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Private healthcare here (the UK) is subsidised by the NHS, so it’s not a fair comparison. Swiss private healthcare might be closer.

by mprev 7y ago

lordnacho 7y ago
I've used the Swiss system as well as the NHS and private UK systems. The Swiss seem to have something right. They have actual competition between insurers, though you are restricted to changing supplier at the annual window. Everyone is obliged to buy basic coverage from somewhere, but you can choose. And the obligatory level is fairly cheap, maybe a few hundred CHF per adult per month (kids cost fractions of an adult, basically nothing). You can then add on perks like guaranteed single rooms and such, costing as much as they can get you to pay. In return you get a service that seems magical. My colleague crashed his bike and needed stiches. He was at work in the morning only slightly later than the normal time. The time I needed the emergency room I wondered how on earth that could be room, it was empty. When my wife gave birth it was like a hotel stay, they even fed me (the father) three meals a day for the best part of a week. The NHS these days is super stressed. Everyone seems busy, the halls seem very old and crowded. If you're not bringing in a kid, be prepared to wait. And there's plenty of articles about waiting times and busy staff, which seem believable given I know some of those staff. UK private seems to work nicely if you can pay for it. I had a couple of knee operations, and everything was very comfortable. Barely even saw another patient, and there were lots of people attending to me.
- hogFeast 7y ago
  I regularly use NHS ER (not personally, fortunately) and it is a joke. The hospital local to me is notorious for fudging waiting time numbers, the longest wait I have had is 36 hours, and even when it is literally deserted it will still be 6-8 hours...I have no idea why or how (there are tons of staff, quite what they are doing is unclear). Also, I live in Scotland where the NHS has been getting more money for a while...still awful. The NHS drop massive wedges of cash on vanity projects (always over budget, usually issues because of poor project management) but never hit waiting time targets. Definitely, there is an issue with care and old people having to stay in hospital...but there is also something far deeper (my area is rural, total population of 30-40k...the NHS just dropped £75m on a ten-ward hospital...I go there four or five times a week, 75-80% of the people you see walking around are staff). I don't know what the solution is, I just know that other countries do it better and they have larger private sectors.

Private healthcare here (the UK) is subsidised by the NHS, so it’s not a fair comparison. Swiss private healthcare might be closer.

by mprev 7y ago

Private healthcare here (the UK) is subsidised by the NHS, so it’s not a fair comparison. Swiss private healthcare might be closer.

lordnacho 7y ago

I've used the Swiss system as well as the NHS and private UK systems. The Swiss seem to have something right. They have actual competition between insurers, though you are restricted to changing supplier at the annual window. Everyone is obliged to buy basic coverage from somewhere, but you can choose. And the obligatory level is fairly cheap, maybe a few hundred CHF per adult per month (kids cost fractions of an adult, basically nothing). You can then add on perks like guaranteed single rooms and such, costing as much as they can get you to pay. In return you get a service that seems magical. My colleague crashed his bike and needed stiches. He was at work in the morning only slightly later than the normal time. The time I needed the emergency room I wondered how on earth that could be room, it was empty. When my wife gave birth it was like a hotel stay, they even fed me (the father) three meals a day for the best part of a week. The NHS these days is super stressed. Everyone seems busy, the halls seem very old and crowded. If you're not bringing in a kid, be prepared to wait. And there's plenty of articles about waiting times and busy staff, which seem believable given I know some of those staff. UK private seems to work nicely if you can pay for it. I had a couple of knee operations, and everything was very comfortable. Barely even saw another patient, and there were lots of people attending to me.

hogFeast 7y ago
I regularly use NHS ER (not personally, fortunately) and it is a joke. The hospital local to me is notorious for fudging waiting time numbers, the longest wait I have had is 36 hours, and even when it is literally deserted it will still be 6-8 hours...I have no idea why or how (there are tons of staff, quite what they are doing is unclear). Also, I live in Scotland where the NHS has been getting more money for a while...still awful. The NHS drop massive wedges of cash on vanity projects (always over budget, usually issues because of poor project management) but never hit waiting time targets. Definitely, there is an issue with care and old people having to stay in hospital...but there is also something far deeper (my area is rural, total population of 30-40k...the NHS just dropped £75m on a ten-ward hospital...I go there four or five times a week, 75-80% of the people you see walking around are staff). I don't know what the solution is, I just know that other countries do it better and they have larger private sectors.