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Benefit fraud

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Comments

  • curty510
    curty510 Posts: 189 Forumite
    dktreesea wrote: »
    Mmm, the cost of having someone crippled and disabled for the next ten to twenty years, unable to function properly physically. All for the sake of a £12,000 operation. I went from crippled to being able to walk straight up, in my early 50s. Meanwhile my cousin, with the same degenerative, inherited problem I have, is still being told by her English NHS trust, in her late 50s, she is too young to have the operation. Getting the care we need shouldn't be a postcode lottery. :(

    Agreed, if I was crippled and the NHS wouldn't pay £12k for an op, I would look into going private & spending that myself, if it meant i could walk unaided/without pain. Not right, but £12k doesn't get you a lot nowadays......
    debt free, savings in the bank
  • dktreesea wrote: »
    Mmm, the cost of having someone crippled and disabled for the next ten to twenty years, unable to function properly physically. All for the sake of a £12,000 operation. I went from crippled to being able to walk straight up, in my early 50s. Meanwhile my cousin, with the same degenerative, inherited problem I have, is still being told by her English NHS trust, in her late 50s, she is too young to have the operation. Getting the care we need shouldn't be a postcode lottery. :(

    That's your biased opinion and anecdotal evidence though!

    Whereas the surgeons, care givers and budget managers might see it differently!
  • dktreesea
    dktreesea Posts: 5,736 Forumite
    That's your biased opinion and anecdotal evidence though!

    Whereas the surgeons, care givers and budget managers might see it differently!



    I don't think the service from the NHS is uniform throughout the UK and it ought to be. Do people in York, for example, one of the latest health trusts to restrict services due to being out of budget (I hesitate to say overspending it because I suspect their settlement from the government wasn't enough in the first place) deserve less of a health service than those in Edinburgh? I don't see the government offering them a discount on their income tax.


    Never mind benefit fraud, how about a fraud on the people of Britain who don't get the same NHS services that are available elsewhere in Britain?
  • sheramber
    sheramber Posts: 23,163 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts I've been Money Tipped! Name Dropper
    Many years ago my cousin had difficulty walking due to arthritis in her hip.

    As she was in her 40's she was told she was too young to have a hip replacement- at that time they couldn't do a second one- as hey only lasted 10 years .

    She explained that she had three children to look after. It was more appropriate for her to have a new hip now and be in a wheelchair in 10 years time, rather than be in wheelchair until she was 70- the recommended age for the op at that time- and then get a new hip.

    The consultant agreed to the op if she was prepared to go out of the area to have it. She told them she would go anywhere to have it done.

    She ended up going to a hospital 40 miles away so not a problem.

    She has now had 3 hip replacements- 2 on one hip and one on the other.
  • sangie595
    sangie595 Posts: 6,092 Forumite
    sheramber wrote: »
    Many years ago my cousin had difficulty walking due to arthritis in her hip.

    As she was in her 40's she was told she was too young to have a hip replacement- at that time they couldn't do a second one- as hey only lasted 10 years .

    She explained that she had three children to look after. It was more appropriate for her to have a new hip now and be in a wheelchair in 10 years time, rather than be in wheelchair until she was 70- the recommended age for the op at that time- and then get a new hip.

    The consultant agreed to the op if she was prepared to go out of the area to have it. She told them she would go anywhere to have it done.

    She ended up going to a hospital 40 miles away so not a problem.

    She has now had 3 hip replacements- 2 on one hip and one on the other.
    But the advice she had was the right advice at the tone for people generally? My dad had one years ago, was in hospital for weeks and that was then. I have mine replaced next Tuesday, and I am told I will be out Thursday! Things change. Advice changes. Procedures change and improve.
  • dktreesea
    dktreesea Posts: 5,736 Forumite
    So does that mean that her own local hospital wouldn't give it to her, but if she agreed to go elsewhere, to a more enlightened (or more flush) local trust she could get it done? Or was it because in that region only selected hospitals provided the service?
  • sangie595 wrote: »
    But the advice she had was the right advice at the tone for people generally? My dad had one years ago, was in hospital for weeks and that was then. I have mine replaced next Tuesday, and I am told I will be out Thursday! Things change. Advice changes. Procedures change and improve.

    When I had my right hip (first one) replaced I was actually in for six days, as I developed cellulitis and although they would have quite happily sent me home with raging cellulitis (they hadn't noticed until I brought it to their attention :doh: ) I insisted on seeing a doctor and having them sort it out with strong antibiotics before they discharged me.

    However, with my left hip replacement (second hip) I went in on Monday morning and was home by Wednesday lunchtime (having had one replaced already I was familiar with the exercises and the procedure and that time there were no complications.)

    Best wishes for next Tuesday, Sangie; I'll be thinking of you.:)
    A cunning plan, Baldrick? Whatever it was, it's got to be better than pretending to be mad; after all, who'd notice another mad person around here?.......Edmund Blackadder.
  • sangie595
    sangie595 Posts: 6,092 Forumite
    dktreesea wrote: »
    So does that mean that her own local hospital wouldn't give it to her, but if she agreed to go elsewhere, to a more enlightened (or more flush) local trust she could get it done? Or was it because in that region only selected hospitals provided the service?
    Or one that was willing to take more risks? You only see one half of the picture. I am not a doctor, so I don't know what all the risks are in an individual case. I assume you are not either. It isn't as easy as "want / get".

    I am not arguing that medical procedures shouldn't be available to people who need them. But you are using too general and too sweeping statements. Procedures aren't as available in England - well yes, they are. Maybe not everywhere - but I do not personally live everywhere so I wouldn't know. But that depends on a lot of circumstances. You've already come up with the whole of Yorkshire as being an example - well it isn't. It just isn't as simple as "take one example and apply to everything".

    Yes, medicine ought not to be dependant on financial constraints. But in the real world there are such constraints. Money is finite everywhere. And when choices have to be made, someone loses. Maybe in Scotland you don't have any financial constraints and you can spend endlessly on whatever you want. That's nice. But it can't last for ever either, because, in the end, you can't print money and then there will be choices to make. I don't happen to agree with the governments choices in England, but until someone explains to me how we pay for all the services we want with the amount of money available, there will always be tough choices.
  • sangie595
    sangie595 Posts: 6,092 Forumite
    When I had my right hip (first one) replaced I was actually in for six days, as I developed cellulitis and although they would have quite happily sent me home with raging cellulitis (they hadn't noticed until I brought it to their attention :doh: ) I insisted on seeing a doctor and having them sort it out with strong antibiotics before they discharged me.

    However, with my left hip replacement (second hip) I went in on Monday morning and was home by Wednesday lunchtime (having had one replaced already I was familiar with the exercises and the procedure and that time there were no complications.)

    Best wishes for next Tuesday, Sangie; I'll be thinking of you.:)

    Thanks. I am actually looking forward to it!
  • Kim_kim
    Kim_kim Posts: 3,726 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    ev8 wrote: »
    Do you think he may be drinking to forget his problems or to numb his pain?
    I don't drink myself, but I had one the other years and I have to say it really did change my pain in a way my meds do not, so I can completely understand why people may drink when they are in pain.

    Also, his wife can use the car in this way, if it is helping the claimant, which her working will be as it keeps the roof over his head, then she can drive the car to work.

    You really are so judgemental, I wonder how you would cope if a life of chronic pain was suddenly forced on you, because believe me it's not easy. Yes you may get a car, but you lose the mobility money. I would love to go away for a few days, I've been told it may be good for me to change the scenery for a few days, but I just cannot manage it, so haven't had a night away in fifteen years.

    I would give up all the money or benefits you get with being ill, just to be able to go away and do a job I loved. But my condition is limiting, as, most likely are those you are describing here.

    I'm pretty sure motibility cars aren't for claimants partners to use for their commute to work.
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