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Admin
It is indeed, quite sick. Hospitals, and the whole healthcare system here in the UK, are rapidly heading in a US direction, despite opposition from nearly everyone except the people making the decisions.
But then, its not like these people have any thing to gain, or ulterior motives, right? Not like they might all have investments in the UK's new healthcare vultures? Of course, not...
http://socialinvestigations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/nhs-privatisation-compilation-of.html?m=1
Admin
Just to clarify. The discussing pink and yellow thing is NOT the TV set. It is the card dispensing machine from which you buy the card which might, if you are lucky, allow you to use the white, wall-attached, swing-arm TV / phone unit on the wall behind your bed.
That said, the actual wall unit is NOT easy for many elderly or impaired users, as I have witnessed. I've seen many visitors trying to sort these out for patients. I can imagine how bad it must be for the nurses.
Last time I had to get one of these cards for someone the dispensing machine was some 400-500 metres from the ward; assuming you knew where to look and didn't spend 30 minutes wondering all over the hospital.
The worse thing - putting aside profiteering vultures feeding on the sick - is that when you pay £10 for 24 hours, you are actually paying from the time you activate the card until 24 hours later - NOT for 24 hours actual viewing. A lot of people don't seem to realise this when buying them.
This is one small piece of how the whole healthcare system in the UK is being - without any democratic mandate* - forced towards a US model. But then this is one of those hard, but necessary political decisions, which just need to be made sometimes, right? After all, we all know that a market-based system has GOT to work better?
Accept that the UK had one of the world's best healthcare systems on nearly any quantitative measure. And it was one of the most efficient too. New Labour attacked it from any angle they could, seeking not to improve the outcomes but to find market in-roads**. The Tories have done the same, but accelerated the process. As a result the system is steadily getting worse as healthcare profiteers cream off the quick and easy work, dumping the hard and risky back on to the NHS.
But then it is not like any of those making the decision had vested interests. Oh, hold on...
http://socialinvestigations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/nhs-privatisation-compilation-of.html?m=1
Markets are a tool, not a religion. They work where they work and they don't where they don't. Most of the time, in healthcare, they don't.
(It should be noted that Hospedia is pretty much a monopoly, with a captive audience, by the way.)
** 'find market in-roads' - You can't have growth if there is no significant direction in which the market can grow. Solution: plunder the public sector and turn that into a market too. The logic of this is quite frightening since it doesn't matter whether the outcomes are good or bad; the market, and growth, demand it.
Admin
"Pretty much any country with socialized medicine requires you to pay for TV and phone service."
Mad, isn't it? We should see the light and charge for healthcare - and throw in the TV as a sweetener.
Admin
"Go figure if it's better to have modern efficient hospitals on those terms, or put up with often Victorian premises woefully unsuited to modern hospital practices?"
There was deep profiteering even in this. Many of the 'woefully unsuited' buildings where not terrible, just dilapidated. (The Victorians built things to last - except Empires.)
In many cases private corporations proposed building brand new hospitals, out of town, sometimes consolidating more than one hospital. There is, after all, much more profit in building a whole new hospital for 10s of millions, than refitting an existing one. These new hospitals were often built under PPI/PFI - which means the companies built them and rented them back to the NHS. In some cases, I recall, they were also given the land of the old hospital (usually prime real estate) as part of the deal. When the lease runs out, often as soon a 25 years, the land on which these new hospitals are built reverts to the company.
Most of these new hospitals could have been built multiple times over under direct government funding - and would have remained public property, as a result. PPI/PFI is a collusive corporate/government scam, and not restricted to hospitals, either.
It is worth noting that, under the 'revolving door' system of government that evolved under Tony Blair, many of the people profiteering were the same people making the decisions (as they bounced back and forward from their government positions to their private ones).
It is not like these new hospitals are perfect, either. Not even close. Just one example. A basic requirement was to be able to do a rapid 180 degrees with a standard-sized wheeled hospital bed. Some of the corridors in the new hospitals were too narrow; you had to go one to the next junction and turn around.
Admin
"The doctor or hospital charges a fee for the doctor to write a prescription. That's in addition to the fee for the consultation, treatment by the doctor, and whatever else."
Not in the UK. You don't pay your GP for the prescription here - you don't pay them at all (your taxes do).
You DO pay for the medication at the chemist. Unless you are under 16, or an OAP (I believe) [OAP = Old Age Pensioner), or unemployed. Or exempt for other reasons. You only pay if you are an employed adult of working age. You pay a (more or less) fixed amount - it doesn't matter what the actual medication is (or the dose/amount).
You don't pay at all for medication, treatment or equipment used when you are staying in a (state) hospital.
Admin
Yes, but at least you don't have to pay for the hospital.
Admin
that read the K-PAX script?
CAPTCHA: capio. wow! anothe movie efeence! Leonado diCapio!
Admin
So, you actually have to pay to watch tv in hospital? What 3rd world hell-hole was this?
Admin
The kind of 3rd world hell hole where you don't have to pay for being in the hospital. Just for watching telly.
Admin
But they're still free...
Admin
well, i live in a "3rd world hell-hole", called Brazil.
free hospital, some free medicine (farmaceuticals), free TV, free internet in almost every shop...
lots of things wont work as they should, but we have our moments.
Admin
actually, scratch "farmaceuticals". i just realized it doesnt mean the same as in portuguese...
Admin
Well, right there sums up the difference between liberals and conservatives.
Liberals are proud when they create a society where you can enjoy the benefits of the work done by others without having to do any work yourself.
Conservatives say that if you want something, you should have to work for it. If society allows people to consume without producing, pretty soon no one will produce and the economy will collapse.
Liberals reply that sometimes people are unable to work, through no fault of their own. Like maybe they're disabled and can't work, or they lost a job because of economic forces beyond their control.
Conservatives reply that of course they agree that there should be provisions for such people, but that the society that liberals are creating rarely distinguishes between such hard cases and people who could work but don't want to.
Liberals reply that such statements are cruel and heartless and unfairly malign these poor people. It is an insult to claim that some poor unfortunate person might be trying to take advantage of the system.
Etc.
Admin
Ever notice that when a conservative makes a joke about a liberal dying, the liberals all scream that this is outrageous and unacceptable and may incite people to violence and they demand apologies and that the person who said it be fired, etc.
But when a liberal makes a joke about a conservative dying, this is harmless fun and insightful political commentary and, by the way, just hysterically funny.
Admin
Of course the fact that she is already dead has nothing to do with how socially acceptable the joke is, no sir.
Admin
How is this a WTF - I believe its probably called humour...
Admin
We all realize that the Google Chrome spell checkar one was on purpose, right?
Admin
I'll concede that one.
Actually people are very sloppy about this in practice. People often say "200% faster" when they mean "200% as fast".
Admin
You think that makes a difference? That if the day before someone dies you say, "I hope that scum Mr Jones dies soon", that that would be morally reprehensible. But if the day after he dies you say, "I'm glad that scum Mr Jones is dead", that that is perfectly okay? I don't see the ethical distinction.
Admin
While that Chrome one may be a joke it looks grossly unprofessional.
Admin
It boggles my mind that even though multiple people have already mentioned it, the image of Google Chrome is still there.
It is obviously a joke. Anyone with half a brain can see that.
Unfortunately, it seems that The Daily WTF doesn't even have half a brain.
Admin
Admin
someone's got to pay for the tv license
Admin
Well, you do have to remember that you might have to pay to watch TV but at least you don't have to pay the thousands of pounds that your treatment may cost.