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When my son had a medical problem and needed an operation I was told that the waiting list for the operation he needed was about 8 months, which I was not willing to wait for. When I said I will pay for the op the SAME consultant said he can have the operation in 4 days time. The same surgeon works for the NHS and does private work. Maybe if surgeons were restricted to the amount of private work they were allowed to do if they work for the NHS aswell, NHS operations would have a quicker turnaround.
….. or alternatively, if you want all that expertise for free then you get in the queue along with the rest of us.
@forumhostpb wrote:
The main reason why people fail to attend for their NHS appointments is that they know they won’t be allowed to smoke a ciggie while they are kept waiting.
Rather than punish smokers for failing to attend, surely it would be better to provide them with ‘smoking shelters’ at a minimal cost (say around £60,000) so that they could pop out for a relaxing ciggie during their endless wait to see an NHS official for their routine dose of patronisation.
I wasn’t talking about punishing just smokers,,,,,anyone!! who failed to attend an appointment, would soon have the temerity to cancel if they thought they would be fined for not doing so, but you probably already knew that anyway, you pedantic bugga! :roll: 8)
Kent….the particular consultant i’m under, his secretary isn’t able to make me the 6 week follow up appt I should have with him him because she doesnt have the funds, for extra clinic, in which she could make appots. Strangely though, because I tried something, like sending an email to the Nuffield, asking when I could get an appt to see him and how much it wwould cost,,,,,it would have been this evening at 7.30 at a cost of £175.00 per half hour :roll:
The NHS costs a lot to run. Millions and millions and millions. It is the biggest single employer in Europe. And it is all paid for by tax payers money.
It is either the best thing that was ever constructed, performing a marvellous service to millions and millions of people despite the fact it is regularly taken for granted. Or
It is a white elephant.
Doctors who see people privately see them in places where there are no waiting lists. Where the theatres often stand empty. Where everything is paid for on insurance or by people who want to have treatment sooner than they can on the NHS.
But… when you are seriously ill, and it would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to treat you, the NHS is there.
I sympathise with you Cass it is so frustrating, especially when you get told if you pay then you wil get immediate attention. Somthing we experienced aswell. I was not complaining merely sharing a story.
@kent f OBE wrote:
I sympathise with you Cass it is so frustrating, especially when you get told if you pay then you wil get immediate attention. Somthing we experienced aswell. I was not complaining merely sharing a story.
No me neither tbh, there’s little point in complaining, no one listens :wink: :roll: Iv’e been back to my GP this week and iv’e asked to be transferred or re-referred to a different consultant.Iv’e done that not only because I think that the man is a pig, but iv’e been told by other doctors in the hospital, senior nursing staff, and senior pain relief clinic staff, that they too feel that the man is indeed a pig, other consultants and many staff refuse to work with him and will have little to do with him. I spent 3 days in hospital this week, all a bit of a waste of time really, I came home no better than I was when they’d kept me in. However, I was kept on the observation ward in the hospital and was told that this doctor wouldn’t be down to see me, he doesnt see patients on the obs ward, or in A & E, he feels it’s beneath him!! I suggested that f that truly was the case then something surely should be done about him! that surely he should be answerable to someone!! I pointed out that i’d been a manager for a leading retailer, that had I spoken to customers the way he speaks to patients and the company, and the NHS in his case, had received as many complaints about him as my company would have received about me, I would have been sacked!! but it seems that being a consultant, he’s above reproach!! :roll:
As for the nuffield, I was never going to attend any appt with him, I am making an appt to see another consultant in the pain management field, just to get a firm opinion, a way forward, but i’d not pay that man if he were the last living breathing soul in that field, i’d sooner be in pain :twisted: I made the qenquiry purely out of curiosity, iv’e sent a copy of the email though, along with my feelings, observations and treatment received from this man! to the chief executive, not that he’ll do anything about it, but it m ade me feel better :wink:
£175 for half an hour seems pretty cheap to me – try seeing a lawyer or an accountant these days and find out the hard way what current professional charge-out rates are.
I should pay up and get it done with. He’ll probably give you a private prescription for some aspirins – for which you’ll pay several pounds above the full retail price – and tell you to come back in a week’s time.
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