Save the NHS!

Tefal said:
grim experience hope she gets better dave.

one question though is that the hospital in stoke with the major trauma unit?

cause i know every patient from even miles into north wales gets taken there for major truma (bike crashes etc) and nearly al lthe air ambulances head there because its such a good unit , which may put up A&E wait times.

but all i know is its stoke, not if its a general hospital or a specialist separate unit tbh.
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You are correct and in fact two patient cases I'm working on are from Bangor and one was involving a cycle.
Make that three, just remembered a case involving a sport where you go round the coast and then jump into the sea from a height, that was Wales!
We've had Prince William landing here many times.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
You are correct and in fact two patient cases I'm working on are from Bangor and one was involving a cycle.
Make that three, just remembered a case involving a sport where you go round the coast and then jump into the sea from a height, that was Wales!
We've had Prince William landing here many times.
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Do they go direct to the unit or do they get sorted through a &e?
 
Minstadave said:
You can pay outside of an insurance policy for anything not covered.
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Which could end up costing something astronomical and therefore make paying for insurance redundant.

That's why I hope it doesn't move to insurance, unless it can cover pre-existing conditions.

That's a lot of people screwed over/dead if the NHS did move to that.

Like I said in one of the other threads about this:

This is important to a lot of people, not so important if you are not seriously ill, have health insurance or can afford to pay privately, but is when you are ill and don't have those options.
 
The NHS needs to fix its inefficiencies but on top of that, I'm amazed that tax is such a dirty word these days. If an extra penny in the pound tax was taken and transparently ring-fenced for the NHS as part of a comprehensive plan to fix it, would people really be up in arms about it?

I'm lucky enough to have private healthcare but it only goes so far and won't cover pre-existing, chronic or terminal conditions AFAIK. When it's available it's great to hear, "we can operate next week" but insurance companies generally do their best to avoid paying for anything.

So yeah, regardless of being insured, I don't want the NHS to be driven by P&L.

EDIT: I may be wrong but doesn't an insurance based system also encourage massive price inflation?
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
Funnily enough there was an FOI sent in around 4 years ago asking how many inserted objects in a year and it was something like 57 :D
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An ex of mine was a nurse and the first thing she ever had to deal with on placement was a woman who had inserted and then lost a cucumber up her wazoo.
 
Not everybody is able to afford private insurance so why not introduce a nominal fee for using NHS services?

£5 ok? Now just think of the number of patients that are seen in ED and do your calculations.
 
c1tro said:
Not everybody is able to afford private insurance so why not introduce a nominal fee for using NHS services?

£5 ok? Now just think of the number of patients that are seen in ED and do your calculations.
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A drop in the ocean.

I'm all up for a 5 quid charge to dissuade those idiots who repeatedly fail to show for their appointments.
 
That would be enough money to fund a few more nurses and a doctor in a busy department.
I also agree about the missed appointment charge.
 
tres said:
I'm all up for a 5 quid charge to dissuade those idiots who repeatedly fail to show for their appointments.
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I had my opinion changed on this because I see so many patients who consistantly DNA.
I'd posted on our Trust Intranet forum about this and the bloke who works behind me posted that we can't charge for DNAs when we keep changing patients appointments or when they turn up we tell them "Sorry the Clinician is on a call". He has a point.
It happened to me last year but it was no bother to walk 100 yards back to the office where other patients can be driving 40 miles and then can't find a parking space.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I had my opinion changed on this because I see so many patients who consistantly DNA.
I'd posted on our Trust Intranet forum about this and the bloke who works behind me posted that we can't charge for DNAs when we keep changing patients appointments or when they turn up we tell them "Sorry the Clinician is on a call". He has a point.
It happened to me last year but it was no bother to walk 100 yards back to the office where other patients can be driving 40 miles and then can't find a parking space.
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I agree, it would be a near impossible policy to implement - but I see up to 25% of outpatient appoints DNA, when I know the list is already ridiculously long. It is such a shame.
 
I am sure there are less than 25% clinics that are cancelled in short notice for whatever reason so can't see a problem "compensating" patients who turn up.

My suggestion however included ED attendances too. Compared to any private insurance private charges £5 is nothing.
 
Charging patients a nominal fee is backwards thinking. There are some people who genuinely struggle to afford the bus fare to the hospital... usually the same people who are desperately in need of NHS services. Further discouraging them from attending is madness. It will cost more in the long run when they arrive in a collapsed heap to A&E and require more intensive therapy.
 
Charging a nominal fee for a no-show then? Even if you gave 24 hours notice, it's something. So much resource wastage as it is.
 
I've driven 30 miles to a hospital appointment before, then had to turn round and drive home again because there was no parking available. Should I be charged? If no, then surely everyone could just make that excuse. It would be a nightmare to enforce.
 
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