bridge too far

I'll give you a nailed-on example of the injustice of private healthcare. Many years ago, when I had two children under 6, I needed an orthopaedic operation. I waited months and months for this, in a great deal of pain mainly because in those days the waiting lists were horrendous. Eventually the great day dawned and I had my op. When I came round from the GA, I got chatting to the woman in the next bed to me. She'd had exactly the same procedure as me. When I said how long I'd had to wait for the op and how difficult it had been to cope with two small children when in pain she told me she'd seen the consultant privately THE WEEK BEFORE and had the op the next week!!!!! JFP and his ilk will say 'and why not, she could afford it'. But healthcare shouldn't be about affordability for the individual, it should be about need. I don't know that my NEED was greater than hers or vice versa but my need was not so worthless that it could be shunted onto an 18 month waiting list whilst her need could be addressed with cash within days. What was even more galling was that her consultation was private but her consultant 'bumped' her up the NHS queue, and she didn't have to pay for the operation. She readily admitted this without an iota of conscience.

I'll give you a nailed-on example of the injustice of private healthcare. Many years ago, when I had two children under 6, I needed an orthopaedic operation. I waited months and months for this, in a great deal of pain mainly because in those days the waiting lists were horrendous. Eventually the great day dawned and I had my op. When I came round from the GA, I got chatting to the woman in the next bed to me. She'd had exactly the same procedure as me. When I said how long I'd had to wait for the op and how difficult it had been to cope with two small children when in pain she told me she'd seen the consultant privately THE WEEK BEFORE and had the op the next week!!!!! JFP and his ilk will say 'and why not, she could afford it'. But healthcare shouldn't be about affordability for the individual, it should be about need. I don't know that my NEED was greater than hers or vice versa but my need was not so worthless that it could be shunted onto an 18 month waiting list whilst her need could be addressed with cash within days. What was even more galling was that her consultation was private but her consultant 'bumped' her up the NHS queue, and she didn't have to pay for the operation. She readily admitted this without an iota of conscience.

Your supply of ******-speak is inexhaustable, isn't it Having 'money' or private healthcare doesn't necessarily mean you can get the treatment you need. My mother has to have leukaemia tablets that cost £30,000 a year - there aren't many people that could afford that and they certainly wouldn't get that covered with private healthcare plans. Why should I have been grateful for 'being removed from the list where poorer and less fortunate people were waiting'? I was no better than they were or more in need than they were? My socialist principles lead me to believe that we all come into this world equal and should therefore have equal chances in life backed up by free (at the point of delivery) healthcare and education. It's a principle I'm proud of because I've never been a 'me first sod the rest of you' person. Apart from this one instance that I had no control over, I have never paid for private healthcare that could be provided by the NHS, and I never, for one moment, considered sending my children into private education even though I probably could have managed to do so. But hey - that's my view. I don't care if you see it differently. That's your perogative.

Your supply of ******-speak is inexhaustable, isn't it Having 'money' or private healthcare doesn't necessarily mean you can get the treatment you need. My mother has to have leukaemia tablets that cost £30,000 a year - there aren't many people that could afford that and they certainly wouldn't get that covered with private healthcare plans. Why should I have been grateful for 'being removed from the list where poorer and less fortunate people were waiting'? I was no better than they were or more in need than they were? My socialist principles lead me to believe that we all come into this world equal and should therefore have equal chances in life backed up by free (at the point of delivery) healthcare and education. It's a principle I'm proud of because I've never been a 'me first sod the rest of you' person. Apart from this one instance that I had no control over, I have never paid for private healthcare that could be provided by the NHS, and I never, for one moment, considered sending my children into private education even though I probably could have managed to do so. But hey - that's my view. I don't care if you see it differently. That's your perogative.

However, the poor unfortunate taxpayer is sometimes unwittingly contributing to the profits of the private healthcare provider by, for example, a) allowing consultants to use NHS staff / facilities where the private healthcare is in a wing of an NHS establishment. It DOES happen - I've seen many such instances in my 20 odd years' working for the NHS. b) having to pay for mending the errors of the private healthcare provider when procedures go wrong. Unfortunately, this government seems intent on backing the private providers by allowing NHS procedures to take place in private hospitals. It has failed to take cognisance of the fact that there is a finite number of consultants, nurses, support staff (e.g. radiographers) to be spread across the private and NHS service. It has also entered into bizarre contracts with private providers to run Independent Treatment Centres where the provider is paid a fixed sum rather than an amount per procedure, leading to that provider getting money for work that hasn't been carried out. These ITCs also cherry-pick the procedures they are prepared to carry out. Leading Ophthalmologists in Oxford are complaining because comprehensive training for would-be Eye surgeons is compromised by splitting the service into easy-peasy procedures (in ITCs) and rare and complicated ones that the NHS has to deal with. For these reasons, I'm disappointed with the way this government has managed healthcare provision. However it is so so much better than it was before 1997.

However, the poor unfortunate taxpayer is sometimes unwittingly contributing to the profits of the private healthcare provider by, for example, a) allowing consultants to use NHS staff / facilities where the private healthcare is in a wing of an NHS establishment. It DOES happen - I've seen many such instances in my 20 odd years' working for the NHS. b) having to pay for mending the errors of the private healthcare provider when procedures go wrong. Unfortunately, this government seems intent on backing the private providers by allowing NHS procedures to take place in private hospitals. It has failed to take cognisance of the fact that there is a finite number of consultants, nurses, support staff (e.g. radiographers) to be spread across the private and NHS service. It has also entered into bizarre contracts with private providers to run Independent Treatment Centres where the provider is paid a fixed sum rather than an amount per procedure, leading to that provider getting money for work that hasn't been carried out. These ITCs also cherry-pick the procedures they are prepared to carry out. Leading Ophthalmologists in Oxford are complaining because comprehensive training for would-be Eye surgeons is compromised by splitting the service into easy-peasy procedures (in ITCs) and rare and complicated ones that the NHS has to deal with. For these reasons, I'm disappointed with the way this government has managed healthcare provision. However it is so so much better than it was before 1997.

Yes, against my socialist principles. Principles that my (then) husband didn't aspire to. He was the one who arranged my hospital treatment upon my return from Austria. The NHS couldn't treat me as an emergency as my accident had happened more than 48 hours beforehand. Therefore, as I said, I had no control over my treatment. It was the only time in my life that I have ever used private healthcare and I will never use it again.

Not wishing to generalise, but having lived in a garrison town at one time, I know that some armed forces personnel are well up for a fight. I hope he recovers quickly and completely.

Oh - errr - Happy UnBirthday for last Sunday then

What makes you think you'll get it treated any better or quicker by going privately? When I did my ACL and median ligaments in (abroad, skiing) I had private treatment (against my principles I might add but I wasn't really in a position to argue). The 'private' consultant was the same one who did an NHS arthroscopy of my (other) knee a couple of years before and who knew me. My 'private' physio ran out before the physio treatment was complete. I had to go back on a waiting list for NHS physio treatment and I'm sure this delayed my recovery. In those days (early 90s) NHS orthopaedic lists were horrendously long. They're not these days. And remember if your private op goes wrong, the NHS will mend the mistake anyway.

I'll leave WC and Trousers (wonderful juxtaposition) to their post-coital government hate-in......

I wonder why they make such a thing about his being a soldier? I'm sorry that he has been hurt but I don't feel MORE sorry just because he's a soldier.

Russell Brand, Angelina Jolie, Dr Ruth Westheimer (the sex therapist ), Dennis Weaver, Rosalind Russell, Noah Wylie.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7917175.stm Doubt it somehow

Screwing the opposition and hammering the ball into the net :smt102

Well, Leicester are 1 up already and apparently on a record-beating run

Looking in the mirror again, hun?

People who stereotype people.

He didn't punish the weak He said that IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM the strong survive at the expense of the weak. Unless, of course, you are suggesting that we are merely animals? I can believe that of some.

Thanks MOG - he's my third grandchild but I WAS a child bride You're right about the giving back bit. I look after my 9 month old granddaughter once a week whilst her mother's at work. It's the best day of the week for me, but I'm quite relieved when 5.30 arrives and I can go home and relax Thanks everyone for your lovely comments. I'm one happy bunny, I can tell you.

Nor mine. But that's probably because it is an ethical bank and has quasi-socialist principles. The Co-operative Bank of course

Hi H He was born yesterday - 26th. So he's still a Pisces. I don't really believe in that bull either (although I'm a typical Gemini ) but Mr TF is a Piscean and I couldn't wish for a lovelier bloke. So if he turns out half as nice then we've got a winner

All the British people who move to Spain / France / Bulgaria etc. and don't bother to learn the language of the country to which they've moved but, rather, persist in talking to their friends in English

No, no we haven't. In truth I think my daughter and her husband will choose his name. I did suggest Matt Wayne Frannie but they weren't that keen TBH.

Ponty is the winner for me