Is the NHS useless?

[unbeliever]

Does Private Health Insurance provide emergency health care? A&E's for example? Do they carry out all surgery that the NHS provides or only some?

 

Not in the UK. It could if allowed.

Elsewhere in the world, most certainly.

 

The NHS has a monopoly on such things enforced by government legislation.

[Berberis]

I see rather than conceding the point having lost the argument, you're trying to move the debate.

 

Not really, your pedantry is obvious, I'm no longer bothered to discuss it as its evident for all to see.

 

pedantry

ˈpɛd(ə)ntri

noun

excessive concern with minor details and rules.

"to object to this is not mere pedantry"

Example: unbeliever

[SnailyBoy]

Apart from prescriptions?!?

 

http://bma.org.uk/support-at-work/pay-fees-allowances/fees/fee-finder/fee-finder-why-gps-charge-fees

 

It's there in black and white

 

"It is important to understand that many GPs are not employed by the NHS.

 

They are self-employed and they have to cover their costs - staff, buildings, heating, lighting, etc - in the same way as any small business. The NHS covers these costs for NHS work, but for non-NHS work, the fees charged by GPs contribute towards their costs."

[Berberis]

Not in the UK. It could if allowed.

Elsewhere in the world, most certainly.

 

The NHS has a monopoly on such things enforced by government legislation.

 

Proof... care to provide any?

[sgtkate]

Not in the UK. It could if allowed.

Elsewhere in the world, most certainly.

 

The NHS has a monopoly on such things enforced by government legislation.

 

So you don't even really know your own argument. There are at least 2 private A&Es in the UK. 1 in London, 1 in Manchester. There is NO government legislation banning private A&Es.

[Nagel]

Does Private Health Insurance provide emergency health care? A&E's for example? Do they carry out all surgery that the NHS provides or only some?

 

No to both questions, but the NHS pays for patients to be treated in private hospitals to meet their targets.

 

Private hospitals have less emergency facilities and patients are transferred to the NHS when things go wrong.

[sgtkate]

No to both questions, but the NHS pays for patients to be treated in private hospitals to meet their targets.

 

Private hospitals have less emergency facilities and patients are transferred to the NHS when things go wrong.

 

Someone else who is wrong. There are at least 2 private A&Es in the UK.

 

Link for one of them:

http://www.theprincessgracehospital.com/hospital-services/services/urgent-care/

 

Now whether they provide FULL emergency care is another matter.

[little tank]

Many medicines available from straight from pharmacies elsewhere in the world require a visit to the GP here. Patients are often required in the UK to go to the GP regularly for repeat prescriptions such as Asthma meds, the pill, etc etc. The medications involved have no recreational value and are very low risk.

That's surely the NHS creating work for itself.

 

Just a quick note asthma medications can be misused and when used with other over the counter medications can have fatal results.

[Cyclone]

No.

But saying the NHS is free is a lie. I have advocated abolishing the NHS, although this is a recent position results from the fact that they've let me down seriously. I may get over it and change my mind. Either way, I would not support an alternative which did not make reasonable provision for the poor.

 

---------- Post added 03-11-2015 at 12:12 ----------

 

 

I expect I will be on prescription meds for my post hospital recovery which I shall have to pay for.

 

That's not even the point. It's not free. Any more than the car I get off my insurance if mine gets stolen would be free. It's a compulsory insurance system.

 

So with the exception of prescription medication (which has a capped cost) it IS free at the point of service. Which is the point. To not make it more difficult for the poor to access.

[Orzel]

Nonsense.

 

Go to your doctor, it doesn't cost you a penny.

 

Go to A&E, it doesn't cost you a penny.

 

Have a life saving operation, it doesn't cost you a penny.

 

At the point of delivery, it's free.

 

Go to a dentist or collect prescription from a pharmacy.

It's not free at the point of delivery. At least for people who already pay for it in taxes. So we get charged double.

 

Let us never forget this fundamental truth: the State has no source of money other than money which people earn themselves. If the State wishes to spend more it can do so only by borrowing your savings or by taxing you more. It is no good thinking that someone else will pay – that ‘someone else’ is you. There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers’ money.

 

speech to Conservative Party Conference, Oct. 14, 1983