Rhetoric:
“In Britain, the government itself runs the hospitals and employs the doctors. We’ve all heard scare stories about how that works in practice; these stories are false. Like every system, the National Health Service has problems, but over all it appears to provide quite good care …”
— Paul Krugman, NY Times, August 17, 2009
Reality:
Cancer survivor barred from NHS treatment for paying private doctor to ease her spinal pain
By LIZ HULL
19th April 2010A woman with crippling back pain who has been waiting months for an operation was removed from the NHS waiting list because she had a private consultation.
Breast cancer survivor Jenny Whitehead was told by her NHS trust in December last year that she would have to wait five months before she could see an orthopaedic surgeon after a scan revealed a cyst on her spine.
Having suffered back pain since 2008 and unable to face months of waiting in pain, she decided to pay £250 for a private session with the same doctor the following week.
He assured the 64-year-old retired museum assistant that he would add her to his NHS waiting list for an operation to have the growth removed.
But she was shocked when Bradford and Airedale NHS Trust told her she had been taken off the waiting list because her private consultation disqualified her from any further NHS treatment under that referral.
The trust said she must pay for the £10,000 surgery herself, or go back to her GP for another referral to the same surgeon on the NHS, and face a further 18-week wait for an appointment.
The case is sure to re-ignite the debate over the way the NHS treats some patients who—despairing at long waiting lists—are discriminated against for going private.
It is Department of Health policy that patients waiting for operations must be referred from their GP to qualify for NHS surgery.
Last night Mrs Whitehead, who lives in Haworth, West Yorkshire, said she was angry she was being denied treatment on the NHS. …
How do you love that kind, gentle government? Either wait nearly five months to just see a surgeon about removing a cyst from your back or get kicked off by the government for the audacity for paying privately to see a doctor in one week.
But everyone’s covered, everyone’s covered, everyone’s covered, everyone’s covered. Just like now everyone here is covered under ObamaCare.
Think this is not going to happen when the government is in charge of your health (s)care? Then you’re even a bigger idiot than I thought. In fact, it's been happening already. This is the change you voted for. Enjoy it.
Put yourself in Jenny Whitehead’s shoes: You have a malignant tumor and you don’t know how bad it is. Do you wait five painful and sleepless months on President Hope&Change’s waiting list? Or do you secretly seek immediate, private care knowing full well your government will cut you off from treatment altogether!?
You better figure out your choice, because you might very well have to make it soon.
Welcome to the future, suckers.
Recent Comments