NHS
#106
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 12,851
Re: NHS
Most users of NHS services will have an NHS number. Some will not, especially those that are - legally - treated free of charge for emergencies in NHS hospitals. Some of those with NHS numbers will likely be "health tourists".
#107
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 139
Re: NHS
If you really want one,you can buy them online, I think the going rate is around £130.
Statistics I quote are from hospital data, which I have access to as a employee, but is not public domain. For the purposes of analysis, they define 'overseas' as not having been born in the UK. Currently that stands at 90% of patients. The number requesting interpreters is about the same. If I call Language line say 25 times a day, at £100 a pop, it soon adds up. That is one nurse, in one hospital, in one city.
I see that nobody responded to my earlier question regarding reciprocal arrangements. Would healthcare and interpretation services be free to me if I moved to Poland, Somalia or India?
#108
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 12,851
Re: NHS
Statistics I quote are from hospital data, which I have access to as a employee, but is not public domain. For the purposes of analysis, they define 'overseas' as not having been born in the UK. Currently that stands at 90% of patients. The number requesting interpreters is about the same. If I call Language line say 25 times a day, at £100 a pop, it soon adds up. That is one nurse, in one hospital, in one city.
Poland is in the EU so presumably there are some kinds of reciprocal arrangements. I got free treatment in India, but that was a long time ago and I don't know how legal it was.
Last edited by Giantaxe; Feb 12th 2013 at 5:08 pm.
#109
Re: NHS
Hang on here a second - are you saying that in a country of 60odd million, where the 2008 count by the National Office of Statistics showed that 11% of the population is foreign-born, that 90% of those who use the NHS are foreign born?
I'm no statistician but that can't be right.
#110
Re: NHS
When did we decide that our standards of social services and health care should be based upon what countries in a state of desperate poverty offer?
#111
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 139
Re: NHS
Hang on here a second - are you saying that in a country of 60odd million, where the 2008 count by the National Office of Statistics showed that 11% of the population is foreign-born, that 90% of those who use the NHS are foreign born?
I'm no statistician but that can't be right.
I'm no statistician but that can't be right.
As i said in a earlier post, i just spent a few weeks working back in the UK. I see anything upwards of 40 patients a day, but the number of born-in-the-UK patients I saw in those few weeks I could count on my fingers.
When you next in the UK, go and sit for a couple of hours in the A&E waiting room of your local DGH, and then let me know : )
#113
Bloody Yank
Joined: Oct 2005
Location: USA! USA!
Posts: 4,186
Re: NHS
Hang on here a second - are you saying that in a country of 60odd million, where the 2008 count by the National Office of Statistics showed that 11% of the population is foreign-born, that 90% of those who use the NHS are foreign born?
I'm no statistician but that can't be right.
I'm no statistician but that can't be right.
#114
Re: NHS
Perhaps next time you are in the UK you can spend a day with me working in A&E? Those numbers are spot on. NHS usage has always been disproportionate to the population in general.
As i said in a earlier post, i just spent a few weeks working back in the UK. I see anything upwards of 40 patients a day, but the number of born-in-the-UK patients I saw in those few weeks I could count on my fingers.
When you next in the UK, go and sit for a couple of hours in the A&E waiting room of your local DGH, and then let me know : )
As i said in a earlier post, i just spent a few weeks working back in the UK. I see anything upwards of 40 patients a day, but the number of born-in-the-UK patients I saw in those few weeks I could count on my fingers.
When you next in the UK, go and sit for a couple of hours in the A&E waiting room of your local DGH, and then let me know : )
Data is not a matter of counting on one's fingers, or guessing from impressions or people's appearance.
#116
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 12,851
Re: NHS
Perhaps next time you are in the UK you can spend a day with me working in A&E? Those numbers are spot on. NHS usage has always been disproportionate to the population in general.
As i said in a earlier post, i just spent a few weeks working back in the UK. I see anything upwards of 40 patients a day, but the number of born-in-the-UK patients I saw in those few weeks I could count on my fingers.
When you next in the UK, go and sit for a couple of hours in the A&E waiting room of your local DGH, and then let me know : )
As i said in a earlier post, i just spent a few weeks working back in the UK. I see anything upwards of 40 patients a day, but the number of born-in-the-UK patients I saw in those few weeks I could count on my fingers.
When you next in the UK, go and sit for a couple of hours in the A&E waiting room of your local DGH, and then let me know : )
the birthplace of every patient?
#118
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 139
Re: NHS
I don't know where the 500 million came from.
All I know is what I see, 90% of patients are from abroad.
You are welcome to come visit next time you are in the UK.
#120
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 139
Re: NHS
[QUOTE=Giantaxe;10540416]Firstly, the NHS consists of more than A&E. Most patient visits are to a GP or a specialist. Secondly, were you personally responsible for checking etc
the birthplace of every patient?[/QUOTE
Not me personally, the reception staff collect data.
Please come visit, i get the impression folk on here have doubts about their beloved NHS and the state it is in.
the birthplace of every patient?[/QUOTE
Not me personally, the reception staff collect data.
Please come visit, i get the impression folk on here have doubts about their beloved NHS and the state it is in.