Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

silvercar

lostinrates wrote: »

Fwiw I think four is a lot too. Not that its any of my business what Anyone decides to do personally, Its a general thing, not a personal one.

I think 4 is within the normal range, 5 sounds a "big family" category.

But these days there must be a lot of blended families with step and half children which boost the numbers.

I can see people with children from previous relationships getting together and wanting a child between them, then 1 leads to 2 and before long there is a bigger brood when the children from the first relationships all sit round the table.

silvercar

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

OH makes the "wandering Jew" stereotype look tame - he, his parents and his grandparents (7 of them in total) were born in 7 different countries. OH in Israel, his mother in the British Mandate of Palestine, his father in the UK, and his grandparents in Poland, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia, and on board a ship in the Mediterraean. No Germans, though, in the more recent generations.

So what nationality does born on board a ship give you? Do you get stateless people because they don't qualify under any countries' rules, or is that a myth?

zagubov

Spirit wrote: »

Blue lighted into a Birmingham hospital some years ago and admitted to a coronary care ward I found myself in the bed next to a Jamaican lady. She needed a by pass and it was unaffordable at home. Her option was to visit a 'friend' in Birmingham and to become an emergency there. She told me that at the friends house there was a man staying who had been an emergency some weeks earlier but was recovering well and expected to be fit to fly home in a couple of months. I asked if she paid the friend a fee and she told me that she had sent money to come and that once she had had her operation her husband would send more to cover her convalescence.

I could understand her decision. To her it was a matter of life and death. I got a sense that the clinical staff knew what was going on.

The tricky bit is that the NHS was wide open to abuse and understandably clinical staff will always want to do what they can . At large hospital I know well - even a 1/4% is a couple of £million so checking on eligibility for elective treatment is normal.

I remember a TV critic once lamenting that Brookside Close seemed so disaster-prone that emergency service crews must cross themselves every time they drive near it. I wonder how long this would keep happening befere the emergency services became concerned about the medical emergencies arising at the same address!

Seriously though, this bothers me a bit. For the people in the life or death situation I can sympathise. But I'd hate to think that somebody resident here didn't get dialysis/ surgery expensive drugs who 's been paying their NI finds out that it's not happening because somebody snuck in and took their place.

silvercar

But I'd hate to think that somebody resident here didn't get dialysis/ surgery expensive drugs who 's been paying their NI finds out that it's not happening because somebody snuck in and took their place.

It happens all the time that people don't get what they need because there are no funds, whether that is because someone has snuck in or not is not relevant. The "british" person in the bed next to you may never have paid NI contributions.

PasturesNew

silvercar wrote: »

So what nationality does born on board a ship give you? Do you get stateless people because they don't qualify under any countries' rules, or is that a myth?

There was a girl in the papers in the past month who has only just been allowed to get a job etc and she's in her 20s as there was no record of her birth.

I googled it - here it is http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2320656/Woman-left-legal-limbo-14-years-finally-receives-passport-aged-26-DNA-test-prove-shes-British.html

zagubov

silvercar wrote: »

It happens all the time that people don't get what they need because there are no funds, whether that is because someone has snuck in or not is not relevant. The "british" person in the bed next to you may never have paid NI contributions.

The NI bit's a red herring. I worked in the NHS and we certainly never bothered about whether patients had paid NI or not, or what passport they held.

But I meant it as shorthand for being resident rather than as a tourist and being entitled to be treated as such. And there;'s definitly a culture here that the NHS is more than just our safety net if your money for private medicine runs out; it's our basic entitlement and paying for private medicine is very much off the agenda for most people.

PasturesNew

There's also been people living in airports as their passport ran out while they were abroad and they couldn't get out of the airport in the country + they couldn't fly 'back home'. One man allegedly lived at Paris Airport for over 16 years http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2004/sep/06/features.features11

misskool

zagubov wrote: »

The NI bit's a red herring. I worked in the NHS and we certainly never bothered about whether patients had paid NI or not, or what passport they held.

But I meant it as shorthand for being resident rather than as a tourist and being entitled to be treated as such. And there;'s definitly a culture here that the NHS is more than just our safety net if your money for private medicine runs out; it's our basic entitlement and paying for private medicine is very much off the agenda for most people.

the NHS now certainly care what you've done to deserve free treatment. I remember checking in at the appointment and the receptionist had to ask everyone what nationality they were/what passport they had. Most were quite taken aback. A national identity card would solve that but obviously that wouldn't work here (as was tried and never got off the ground).

Many people I know would rather pay insurance and have medical care (similar to America) and have a safety net of BASIC medical care. But I suppose we are mostly young working professionals so the cost is not yet a major problem.

zagubov

silvercar wrote: »

So what nationality does born on board a ship give you? Do you get stateless people because they don't qualify under any countries' rules, or is that a myth?

Having two passports isn't a bad thing but being stateless is a nightmare. I've had students in those circumstances and everything gets so complicated.

In fact even being resident abroad for a while can cause some problems. I've had students returning from years in Commonwealth (and non-EU) countries whoi don't realise they're charged extremely pricy overseas student fees for post-16 education.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd be mightily pee'd off if that happens to me. I've not been in Hospital yet. Been for a few bumps and scrapes over the years, just to be patched up for a couple of minor things.... but I wasn't born in one (nor had a midwife), never broken anything, not stayed the night in one nor never even got as far as being on a ward/on a bed.

Instead, I went out for decades to work every day ..... and paid in.

All those people who say "I paid in", well, on all counts I've paid in to everything and not taken yet.

Don't complain about not having taken out of healthcare! It's a huge bonus!

In other ways changes are you have taken out...school education for example. health might have benefited you i othervways: other people's communicable deseases being treated and vaccinated against for example.