Which is the best private healthcare?

sheramber

My husband consulted our GP as he had a black spot in his eyesight in one eye

He was advised to get an urgent appointment that day with his optician- no problem , Just come in and you will be seen.

A letter referring for hospital appointment was issued.

Two weeks later, with no word from the hospital, he lost1/3 of the sight in that eye.

He contacted the optician and was asked to come right in. After examining she diagnosed a partly detached retina and immediately phoned the hospital.

He was given an urgent appointment for 10 am the next morning.

He was operated on that morning.

Sorry to the two people who arrived for appointments only to be told they had been cancelled due to an emergency. The nurse had tried to contact them but they had already left for the hospital, travelling 80 miles to get there.

My husband returned home that afternoon to recuperate and is extremely thankful for the prompt attention from all concerned in hopefully saving his eyesight.

BananaRepublic

Pollycat wrote: »

No.
I asked the question:

You replied:


To me, that means you didn't think it was unreasonable for the OP to ask the question.
Not the same as you saying the OP's expectations were unreasonable.

But

It's not that important.

Do you have to be so confrontational/aggressive? I thought the original post okay, and their expectations not unreasonable, and certainly not meriting the rudeness in this thread.

I originally commented on posts that criticised the OP for seeing a GP and wanting an xray while ‘only having a cold’. In fact it was a severe chest infection, and the xray was ordered by the doctor. As I said earlier, we don’t know the OPs health status, and chest infections can and do kill.

A six hour wait in A&E is not reasonable although not uncommon. We get what we pay for.

As I and others have said, the NHS is underfunded, which may have contributed to my mums death. Had they been better funded, they might have examined mum more carefully and discovered a perforated bowel on admission, rather than weeks later during major surgery when she had been starved for two weeks, and was unlikely to survive.

Kim_kim

HappyUser wrote: »

I am interested to know more as I am in London (anywhere outside London is a hole in many aspects anyway).


So all private GPs will see you immediately and arrange to have a same day x-ray? Is there a medical insurance that does that or a specific GP or all can provide that basic stuff that you only get in NHS if you turn up in A&E and wait for 8 hours?

I’m lucky, I live in Surrey - a hole outside London.
I don’t have any issues with seeing my doctor quickly, usually the same day.

Pollycat

BananaRepublic wrote: »

Do you have to be so confrontational/aggressive? I thought the original post okay, and their expectations not unreasonable, and certainly not meriting the rudeness in this thread.

Well, I think when you post:

BananaRepublic wrote: »

Asking if you need to wait six hours is not being rude or unreasonable. Sadly that is how the NHS is. I still think some people here are too ready to put others down. But hey, this is the last internet, being rude is the norm isn’t it?

to this simple, unconfrontational and unaggressive question:

Pollycat wrote: »

+1 to this ^^^^>

@ BananaRepublic
Just curious - do you think the OP's expectations of the NHS expressed in post #4 are reasonable?

and follow up with this:

BananaRepublic wrote: »

I answered your question. I don’t think a six hour wait is reasonable. Now you can get back to kicking the OP with the others.

it's a bit like the kettle calling the pot back.

I'm not sure if you have some sort of agenda here but I'm not going to engage any further with you.
I'll leave your quoted posts for others to decide who is being confrontational and aggressive.

newatc

I think it is natural that once's opinion of the NHS is based on your experiences. I had lived my first 70 years virtually free of health problems but the last 18 months I've had several issues to deal with and frankly I've been horrified by NHS standards of judgement and care. In particular I was dismayed by what I regarded as apathetic nursing care in hospital. I'll not go into details as NHS supporters will pick them off and of course my opinion is only based on my experience and I accept many will have had good experience.
Although it goes against my beliefs, I have thought of paying(direct not insurance) for further procedures that I need to go through but you'd have the same consultants without the same NHS back up. I consider that the only advantage would be to beat the queue but what I've been through recently is bad enough without the added physcological burden of knowing I've paid a small fortune for it!

My advice for anyone looking at health issues, don't accept everything you are told and be prepared to ask plenty of questions. Medical staff (including consultants) are only human and will overlook things, make wrong judgements and be rather blase about your situation (because they've seen it hundreds of times before).

BananaRepublic

Pollycat wrote: »

Well, I think when you post:

to this simple, unconfrontational and unaggressive question:



and follow up with this:



it's a bit like the kettle calling the pot back.

I'm not sure if you have some sort of agenda here but I'm not going to engage any further with you.
I'll leave your quoted posts for others to decide who is being confrontational and aggressive.

Many peope here were rude to the OP. If you think pointing that out is rude, there’s not much I can say. Have a nice day.

BananaRepublic

Kim_kim wrote: »

I’m lucky, I live in Surrey - a hole outside London.
I don’t have any issues with seeing my doctor quickly, usually the same day.

You are lucky. I usually get an appointment in one to two weeks.

HappyUser

newatc wrote: »

I think it is natural that once's opinion of the NHS is based on your experiences. I had lived my first 70 years virtually free of health problems but the last 18 months I've had several issues to deal with and frankly I've been horrified by NHS standards of judgement and care. In particular I was dismayed by what I regarded as apathetic nursing care in hospital. I'll not go into details as NHS supporters will pick them off and of course my opinion is only based on my experience and I accept many will have had good experience.
Although it goes against my beliefs, I have thought of paying(direct not insurance) for further procedures that I need to go through but you'd have the same consultants without the same NHS back up. I consider that the only advantage would be to beat the queue but what I've been through recently is bad enough without the added physcological burden of knowing I've paid a small fortune for it!

My advice for anyone looking at health issues, don't accept everything you are told and be prepared to ask plenty of questions. Medical staff (including consultants) are only human and will overlook things, make wrong judgements and be rather blase about your situation (because they've seen it hundreds of times before).

Indeed that's my experience too.


The GPs at the practice I go, never explain to you anything. They even measure your blood pressure and they don't tell you if it is good or bad. They only care to type in the medical record so that they cover their behind and then say bye bye so that they get the next appointment. They must get paid by the appointments they make so for them it's quantity over quality. They have zero personal contact with the patient, they give zero advice (we are lucky we have the internet) and they do the absolutely bare minimum to cover their behind instead of looking to provide decent level of care.


I will find a job that provides private healthcare and I hope this would be much better than the hideous NHS that get you out of the door in 20 seconds. Would that be a reasonable expectation or private healthcare in the UK is the same crap as NHS?

BananaRepublic

HappyUser wrote: »

Indeed that's my experience too.


The GPs at the practice I go, never explain to you anything. They even measure your blood pressure and they don't tell you if it is good or bad. They only care to type in the medical record so that they cover their behind and then say bye bye so that they get the next appointment. They must get paid by the appointments they make so for them it's quantity over quality. They have zero personal contact with the patient, they give zero advice (we are lucky we have the internet) and they do the absolutely bare minimum to cover their behind instead of looking to provide decent level of care.


I will find a job that provides private healthcare and I hope this would be much better than the hideous NHS that get you out of the door in 20 seconds. Would that be a reasonable expectation or private healthcare in the UK is the same crap as NHS?

I’ve experienced that in Slough and Luton. Here in East Hants our GPs are excellent, they are friendly, thoroughly professional, and explain clearly what is wrong. They do work hard, but there is a good spirit. Staff at Southampton eye clinic were first rate too when I went recently. Maybe someone knows why such differences exist.

Dox

Perhaps the quality of service received is directly related to the patient's behaviour...