This I duly did
and next Monday I will see a consultant ophthalmic surgeon about my rapidly
worsening cataracts. Of course there’s nothing
at all out of the ordinary about this in twenty-first century Britain, but I was
suddenly hit by an overwhelming sense of gratitude for my good fortune in living
in this place and at this time.
I think back to my mother who had to forgo her chance of secondary education because of the
need to pay medical costs for her invalid mother. Before the days of universal affordable
health insurance and the National Health Service, treatment of both acute and
chronic ill-health could eat up family income to a terrifying extent, as it still
does in so many parts of the world, if indeed treatment is even available.
I've been lucky
enough to live under the care of the NHS ever since it was set up in 1948 and
to have received potentially life-saving treatment free of charge at the point
of use on several occasions, both as a child and as an adult. Yes, the NHS has
its faults, sometimes big ones. What very large organisation doesn't?
So I will go to
my appointment next Monday morning feeling grateful to be seeing a surgeon
who will be able to give me back the clarity of vision I have been losing for years.
More importantly I will be grateful for the even clearer vision of those who in
the darkest days of World War 2 made plans for a National Health Service for
all and in the war’s aftermath made those plans a reality. I have a lot to be thankful
for.
Image via Google
Hello Perpetua:
ReplyDeleteLike you, we have so many reasons to be grateful for the National Health Service which for us too has been a cornerstone of our lives almost since its inception. We cannot speak too highly of the care we have received from totally committed staff, wherever we have been, from the most senior Consultant to the most junior hospital porter.
I'm so glad you feel the same sense of gratitude for the NHS, Jane and Lance. I too have never received less than the best of care over the past 65 years of its existence and though I'm not blind to its faults and failings, I can't imagine life without it or think of a system I would rather rely on.
DeletePerpetua, I'm glad to hear that you are grateful for the NHS. Over here we here so many different opinions... usually complaints. But I, as you, am also grateful for our Medicare. It too has its faults, but without it, so many would not be able to afford care. I know the systems are different and I don't know enough about the workings of either to comment. But I do know that I am grateful too.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you feel you can rely on your Medicare system, Rian, and I hope it goes on treating you well. Sadly complaints tend to attract more attention than praise about any organisation, but the NHS truly revolutionised health care for the ordinary man and woman in Britain and still serves us very well. Of course it could do better with more resources, but that again is true of any service.
DeleteOur system has improved since the Affordable Care Act passed recently. It allows everyone to have insurance and access to health care; not exactly the same as your NHS but in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteRetirees here have Medicare, which pays hospitalization and doctor's visits, but there is still a big gap that has to be paid by individuals, a big chunk of income for most retirees.
I remember when people dreaded cataract surgery. My husband's was a simple procedure, and I anticipate it has become that for most people. You'll be glad to get your eyesight back and very soon after the procedure too.
Rosaria, I followed the news coverage of your affordable care Act with great interest and was amazed at the opposition to it and the difficulty President Obama had in getting it passed and signed into law. Not being able to remember a time before the NHS it seems so logical to me that affordable health care should be part of any modern society. I also hadn't realised until recently that retired people have to contribute so much for Medicare coverage.
DeleteI gather that cataract surgery is much simpler now and is usually performed as day surgery. My appointment on Monday is the first and I'll know a lot more after it.
Whatever is said about the NHS, those of us that no longer have it feel vulnerable.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine that only too easily, BtoB. I don't know anything about the Turkish health care system, but I'm guessing that it isn't universal in the same way as the NHS.
DeleteYou're so right, Perpetua.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of the criticism of the NHS is due to unreasonable expectations and as you say, on the whole it is an excellent service and there when you need it most.
Gosh, Jean, for some unknown reason I've just had to retrieve your comment from my spam folder. Blogger is being over-zealous. :-)
DeleteYou're spot-on about the unreasonable expectations placed on the NHS. I think there is too much of a culture of entitlement nowadays which prevents people from appreciating just how good the service really is and how very different life would be without it.
You are absolutely right. There are countries all over the world who don't have this free facility. I guess it is taken for granted and yes we do pay our National Insurance but I think it's excellent. I know people knock it but what would be the alternative. Good luck with your appointment. I've recently had my cataracts sorted and my sight is perfect now.
ReplyDeletePatricia x
Patricia, I think it's often human nature to grumble about the bad bits rather than praise the good, but my experience of the NHS, like yours, has been really excellent. Of course we pay for it, but in a fair way, through National insurance and general taxation, not when we are in need of its help.
DeleteThank you for your reassurance about the good results from cataract surgery. I'm so glad you now have your vision completely restored.
We are very lucky here in New Zealand to have a similar scheme.
ReplyDeleteSo I understand, Susan, and all of us living in countries with good and affordable health care should count ourselves very fortunate.
DeleteDear Perpetua - Imagine what it must be like to be in need of medical care, and because you have no insurance or lack of money all help is denied to you. Not only does our NHS support all of its citizens regardless of their wealth or where they come from, but increasingly visitors to this country received NHS support and help too.
ReplyDeleteI am very struck by the words of Backto Bodrum, we should be extremely grateful.
Rosemary, I think the situation your describe must be nightmarish and to see it happening to one's children even worse. I still remember my mother telling me how grateful she was that I could be treated free of charge with penicillin when I had pneumonia at the age of 2. That was in the very earliest days of the NHS.
DeleteInterestingly one of the founding principles of the NHS was that everyone was eligible for care (even people temporarily resident or visiting the country). I think Britain is unique in this and I'm proud of the fact.
I too have very good reason to be grateful to and for our NHS. Born in 1935, the eldest of four children, all born within 5 and a half years, I remember very well the terrible anxiety my mother suffered when she had to decide what we could not afford to eat that particular week because there was a Dr's bill to pay.
ReplyDeleteIn 1949 at the age of 14 I had an operation on my left eye. I had worn a black patch over it since the age of five and was barely recognisable after the op'.
Had it not been for the wonderful new state financed health service I would have continued looking like "Nelson", one of my school nicknames,
until I was working and able to pay for treatment myself.
I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I have never had less than good treatment, and often superb from this most excellent organisation.
The best of luck with your cataract operations, I hope you will get them soon.
Thank you so much for your touching and illuminating comment, Ray. it illustrates far better than anything I could write just how completely the NHS revolutionised health care, especially for the poorer in society. My grandparents experienced exactly the same anxiety during my mother's childhood and they never forgot it or the relief when doctors' bills became a thing of the past.
DeleteHow wonderful that you were able to have this operation which so changed your life during your last years of school. There must have been so many like you who went on suffering because of lack of means until the NHS enabled them to receive treatment.
Thanks for the good wishes. I'll find out next week how long the waiting list is likely to be, but at least I've only had to wait two weeks since referral to get my first appointment.
I'm with everyone who has said positive things about the NHS. As a family, we've been extremely fortunate to have had little need of them during our lives so far, but our few incidents and accidents have always resulted in good quality care from dedicated and professional staff, and I sincerely hope that it's a system and an infrastructure that will continue on long into the future.
ReplyDeleteCB, I'm glad you haven't needed to draw on its services very much, but I think if asked most people would be able to echo your positive comments about the NHS. We all know that sometimes things go wrong and care isn't as good as it might be, but I think the fact that such incidents get so much publicity tells us that they are not the norm but the aberration.
DeleteI think that's wonderful. Here in the U.S., you will go broke paying medical bills. I know people -- and if you read my blog, you do, too! -- who do not have medical or dental insurance. These people treat their own injuries, suffer pains that could be alleviated, and are, honestly, missing teeth now. It's a shame.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you get the help you need. :-)
Pearl
So am T, Pearl, and I only wish it could be true for everyone in the US. I have read such horror stories of people spending everything they have to cover medical bills for serious illness and having to leave more minor ailments untreated. I do hope the Affordable Care Act improves the situation for a lot of people.
DeleteI am thankful too for our Medicare. It is a real blessing. I had to pay for the lense they put in my eye, but all my appointments and the surgery was covered. Praying all goes well with your appointment, and surgery. Even with all my problems with my eye, finally my vision is 20/20 in that eye.
ReplyDeleteHaving just Googled the details of your Medicare system, Bonnie, it looks really excellent. Although differently structured it appears to function very like our NHS.
DeleteI'm glad your cataract surgery went so well. It really is encouraging to hear these good reports. :-) I am extremely short-sighted as well as having cataracts, so it will be interesting to see how good my vision is after surgery.
I remember my parents' stories of the pre NHS days in Britain and have always been thankful that it was there for me.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what has happened to the people with vision that experience of depression and war enabled to turn a society round... to try to establish social justice?
I have been lucky to be young in that time and I feel so very sorry for people coming to adulthood today in an artifically contrived dog eat dog society.
I was not impressed by the French medical system...people are increasingly having to opt out of the top up insurance necessary to cover all the bills...but here in Costa Rica we have returned to the NHS...Costa Rican style...
The Caja, modelled on the NHS as being the best and most just healthcare system in the world.
Like the NHS it has its problems...but it is there for everybody.
Yes, we both grew up with our parents' memories of the days before the NHS, Helen, and it must have been similar experiences which motivated the reformers to bring about such radical change. I find it so sad to see the constant whittling away of that structure of social justice in the name of individually freedom and responsibility.
DeleteIt's interesting that you were not impressed by the much-vaunted French system, as I've heard a number of expats compare the NHS unfavourably with it. Presumably they can all afford top-up insurance. I'm delighted that you find the Costa Rican system a return to the familiar and trusted NHS - with a Latin-American flavour.
Yes, I echo every word of your blog post, Perpetua. Over the past months we have been so grateful for our NHS too. Hope you don't have to wait too long before you can have your cataracts sorted. I have them starting on my eyes too, although the optician told me that they probably wouldn't be too much of a problem for five years.
ReplyDeleteI bet you both have, Molly! When I had my two cancer diagnoses I could not have had swifter and better care anywhere at any price.
DeleteThe cataract in my right eye started 12 or 13 years ago, but was very slow-growing at first and has only become a problem quite recently. I also have one beginning in my left eye, but this isn't too bad as yet. I'm sure I'll have to wait for a bit for the op, but I'm prepared for that.
Great news, Perpetua - so glad things are moving now. You've been waiting a long time, and it shouldn't really have gone so far before something was done. BH's wasn't nearly as bad as yours when he had his done 2 years or so ago, and has been much better since the additional laser treatment (but there's one coming on the other eye now!) Will remember you on Monday - what time's the appointment? Like you, I'm really grateful for the NHS, too - they've done a lot for me over the years, and I remember when my mother had to have a hysterectomy during the war (when I was 3) that things were 'a bit tight' for a while (although I suspect that her parents helped out a bit too), which is something I've never had to contend with.
ReplyDeleteOn a different topic - I've got the circular needles for the socks now, so please may I have the instructions for your special casting- on method, when you have time!
I think both you and I have good reason to be very grateful to the NHS for its care of us and ours, Helva. However, to put the record straight, I haven't been waiting at all to have my cataracts done, as it's entirely my own fault nothing has happened until now.
DeleteBecause of our peripatetic life-style I've been very lax about having my eyes checked since I reverted from contact lenses to glasses and at my last eye test in 2006 my cataracts were nowhere near bad enough to warrant surgery. But they got very much worse last year, with the result that I finally had an eye test just before Christmas and took the results to my GP early in the New Year. Everything has moved very swiftly since then. I'll keep you posted.
Sorry I haven't got round to typing up the knitting instructions. Will do it ASAP.
Glad to know that you have physically rejoined the outside world with being able to once more have post delivered. I presume that means all your snow has melted as most of ours has too today, with rain currently falling.
ReplyDeleteI too endorse all you say about the NHS. Why some Americans, usually wealthy ones, should oppose the provision of universal health care for all, is totally beyond my comprehension. When some of those self-same opponents also call themselves Christians, they clearly haven't read the OT prophets who rightly lambasted failure to care for the poor, the orphan & the widow. They also haven't taken note of last Sunday's Gospel reading from Luke 4!
Praying that next Monday's appointment goes well & that complete sight is restored ASAP.
You presume correctly, Ricky. Over the weekend a series of depressions with accompanying heavy rain soon put paid to most of our snow and yesterday I was finally able to get out to do some shopping while the postman brought us a small mountain of delayed mail. :-)
DeleteYou and I are definitely singing from the same hymn-sheet where the Christian imperative to care for the sick and poor is concerned. Having had the good fortune to grow up with the NHS I too find opposition to universal health care totally incomprehensible.
Thanks for the good wishes. I will report back.....
Good luck with the cataracts. I can imagine how happy you will be to read with clear eyes again.
ReplyDeleteWe have universal health care here too and I have always been grateful for it. We lived in the US for some years and knew that there were people who would be bankrupt if faced with bypass surgery or other life-saving measures. I'm glad to pay my share of taxes for something that puts healthcare money in place for all citizens.
Thanks, Pondside. I still manage to do plenry of reading, but on;y with the right lighting. It will be good not to have to worry any more.
DeleteI very much agree with you about being happy to may my share of taxes to ensure universal health care such as you and I both enjoy. I can well imagine how hard you found it to live in the US and know that there were people in that prosperous nation who couldn't afford and therefore wouldn't receive the treatment they needed. Hopefully the Affordable Care act will improve that situation before long.
I'm so glad you're able to get your surgery on Monday. It must be very hard to be a knitter and reader with cataracts. I know you've been following some of the debate from the US over the Affordable Healthcare Act. Oh boy, but I'll be you haven't any idea how rabid a large percentage of our population is in opposition! I'm so disturbed that many who have good insurance are bitter that this legislation may in some ways change a few of their personal perks (and I'm not even sure that's going to happen), but there is no concern for those who desperately need health coverage. I have friends with disease that can't be treated because they have no ability to pay. That's criminal, in my mind. So I am so happy to read your response of gratitude, Perpetua. Blessings to you for a wonderful outcome on Monday!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the good wishes, Debra,but I'm afraid you;'ve jumped the gun slightly. Monday's appointment is just my first meeting with the consultant, who will examine my eyes and then put me on the waiting list for cataract surgery.
DeleteOne of the downsides (in some eyes) of universal health care like the NHS is that life-saving treatment naturally takes precedence over more routine procedures such as cataract surgery, so patients usually have to wait for a few months after referral to have the procedure done. That doesn't worry me at all, as I know it will be done before too long and won't cost me anything. Some people pay to have it done privately, but I'm happy enough to wait my turn. Believe me, you'll know when my turn comes. :-)
I've heard something about the bitter opposition to universal health care, but hadn't a clue that so many people feel so strongly about it. I'm sure you;'re right in thinking that some at least of it comes from a selfish wish not to see the quality of personal care possibly diminish. I find it so sad that some people can care so little what happens to the poorest and most disadvantaged in society.
Well I be blowed! This past Friday I had an appointment with my local cataract clinic and am now in the process of waiting to have surgery! I am a huge fan of the NHS and it saddens me to know that my fellow Americans must endure the terrible burden of how to face and pay for their medical needs. I know the NHS has some problems (bring back Matron, I say!)but in the 30 plus years I have lived in the UK I can not fault any of the treatment I and my family have received.
ReplyDeleteSnap, Broad! :-) I knew from one of your posts that you had cataracts forming and am glad to hear that the process of dealing with them is now underway. We'll have to get together and compare notes. :-) You've also written before of your admiration of the NHS and I can imagine how much you must wish that all your compatriots could have the same standard of care. Let's hope that the new Act means that the US is moving in the right direction. My elder sister was a nurse and she would totally agree with you that Matron should be reinstated as soon as possible. :-)
DeleteThe NHS is a wonderful idea, and a great service. I wonder though, how long it will continue in its present form. Already plans are being made to privatise it (Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is leading the way).
ReplyDeleteOh don't, Sarah! I'm following news coverage of the government's plans and hating what I've read so far, but I doubt that very much could be done as long as the c=Conservatives have no overall majority. However if they were to win the next election outright, there's no saying what might happen. The stuff of nightmares....
DeleteI'm also thankful for the hospital staff who are working under great pressure st this time to deliver a medical service we often take for granted. I'm speaking personally as a grateful patient who has experienced a different system of medical care in mainland Europe and with family members in the medical profession.
ReplyDeleteI hope the treatment you need goes well. All the best for Monday.
I'm sure you are, Linda, and I too know enough people working within the NHS to be aware of the huge pressure on them to economise and yet provide the same standard of care. My only experience of another health system was an appendectomy carried out many years ago, when I was a student working in Hamburg. Luckily it was covered by work-related health insurance.
DeleteMonday is just the first step on the road to surgery, but I'm sure it will all go well when my turn comes.
The encounters we had with the NHS [fortunately few] were all positive and our experiences with the Dutch system [slightly more frequent] were excellent.
ReplyDeleteHope you cateract procedures go well :-)
Thanks, Niall and Aantoinette. Between you, you can compare the health systems of at least 4 countries, so I'm glad your experience has been so positive.
DeleteMonday's appointemnt will simply put me on the waiting list, but I've had lots of reassurance in these comments about the eventual outcome.
I worked for the NHS for some time and feel so strongly about it that I can't bear it to be criticised by people who really don't know. It's not perfect but goodness me, can you imagine living in a country that didn't try and keep its people well and healthy? I can't tell you how disgusted Mateo is that the US doesn't provide free health care - he finds it appalling. We must continue to be grateful but insistent that it remains!
ReplyDeleteI hope your appointment is productive and that you're soon back to excellent vision.
Axxx
Annie, if I as an outsider feel so strongly that the NHS doesn't always get the credit it deserves, I can well imagine how you hate to see it criticised from ignorance. Acknowledging inevitable problems is one thing, but constant carping and (as Jean says) unrealistic expectations are quite another.
DeleteTeenagers see things very clearly at times and I absolutely understand Mateo's feelings on the lack of universal affordable health care in the US. I'll come back and give a progress report after next Monday's initial appointment.
I had cataract surgery last April. I walked into the facility at noon and was getting into my car afterwards at 2:30 p.m. It was a breeze.
ReplyDeleteLinda, I'm very glad to hear that cataract surgery was so easy and straightforward for you. I understand that being extremely short-sighted may be a complicating factor for me, but we'll see what the surgeon advises when I see him for my first meeting next week.
DeleteLike Annie, having spent some time working for the NHS, I get angry when I hear criticism of it. Now, as a patient, experiencing the most incredible seamless post cancer surgery service, I am so proud of it. I worry about the current "reforms", but somehow retain total trust that the people who run the service, will make it work. It is wonderful that you know the cataract surgery will improve your life.....and I look forward to hearing how well it went. Fondest wishes Jx
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you surfacing again, Janice, and hope you're feeling as well as possible. I share your pride and gratitude at the amazing standard of cancer care in the NHS and can well imagine that having worked within it adds to those feelings for you. Here's hoping that the reforms will lead to an even better service, despite inevitable teething troubles.
DeleteMy surgery is a little way off yet, as I will only see the surgeon for the first time on Monday, but at least I'm now in the system and it will happen in due course.
I'm happy for you, Perpetua. You're right - institutions are not perfect, but they can deliver the goods to many, many people and for so many of them, those goods are indeed lifesaving. Glad you're having your eyes "done" (I know this is in my future someday) and hope all will go smoothly.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Penny, but sorry to hear you're joining the cataracts crowd. As I said above, the surgery isn't happening quite yet, but I will know much more after my appointment with the surgeon at the outpatients clinic on Monday. It's so reassuring to know that this service is here for me and so many others.
DeleteYes the NHS does have it's faults, but I also feel fortunate to have grown up with the knowledge that you didn't have to worry about medical costs.
ReplyDeleteI hope the cataract surgery goes well. I remember when my Dad had his done and how it made such a difference to his life.
Thanks, Ayak. I'm glad to see you're back online again. Growing up with the NHS to call on was a great privilege and we should never take it for granted.
DeleteI'm looking forward to being able to see clearly again, though I know I'll have to take my turn on the waiting list and the actual surgery may not be for some months yet.
Some folk on the island have benefited from cataract surgery recently and they are delighted with the result. So I wish you well and I hope the waiting list isn't too long! Like you I am thankful for the NHS. I wouldn't be here today without it. My parents lived in pre-NHS days and I heard many stories about the struggle to pay for health care. I will fight hard to retain free health care at the point of delivery!! I'll woman the battlements!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sian. I'll have some idea about likely waiting time when I've seen the surgeon. You and I both have good reason to be grateful to the NHS and I'll be up there with you on those battlements if the need arises. I was quite a campaigner in my younger days and I don't think I've completely lost the knack. :-) Some things really are worth fighting for.
DeleteDear Perpetua, I so wish all those here in the States who are against what they call "Obamacare" would read your paean to the NHS. I simply cannot understand why so many people here in the United States are against the Health Care Act that President Obama endorsed. I fear that many people have forgotten that "we are our brother's keeper." I also think that they lack the imagination to know what being without the security of health care is like. Oh, Perpetua, I go through life mostly muddled! Peace.
ReplyDeleteIf it's any consolation, Dee, so do I and so do most of us, I think. But there are some things I'm not at all muddled about and the necessity and fairness of universal health care, provided by a government for ALL its people, is one of them. I find it incomprehensible that there is so much opposition in the US to the new Act and I think the last reason you give - that many of those opposed lack the imagination to know what being without the security of health care is like - is only too likely to be true. Let's hope the new Act gives many more people real security of care.
DeleteI wish I could be so positive about the NHS. There are of course aspects which are excellent, but not all - and we tend as a nation to take the view it is beyond criticism, best in the world etc etc. It isn't. Healthcare is way better in Germany and many other western countries too. Look at dentistry for example - you'd be hard pressed to find any on the NHS these days? Or consider the postcode lottery for quality cancer care - or IVF (just not available in some areas). Our approach to care for the elderly is a national disgrace and yet we continue to say the NHS is wonderful whilst denying this singular failing (actually we just exclude 'care' from the NHS in order to get round this)
ReplyDeleteI think UK health care at its best is excellent but there are much better and fairer ways to organise it
I can only speak as I find, Mark, and without exception, throughout my nearly 67 years of life, I have never had less than the best of care from the NHS. I have had cancer twice, in two different areas of the country, and my treatment was uniformly excellent. I belong to two breast cancer forums and again the overwhelming opinion of their members, who live all over the UK, is that their treatment has been very good indeed.
DeleteWherever I have lived I have been treated by NHS dentists, though I grant that it isn't easy in some areas to find an NHS dentist with space for new patients. I'm not sure what you mean by care for the elderly - if it's social care, then I don't think that should be the responsibility of a health service. My experience as far as medical care of elderly members of my own family is concerned (again in different areas of the country) has also been very positive. The most recent example is my 88 year-old mother-in-law who had a TIA last autumn and received very swift and thorough hospital tests and follow-up appointments and is being thoroughly monitored by her GP. As someone who is ageing herself, I find the preventive approach taken by my own local health centre very reassuring and thorough.
I have already said that the NHS isn't perfect and has its faults, but at least we all qualify equally for care without having to find extra money to pay a third of our medical costs as happens in France, the only other country of which I have recent experience.
I'm sorry that your opinion of the NHS is less positive than mine or that of my commenters, but I hold by what I wrote. The NHS isn't perfect and never has been, but it has the great virtue for those on modest incomes of being free at the point of delivery and what could be fairer than that?
Oh I totally agree about free at the point of delivery - completely and totally agree, but we do tend to think that our beloved NHS is the only way to deliver that, and that any criticism of the NHS is a dig at that principle.
DeleteI suppose my experience is not so positive. On many occasions I've been let down, I see huge inconsistency that would not be tolerated elsewhere ( the legal system for example) - there are arbitrary areas where the NHS provides and then doesn't, drugs it will supply and drugs it won't - and we as individuals have no control over that. It is our single biggest national expenditure and not at all free in the sense that we all pay a huge amount for it.
As a nation we value free at the point of use very highly - I do too, but I think if we truly stand back, that it could be organised so much more effectively and in a way that would actually give more choice to end users. I also believe a more effective NHS would obviate the need for private health care.
On care for the elderly it seems to me to be a bizzare distinction to decide that someone with dementia is not 'ill' but rather they are in need of care and therefore have to sell their home for the costs - that is not free at the point of use, it is manifest social injustice and recognised so by almost every political party. Accepting that there is a practical issue of an ageing population it is still a clear failing of our system and not one that is necessary or indeed replicated elsewhere.
Anyhow, enough. I do agree that it's best the NHS treatment is very good indeed. Best wishes.
Thanks for coming back, Mark. I do appreciate your concerns and it's obvious that your experience has been rather different from mine and also that your overview of the NHS and its problems is wider than mine.
DeleteThe whole area of care for the elderly is a huge hot potato. I can't see that it could fairly be the responsibility of the NHS to do more than treat the treatable medical conditions of a person with dementia. The ongoing daily care of such a person (care which could be required for many years) is surely the responsibility of social services sand has to be paid for somehow. In France, which is the only country I have much knowledge of, there is a fair bit of help available for those still capable of living independently. However, once residential care is needed the cost of that care is legally the responsibility of the family of the cared-for person, if s/he no longer has the resources to pay. This was written by a French friend of mine in response to a query on an expat forum:
"The kind of high-grade, top of the range places are at least as expensive as in Britain, and there are long waiting lists. If you have a very low income then you can go to the bottom of the range places (provided you go on a waiting list first), but you will still be expected to pay for your care, and if your pension does not cover the whole cost (in my mother's case it does not) then if you were a property owner you would be expected to generate capital by selling your home, AND if this is still not sufficient, then by law, if you have children, THEY have to pay for you."
So it isn't the case that Britain is unique in requiring those who need ongoing care to sell their home to fund that care. That doesn't make it right, but we aren't the only ones.
Good luck with your cataract ops. My father has just been down that road and he is a new man!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Annie. I'll probably have a bit of a wait, but I'm really looking forward to having unclouded vision again. :-)
DeleteLate but better than never:
ReplyDeleteI quite simply owe the NHS my life.
Yes, health care in Germany is probably rather more modern, stream-lined, and not as hospital-centred as here, but Germans pay a fair whack for the service. Personally, I wouldn’t mind paying something towards the cost of the NHS before it is shoved into the maws of private entrepreneurs, to keep it a truly national service.
Never too late to add a comment, Friko, and I'm so glad the NHS was there for you when it was truly needed.
DeleteMy only experience of health care in Germany was back in 1966, when I was working there during my summer vacation and went down with appendicitis. I was treated promptly and well, but I'm sure things have changed greatly since then. I too would be willing to contribute more to keep the NHS truly national and functioning as it should. I loathe the thought of any kind of privatisation of the basic service.
It is certainly helpful to have good medical care. We have to pay for our eye doctor visits. Actually I just realized that we have not been to a regular eye visit in at least 3 years. I think something is wrong though because yesterday I noticed that I saw better without my glasses! And my vision is not that good! But then I did get those glasses in 1999 (to see far as I can still read without glasses.) It need to get new glasses because they are not very stylish, apart from being useless…
ReplyDeleteI think I would put even more strongly, Vagabonde and say that good health care is an essential service for everyone. In the UK eye tests are free for young people up to 18 and for the retired, though of course we have to pay towards the cost of glasses.
DeleteIf your glasses have lasted since 1999 they have given you very good service and it's hardly surprising you need new ones. I hope you enjoy choosing your new frames and being able to see well again.
Perpetua, I thought I had commented, see that I haven't. My own life is in a bit of muddle right now, but, here I am to wish you well in your cataract surgery. Looks like a consultation today, then onward if I read correctly the comments. I had both eyes done last year and am grateful for my clearer vision and the capable hands and the modern technology that brought it about.
ReplyDeletePenny, given what has been going on your own life this week, I wasn't expecting to see a comment from you, so thank you for this. I'm glad your cataract surgery had such good results and I'll be posting a follow-up on today's consultation as soon as I can. I'm now on the waiting list for surgery, but things are a bit more complicated than we were expecting. Watch this space....
Delete