It has been an emotional few days here at Tanton Towers. Earlier this week, a member of the household required major surgery. They had been on the waiting list since November, but a set of circumstances meant that by January, tbe consultant decided the patient needed to be bumped up the list and marked as a priority.
I am not going to disclose who the patient is, or the surgery that took place to keep confidentiality. However I will say that the surgery lasted 6 hours and required one night stay in hospital.
The good news is that the surgery was, clinically, a success and the patient is starting their long recovery back at home.
Even better is that for this whole process from initial GP appointments, specialist referrals, tests, scans, surgery, hospital stay, follow up appointments and tests, I will not have needed to pay a single penny (car parking excepted). I thought I would do some research out of interest and try and find out how much the treatment would have cost. The closest I got to this is that the surgery alone would have cost me £20,000.00. Or, to put it in economist language, a shit load of cash. That doesn't include the stay on the ward or the overnight stay, the medication or the other care I have already listed.
This is where the NHS comes into its own. I haven't lost sleep over a single bill or had to find time to fill out insurance claim forms or waste time on the phone to speak to the insurance company. From GP to referal to the specialists, CT scans and then the surgery, it has all followed a chain of referral. It is simple, really. Yes, the NHS needs major reform and investment, that is widely acknowledged. Yes parts of it are being indiscriminately sold off, but I feel these are fringe services. The bulk of need by the public is still available on the NHS to the British public. What would I change? Dentistry and prescription glasses. Why is that? Because I have to pay for them!!!
I have seen through the years that certain countries see the NHS or universal health care as socialist and therefore a bad thing (looking at you USA). Yes, it was introduced by a labour (left wing) government in 1948, however I am not aware of a single politician since and feel free to correct me, who has declared that is needs to be liquidated and fully privatised. Any politician who would suggest such an idea would commit political suicide.
Universal healthcare also doesn't mean we are immediately Communist sympathisers. There is no danger of us swinging to the left and abandoning the cities to work on a collective farm or working to meet government set quotas and queuing for bread and one day hoping to get a car made from cardboard.
But I digress. The main reason for this post is to say thank you. Thank you to the surgeons, consultants, GP's, radiographers, nurses, porters, registrars, anaesthetists and other hospital and healthcare workers, who have looked after and treated patient A. We will be seeing you all again over the next weeks and months and why not? The NHS is unlimited and free.
NHS keep doing what you are doing. All employees (maybe some are reading this) keep doing what you are doing. You are all amazing and doing a great job.
Countries that don't have universal healthcare and therefore discriminate - sort yourselves out. You aren't going to turn communist.
Right I am seeing the dental hygienist on Wednesday for a scrape and polish (do teeth ever feel so clean as that). I will therefore spend the rest of the day moaning about the cost, but I will still be thankful.
I went on a trip to NYC a few years back and due to a series of unusual events, I actually forgot to get travel insurance.
Less than 2 weeks after we arrived back home, a 21cm cyst that had grown on one of my ovaries (unbeknownst to me) finally tipped over and twisted my Fallopian tube. Truly the most pain I have ever endured and resulted in a week in hospital and emergency surgery. That thing was a ticking time bomb and it still makes me break out in a cold sweat when I think what if it happened whilst I was uninsured in NYC?! I would be either dead or paying for the rest of my life!
I hope Patient A is doing well and healing quickly. I have a rant about how Shit our healthcare in the US is. My child has very bad eczema. Dr at the Mayo Clinic recommends Dupixent. Our insurance denies us not once but twice. So we ask the drug company for assistance. Denied. Guess how much the medicine is? Context. It is a preloaded pen. It arrives is a styrofoam box and needs to be refrigerated. I would give one shot on the same day every two weeks. So two shots a month. The cost - $3,400 per month. The first dose is actually to shots then you go down to two a month. So just to start it’s $5,100. Also she would be on this medication for at least 15 years. Denied. I have been so worried I literally chewed a hole in my bottom lip. I’d love to move to England. This is just another reason why.