NHS are brilliant. I went to see my GP yesterday afternoon, she went through my symptoms, gave me a letter, phoned A&E. I was tested, diagnosed and treated at A&E there and then. Home at 1am, but that was understandable because of the amount of tests they did and all the other patients they were dealing with. I even had a phone call from the doctor this morning to check I was ok. We were due to go on holiday today, but that can wait a day or two. Lesson for me: we must, must keep our #NHS
@Melinda
As I am at pains to point out all too frequently, all western European countries have similarly efficient healthcare systems; the system where I live in Luxembourg is absolutely 1st class too!
It doesn't matter one jot whether the system is private or public or some and some (as it is here, in France and in Belgium). What matters is who pays for it. Here, in France and in Belgium, it's the government who pays your healthcare bill just as it is in the UK.
NHS destruction
Oh god, here we go!
The system here in Luxembourg along with that in Germany, France and Belgium is already privatized. What matters is how the "insurance" that pays the bills works. In the case of Luxembourg, France, & Belgium, the "insurer" is a government subsidiary and the "premiums" are deducted directly from salary or pension and are a straight %age of income completely unrelated to the age or medical condition of the insured.
It's a perfectly good system that works as well or most likely much better that the benighted NHS!
One of the problems that besets the NHS is it's utterly massive bureaucracy. In a hospital where I have contacts, some departments have stopped using the 'central administration' as they are regarded as slow, obstructive and generally worthless.
To really make a difference to the NHS, one would need to cut the management and administration by about 50% as its employees largely outnumber the number of front line medical staff (that was the totally incompetent Edwina Currie's handiwork; she said the NHS was 'undermanaged' and weighed it down with tons of extra form filling and box ticking).
However, to solve short term problems - make about 50% of the "management" redundant as they are really not needed!
NHS destruction
We do agree on one point: doctors and nurses are appallingly badly paid in the NHS (not to mention dentists). In Luxembourg, a hospital consultant will earn around 250,000 €uros a year depending on his speciality.
Nurses are paid approximately double what they get in the UK!
NHS destruction
@Paulos_the_fog
Our government want the NHS to fail so that they can sell it off and privatise it. Only about 10% of the UK would be able to afford medical insurance. Our doctors and nurses are not paid properly, the NHS is understaffed because of the ridiculous brexit vote. I am not very well and I need access to the NHS. Our government will soon stop that if they get their way.