I agree with everything you say about the NHS. Although I practice in the US, I spent a long, ultimately frustrating period working on the development of a better system in terms of cost structure and efficiency in comparison to the USA, Canada, The UK, as well as the Caribbean.
Canada however is no model of public healthcare excellence. Nor is their private system worthy of emulation. I routinely treat Canadians as do my colleagues here . The largest concentration of healthcare facilities in the USA is distributed in geographic proximity to the Canadian border. Canadians have many of the same frustrations you express.
I know first hand of Canadians undergoing successful surgery in the USA and two years postoperatively being informed that the Canadian healthcare system is ready to do the testing they need in order to determine if they need the surgery that they have already had. That’s not to say that there are not excellent doctors in Canada. But it can be exceptionally difficult to get their services via the public system. Capacity is very limited. The USA has myriad problems to deal with within healthcare, although they are manifested somewhat differently.
Ars longa. Vita brevis. Change your professional life if you need to. Absolutely nobody else cares and time marches on. We sacrifice a lot to become competent specialists in ways that lay people can’t imagine. Don’t let the system grind you down. Freedom and autonomy are important for knowledge workers. It will not get better. You have to make it better. Good luck.
I agree in every respect. As I watched my father decline over the past decade and a half before passing away in February this year, I observed how time and again the NHS handled his care appallingly, making mistake after mistake, all of them completely avoidable.
The author is correct in his assessment that the entire system is broken beyond repair and the comparison with Canada is apt, as I lived and worked there in the past, enjoying the benefits of private health and dental insurance exactly as he describes. It is wholly within our capabilities to create such a system here, which would make for a much more effective way of delivering good quality healthcare to all - privately via insurance and publicly via the NHS.
It suits the politicians to keep the NHS as a pawn in the game instead of tackling the longer term risks and ensure that the welfare of the nation is the first priority. Instead, preservation of the NHS at all costs makes it a sacred cow, not a cost-efficient and sustainable system to deliver the highest quality of care for the populace.
It is so unfortunate that the arguments you make, though sound and true, are ones that 'dare not speak their name' under the long-standing shadow of NHS cultism that we are living in.
Although I have a certain amount of guilt about my decision, I left the NHS in 1998 and came to Australia. It wasn’t for the money, the sunshine or any other reason. It was the opportunity to practice with autonomy, to feel empowered and enabled to investigate and treat as appropriate, to be able to seek the optimal care for my patients in a blended system that, however imperfect, is significantly better than the NHS. Despite this Australia spends 9.3% of GDP(2019) on healthcare. The UK spends 10.3%. More money isn’t the answer. Sadly the NHS has taken on such an iconic position in the UK and no politician would be brave enough to challenge it. ‘We don’t want the American system’. Ignoring the multitude of other healthcare models out there. I think we need to be eternally watchful about the corporate creep in healthcare but a well designed model with checks and balances can harness many of the advantages of private enterprise.
Thank you for your honesty. In truth it’s something most people with their eyes open know. My wife had breast cancer recently, and as an example of the pc culture, and profligacy in play, gazing at the info screens whilst she had her radiotherapy, there was an infomercial for the lgbtq 24 help line for cancer patients. I couldn’t help wondering what was so different about the lgbtq “communities” experience of cancer that required a dedicated team and phone line?
I agree with everything you say about the NHS. Although I practice in the US, I spent a long, ultimately frustrating period working on the development of a better system in terms of cost structure and efficiency in comparison to the USA, Canada, The UK, as well as the Caribbean.
Canada however is no model of public healthcare excellence. Nor is their private system worthy of emulation. I routinely treat Canadians as do my colleagues here . The largest concentration of healthcare facilities in the USA is distributed in geographic proximity to the Canadian border. Canadians have many of the same frustrations you express.
I know first hand of Canadians undergoing successful surgery in the USA and two years postoperatively being informed that the Canadian healthcare system is ready to do the testing they need in order to determine if they need the surgery that they have already had. That’s not to say that there are not excellent doctors in Canada. But it can be exceptionally difficult to get their services via the public system. Capacity is very limited. The USA has myriad problems to deal with within healthcare, although they are manifested somewhat differently.
Ars longa. Vita brevis. Change your professional life if you need to. Absolutely nobody else cares and time marches on. We sacrifice a lot to become competent specialists in ways that lay people can’t imagine. Don’t let the system grind you down. Freedom and autonomy are important for knowledge workers. It will not get better. You have to make it better. Good luck.
I agree in every respect. As I watched my father decline over the past decade and a half before passing away in February this year, I observed how time and again the NHS handled his care appallingly, making mistake after mistake, all of them completely avoidable.
The author is correct in his assessment that the entire system is broken beyond repair and the comparison with Canada is apt, as I lived and worked there in the past, enjoying the benefits of private health and dental insurance exactly as he describes. It is wholly within our capabilities to create such a system here, which would make for a much more effective way of delivering good quality healthcare to all - privately via insurance and publicly via the NHS.
It suits the politicians to keep the NHS as a pawn in the game instead of tackling the longer term risks and ensure that the welfare of the nation is the first priority. Instead, preservation of the NHS at all costs makes it a sacred cow, not a cost-efficient and sustainable system to deliver the highest quality of care for the populace.
It is so unfortunate that the arguments you make, though sound and true, are ones that 'dare not speak their name' under the long-standing shadow of NHS cultism that we are living in.
Although I have a certain amount of guilt about my decision, I left the NHS in 1998 and came to Australia. It wasn’t for the money, the sunshine or any other reason. It was the opportunity to practice with autonomy, to feel empowered and enabled to investigate and treat as appropriate, to be able to seek the optimal care for my patients in a blended system that, however imperfect, is significantly better than the NHS. Despite this Australia spends 9.3% of GDP(2019) on healthcare. The UK spends 10.3%. More money isn’t the answer. Sadly the NHS has taken on such an iconic position in the UK and no politician would be brave enough to challenge it. ‘We don’t want the American system’. Ignoring the multitude of other healthcare models out there. I think we need to be eternally watchful about the corporate creep in healthcare but a well designed model with checks and balances can harness many of the advantages of private enterprise.
Thank you for your honesty. In truth it’s something most people with their eyes open know. My wife had breast cancer recently, and as an example of the pc culture, and profligacy in play, gazing at the info screens whilst she had her radiotherapy, there was an infomercial for the lgbtq 24 help line for cancer patients. I couldn’t help wondering what was so different about the lgbtq “communities” experience of cancer that required a dedicated team and phone line?