Britain is lagging in international league tables for cancer survival, largely because so many cases are spotted so late.
As a result of Covid we’ve had estimates of increased mortality from delays in treatment. From memory, a month’s delay in treating (fill in forgotten name of cancer here) increase mortality by 9% or summat.
Hmm, OK. The NHS promise – not one that’s met – says your cancer should *start* being treated within 60 days.
It is actually vaguely possible that the reason the UK has bad cancer results is because the NHS is shit at treating cancer. On the grounds that Stalinist bureaucracies never do anything quickly.
One key reason the NHS spots cancer late is because it isn’t an insurance-based system; in an IBS there’s a definite incentive to catch stuff early and reduce costs, whereas in the NHS there is no such pressure
Now it being a long time since I had private health insurance in the UK. When I realised that the same useless butchers that operate in NHS hospitals also do the private sector, I never bothered again. The only advantage seemed to be a telly in the room. However, my missus was refused BUPA insurance, because she admitted to having regular smear tests in Austria. These were mandated by her Austrian health insurer. This was in the 90s, so I am sure that these companies have extracted their heads out of their arses since.
Ironically she died of breast cancer in Austria. They spotted it early enough, but it was an ultra aggressive form and there wasn’t much that they could do.
Two months ago I was diagnosed with colon cancer here in China. I began the chemotherapy within two weeks and have just finished the third round, next week I find out if they can operate. Some people were suggesting I go back to the UK for treatment…
There is no escape from the NHS, just like there is no escape from people espousing socialism. They are one and the same thing of course. It doesn’t matter how bad the NHS/socialism performs in real life, it will always be excused on the grounds that not enough resources were applied/the capitalists destroyed it.
I’m beginning to wonder if socialism is the weak spot in humanity, a sort of intellectual black hole that no society can escape once it gets to a certain point. Human selfishness being what it is, there will always be a ready market for the ‘something for nothing’ brigade to work on.
Back to the NHS, it occurs to me there is absolutely nothing that the NHS can do that would convince the faithful that it needs to go. When the thing is collapsing around them (as it is today) they will still blame it all on ‘lack of resources’. It is like the bloated medieval church, we need a Henry VIII to raze it to the ground and free the country from its grasp.
Jim
“ It is like the bloated medieval church, we need a Henry VIII to raze it to the ground and free the country from its grasp.”
That is exactly why he did it. Couldn’t possibly be because he wanted to grab the resources for himself and his cronies and sycophants? Oh no.
Harry VIII didn’t “raze it to the ground”. He remained a Catholic, just not a Roman Catholic – he was his own Pope. Still he had the sense to learn the lesson from the great Cardinal Ximenez of Spain and start dismantling monasteries. This let him indulge his appetite for extravagance on a positively NHS scale. There Is No Escape.
Dearieme
Not sure that ordering Discalced Franciscans and the other mendicant orders, none of whom possessed monasteries, to abide by their rules (he was a Discalced Franciscan himself) counts as expropriation of monastic holdings. Monies in his power tended to be spent on universities and hospitals – not converting the previous abbey, priory or grange into a pleasing domestic residence.
IMO its no coincidence that freeing England from the power the medieval church preceded the rise of the economy and power of England. We would never have become Top Nation with the Catholic Church on our backs.
I think dearieme must be mixing up Jiménez de Cisneros with the 19th century Prime Minister Mendizábal,,a curious blend of the repressive and liberal, who did indeed break up monasteries
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_%C3%81lvarez_Mendiz%C3%A1bal?wprov=sfla1
Ah, but we haven’t tried real NHS
‘Britain is lagging in international league tables’
And it is important Britain be first. In everything.