Record numbers of Britons are flying abroad for essential medical treatment, in order to avoid long NHS waiting lists and the rising threat of deadly hospital superbugs.

 

Patients needing vital surgery are travelling as far as India and Malaysia, where operations cost half the price charged in Britain’s private hospitals.

 

Over 70,000 will go abroad for surgery this year, including major heart surgery and hip operations, and this number is set to rise to almost 200,000 in just three years, if current trends continue.

 

According to shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, "this is a terrible indictment of this Government, which has turned the NHS into a nationalised bureaucracy, instead of something that is able to focus on what patients want."

 

 

Source: Sunday Telegraph

 

I've always found waiting lists etc quite okay here - but thankfully I've never had to have anything big done, so maybe I'm not that well informed.

 

It's the day to day stuff that gets to me - going to the GP takes ages, and I went to A&E last night, and it took them 3 1/2 hours to do me an x-ray and decide all they could do for me was tape one broken toe to another! I know that's all you can medically really do, but why did it take them nearly 4 hours to get round to me?

 

It's like travel in the UK - I think getting around the whole country is relatively easy & cheap, but local travel is a nightmare to get anywhere fast, with the exception of London.

According to shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, "this is a terrible indictment of this Government, which has turned the NHS into a nationalised bureaucracy, instead of something that is able to focus on what patients want."

 

 

Source: Sunday Telegraph

 

thats abit rich coming from a tory! the rot set in with thatcher.

thats abit rich coming from a tory! the rot set in with thatcher.

 

Spot on.. The Tories created the bureaucracy to begin with when they dreamt up the Trust system... But under Nu Labor, it certainly has not improved, quite the opposite in fact, so they certainly cannot be allowed off the hook...