Spanish health care versus NHS.......No contest

WT

Most immigrants want a job, so they'll go to wherever they think they'll get the best result.

A job, and quality of medical care, are two completely different things. I think you need to stop with the immigrant bashing, because you come across as racist in many of your posts.

If one were also so inclined, they might look at your posts about contributions, and suggest you yourself are a freeloader into the UK system. But of course, its alright for you, because being British, all that matters is that you feel like you're "big and clever" for cheating the system, while casting blame at the immigrants around you...

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Eastern Europeans have mostly better service in their own countries - especially Central Europeans. The truth is the common name they use for British GP's is "Doctor Paracetamol" (as they find them useless, prescribing paracetamol for everything).
They've not come to Britain to use that service. THey do it only if they have to. The truth is they visit their private healthcare when on holidays in their country. Especially dentists, who are cheaper, quicker and on high level in countries like Poland or Hungary.
They also opened their own clinics in the UK - used by Brits too.

And by the way, they contribute to the system more than locals... non mentioning Thirs World immigrants. Which is known, but not publicisied too often, as quite inconvenient for tabloids propaganda...

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Because the other EU countries actually follow the rules laid down by the EU and UK doesn't? 

It's not "uncontrolled". The freedom of movement within the EU is for 3 months only. If you want to stay after that you have to follow the EU rules on residency except in UK where you are resident simply by giving the address of a friend.

I wonder who you are going to blame once the UK has left the EU? No more convenient "a big boy did it and ran away". 

The politicians and parliament in particular are going to have to start thinking up some other excuse.

WT

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This message was last edited by windtalker on 15/07/2017.

windtalker

.Mariedave what are you on about we have no border control in the UK people from the EU are free to come to the UK with no criminal back ground checks and.all they have to do is prove that they have lived in the UK for 3 months by registering at a friends address in the UK 

Thank you for agreeing with me even if you asked what am I on about. Exactly what you said but the reason is because of the UK rules, not the EU ones.

Please do not turn this into a thread on BREXIT or immigration. It is about national health so please just share your experiences of either the NHS or the Spanish health system. And do not insult any members,

Thank you

I am currently using the NHS in the UK.

My appointments are very quick, I have direct numbers and e mails for the clinicians, the place of my treatment is both a teaching hospital and a clinical trials laboratory.   

If I need treatment, scans, meetings etc I can arrange these immediately and have appointments fitted to suit my own condition.   Waiting lists have never ever been any issue for me, they simply don't exist in my world here.

of course if you want to live in or around London, then thanks for helping me out.

I see occasionally some news feeds on here, blogs etc. Which claim the ground breaking steps taken in Spain.  The truth is, these are happening all over the clinical world where research is properly funded and information is correctly shared, as in larger European countries and the USA.

when one country knows about it, the others do too, as it should be.   If Spain have a greater amount of money to spend per head on their health, it's either because they have more revenue from their productivity, their people pay a large amount in taxation or there is not so much strain on their health budget.

perhaps pop along to their a and e departments outside the holiday resorts and take a look at the amount of footfall?  Then report back.  

I called into a Spanish medical centre with some friends who had an appointment, very curious due to what I had heard about the system, her appointment was for 2pm, the waiting room area was spotless, her doctor came out at 2pm on the dot to call her in, 30 minutes later came out which seemed a decent consultation,  all the doctors had clean medical uniforms on, another person had big problems and needed a brain operation he nearly fell over when the doctor told him we cant do it today how about this Thursday.

In contrast in the UK one customer has water on the knee, they wont drain it anymore as it's been said thats worse, so they left her standing for over an hour because there were no seats empty just to tell her this, another person had an MRI scan done and was told to go to his clinic to get the results 3/4 days later, they didn't know anything about them and it took a couple of days to find them, my son in law went to the doctors about his broken foot to be told he's getting on very well , Mr Wells, not his name, the doctor had the wrong results in front of him, every doctor I have seen have their everyday clothes on, and some look like they have just dug the garden in them,  the list is long, now I am sure this could happen anywhere, Spain or UK, but it does seem that I hear more bad news about the UK then Spain regarding health care in both countries.

Baz, it seems the only direct experience from your posts are those of a family member who's doctor had the wrong results in front of them.  And the doctors are dressed like farmers.

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I rang my local GP to get an appointment (south london), and was told they had nothing free for the next 10 days.

So I went to A&E, sat in a crowded waiting room, people who came in after me were attended to before me (this is okay, because they probably had more serious issues), but it still took me about 2 hours to get in to the triage nurse.

Once in, she was great, the room was clean, she sent me to the x ray department. I got the x rays done very quickly (within about 5 minutes), then went back to the nurse, and was seen immediately.

She reviewed the x rays with me on the spot. I had no idea what I was looking at, but she took me through it patiently, which was great. I needed an appointment with a specialist, and this is where it got painful. Lots of phone calls, being redirected, she was apologising to me because there have been cuts, and some services are no longer being provided by some surgeries, etc. I wound up getting an appointment within the same hospital, but it wasnt for another 2 weeks. Private or  public wouldnt make any difference I found out, because it was the same specialist going either way, and being seen in the same place, therefore the same waiting queue.

In the meantime,  I had to have pain management medication. Off to the on-site pharmacy, and 2 hours later, yes, thats right, I had my meds. This was because there was no prescription offered, it was just an internal script, whatever that is.

Had I known that, I would have asked for a proper prescription, and would have gone to an external pharmacy. The medication wasnt anything that I hadnt had before (diclofenac or similar inflammation reduction medication).

My overall impressions are that the people are lovely and really want to help as best they can, but they are struggling under a lack of resources.

I only have an experience overseas from about 10 years ago, which may or may not be relevant, but was better than this recent experience at my local hospital.

Baz, it seems the only direct experience from your posts are those of a family member who's doctor had the wrong results in front of them.  And the doctors are dressed like farmers.

The Spanish medical centre where you all went to visit with a friend, who had a 30 minute consultation which sounds reasonable.  And a brain operation can't be done today, how about Thursday, is this ok for you.

i have to say I don't believe you, and I'm genuinely laughing out loud as I read it.

when you enter a clinicians surgery or office to discuss progress the first thing they do is ask your name, date of birth and first line of your address.  They check the information in front of them and only then discuss any results.

i think you booked an appointment with the local vets by mistake baz.   Like the moderator said, share your experiences, (maybe not your fantasies or the daily mail stories).  

Yes my direct experience was from my son in law who had a broken foot, this same doctor in our local clinic had been treating him after the hospital had done their bit, he went in, sat down and the rest you know, the doctors were dressed in everyday scruffy clothes, the chemist opposite which a very good friend owns the staff wear clean uniforms everyday, go figure...Which as you know is false.

The chap who had a brain tumour I was with one Christmas time, met in the bar,  courteously asked him and not knowing anything about his illness before hand, 'Hi Ronnie hows things' he then told me exactly what I posted which was a total shock as to how he described it and how it happened, he was a X high ranking Police Officer, of course known to tell lies...And as you also know completely false.

I truly believe you when you say that you don't believe me, I feel the same about you....Which as you know is a false statement.

I had cause to go to my local clinic a while ago due to when I was in the military I was wounded in the leg, I booked in at the desk, name / date of birth, no address asked, called me in, sat down, the doctor then asked me 'What can I do for you then' I briefly went to explain and he cut me short and asked me if I was still taking the tablets..'What tablets' I asked' the ones I prescribed some weeks ago...'Never had any' he looked back up to his computer and mentioned my name, at that point i got up and walked out...Wrong name, wrong patient, wrong complaint.....And as you know completely false.

I didn't book in with our local vets, I have no animals that need vets care, the vets I do know is cleaner though, so now you have got MY experiences, I don't deal in fantasies, the Daily Mail is just another newspaper which you can believe or not, please don't tell me you read the Guardian paper, the one thats on the point of collapse and asking it's readers to bail it out monthly.

It's been noted by some on here that this forum has lost its edge of late, sadly to say with idiotic comments like yours its plain to see why......To please you this is all false.

I tried to make it light hearted Baz but you want to make it personal so it's not really something I want to be involved in.   All I can say is that the things you have said don't seem to make sense, and if they don't make sense they may be mistaken recollections.  

Im also not sure why you would hijack a comment I made to a different member, to try and score points about me about not beilieving them, that's not fair and comes over like a bully, no need for it.

Rob, I was wondering how serious or urgent the condition was, because local surgeries here (as it happens I had a call from my doctor around an hour ago to personally discuss something with me so I have no complaints there) keep appointments on the books open every day for urgent or needy cases.   A&E gets clogged up with people who visit for local GP reasons and who may feel they have the right to have a doctor on hand for any occurrence.   The GP's need feedback for people turned away without good reason and the A&E need to feedback to the GP's the people who are both in need, and probably not in need of urgent consultation.   That's my view anyway!    

Please keep this civil and relevant otherwise it is pointless and we will have to lock the thread. If you don't have anything contructive to post please don't get involved in the thread.

Well, now so your comments about the UK and Spain's doctors were to be taken in a light hearted manner then, that sounds pretty much like the person who has made a bit of a mess of things and at best can only come up with 'Only joking'....Afterwards, and no it's not personal so don't try that one, being the victim wont work.

You are more then welcome to elaborate on the things I mentioned about the health care in Spain and the UK if you believe them to be mistaken recollections on my part, which don't make sense, feel free please do.

I am no bully either, why should you believe someone else's comments which on the basis of them pretty much summed up his experience of UK heath problems, but mine were near to bull as you could get.

Please keep this civil and relevant otherwise it is pointless and we will have to lock the thread. If you don't have anything contructive to post please don't get involved in the thread.

I did have something constructive to say and still look what happened...And it wasn't from me.

Well OK Baz, for the record I have some questions about your post, for the reason of making this as the moderator suggested.  I'm asking these from memory of the post rather than reading back so please excuse any slightly different wording. 

The lady who visited the surgery who had a 30 minute consultation which was on time and seemed about right length of time.   Why does this seem to be the right amount of time, half an hour is a long time and it doesn't take this long to discuss something unless it's really clinically important, and if it was it will need a referral to a consultant.

The appointment being on time, how relevant is this?   How does a doctor know how long an appointment will take before meeting the patient, I have had early and late appointments due to the workloads and the visits that come up, what relevance has this?

Your friend has a brain tumour, for which he has my complete understanding and concern.   The way you said it you intimated the chap had turned up at the doctors surgery and they apologised for not operating that day, but they could do it Thursday.   A brain tumour is generally an inoperable condition unless it's by way of very recently pioneered equipment recently produced here in Yorkshire.  The thought that someone can turn up and get a diagnosis and operated on the same day made me laugh, even though it's a dark sense of humour, but only because you may have been mistaken (which is what I said).  Do you want to make any further comment on that one?

You mentioned you went to the doctor and he or she had the wrong notes and asked if you were still taking the tablets.   My answer to the doctor would be can you please check your notes and make sure we have the right information, but instead you walked out of the room.   Why would you do that when you require treatment?