Posted on 12/22/2010 8:19:03 PM PST by Nachum
The NHS Direct helpline is at ‘breaking point’ as parts of Britain experience the worst flu outbreak in a decade. Patients calling the service are being forced to wait up to two days before they can speak to a nurse, and managers have launched an emergency recruitment drive. GPs in the worst-affected areas are being paid up to £188 an hour to work over Christmas and help deal with soaring numbers of cases. (Snip) The latest infection rate figures show that there are now 87.1 cases per 100,000 people, up from 32.8 per 100,000 last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Oh well. I'm sure my turn will come too.
Coming to this country soon...
We will be facing this ourselves in this country. It could be next year, or it could take longer, who knows.
But I have purposed in my heart that I will do what I can to care for my family, and leave the rest to God’s hands.
Lord, have mercy on us who love and follow you. Amen.
Talking to a nurse does not seem like much help for the flue.
I always thought the “Talking Cure” had something to do with emotional problems.
/S
Original article has a pic of a fine looking British lass in bed sneezing or coughing. She looks very very hot! I’d risk catching what she has just for a couple of hours with her. Wonder how the photographer got to see her. Or was it a “posed” picture using an actress? Doesn’t look like she even has any makeup on.
Yeah but everybody is covered and gets the same quality healthcare! RIP
They don’t have walk in clinics?
I kind of thought that is where the £188 GPs would be working this weekend.
Whenever you feel a twinge in your nose, RUN for garlic ;o) that twinge is the first attack of germs - diggin foxholes, as it were, in the membranes of your nose. From here, they will spread out for an all out attack. You have a one hour window to stop them dead in your nose.
Crush a garlic clove and sniff it up each nostril, individually, several times. Do this several times more in the next couple hours. does it work? 'hard to prove a negative...as in "I didn't get...because" as apposed to "I got well, after the fact...because"
However, I haven't had a cold or the flu in 30 years. The last time I had the flu was when I foolishly got the flu shot. Lemon juice is also a great 'preventive'
Does it matter what kind of cider? Raw Cider? what’s the difference.
Isn’t “free” healthcare wonderful?
Prevent getting it by strengthening your body first, if you are in the UK and fear getting sick. Take upwards of 3000 units of vitamin D a day if you are over 35.
They (we) do. A main factor in the greatly increased workload of NHS Direct (which is a phone-in advice service) in recent weeks has been the severe winter weather. This has prevented or deterred a lot of people from going to their local General Practice surgery, as they would normally do, and trying the phone-in service instead.
The answer is more complicated than you’d think.
The private sector is delivering a slightly faster registration (they do want the money!), but at the moment it suffers from the exact same capacity issues as the NHS when it comes to actual treatment by virtue of it sharing premises and staff with the NHS in a lot of places.
I think if the NHS was being comprehensively spanked by the private sector in terms of waiting times, AND it delivered a superior service all round, AND you knew you’d get a much better room with a view, then people would be more inclined to adopt a more Americanised model.
Currently, the private sector isn’t that well-developed so you are effectively paying more for the same service if you go private.
At the moment, your “choice” is, wait 7 days for a bunion op in the private sector or 8 days for the NHS to do it. Chances are, whichever option you plump for, it’ll be the same doctor in the same room using the same drugs and equipment.
Frankly, most people take the line that it’s not a substantially greater hardship to wait 8 days, than to wait for 7. If the private sector said “we can do it the same day” then more people would go private, but obviously it doesn’t have the capacity to make that offer.
On the same basis, a flu epidemic in the UK means the private sector can’t really cope much better than the NHS. Same nurses, same doctors, same number of treatment rooms, same opening hours, same number of sick people. Doesn’t matter if one’s paying to go private or all are paying to go private if the beds are all full.
After moving to a new county in the UK, it took me six months to get myself registered with a PRIVATE dental clinic due to oversubscriptions.
I had had stage one of a root canal completed but then had to wait for nearly two weeks for an available space for an appointment to get the next bit of it done.
It was three more weeks before they could confirm a third appointment time to finish the job, and I’ve had to book the follow-up for JUNE to stand any chance of actually getting an hour of the dentists’ time.
I could’ve gone to a clinic that doesn’t serve the NHS at all, and had the whole thing done a bit quicker, but it would’ve meant seeing the price of my root canal going up TENFOLD.
And I’m not joking. Here’s a comparison between Genix (private but shares premises with the NHS), the NHS itself, and fully private clinics in the area:
http://www.genixhealthcare.com/5/38/nhs
That’s the difference between the UK and America right now, and it is the problem you will have if Obamacare gets established.
Services that compete against Obamacare won’t be much more responsive, and the price of services that deliver prompt high quality service will go through the roof.
Coming to the US very soon.
People don't like the cloudy look. They want the pretty clear cider - looks over nutrition - donja know.
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