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on the basis of a "post-code lottery", whereby, if you live in a more prosperous area, you may receive treatment denied to people in poorer areas.
The so-called "public-private partnerships" running at least some hospitals are, of course, a significant factor in this vitiation of health-care, maybe doctor's practices too, and while I can point to some of the more significant failings, the input of others, more knowledgeabe on the subject, would be preferable. Although, unlike the Tories and Lib-Dems, the NuLab(c) crowd have come down from the trees, they look like they're hankering to return. I'll just point to two or three of these vitiations of the NHS, and then point to some marvellous aspects still in operation.
Apart from the post-code lottery, there has been an elimination of in-house cleaning staff in hospitals, in favour of private cleaning companies, which, inevitably, given the profit requirement, has led to falling standards and the rise and spread of superbugs, so that hospitals have presented an unusually high level of mortal danger - mostly the old and the very young, I believe. Some hospitals have restored their in-house cleaning set-up.
A NuLab dolt on here scoffingly questioned the value of the old hospital matrons, who used to rule with an iron rod. I pointed out, well isn't that funny. Private hospitals still use them. A restoration of such a role has been been provided for in some hospitals.
Dentists are paid so little, relatively speaking, that unless you can afford to take out insurance or are well off, you will have difficulty finding a dentist. There was a scandalous photo in a Scottish newspaper recently of a queue of people waiting to register with a new "NHS-friendly" dentist that looked something like a hundred yards long or more, snaking down a street and round the corner along the next. People are using pliers, which was unheard of before these NuLab(c) gutter-snipes took over. Even the Tories hadn't yet dared to do that. Well, after La Thatcher, they had a reputation, shall we say, which didn't encourage them to take chances with the electorate. If they were to be voted in again, they'd reprivatise the NHS in less than a fibrillating heartbeat, if you'll pardon the general pun.
We have two major hospitals in Edinburgh. One keeps costs to the public down in terms of parking charges, TV on the wards and use of the phone, the other provides flash, bedside versions of the last two at very high cost, and punitively high parking charges, even for the medical staff working there. Maybe the former hospital is still fully or almost fully public. The phone and parking business is of real relevance, since family support is apparently a key factor in patients' recovery. The price of everything and the value of nothing.
Be that as it may, my wife often has to have examinations and treatments of various kinds at both hospitals, and it does seem that no expense is spared to keep her in the best of health. Fortunately, she has the constitution of an ox. I mean, I think the CT Scan she had recently, and my triple bypass heart op would have cost a lot in the US, to mention just two interventions. She also had very prompt and extraordinarily successful, strangulated hernia op (they'd expected they'd have to remove some of her intestine).
Perhaps more remarkable are the ops my aunt in South Wales and my mother in Oz had. My aunt would be close on 90 and had quite a disabling stroke a few year ago, for which she had daily nursing help for a few hours, several times a week, I believe. A fortnight ago, she had a colostomy operation and is now in a nursing home kind of thing, where she will stay. I expect in an English city, where social ties would be much weaker than in rural South Wales, they might have considered triage and decided it would be "uneconomic"! But that is just an impression I have.
In Australia, my mother was given a quadruple, heart-bypass op, when well into her eighties, though she was in remarkable health, otherwise. Were it not for the NHS here and in Oz, I'm pretty sure we'd all have been "goners" long ago, though my wife's son by her first marriage (a rather better marriage!) would, I expect have rallied to her cause. Nothing is too much for him as far as we're concerned. Too much so, sometimes. But we're grateful.
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