nice one

[Piglet]

Interesting read DJ!

One thing I'd be willing to do to help the NHS is pay for the cost of my contraceptives. I ran out one day and had to phone the "out-of-hour doctor" service who were very helpful. (Don't ask how I could run out of contraceptive pills - but I've done it twice! Early altzheimers I think it might be called).

Anyway advice was to go to my nearest chemist and explain my predicament and I'd have to pay for them myself since I didn't have a prescription and that they were really expensive! I didn't care the cost but really needed to get my hands on a new pack. The cost......


something stupid like £5 for a pack that covers a month.


I'm aware that there are women who couldn't afford this, but I can and I'd rather be paying that than end up pregnant. I've also had this conversation with one of my doctors at the surgery and he agreed with my point of view.

[Lou]

Originally Posted by TiggsTours

No, but they could have repossessed any of his belongings in order to recover the cost, like his home, for example.

Really? How mundane.

I had visions of one of those auction sites where instead of selling stolen cars & power boats seized from organised crime rings, they auctioned off body parts from fraudulently obtained medical operations, like kidney transplants, nose ops, sense of humour bypasses, etc....

[straycat]

Originally Posted by Lou

... sense of humour bypasses, etc....

Please do not make fun of sense of humour bypasses. There is nothing wrong with them at all, and quite frankly, I find your jokes on the subject to be in extremely poor taste.

[TiggsTours]

Originally Posted by Piglet

Interesting read DJ!

One thing I'd be willing to do to help the NHS is pay for the cost of my contraceptives. I ran out one day and had to phone the "out-of-hour doctor" service who were very helpful. (Don't ask how I could run out of contraceptive pills - but I've done it twice! Early altzheimers I think it might be called).

Anyway advice was to go to my nearest chemist and explain my predicament and I'd have to pay for them myself since I didn't have a prescription and that they were really expensive! I didn't care the cost but really needed to get my hands on a new pack. The cost......


something stupid like £5 for a pack that covers a month.


I'm aware that there are women who couldn't afford this, but I can and I'd rather be paying that than end up pregnant. I've also had this conversation with one of my doctors at the surgery and he agreed with my point of view.

In principal I agree with you, but in practice, there are alot of people (women buy condoms, why couldn't the men buy their partners pills?) who would decided they couldn't afford them, or don't want to pay for them, and so there would be far more unwanted pregnancies, which would then be a drain on the NHS, and many other benefit sytems.

[David Bailey]

Originally Posted by straycat264

Please do not make fun of sense of humour bypasses. There is nothing wrong with them at all, and quite frankly, I find your jokes on the subject to be in extremely poor taste.

There are people in the world who've never had a sense of humour, you know. We should count ourselves lucky that we have an abundant supply in this country.

Originally Posted by Piglet

One thing I'd be willing to do to help the NHS is pay for the cost of my contraceptives.

Blimey, that's way into the realms of academic hypotheticals for me

[Tessalicious]

Originally Posted by straycat

Agreed. And I'll be willing to bet that that never happens again...

You think? In which case he's just done a disservice to everyone who pays for an operation in the future, as well as to those who have been bumped down that particularly queue - because they won't be able to have their (potentially life-saving, urgent, etc) operations immediately but will have to wait 5-7 working days at the hospital's bank's discretion. Great

I must admit, when I first read the article, my gut response was that he'd been naughty but no harm done, and obviously a lot of benefit to himself - but the more I think about it, the more I am simply disappointed in a something-for-nothing culture where everyone expects everything handed to them on a plate, which has lead to this kind of thing. Especially considering DJ's comment above about the likelihood that the guy had been putting off seeing his doctor about the problem, which I would guess is reasonably close to the mark (he is a man after all) - why should he then get preferential treatment over those people who went to their doctor immediately, before the situation got out of hand?

Sorry, rant over.

[Dreadful Scathe]

Originally Posted by Ballroom queen

good on you - shame everyone doesn't agree.

I get the impression that you dont agree and dont think its a shame at all

Originally Posted by DaphneJames

But certainly, he's cost the NHS a lot of resources.

how? if he went private and didnt pay for his surgery, then the only thing affected is the profits of some private medical company - maybe the shareholders and the board get 0.000001% less in dividends/bonuses next year

[David Franklin]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

how? if he went private and didnt pay for his surgery, then the only thing affected is the profits of some private medical company

I'm not entirely clear on how it all works, but from the article, I think essentially he was paying privately to get immediate treatment at an NHS hospital. (My understanding is that it is "private", but the NHS charges for the use of various facilities and equipment. The money goes towards treatment costs for regular patiients who can't afford to go private). So there is an actual cost to the NHS.

maybe the shareholders and the board get 0.000001% less in dividends/bonuses next year

On that basis I presume you are also in favour of insurance and banking fraud. Oh, and shoplifiting from Tesco's must be OK as well.

[Donna]

Originally Posted by Beowulf1970

My mum had her knee replaced recently.. and she had a bottle of that sanitising hand wash and everytime a doctor or a nurse came to inspect her she handed it to them and told them to wash their hands even if they said they had just washed them.. hehe, and trust me, nobody argues with my mum.

Mind you , that said, she still got a bad SA (Staphylococcus aureus) infection just not the methicillin resistant variant.

It's so easy to catch an infection from hospitals now....and you don't even HAVE to have an operation.! My brother accidently cut himself whilst shaving a few months ago, and on the same day, had to go into hospital due to another problem. He told the doctors while he was there if there was anything they could do about his shaving cut (it was quite deep). They cleaned it and put plastic stitches over it. A couple of days later, his wound turned into a massive red lump, then another one appeared next to it. These lumps were rapidly spreading all over his body, and he was in agony and was being sick all the time.

He went to see his GP where he was sent back to the hospital for tests, and was diagnosed with....MRSA!!!! Good job they caught it early - he was on anti-biotics for weeks!

[Dreadful Scathe]

Originally Posted by David Franklin

I'm not entirely clear on how it all works, but from the article, I think essentially he was paying privately to get immediate treatment at an NHS hospital. (My understanding is that it is "private", but the NHS charges for the use of various facilities and equipment. The money goes towards treatment costs for regular patiients who can't afford to go private). So there is an actual cost to the NHS.

If it was at an NHS hospital and the money was going to the NHS directly than it doesnt say much about our Health Service - they are prepared to take money to have people jump the queue - why? isnt that the same as bribery? isnt it a National health Service? if i pay the police a few hundred will they forget about the penalty points they were going to put on my licence - all the money can go back into the public coffers and everyone is happy right ?

Assuming it was a private company taking the money but using an NHS hospital - they still need to pay the NHS. Its not the NHS's problem that the private companies finances may be subject to fraud.

On that basis I presume you are also in favour of insurance and banking fraud. Oh, and shoplifiting from Tesco's must be OK as well.

Did I say I was in favour? its still wrong but hardly in the same league as defrauding a bank for millions. Likewise, if some starving mother had to steal food from Tescos* to feed her kids I would sympathise with that just as much I sympathise with the man in the article. Doesnt mean its right or that I would do the same.



*of course if it was ASDA, she should be locked up for life. Asda is a quality supermarket with a whiter than white reputation and a nice green peaceful logo.