It is also about fairness, waste and outright piss-taking.
I have paid into the coffers of several of our esteemed governments enough money to have 78 triple bypass ops and resurface the M1 between Preston and Luton. At the rate our esteemed governments have managed to bureaucratise these alleged services, I estimate that the same money could have an ingrowing toenail painted with iodine and get one of those signs that tell policemen where they are on the motorway, but that's by-the-by, and will never change as long as sheep keep mindlessly and obligingly handing their hard-earned over to the state. I suspect the remaining money goes to a secret research facility to develop new forms of Velcro, or something.
I like the NHS. I like what it provides, free healthcare at the point of delivery. I like the way it is funded, so people who are genuinely unable to afford to stay healthy win, and people who earn shitloads have to pay some of it towards that before they buy their yacht in the Mediterranean. I think it's a good thing.
There are bits I don't like. These include A&E departments funded by the public-at-large treating the following:
- Stupid tarts who've fallen off their high heels
- Weekend sportstwats who've done stupid things
- Stomach pumping for stupid people who have been experimenting with alcopops
- People who have colds and flu and are too stupid to stay in bed
Stupidity can be addressed variously by insurance (can you get high-heel insurance?) and education, or by making these people wait for days on end to be treated. It should happen.
I occasionally suffer from an allergy which needs antibiotic treatment. It comes from certain plants (the allergy, not the antibiotic) and I try to avoid them. I don't always succeed. Flucloxacillin isn't very expensive anyway, and I decided I would pay for it privately when I do manage to get these bloody infections caused by the prickles from this ever-increasing range of flora. I suspect if I got it on prescription it would be more expensive anyway.
My mum suffers from Parkinson's. I first thought that it meant that I'd find her going round interviewing people, but actually it's quite unpleasant and makes one shake and one's legs ache. She is getting treatment for this but it's only every few months. There are drugs. None seem to work very well.
My dad has had a couple of heart attacks, he takes half an aspirin a day which he pays for himself, and tries not to cut himself because that gets messy.
My daughter gets hay fever. Living next door to a huge rape field doesn't help, but I buy her Piriton from the chemist so she's fine.
If someone is so poor they can't afford these things, and they need them, they will get them on prescription, free, such is the NHS. In Scotland, if they are millionaires, they will get them free, and I will have paid for them. That is complete and utter bollocks and largely down to the last government being Scottish, I suspect.
So far, no contention, is there? If you're disagreeing already you're probably Ellie Gellard or a lost cause, or both.
Shit happens. One day I might get cancer. My daughter did, and she didn't even drink or smoke. She died, having spent her last very short time in hospital being "treated" by radiation and foul chemical concoctions which weren't ever going to help, and which cost a fortune, and being "looked after" by mainly hooded figures having virtually no command of English, and with HUGE attitude problems. She ended her life in a hospice, a charity, and died peacefully in her sleep, God rest her soul.
And now, people get old. Very old. The NHS keeps them alive, because human life is sacred.
I am all for saving life, if it's possible. I've been in these hospitals and nursing homes. These are not people, they're cabbages. They are not sacred. They shit on the floor, they piss in their beds. They are being kept alive by unnatural means. They are costing a fortune.
Many of these people have invested their cash, over the years, usually in "property". That's safe, because there are rules saying it is. Therefore I, and you, hand over what we earn to fund these people's miserable existences, in which they don't care whether they get visitors because they don't even know who they are, and the "property" increases in value so their offspring, cats, etc., reap the benefits of it.
I would love someone to explain to me why this is a Good Thing. Please?
I would sell their assets. Or let them go. They don't care either way. They don't even know.
4 comments:
I agree wholeheartedly with you.
My dad suffers from dementia and has been in a nursing home for the last 2 years.
I'm his only visitor (mum died some time ago)and he's no idea who I am.
He stays in bed all day watching TV & wearing a huge nappy as he is doubly incontinent .
The staff there are great with him & all the others there, but knowing what a clean, proud & independent man my dad was before his illness make me shudder at what he has become.
It is not living - it is existing and I know he would not want to live like that if he was still capable of rational thought.
I just hope it's not hereditary.
I promised I would read your post Uncle Marvo and here I am, having read it.
I am sorry for the loss of your daughter but glad that her end was peaceful, it must have been wretched for you.
I couldn't agree more with you on the daft uses of the NHS by those bringing misfortune on themselves, especially a runny nose necessitating a visit to casualty/GP. I did get antibiotics this week but was able to do this without spreading my germs around my local health centre. I phoned them with the symptoms and duration and requested a prescription, simple!
On the illness topic I am conflicted. I will illustrate this by saying that I believe completely in a woman's 'right to choose' and wouldn't judge anyone on their choices. I am lucky, I was never in a place where I had to choose. My feelings are the same at the end of a life. I would hate not knowing those I love and who love me. I have already made it known that I would save the 'happy pills' if I was diagnosed with this kind of condition and I would take them at the right time for me. I come back, therefore, to my original thought, it must be the person's right to choose, the only difficulty being the timing between enjoying life as long as you can and the progression of the illness.
A long comment for me but a thought-provoking post from you.
Auch Marvo how sorry I am to hear you lost your daughter.
I'm with you on the free prescriptions in Scotland. It was purely a populist move by the SNP government thinking they would break into the labour west-coast stronghold. They never will sadly because the place is riddled with corruption which runs in a circular movement via labour and it's supporters.
No, we should rethink the prescriptions business. Otherwise I think the NHS here is better than south of the border. GP service is poor but then that's down to the contract labour gave them. I can still see a doctor the same day though.
Free at the point of delivery sounds good, but it ignores a principle fact of human nature: incentives matter.
If there is no payment connection between you and your doctor, what interest does he have in curing you or even keeping you as a patient?
Because there is no pricing information available to the market, we will always have either far too few doctors or far too many. I can recall both of these happening in the last decade.
I have lived in several different countries with several different medical systems but the absolute worst I have personally experienced by far, is the NHS. Honestly, I'd rather get sick in the biggest shit pit in Africa than get sick here.
And my biggest gripe is the GPs, who could all be replaced by a fucking call centre in India with no loss of value.
There are other ways of providing long-term health care or services for the poor that do not require the fucking nightmare that is the NHS.
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