rebs

I really don't think you can extrapolate from experiences within an A&E department in what sounds like an inner city London hospital to the wider NHS.

90% of patients being foreign born would not be my sister's experience of the inpatient (not A&E) ward in a hospital in the south of England where she works. Indeed, not any of the departments in her hospital...

Middlemore

Like I say, come and see.

rebs

My sister (who I see or talk to most days) does see

Lion in Winter

So you have seen all NHS patients, then, and counted them and obtained their country of birth. Got it.

500 million comes from your assertion that 90% of those using NHS services are foreign-born.

Lion in Winter

As they say in the U.S., no kidding!

Giantaxe

The only doubts I have are related to your statistics, which are (i) not credible and (ii) not corroborated in any way.

rebs

Does that take into account that at the time of the birth of the NHS far fewer women were in the workplace?

Middlemore

Specialist services are being scaled back to fund the demand on A&E, which is a gateway into the system.
I recently had a patient with a broken neck and unstable spinal cord wait TEN DAYS for urgent surgery because London cannot afford to keep its neurosurgery units open. She spent TEN DAYS in A&E while we called specialist units all around the country, because there was nowhere to send her.
That was a longer wait that most, but often we experience delays of several days when requesting urgent specialist care.

Also, we are transferring specialist patients further and further afield, as these units close.

I also know of a major London hospital that has transferred all its outpatient care overseas to a telephone appointment system. A former neighbor of mine who has prostate cancer no longer get appointments to see a local urologist, he has to call a call center every two months for a progress report.

Like I said, its slowly imploding.

scrubbedexpat099

Never said that, was talking about one London Hospital.

I had very goof treatment in Sri Lanka, I had to pay.

Middlemore

Once again, you are most welcome to come see for yourself.

Lion in Winter

"See for yourself" does not describe data collection.

How can you possibly "see" all NHS users?

scrubbedexpat099

A point, both my Grand Parents worked.

There was the reduced NI contribution rate for women, but I think you still need to work to pay it.

Giantaxe

"foreign born" is essentially an irrelevance anyway unless a significant percentage are neither citizens nor legal residents, both categories of which are almost certainly contributing to NHS funding through general taxation.

scrubbedexpat099

Middlemore is only commenting on his or her experience, which is more extreme than mine but totally believable in some areas.

scrubbedexpat099

The Lady from Nigeria who flew in to give birth contributed to general taxation.

Not sure how anybody receiving treatment anywhere can not.