BRITAIN'S NHS MAKES PEOPLE SO DESPERATE THAT THEY TURN TO DISHONESTY TO SURVIVE

For Roy Thayers, a pensioner in need of a life-saving heart operation, it was an easy decision to make. Either the 77-year-old could languish on the NHS waiting list, even though doctors had cautioned that he was unlikely to survive the nine-month wait. Or he could write a cheque for an 8,000 pound private treatment that he could not afford. The retired painter and decorater opted for the latter, and within three days had undergone a succesful angioplasty at Hammersmith Hospital.

The cheque bounced. After negotiations with the hospital, Mr Thayers is repaying his debt at a rate of 25 pounds a week. "Life is a great thing and you do whatever you can to survive," he said. "I've never been a debtor in my life, but it was either that, or rigor mortis - I would have been a dead man. I think every man or woman would have done the same."

Mr Thayers, who is divorced and lives in Hounslow, west London, said that he had watched his first wife die of cancer more than thirty years ago, and was determined to survive at any cost. After suffering severe chest pains, he went to a specialist who told him that two valves had become blocked, and that he was at risk of a fatal heart attack unless he had surgery.

Mr Thayers said that those on lower incomes were being deprived of the benefits of the national health service. "I've worked hard all my life," he said. "The NHS is a marvellous thing, but it is being ruined. I would recommend anybody to do what I did. Life is great and when you have got it, you hang on to it."

Source







Surgeons 'horrified' by long waits in Australian public hospitals

Surgeons say they have watched with horror as the hospital waiting lists have grown and in some cases doubled over the past decade. President of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Russell Stitz said yesterday the latest figures showed patients were waiting a third longer than they did 10 years ago. The study, by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, showed that in some areas, such as neurosurgery, the average waiting list had doubled, while the wait for vascular surgery had increased by 64 per cent.

"It is with some degree of horror that surgeons are watching waiting lists continue to climb nationally, and there are real concerns among the medical profession that governments have no interest in bringing them down," Dr Stitz said. "It is unbelievable that someone with a brain injury is being forced to wait double the time they used to; and just try telling that to your patients -- it's heart-wrenching." Coupled with a shortage of surgeons, "to say there is a crisis in the health system is an understatement", Dr Stitz said.

Surveys by the college earlier this year showed the nation's 7100 surgeons spend at least 60per cent of their time in private hospitals and are ageing, with almost half aged 55 or older. "There are solutions," Dr Stitz said. "Public hospitals need to be adequately resourced, and these resources need to be used efficiently to treat more patients and provide adequate training for future surgeons. We need to employ more nurses, open more beds and start training more doctors to become surgeons." With demand for surgery expected to grow by 50per cent in the next 20 years, he said, at least 30 per cent more surgeons were needed, but "we are nowhere near this number".

Source






Funding shortfall in Tasmanian public hospitals too

After reports of similar problems in other Australian States, maybe the Tasmanians did not want to be left out

Staff at the Royal Hobart Hospital have rejected the Tasmanian Government's assertion that the hospital receives sufficient funding. The hospital overspent its budget by $6 million last year and Health Minister Lara Giddings says there will not be any more money if the hospital exceeds this year's budget of $255 million.

The chairman of the hospital's Staff Association, Dr Frank Nicklason, says the Government is asking the hospital to provide services it cannot afford. "There isn't a recognition that the Royal is a tertiary university teaching hospital, that we're funded for around about half the State's health budget, but we are doing the complex and obviously the much more expensive cases on a state-wide basis," he said.

Meanwhile, the Greens want an independent inquiry into the Government's handling of hospital funding. Acting Greens leader Nick McKim says two years ago the Government commissioned the Richardson Report into the operation of hospitals in Tasmania. "It's time, in the view of the Greens, for there to be a performance review of how the Government has gone in implementing the recommendations in the Richardson Report," he said. "There were over 50 recommendations made by Professor Richardson and I doubt very much that the Government has done half."

Source

***************************

For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation. Both Australia and Sweden have large private sector health systems with government reimbursement for privately-provided services so can a purely private system with some level of government reimbursement or insurance for the poor be so hard to do?

Comments? Email me here. If there are no recent posts here, the mirror site may be more up to date. My Home Page is here or here.

***************************