million off outpatient prescriptions, which I'm unconvinced by, the NHS total drug spend is near 18 billion. That's £260 for each member of the UK population per year.
 
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Caporegime
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The average cost of a GP prescription is £8.34 according to this:

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/rising-cost-medicines-nhs

So considering a huge amount of people are exempt from prescription charges I'm not sure your numbers add up.

Even if they did make £140 million off outpatient prescriptions, which I'm unconvinced by, the NHS total drug spend is near 18 billion. That's £260 for each member of the UK population per year.

I'm only considering prescriptions that are charged for, the point is as your numbers also show, on average the NHS make a profit on every prescription charged for, I'm not sure what average they are using for the cost of the drugs though, mean or mode?
 
Caporegime
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I'm only considering prescriptions that are charged for, the point is as your numbers also show, on average the NHS make a profit on every prescription charged for, I'm not sure what average they are using for the cost of the drugs thoiugh, mean or mode?

So we've gone from the majority of drugs costing a couple of quid and the NHS making "such a high annual profit" to actually the cost of an average prescription being pretty much the same as the prescription charge to those that pay and free or subsidised to a large proportion.

Any money made being a fraction of percent of the NHS medicine budget, let along the NHS budget as a whole.

What's the source for the £140 million profit? I don't think it adds up with the King's fund data.
 
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