This is probably more of a rant than anything else……

Three weeks with a dodgy ear; two appointments with my doctor; the last, which was a week ago, he said he’d refer me to the ENT department. I did ask him if he could just syringe the thing and be done with it, but no; ENT or nothing.

Phoned up the ENT department today to make an appointment and they haven’t received my referral.

Once they receive a referral, it’ll be a six to eight week wait for an appointment.

What’d be the cost and timescale to get this done privately?

Privatizing the NHS; running it into the ground is just the first step.

I’d wager very expensive and unappealing to private services so probably not supported.

I assume your ‘dodgy ear’ is not life threatening so rather down the list of priorities? Unfortunately/ fortunately part of diagnosis will be excluding potential problems so not always a one visit, hook you up to diagnostic software and sort/ figure out in 1 go.

This is the salary for some of the private insurance providers in the USA from 2014.. The hospital CEOs make good money too…

SO when you have this amount of money going out of the system be it Healthcare, Schooling or anything else then either the money going in needs to be much more or the service needs to be much less.

There is a reason why a fair few of the guys from the USA have the retirement healthcare plan of handgun at the bottom of the garden…

Remember this: ‘if you want to destroy something, first drive it mad’
We’re well into the madness stage now.

As to your question – are you having a laugh?
Look at the record of eg SERCO, who have taken some big NHS contracts, and you’ll see what I mean.

OP – Are you wanting a discussion about Private Health Care or winging about your referral to ENT?

My Mother was referred to ENT by her GP, and got in the next day. That was however the GP thought she had cancer (which she did).

The NHS is prioritised so if your GP thinks you have an issue that requires ENT, that is why he has sent you there, obviously it is not that serious or you would have been bumped up the list.

The reality is that you could ask your GP to refer your privately to the ENT consultant of your choice and therefore get seen very quickly. At least that will get you an answer.

Should the NHS be privatised? Yes if you are prepared to pay for it.

The government has already tried private healthcare in the NHS, and the service providers pulled out as they could not make enough money.

On reflection; I’ve always had really good service from the NHS.

But this time, my usual doctor was on maternity leave and the guy who’s standing in for her pissed me off right away with old stories about his University days. I don’t wanna hear this shite, just fix my ear!

Any tips and tricks to fix an ear that isn’t working properly?

Are you wanting a discussion about Private Health Care or winging about your referral to ENT?

Both, but actually neither.

Just needed a vent 😉

Any tips and tricks to fix an ear that isn’t working properly?

You’ll probably need to see an ENT specialist for that.

Feels like I’m going round in circles.

Probably due to my lack of balance….

There’s an interesting discussion (and by discussion, I mean dispassionate conversation, listening to all points of view, no use of the usual angry language on forums as soon as people have differing thoughts) to be had around creating a multiple choice system.

I’d be more than happy to take a pre-tax/pre-NI salary sacrifice programme to fund private healthcare for me and my family. That would then free up NHS resource for those not in a position to do that. It would also doubly benefit me by being a commercial arrangement, meaning I could nominate service providers to meet timescale/level of cover requirements most suited to our needs.

Feels like I’m going round in circles.

Probably due to my lack of balance….

You could pay privately for a trollectomy and have your aggro gland removed.

This really isn’t up to your usual standard DT. We’ll blame it on the dizziness.

dtf,

Do you realise that the GP practice you went to is already privatised (and always has been)?
But if you are not (directly) the payer so will not determine the service level! That is not really any different with private insurance based models.

If you want a GP service where you can pay to get your ears syringed – you can pop to edinburgh with your credit card:
http://your-gp.com/services/gp-services/ear-syringing/

You’ll have brake bleeding kit won’t you? Team that up with a kettle. Crack on.

IMO you should wait longer if you have an ailment that’s ‘a bit annoying’, or ‘slightly troublesome’.

Given how successful privatisation has always been, and the superlative, great value for money service offered by our telecoms, railway and utilities industries, that are truly the envy of the world, I can’t see how any reasonable person could object

Oh… hang on a minute……

Railway and utilities are working better now than before, so your point is?

Telecoms technology wise are now are so far removed from when BT was publicly owned that I’m not sure an accurate comparison can be done.

There is a lot of the NHS that is already privatised, and some which has always been private (GP’s for one). Plus it has always spent a considerable part of its budget in the private sector.

This quite a telling statement:

When the NHS was launched in 1948, it had a budget of £437 million (roughly £15 billion at today’s value). For 2015/16, the overall NHS budget was around £116.4 billion.

So it now costs a factor of 5 times greater than when first setup, taking population growth into account.

You’ll have brake bleeding kit won’t you? Team that up with a kettle. Crack on.

Best not, I don’t want to become a “Mail’s most Hated” after getting plastic surgery on the NHS.

I don’t wanna hear this shite, just fix my ear!

Irony intended?

No – end of. All civilized countries have them (yes – until Obama the ‘merkins weren’t civilised 😈 & with Trump it seems they’re headed backwards)

However, if you are wealthy enough you can already purchase healthcare.

So we already have a 2 tier system and given the trend of NHS services being outsourced, by the back door, to private companies it is questionable whether as to how long it will last.

I will provide some simple questions for you…

If you/your partner gets pregnant and the pregnancy / baby has expensive complications do you expect to have to sell everything you own because the insurance doesn’t/refuses to cover it?

If you (or your family) experience an accident with long term health implications do you expect to have to sell everything you own because the insurance doesn’t/refuses to cover it?

Once you’ve sold everything you own do you expect your lifestyle to be severely impacted do to the affordability of healthcare?

Hot bath and the use the loop of a paper clip to scoop that Sh*t right out.

Re privatisation though.

All contracts now have to be offered by Tender to the private sector, so the battle (skirmish,debate) is pretty much lost & the NHS will be privatised piece by piece as the present contracts come up for renewal.

All ready gone
Cleaning, Training, I.T., Finance, Procurement, Radiology, Renal Units, Security, Car Parking, Catering, Sexual Health, Pathology, Physiotherapy, Estates & Maintenance.
Next for the chop is the Agency which controls Agency Staffing “NHS Professionals

Enjoy

Ooohh and most CSSD’s are now sending theater instruments off-site to be cleaned as well

Private delivery seems to work for other EU countries, the US isn’t the only other comparator. It can be publicly funded but privately delivered.

Don’t forget the GP who is doing your referral is a private practice (funded by the NHS but usually operating as private partnerships).

Perhaps the biggest issue is that demand for the NHS is effectively unlimited but funding is quite constrained.

Trolling level – Jedi.

Is it that time again already.

Any tips and tricks to fix an ear that isn’t working properly?

IANAD, but I think they work pretty much the same as freehubs. Have you tried urinating on it or getting a friend to? Only a temporary fix but might keep it going til your appointment.

My son was recently in hospital for a little while, for what turned out to be a significant but manageable condition he’s probably had since birth (nearly 2 now). It took a while to get referred for various reasons, but tbh I’m massively glad it was through the NHS, it was cost effective, and I was only worrying about his health not the bill whilst he was in hospital.

All the staff were very caring and professional, and luckily didn’t have to send half their time looking at my insurance cover or sending invoices/tracking costs.

I’d be more than happy to take a pre-tax/pre-NI salary sacrifice programme to fund private healthcare for me and my family.

Have you looked into how much that would actually cost?

This is probably more of a rant than anything else……

Three weeks with a dodgy ear; two appointments with my doctor; the last, which was a week ago, he said he’d refer me to the ENT department. I did ask him if he could just syringe the thing and be done with it, but no; ENT or nothing.

Phoned up the ENT department today to make an appointment and they haven’t received my referral.

Once they receive a referral, it’ll be a six to eight week wait for an appointment.

What’d be the cost and timescale to get this done privately?

And…

I assume your ‘dodgy ear’ is not life threatening

Compare and contrast that to my experience on Monday night when i self presented at A&E with some pretty vague (to me) neuro symptoms…the triage nurse saw me immediately and i was moved to the corridor (sounds crap doesnt it it?) but the nurses and paramedics monitoring patients in the corridor while we waited for a cubicle was exemplary, i was continually neuro assessed, regular BP, pulse, temp etc….eventually a cubicle became free and in i went, the nurse was Michelle and lovely, she actually cared, it wasn’t just the clinical stuff it was whether i was warm enough, would i like a drink, are the light too bright in here etc…i had to provide a urine sample and when i came back they were ready for my ECG which was carried out professionally yet with good humour…after that i was sent for a chest Xray, the porters who took me and brought me back are great lads, full of amusing useless chit-chat to take your mind of what might be happening, the CXR was fine and then it was time for the biggie…time for a CT scan of my head.
I was nervous but the staff were wonderful, a few mins later it was done and i was pushed back to A&E on my trolley rather embarrasingly.
A more senior Dr then appeared and said the CXR was fine, my bloods showed my markers and the the CT scan was as expected for a 38 yr old man…he then stood me up and put me through what can only be described as a bloody hard workout!….apparantly these are used to detect any neuro abnormalites and it didnt take just 2 mins, he was thorough and worked me through for about 10 mins in total…he couldnt find anything wrong either and as the differential diagnosis when i’d first arrived of things like stroke/tia, seizures, brain tumour were all ruled out and i have and appointment with the Consultant Neurologist as an outpatient in 6 days time.

The system works, and it works brilliantly when they think something is seriously work.

I’m sorry to here about your ear but in the grand scheme of thing when they’re screening 38yr blokes for possible brain injuries you can (hopefully) understand being placed to the back of the metaphorically speaking,

My infuriated mood has subsided.

Hope you get yourself fixed Deviant.

Have you looked into how much that would actually cost?

I’m guessing not.

I worked in the US and have been gobsmacked by the monies American colleagues (and the company) paid.

What’d be the cost and timescale to get this done privately?

Talk with your GP, they’ll be able to sort you out – and probably less than you imagine for an initial consultation.

Have you looked into how much that would actually cost?

Starting to look into private healthcare (full package) at the moment, and even with critical/cancer etc cover, seems pretty reasonable. If there was a mechanism to allow NHS “opt out” and so do this pre-tax, might be viable. I’m not claiming to have all the answers or know 100% at this stage, but seems like a good idea worth investigating further. We shouldn’t just hold onto something because that’s how it has been for quite a while.

That’s not any form of ideological statement BTW, purely a recognition that it’s good to explore all potential options.

The private health care system in the US sucks royally as far as I can tell from admittedly very anecdotal evidence.

My line manager was in the US a few years ago, slipped, and he ended up in casualty with severe concussion. They did a battery of tests to figure out what was wrong – including a pregnancy test. Needless to say he was not pregnant, but it showed up on his bill nonetheless.

A colleague here has a relative in the US who very recently went into hospital for a routine hernia operation. They gave him a sex change instead.

Private health care is simply not a panacea for the ills of the health service. The only thing it seems to be really good for is making lots of money for healthcare companies and their bosses.

making lots of money for healthcare companies and their bosses

Provided service levels are good, I’ve got absolutely no problem with this aspect of it. Certainly, the prospect of someone getting very rich for delivering high quality products and services shouldn’t serve as some kind of ideological blocker to exploring things. I know many people would probably hate that thought, but provided there’s a value delivery, then all good.

Provided service levels are good, I’ve got absolutely no problem with this aspect of it.

Personally, I don’t think having a sex change instead of a hernia operation is a good level of service. But that’s just me.

Personally, I don’t think having a sex change instead of a hernia operation is a good level of service. But that’s just me.

Agreed. But was just making the important separation from revenue and service delivery, as all too often (especially on STW as it seems a very vocal left leaning demographic – again, I have no ideological standpoint on this good or bad, purely an observation) the idea of making money/profit seems to be held up as a bad thing.

Hopefully there would be enough marketplace competition that poor service levels would be punished by consumers placing business elsewhere, creating natural marketplace discipline.

Are you kidding? A hernia is just a few thousand bucks a sex change would be tens of thousands, all that extra service for free and your friend’s complaining. Can’t please some folks.

Need a balance between free and private coz both sides can’t have it all.

the idea of making money/profit seems to be held up as a bad thing.

Yes it is unfortunate that when it comes to teachers, nurses and Dr’s the gov’ts view is that this ‘free market’ let wages settle ‘creating natural marketplace discipline’ is not for them.

When it comes to their post gov’t directorships and speaking fees it does.

A colleague here has a relative in the US who very recently went into hospital for a routine hernia operation. They gave him a sex change instead.

I hope he complained and got them to fix it.

If he didn’t he needs to grow a pair.

He’ll be first on the list for the reversal, they’ll want to deal with all the low hanging fruit.