A&E or Toy: NHS!

The boy of this American doctor had tears in his eyes and so did I when I read the following blog.

The media must have worked so hard that even an intelligent doctor from America thought she would have to wait 18 hours at our A&E. That is not surprising given the latest pre-NHS sale pitch is that the wait is over 35 hours.

Fearing that her son was faking she offered what The Cockroach Catcher would have offered: A&E or Toy.

He chose A&E: no faking here!

Read on:

 An American doctor experiences an NHS emergency room

POSTED BY DR. JEN GUNTER ⋅ AUGUST 12, 2014⋅ 799 COMMENTS

You know it’s going to be one of those days when one of the first tweets on vacation inquires about the closest hospital.

Victor, one of my 11-year-olds, had something in his eye courtesy of a big gust of wind outside of Westminster Abby. He was complaining enough to let me flip his eyelid and irrigate his eye on the square in front of Big Ben. (I’m sure several people thought I was torturing him).  Despite an extensive search and rinse mission no object or relief was to be found. I fretted about going to the hospital. It wasn’t the prospect of navigating a slightly foreign ER, but simply the prospect of the wait. While I am a staunch supporter of the British NHS in the back of my mind I envisioned a paralyzingly full emergency room and an agonizing 18 hour wait only to find he had nothing in his eye (the basic antechamber of Hell scenario). To ensure we really needed to go I gave Victor a choice between the emergency room and a toy store (Gunter’s 3rd rule), but he declined the toys so off we went to St. Thomas hospital, conveniently right over the bridge.

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Her blog post attracted over 799 comments and is still going strong.

So we again offered world class medicine without knowing.

Just look at the faith we have in our A&E departments to the point that Roy Lilly suggested:

Roy Lilley ‏@RoyLilley16h

@clarercgp @drjohnbye @DrGrumble inner city solution; close P'care and put GPs in A&E just like Detroit

There is even argument that GPs cannot do A&E work and A&E doctors cannot do GP work. What has gone wrong with medical training?

There is a very discrete attempt to change the name of A&E to ED.

Wow! Do people never learn from history?

No!!! NHS and A&E. Original please   

So if politicians have not been so interfering and allow us doctors, nurses and patients to make things work together we may indeed have a better NHS. All the analysis on the reform is clear about one thing: someone is going to make money and that means less money for actual health care.

NHS
The PLOT to kill off the NHS Original started with Fundholding and since then every single government tried! Often in the name of improving health care.

The NHS has its faults but the fixing of it is not by bringing in privateers as they will be gaming for public money; nor would competition and choice work. We only need to look at the number of times the average household change utility providers.

But the government is pretending that Southern Cross would go away very quickly. The same with Four Seasons. We have no idea if there were any secret behind the scene deals so that the likes of Southern Cross will not hit the headlines as the HCSB tried to wriggle through parliament.

No we want the old NHS!!! NHS Classic!!! NHS Original!!! No mercury or manganese please.

Perhaps politicians can learn from this: you can say all the bad things about the NHS and you can quote how badly we are doing but we still love our NHS for all its short comings and perhaps if politicians have not been so interfering and allow us doctors, nurses and patients to make things work together we may indeed have a better NHS. All the analysis on the reform is clear about one thing: someone is going to make money and that means less money for actual health care.

Because, reading between the lines, that is what it is. If government can have its way the ordinary citizens who cannot afford health care insurance will get inferior care in a society that needs to ration its skilled medical professionals. It is no good trying to pretend it is any other way.

Allyson Pollock

Our generation had the best of the NHS.  We had the best of the welfare state including free education, free health care and above all freedom from fear of health care bills.  Now it is up to your generation to fight for what we are in danger of destroying. The BMA are considering taking a legal challenge against the government, you should add your voices. Ultimately the battle for the NHS is a political battle and unless you make your voices heard then the NHS will be lost. Not one citizen in England can afford to lose their NHS; the scale of the public health casualties will be too great if the Bill is passed.  The abolition of the NHS should not be our legacy to your generation for how can you care properly in the knowledge that so many will go uncared for.  Its your NHS but only for so long as you care enough to fight for it.

NHS A&E: Unpredictable, Unruly & Ungainly

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