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Access to medical care has been so poor for so long in the NHS that the government was compelled to issue Englands 2010 NHS Constitution in which it was declared that no patient should wait beyond 18 weeks for treatmentfour monthsafter a referral from a general practitioner. While NHS England officially states that the laughably long leash of 18 weeks to initiate treatment is being met, as of February 2014 more than 50,000 patients had waited more than those 18 weeks after GP referral for treatment to begin. In Scotland, as reported in May 2014, more than 10% of patients were still waiting more than 18 weeks for their treatment to begin4 months after being referred for treatment by their doctors. Even more shocking is the recent decree from the Comptroller and Auditor General of Englands Department of Health: NHS England introduced zero tolerance of any patient waiting more than 52 weeks (for treatment after doctor referral), for which trusts face a mandatory fine of £5,000 for each patient doing so. Yes, waiting more than one full year for treatment is apparently a possibility in the NHS.
Despite the UK governments repeated laws and decrees, more patients than ever before are now on waiting lists, and the NHS is failing to deliver on its most basic promises to the taxpayers. In April 2014, hospital waiting lists soared to their highest point since 2006, with 2,993,108 patients in England on waiting lists for treatment. Figures for last July showed that 508,555 people in London alone were waiting for operations or other treatment to beginthe highest total for at least five years. Almost 60,000 more patients were waiting for treatment at the capitals 34 NHS hospitals than one year previous.
In October 2013, the median wait time in Englands NHS for hospital inpatientspatients sick enough to require hospital admissionwas a staggering 9 weeks to begin treatment, a full 2 months after doctor diagnosis and referral. For outpatients, median waits were also markedly higher in October 2013 than a year earlier. Paul Smith, a senior research analyst at the Nuffield Trust health think tank, said to the Guardian "this is hardly surprising. Waiting times are a good barometer of the general health of the NHS.
In its characteristic mode to allow itself significant latitude to meet its own targets, the NHS years ago cynically set a goal specifically for cancer patients. They specified that 85% of patients should wait no more than a maximum of 62 days to begin their first definitive treatment following an urgent referral for suspected cancer from their GP. Yet, in Quarter 4 of 2012-13, according to NHS Englands National Statistics, 19.4% of lung cancer patients, 22.2% of colon cancer patients, and 17.4% of urological cancer patients were not treated within two months after urgent referral. The Welsh government also reported their NHS is still failing to treat 8 to 13% of the most urgent cancer cases within 62 days. Indeed, in the newest data from Cancer NHS England released just days ago, for those referred for urgent treatment after being diagnosed with suspected cancer, that low expectation target time was breached by assessing all cancer patients. More than 15% of patients waited more than 62 daystwo full monthsto begin their first definitive treatment following an urgent referral for suspected cancer from their GP. Perhaps it should be no surprise that the UK has far worse cancer survival rates than the US.
Of course, that only applies to people that are using the NHS exclusively.
You are still free to purchase health insurance to go into the private system...just like the US.
Of course, that only applies to people that are using the NHS exclusively.
You are still free to purchase health insurance to go into the private system...just like the US.
In other words, government run insurance sucks, yet you still support it because you can't think of a reason to defy the government.
Of course, that only applies to people that are using the NHS exclusively.
You are still free to purchase health insurance to go into the private system...just like the US.
In other words, government run insurance sucks, yet you still support it because you can't think of a reason to defy the government.
