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The problem is that you have to go through a GP first, which has a budget and tends to be very conservative. Many GPS will try some silly experiments for months
by mmarq 5y ago
The problem is that you have to go through a GP first, which has a budget and tends to be very conservative. Many GPS will try some silly experiments for months before writing a referral. But once you get a referral it’s reasonably quick. Many companies now offer health insurance with private GPs, which tend to be less unreasonable re: referrals.
Said that it is much worse than Germany or France. To this day I don’t understand the British obsession for a healthcare system that would be acceptable in a middle income country (say Russia or Mexico), but that’s clearly not what you’d expect in a developed country.
- nivenkos 5y agoIt's a pretty similar system in Germany and Sweden at least though (I haven't lived in France). I moved from the UK to Germany right when I had to have surgery and the wait time was identical (scans were much quicker though as I lived right next to a student hospital).
- mmarq 5y agoIt isn’t similar. As you mentioned, it’s much quicker to get a scan in Germany (or Italy or France), which is specular to saying it’s very hard to get referred for a scan in the UK. Seeing specialists through the NHS is very hard. I’m giving you some examples from my past year: - in the UK women deliver babies without being visited by a gynaecologist a single time, my partner had to pay for that. - The NHS don’t provide paediatricians. We have to go to a private doctor. - Getting a referral for an allergologist was taking ages, we had to take the baby to a private doctor. All this cost in excess of 5000£. My insurance paid or will pay back that money, so it’s not a problem for me, but not everybody is insured here. I would have spent 0€ in Germany or France for the same level of service.