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Post by EGBFan on Jan 27, 2006 6:09:38 GMT -4
Well, ok, just one of many possible worst-case scenarios:
A man limps into the QE2 Hospital, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, bleeding copiously from his right leg. He sees a reception desk and, his face portraying unfathomable relief, approaches it.
Receptionist: Can I help you, sir?
Patient: Thank you, yes. I've just severed a major artery with my chainsaw, and I need to be seen as quickly as possible.
Receptionist: I'm sorry, sir. Due to cuts in our funding, this hospital no longer has an A&E. You'll have to go to Luton. The 366 bus will get you there in about an hour.
The man bleeds to death while the bus driver is sorting out his change.
Has anyone else been getting any of this?
Seriously - it's going to happen. They're outing maternity as well, which of course is an issue - some expectant mothers in Hertfordshire are getting very upset (and that can't be good for the babies) - but frankly I'm a lot more concerned about A&E.
We have a hospital about a mile up the road. There hasn't been an A&E there for years, and they got rid of the maternity ward about 21 years ago. (I know that because my mother tells me it was between my older brother being born, and me.)
Hospitals with no maternity or A&E. Great, that'll work.
I mean, is this not an idea so insufferably stupid that whoever thought of it should have been sacked on the spot?
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Post by Fritz on Jan 27, 2006 11:03:36 GMT -4
[sarcasm] But...but cutting those services saves money, and makes the medical system more competitive in the global market place.
Only some kind of Communist or terrorist sympathizer would criticize this wise move.
I just hope someone brings this great idea to Our Great Leader, George W. Bush, and implements it in the United States so we can start saving money too. [/sarcasm]
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Post by Kingpin on Jan 27, 2006 18:50:13 GMT -4
Same thing's happening in Wycombe, which is about ten minutes from where I live.
We're losing our Neo-Natal units as well as our Maternity Unit...
They're going to Stoke Mandeville, which is, well, more miles then we'd care to count.
Labour's NHS, in ruins after a decade of mismanaging. Please, people of Britian... vote in our Conservatives again! They know how to run the country right!
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Post by EGBFan on Jan 28, 2006 10:43:53 GMT -4
No, no - vote Lib Dem! Or Monster Raving Loony Party! The NHS has never had enough money, not just from Blair's government, but from Thatcher's and Major's as well. The Tories don't care about sick people.
And yet, anything is preferable to Blair. Vote Tory if you won't vote Lib Dem (this, from someone as left-wing as I am, must mean something pretty dire is going on). They're talking about lowering taxes, right? So... hang on... where will they get money for the NHS? Oh, that's right - they'll use what Blair put aside for his Valentine's Day gift to George of innocent British soldiers too young to die.
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Post by ghostdiva on Jan 28, 2006 15:45:38 GMT -4
I am SOOO glad that I am not alone in thinking that the US should try to change things without joining a national insurance plan. You have no idea how many health administrators, health organizations, and lobbyist think that the US should move from what we have to a national insurance that models Canadas, the people who wait four months for an MRI. It stresses me out. Although we have our own problems with EMSs and maternity services, mostly having to do with our insurance problems, and malpractice insurance respectively, I don't think a national health insurance is the way the US needs to go. (I could go on for 30 pages about things like this, but I won't bore you) ghostdiva
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Post by Kingpin on Jan 28, 2006 21:34:42 GMT -4
I'd vote Lib Dem over my dead body.
Even now that Charles 'Flipflop' Kennedy isn't a member any more, they're still just the 'we're the opposite to anything anyone else says' party. They're never getting into 10 Downing Street.
The Thatcher government wasn't perfect, but it was no means as bad as Tony (Crony) and his party of imbeciles.
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Post by EGBFan on Jan 29, 2006 8:19:15 GMT -4
I'd vote Lib Dem over my dead body... they're still just the 'we're the opposite to anything anyone else says' party. Well, yeah. Everyone else is crap. Seriously, though. I know they're never going to get into Downing Street. I have to vote for them, though. I can't vote Conservative because it would go against my principles to vote right-wing. I can't vote Labour because I'm not a complete moron. And I can't abstain, because women died to give me the vote. My vote means literally nothing anyway. We've had a Tory MP around here since before I was born - he always wins his seat, no matter how many people turn eighteen and vote Lib Dem. The system is rubbish - my vote, the votes of anyone else around here who doesn't vote Conservative and the votes of people all over the country in similar situations... they just get lost.
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Post by Kingpin on Jan 30, 2006 9:29:33 GMT -4
My vote means literally nothing anyway. The same with the diploma I should be getting once I finish College... f**king Labour and it's 'everyone should go to university' thinking... not everybody should go... fricking morons...
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Post by EGBFan on Jan 30, 2006 10:07:50 GMT -4
Hear hear! Everybody goes to college and university, everybody's got a degree - I exaggerate, obviously - but anyway, it just doesn't mean anything anymore. If it isn't what you wanna do, go non-conformist!
I am what you might call a student with a bad attitude.
Ah, digression, you always find me.
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Post by Dr. Vincent Belmont on Feb 17, 2006 7:03:03 GMT -4
It will be a cold day in Hell before I would live in a country with national health care.
(Vincent walks into a hospital, bleeding to death) Receptionist: Can I help you?
Vincent: I need to see a doctor...I'm bleeding to death.
Receptionist: I'm sorry, but the ER is full and there is a first degree burn patient, as well as someone with the common cold ahead of you...I'm afraid you'll have to wait your turn.
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Post by Kingpin on Feb 18, 2006 19:39:27 GMT -4
There's nothing wrong with national health in theory, there's less insurance problems... but the main problem is the Government funding it, and the bad apples who get to work in it. If they were better it'd probably be a great system.
Like communism, it all works in theory or on paper...
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Post by Silent Seraphim on Feb 18, 2006 20:39:42 GMT -4
(Vincent walks into a hospital, bleeding to death) Receptionist: Can I help you? Vincent: I need to see a doctor...I'm bleeding to death. Receptionist: I'm sorry, but the ER is full and there is a first degree burn patient, as well as someone with the common cold ahead of you...I'm afraid you'll have to wait your turn. Actually, I think you’ll find that the NHS does prioritise patients. If you were bleeding to death, you’d be admitted straight away as an emergency patient. A major casualty was admitted whilst I was in a very busy A&E with my father, and the guy got rushed straight into theatre with no waiting. I think that's pretty much the norm. You only wait if you are a non-emergency case. If you ever entered Accident and Emergency with a common cold, you’d probably be laughed straight out of there, or at least have to wait a few hours to be treated. Generally, you would go to your GP if you have a common cold, not a hospital A&E.
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Post by Dr. Vincent Belmont on Feb 18, 2006 21:54:14 GMT -4
Even though the movie "John Q" was just that; a movie...I don't think the idea is too farfetched.
I'd much rather pay for health care.
I have an intense hatred for anything remotely communist. We do not live in a perfect world, and we NEVER WILL. It will not work. There will always be greed, avarice, and malcontent.
The American dream was built on the idea that everyone can make something of themselves.
What most Americans don'tunderstand is that the government was not implemented to PROVIDE this.
The word government means to do just that; GOVERN....not PROVIDE.
Look, I prefer Capitalism...it's what has made us a superpower. I support Capitalism.
Our country isn't even a democracy...it's a capitalist republic. The problem lies in the fact that:
A) Americans refuse to take responsibility for their own actions.
B) Americans are too uncouth, uncultered, and ego-centric that we think of ourselves as "superior," while maintaining no right to.
C) Americans, as a whole, are ignorant and uneducated, and that scares me.
D) Americans scream about their rights, but don't want the responsibilities that come with them.
E) Americans mistake privilages for rights.
F) Americans expect things to be given to them without wanting to earn or work for them. (Note: Don't give me crap about the disabled, either. I'm talking about the lazy f**ks that live off of welfare and unemployment)
G) The MINORITY rules this country, rather than the majority. (Note: Get the "racist" thought out of your heads, as that's NOT what I'm talking about) One asshole gets offended by something and all of a sudden new laws are implemented, and our way of life is changed because well golly gosh we don't wanna hurt his feelings.
H) To add to "G"....all of the stuff that was borne of blatant stupidity: Segregation, Affirmative Action (If we have "equal opportunity employment," Affirmative Action isn't necessary), abuse of the so called "gay rights" (gay people should be treated no different than anyone else, but some think that they deserve special treatment), the forced change of Biblical precepts (and thus breaking of the first amendment of the Bill of Rights), asinine censorship rules ("God" is a bad word, but "f**k" is not. A religious icon is removed, but sex can be on prime time TV, "ass" can be said on TV, but "assHOLE" cannot, et cetera, ad infinitum).
(sigh) Okay...rants gone on long enough....
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Post by Silent Seraphim on Feb 18, 2006 22:47:57 GMT -4
I can’t pretend I know all about the US system of healthcare, because I don’t. My personal experiences with the NHS have been mixed, I’ll admit that. However, I would still prefer it over insurance-based healthcare.
My father is a diabetic with high blood pressure. The number of tablets he needs to take each day is staggering. He also needs equipment to measure his blood sugar level, and regular check-ups with his hospital doctors and GP. As he’s over 60 and a diabetic, he doesn’t have to pay for any of this. My grandfather had terminal cancer. A Macmillan nurse visited him regularly at home, and he also took pills to ease his pain. All of this was free of charge. My brother-in-law’s grandmother is currently suffering from cancer. Her treatment is also free of charge. Some of these people I know wouldn't have been able to afford their treatment if they had to pay for it.
In the UK people over 60, the unemployed, children under 18, the disabled and certain low income groups get all their prescriptions free of charge. To me, that seems quite a fair system, and that’s why I prefer it.
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Post by EGBFan on Feb 19, 2006 8:07:02 GMT -4
There's nothing wrong with national health in theory, there's less insurance problems... but the main problem is the Government funding it, and the bad apples who get to work in it. If they were better it'd probably be a great system. Like communism, it all works in theory or on paper... How true. The only problem with the NHS is that they don't have enough money, in my humble opinion. I don't have enough money either, which is why I feel very strongly that everyone should be entitled to free healthcare. My mother had some problems recently and had to see a few doctors, for all the good it did her... just how long does one have to wait for test results anyway?... but back to the point, her case was not quite urgent, so she wasn't seen immediately but quickly enough - she was transferred to hospital on the Thursday after she saw her GP on Monday (and honestly, it was no more urgent than that - she wasn't dying). Perhaps I had better not get into a rant about our experiences that day. It isn't the NHS I have a problem with; I hate doctors. Medical doctors, that is. No offence to any medical doctors here - as people, I'm sure many of them are very nice and normal - but I try very hard to avoid seeing them in a professional capacity (I know the dangers of this, please don't preach, it could kill me someday, I know). With that said, they were very nice and very helpful. Now, if they could figure out how to pick up the phone or mail a letter... Of course, they get such meagre funding and there are more important things they need to spend it on than stamps. Anyway, I know pretty much nothing about the American healthcare system - but no one thought I was criticising it, did they? Good. It's just that personally, I like to stick close to the NHS. I shouldn't have said I don't have enough money... I do, there are plenty of people worse off than I am... and I don't tend to get ill anyway, so I don't use much NHS money... and it's not about me anyway. People need the NHS. Of course, in this country, we do have the option of paying for our own healthcare. Now in theory I shouldn't approve of this, being a socialist, but I was thinking about it fairly recently (I really don't remember why) and it occurs to me that perhaps my principles dictate that I should approve of private healthcare, and here's why: I believe that the rich should be taxed more heavily than the poor, so why not let them pay for their own healthcare? I'm one of the first to complain that the NHS doesn't have enough money, and yet in the past I've also got shirty about people who can afford treatment paying for it themselves, rather than taking the time and resources from the NHS. Now put like that, it just sounds silly. The thing about private healthcare is, you don't have to wait and the facilities are better than those of the NHS. This is what your money buys you, and I guess it's inevitable. Personally I'd love to have enough money to go private when the time comes for me to have a baby (I've seen it on TV; they drug you up to the eyeballs whether you want them to or not in private maternity hospitals, whereas televised NHS births just scare me), but it would mean my money was buying me an unfair privilege. Where's this money even going to come from? I dunno - but anyway, private healthcare is a two-pronged issue, I think. But, in my humble opinion, the NHS is great. Yes, it doesn't have enough money, but it has some money - enough to give many of us what we need but can't afford - and that's definitely better than nothing.
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