I mean that ,I really do thank God for the NHS.It is far from perfect but it has advantages over the American system,if you are in any doubt about that read Todd's story in "introduce yourself...new member needs help"
Out of work so he could not afford medical insurance until he was in work again, during the interim the tumour was steadily advancing. I wonder what Hypocrates would have thought of this.
I read a story on these pages some time ago about an American lady who was diagnosed with mouth cancer but her medical insurers would not pay for treatment because they said it was a dental problem, the dental insurers took the opposite stance.Her last posting told us that the condition was now inoperable.
About twenty five years ago I was in Montreal on a working trip during which I was taken ill and a colleague took me to the Lakeshore general hospital At the reception the first question was "how are you going to pay the bill?"I said "you have not done anything yet" and was told that they needed proof that I could pay for any treatment before they could start.
We may have to sit in the waiting room for quite a while before being seen, the waiting room may be rather shabby but the prime consideration is the well being of the patient not the size of his bank balance.
Keep Smiling
John

Hello John
Trevor and I reacted in exactly the same way after reading Todd's post. It's almost unbelievable to read about the American health system being the way it is when one considers the country's international standing.
We have Medicare here and to date with Trevor's treatment all we have had to pay for has been a couple of medications. I think that was because they didn't realise the request was generated for an inpatient at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. We too have no complaints and plenty of gratitude for our health system.
Cheers
Deborah

Hello John,

We can be grateful for what we have, but the NHS is under attack froma creeping form of privatisation. National health Trusts, premium charges for phones and the exclusion of dentistry for thousands is the tip of an iceberg. Where next payment for meals and medications our NHS is facing challenges and the politicians will nibble away to see how much the public will stand. A full NHS system is extremely expensive to run but it is only free at the point of need we all pay for it and personally I do not grudge a penny of my taxes which help to support it.

I can't say that for the defence budget or a government that will go to war without the guts to pay for it.

In my list of priorities money spent saving life is better however than money spent in destroying life. Our government needs to look very closely to its priorities!!!!!!!!!!!

Alan

hi all

i would like to say that my dealing with the nhs has been very positive and with all the probs in it which i think is due to a vast amount of immigrants using it (health tourists etc of which i have had personal experience) it is a brilliant service which has not been kept up to date with the many changes taking place. to qualify my immigrant statement heres what happened. i was in casualty and the sign read that there was around a 3 hour wait. there was five of us there. about 6-7 asians arrived with suitcases and the nurse could not communicate with them as they spoke no english. an interpreter had to be called and when she arrived the nurse said "i will have to get the doctor so we dont have to go thro this again" so we were all left whilst they dealt with this group. i am not racist or in anyway against foreigners but i do know from first hand experience that this is unacceptable to us the british public that pay our taxes for the nhs services. i do not begrudge the asians getting treatment and my anger lies with a government that encourages immigration and does nothing to increase public services to cope with it (new hospitals etc)

My treatment from start to finish was first class. I couldn't have got better in any way shape or form.

Dear All, have just attended a meeting with Prof Karol Seckora, and we were told how wonderful cancer care is in France, having live there most of my life, I beg to differ, I counted 14 friends, I have lost,including Jean-Claude this summer with throat cancer.
On my second operation I was put in a ward with 5 transgender people, I was not very happy, however 4 years later, I am still here, and have been given 6 months off from hospital visits.Greetings to you all& Big Bear Healing Hugs