General Chat

When I consider all the benefits of the NHS, I do appreciate its not perfect, I don't think I have much to complain about. Without getting political and bearing in mind what is availaible in other parts of the world, I think if Bevan could see what the NHS provides today he would be more than impressed.

I have free prescriptions. I pay £23.00 per month on Denplan I have not required any treatment other than clean and polish twice a year for eight years. It's my choice.

Paula :-D

Had forgotten about Denplan. For most of my career I have had free BUPA or similar from my employer and once or twice it has been invaluable.

But finances and work changed dramatically for us about 10 years ago and we needed to use the NHS. And also started needing a lot of presciptions for first time.

It was then for the first time really that I noticed how very expensive things had become. When I was young it was free this and free that. Now I had to travel into Northampton (15 miles away) to find the only NHS doctor that would treat me. The other 3 in my family were all quite a bit younger than me (OH was probably 49 then and I was 56) and they all had Denplan. Expensive, but would have been ridiculously expensive with me on plan as well.

Not sure what Nye would have thought. I rather think that he wanted a simple, basic and essential service and would not have wanted companies like BUPA and private hospitals to have flourished in the way they have.

I am a hypocrite to some extent. I had an annual Harley St checkup from age of about 27 till I left Tesco in 1990. So about 17 years of trooping down to a posh private surgery in Harley St to have my inner bits examined. And never paid a penny for private care till I went self-employed in 1996 ;-)

Harley st check up from Tesco ... in your dreams lol

aivlyS. In my bottom actually. Lol. All the top 200 or so in Tesco (and yes, I was one of them just) had to endure Harley St exams yearly. Name of Dr if you want to google (and you seem to have nothing else much to do today) was Dr Orton.

I had a very good contract with Tesco almost from time I left Uni in 1969 through to a "voluntary" redundancy in 1990. I then worked for Budgens for 5 years on a similar good contract with private family health care till 1995. Then my own business (eventuallly very successful) till 2002.. And still had BUPA, but it was a very expensive drain on my little business.

Then 18 months out of work through poor health, had to use my savings to survive and I am now a poor boy again. But happy and healthy :-D. Roller coaster ride, but feel I am slowly climbing again.

wonder if you qualify for points with that?

I have nothing better to do today ? really John that is rich coming from you who is on here all day every day .,

AnnC Never paid a penny :-D So no points at all.

Tesco are an excellent employer - even for shop fllor staff like my son. They spent a fortune on fees to Dr Orton of Harley St, but he spotted quite a lot of potential health problems. Probably money well spent, though my health was always good then.

We were treated almost as well as professional footballers. In return Tesco did expect us to hammer our minds and bodies to a fair degree. :-)

Why would I bother googling , because you did ? yep you seem to think it will b e more believable if you give the DRS name ... no .. noytone iota in fact we now know YOU googled it lol

aivlyS. Please leave it. Do you not understand why I keep reporting you and nobody else on Genes? It has absolutley nothing to do with whether I like you or not. I get a fair amount of stick from others, but quite enjoy it and it is like water off a duck's back.

It is just so impossible to argue with your total disbelief about anything I write. If I said Michael Jackson was black, you would find a reason to disagree. And much of what you write is pretty abusive imho. Just designed to make me feel bad and you feel better about yourself.

There really are other ways to achieve your dream :-) ;-)

A lot of the bigger firms uded to have private health insurance as part of the package. My OH had it too, and also went to Harley street for check ups. I don't think they do it now though.

AnninGlos. Sure that is right. A cousin now has a much better job with Tesco (in terms of benefits) than I ever had. But he never mentions annual health checks in Harley St or anywhere. And private health care is a taxed benefit now - very much more expensive for employer and employee

My current employer offers private health care as a subsidised option, but I am now on lowish wages and it would be over £300 a month for my family :-0 :-0 High cost mainly because I am past normal retirement age :-( :-(

I guess for most working people, private health insurance wil be a luxury that they are reviewing very closely.

When the NHS was launched in 1948 it had a budget of £437 million (roughly £9 billion at today's value). For 2011/12 it is around £106 billion, an increase in real terms of more than 11 times.

If we take the population of England and Wales to be around 56 Million this amounts to an average annual cost per person of just over £1,800 or nearly £8,000 for a family with 2.4 children.

All this has to be paid for one way or another. The government itself has no money of its own. In the end, every penny it spends has eventually to be paid from taxes one way or the other.

Where I think the NHS does fall down badly is not with its clinical skills, but with the way it is managed as an operation. Compared to the private sector it is a shambles. Too many layers of management and too few prepared to accept responsibility. Efficiency in all public funded bodies, is consistently 5-10 % points less than in the private sector.

A good example is to compare the way our local dentist (private) is run compared to the Doctors Surgery (NHS) next door to it.

At the Dentists, all staff are on site at least 15 minutes before the first appointments at 8:00. Doors open for patients at the same time and if they arrive early will be seen straight away. Throughout the day reception staff are fully aware of any delays occurring in the surgeries and patients waiting are kept informed.

At the Doctors, staff are still arriving at 8:30 when appointments are due to start. doors regularly open up to ten minutes late with a queue building outside. It is rare for the first patient to be seen before 8:45. Reception are usually unaware of how the medical staff are keeping to schedule or of any unexpected delays so patient are regularly kept waiting with no information.

And, apparently, our Doctors surgery is one of the better run ones in this area.....!

As far as Private Health Insurance is concerned, many firms who offered it whether free, subsidised or had negotiated preferential rates pulled out when Gordon Brown taxed it.

Did you know Gordon Brown also taxed free tee and coffee at work too?

What an excellent post, Inspector GP. Opened my eyes anyway.

Eleven times (and £8,000 a family) is not as much as I feared costs had risen. How much does average family earn these days? It must be over £50,000 pa on the assumption that an average family has 2 average wage earners.

And how many times has property risen in value since 1948. I think my dad paid £3,000 for quite a posh house in 1951 - which I guess would be at least £300k today. And his wage was under £1k a year then and he would be on about £30k today in same job.

Gordon Brown has other things tio answer for. Like raiding pensions. :-( :-( :-(

Sadly my company was one of those who were forced to end company cars and private health scheme.

in 1948 £3000 would have bought a mansion no a posh house

Yes John I know exactly why you report me , because I will not just accept the crap you post ..lol

AnnC I may be wrong about what he paid for it. I was only 5. But it was double what he sold our smartish pre-war semi for. I know dad paid £500 for land, because he would continually complain about price paid to all and sundry. It was a nice 4 bedroomed brand new house with a nice garden to play football in (17 Highlands Road, Finchfield, Wolverhampton if you want a google). Nicest house we ever lived in was Fountain House, 2 Edgeley Road, Whitchurch, Shropshire if you want another google earth search. Lived in more expensive houses since, but that was undoubtedly the nicest to live in.

If it was less than £3k, then that makes my point stronger of course. ;-)

You may be wrong in what he paid for it ? so in other words you simply made it up and got it way out again lol

Parking at UHW is not free, not even for staff.

Parking is free at e.g. the Royal Gwent and St Woolo's, but you need Valium if you're trying to find a slot :-S