Guest guest Posted August 29, 2001 Report Share Posted August 29, 2001 Just a comment for Americans: The NHS is the National Health Service in Britain. If you have " no insurance " you fall under this which means that all medical care is basically free, but you will have to wait, as indicated here, for a long time (here up to 18 months). If you have insurfance, that means you can use a fancy private hospital, (e.g. the Nuffield in Birmingham, where I got mine). These waits do not generally apply to people who pay there own way, so this letter is aimed squarely at others under the NHS. The waiting time for self-pay is anywhere from a month to three months. For those of you in the UK, " no insurance " in the US means you pay for everything out of your own pocket (at grossly inflated prices) and unless you've got a bona fide emergency on the spot, hospitals will refuse to treat you if they think you can't pay. Yes, there are lots of horror stories and you should realize that a lot of people on the list who are carping about insurance really might have no options for treatment otherwise. It's a very bad system, but quite lucrative for the insurance companies and hospitals. This reflects the American attitude that rather than let someone maybe get something for nothing, they have to have a system that hemorrhages everyone's money. It's something of a custom over here > Cheers, Jef >Dear Hippy's >I understand that the British Government have now agreed to allow patients >to travel abroad to have their operations under the NHS, thus hopefully >reducing the waiting lists in the UK for operations like THR's or BHR's. >Good news eh??? I've just been put on the NHS list for resurfacing with Mr. >C Aldam (Anyone heard of him by the way???) and am told I should expect to >wait up to 18 months... I recall in previous postings that some of you have >had this operation in Belgium and would appreciate the contact details if >anyone has them. It will be interesting to see whether the politicians have >actually done something useful for a change, or whether it's all a lot of >twaddle.... I'll keep you informed as to how I get on! >Many thanks and kind regards to my fellow hobblers around the Globe! >Phil Marchant > >_________________________________________________________________ >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 30, 2001 Report Share Posted August 30, 2001 Perhaps people waiting for the NHS to do a BHR should be a little wary about asking too loudly to be sent to Belgium for it. Not for any clinical reasons - having experienced and been very impressed by French hospital care, I am sure that Belgian medical services are also first class (and better funded than the UK). But, unless things have changed in the last few months, BHRs have not been approved for use by the NHS. I think it is NICE (Nat Institute for Clinical Excellence??) which investigates the cost-benefit of treatments and they had not said " yes " - certainly as at last November. Now, I guess we all think they are mad - getting patients of around 50 back into productive work and able to keep fit and healthy sounds like a good financial case for the country - but it's not approved. Having said that, the NHS controls are so ineffective that the surgeons ignore the rules do the ops anyway. I just think it might not be a great plan to approach your local hospital trust / newspaper or whatever. Vale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 31, 2001 Report Share Posted August 31, 2001 I was lucky enough to be covered by my firm's BUPA insurance but my surgeon Mr Sewell from Huntington, excellent man, told me his NHS wait was 14 months from initial consultation to operation, that was in July 2000. Lots of UK OS's are still not offering BHRs. regards s Tony Re: BHRs abroad and NHS > Just a comment for Americans: The NHS is the National Health Service in > Britain. If you have " no insurance " you fall under this which means that > all medical care is basically free, but you will have to wait, as indicated > here, for a long time (here up to 18 months). If you have insurfance, that > means you can use a fancy private hospital, (e.g. the Nuffield in > Birmingham, where I got mine). These waits do not generally apply to people > who pay there own way, so this letter is aimed squarely at others under the > NHS. The waiting time for self-pay is anywhere from a month to three > months. > > For those of you in the UK, " no insurance " in the US means you pay for > everything out of your own pocket (at grossly inflated prices) and unless > you've got a bona fide emergency on the spot, hospitals will refuse to > treat you if they think you can't pay. Yes, there are lots of horror > stories and you should realize that a lot of people on the list who are > carping about insurance really might have no options for treatment > otherwise. It's a very bad system, but quite lucrative for the insurance > companies and hospitals. This reflects the American attitude that rather > than let someone maybe get something for nothing, they have to have a > system that hemorrhages everyone's money. It's something of a custom over > here > > > Cheers, > > Jef > > > >Dear Hippy's > >I understand that the British Government have now agreed to allow patients > > >to travel abroad to have their operations under the NHS, thus hopefully > >reducing the waiting lists in the UK for operations like THR's or BHR's. > >Good news eh??? I've just been put on the NHS list for resurfacing with > Mr. > >C Aldam (Anyone heard of him by the way???) and am told I should expect to > > >wait up to 18 months... I recall in previous postings that some of you > have > >had this operation in Belgium and would appreciate the contact details if > >anyone has them. It will be interesting to see whether the politicians > have > >actually done something useful for a change, or whether it's all a lot of > >twaddle.... I'll keep you informed as to how I get on! > >Many thanks and kind regards to my fellow hobblers around the Globe! > >Phil Marchant > > > >_________________________________________________________________ > >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp > > > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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