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On the same day that Captain Tom’s daughter is told to knock down the swimming pool that she has had built on the back of all the pan banging and sentiment.
Sort of sums up the current state of affairs.
This is five years old now, but a superb series:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0bh8vpv?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
Stop by and buy a cake. We'll even treat you for the pre-diabetes it'll give you (we're nice like that)
As a premature baby placed in an incubator, the NHS saved my life.
I thank you.
The NHS has saved my wife's life when giving birth twice.
We stopped after that...
Mine too, and daughter and son. Shame it is on its arse.
The NHS has saved my wife’s life when giving birth twice.
We stopped after that…
3rd baby was your last?
...sorry
Had an issue a few months back. Saw two docs on Sunday, minor op on Monday. In the US it would have bankrupted me.
Fight to defend the NHS, we don't want it privatised like the water and power companies.
3rd baby was your last?
…sorry
I'm finding two to be quite enough to be getting on with tbh!
I also forgot to mention that we benefited from IVF treatment at no charge on the NHS as well. Life would be a lot different for us without it.
Taxpayers via the NHS fund mrs_oab's treatment, without which she would die. And it's not cheap.
I'm deeply grateful.
My grandpa was in the first tranche of male nurses in the NHS. He finished the war having been a do-it-all 'ship steward' on a boom defense vessel, and as part of this was the first aider on board. As the NHS was formed he applied direct from college in Birkenhead where he was studying nursing after demobilisation. He was regularly told he was the first male nurse. We now don't think that's quite correct, but he was one of the first. He went on to lead rural hospitals in Zambia and set up a rural nurse training programme across the country, a real pioneering work even in 1980.
I also forgot to say: my dad is one of 9 siblings, and 6 of the 7 aunties were all nurses, three if whom married doctors! And of my 27 cousin's and second cousins, we have two GP's and multiple nurses still...
Most countries in the western world have health services which achieve far better outcomes - the NHS is only doing what it should be doing, nothing special about it.
Most countries in the western world have health services which achieve far better outcomes – the NHS is only doing what it should be doing, nothing special about it.
I would strongly dispute that claim - most countries achieve "far better outcomes".
On this site the NHS is ranked 7th. There are a hell of a lot more than 7 countries in the western world.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/well-developed-public-health-system
That is not to say that the NHS is not facing some very strong challenges though. But all the Secretaries of State for Health and Social Care for the last 13 years have been members of your party mefty, and no doubt their incompetence has had some bearing.
Btw no other western country has been doing what the NHS has been doing for the last 75 years, unless you can think of one? So yes, I do consider that to be "special".
That BBC series i linked to at the top of this thread is a fantastic history of the NHS - the archive audio is phenomenal.
Interesting link Ernie.
Another recent comparison of the NHS to other systems worth looking at is this fresh research report from King's Fund.
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/nhs-compare-health-care-systems-other-countries
Some key findings:
We found the UK health care system has fewer key resources than its peers.
The UK performs well on protecting people from some of the financial costs of ill health, but lags behind its peers on important health care outcomes, including life expectancy and deaths.
There is little evidence that one particular ‘type’ of health care system or model of health care funding produces systematically better results than another.
The UK performs well on protecting people from some of the financial costs of ill health, but lags behind its peers on important health care outcomes, including life expectancy and deaths.
Correct me if I am wrong but surely all countries are equal when it comes to death rates? It would be quite impressive for any health service to reduce it from 100%
Nice to have. Not perfect, problems do occur, but better than pay to live as we see in some places like the US
That survey you linked is a lightweight "lifestyle" one, the Kings Fund did some work on this and one of their conclusions is
5. Patient outcomes are worse than average
The UK has higher avoidable mortality and treatable mortality1 rates than comparator countries. This is driven by below-average survival rates for many major cancers (including cancer of the breast, cervix, colon, rectum, lung and stomach), and poorer outcomes from heart attacks and strokes.
Source here
The chart shows us second bottom.
Yes, the Tories haven't been great either - the NHS has become political untouchable - the sooner this changes the better for it and our health. In the meantime, when we are dying from cancer we can console ourselves with the fact we come from the country which was first to have a universal health service.
You can play with charts as much as you like but it doesn't provide evidence that "most" countries in the western world have better outcomes. There are a multitude of different ways of measuring efficiency including cost effectiveness.
And no, Britian wasn't the first country in the world to have free universal healthcare, the Soviet Union was. The whole concept of a healthcare provisions based on need and not ability to pay is pure communism.
Which is precisely why the United States has historically been so hostile to the concept. Britian was the first western country to provide universal free healthcare, dismiss the significance of that if you please, Tories usually do, but I believe that it is a proud record.
Anyway...Our wee cake sale made £90.00 for https://nhscharitiestogether.co.uk/ Feel free to make a donation