Sofia, who lives near Dundee, says she was told she’d have to wait two years for an NHS operation. But that felt too long to wait, so she and her partner decided to take out a £7,000 loan to pay to have the surgery in a private hospital.
‘It was a really tough decision to go private,” she says, “because we were having to put ourselves into debt. And that’s a lot of money. But you have to have some quality of life.”
Yup. That’s what I’m in the process of doing. Having spent a lifetime paying for it, I’m having to pay again to get the job done privately.
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, raze it to the ground and salt the earth where it stood. Then look across the Channel for inspiration.
One more example that supports the case that taxation is no different from theft. In the world of private business, if someone takes your money and then fails to provide the goods or services that you paid for they can be taken to court. In this case you just have to suck it up.
My wife was in a very similar position – pay £10k for surgery privately or wait 2-3 years for the NHS to get around to it. I was fortunate enough that I was able to change jobs to an employer that offers private medical cover and they paid for the lot; job done in less than 3 months. The NHS is a blight on our nation.
slightly off-topic, I know, but what can we expect of the NHS, with such a t***** as CMO, who not only gets it wrong about virusses/vaccination, but according to the BBC, he is such an expert that he advises seaside towns to set up medical schools.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-58665313
“Prof Whitty said that one solution would be to focus medical training colleges in deprived towns”
(wake up Jaywick!)
Ian J
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-58665313
He’s the latest in a long list of clowns in that role. I recall with some fondness (ahem) that moron Liam Donaldson who was salivating at the prospect of a Ferguson predicted plague of swine flu. Never happened and he left the role disappointed that he never got to play the important saviour that half Whitty now does.
Dear Mr J
To veer even more off topic, this gem from the ‘most read’ list:
“GB number plate sticker no longer valid abroad”
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Changing the national identifier from GB to UK symbolises our unity as a nation and is part of a wider move towards using the UK signifier across government.
“We notified the UN of our intention to make these changes in July, and have been working with the sector to implement the change.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58734265
More re-arranging of deck chairs on the Titanic
DP
Sorry, missed the /i after “… change”
Please adjust your eyesight accordingly.
DP
Sorted.
Near Dundee, you say? But… no, surely that can’t be. The SNP made waiting lists longer than six months illegal, didn’t they? I wonder who’s facing the slammer. (I won’t hold my breath.)
Of course, they’re blaming Hong Kong Fluey. Which they decided was going to be a crisis before it even hit. My mother recently died of Parkinson’s. She attended her six-monthly consultation in the week before lockdown, and was basically told, “Don’t bother coming back”, more or less as the consultant was packing her stuff into cardboard boxes and moving out. But she did go back, for her next six-monthly consultation, a year later. The hospital was fairly busy, but no more so than usual, and the big Covid tent they’d erected in the car park was lying empty with the gates chained up.
“The damnpanic has been the most significant excuse the NHS has found in its 73-year history…”
There. Fixed that for you.
It’s not just major surgery, try getting ear-wax removed by the nurse at your expensive, over-paid, under-worked GP’s surgery. They’ll just say “We’ve stopped doing that” and refer you to Specsavers, £50 later you can hear again. When did we vote for ‘our NHS’ to stop doing those routine minor things we need them to do?
Solution – send in the receipt with a claim for repayment as a breach of contract, then just keep arguing, in writing, making sure it costs the lazy sods far more than the fifty quid you spent. You may not get the £50 back, but it’s mighty satisfying.
@Mudplugger.
Before ear treatment, dental treatment started to become of limited availability on the NHS. We are comfortably off so we could afford to go with a private dentist. We get an excellent service so I would be perfectly happy to go with a private dentist if it weren’t for the fact that I am also paying for the NHS for a service that I have to pay for myself.
Even if you can get an NHS dentist, treatment tends to be private. That is, if you want a proper job. They don’t even try to hide it.