Originally Posted by
LeisureFirst
If you're having it done in the States, it will probably be done competently and I would recommend it. On the NHS, forget it.
I've had sinus surgery twice. The first time, on the U.K.'s Notional Health Service, was a succession of delay, botches, neglect, and then emergency operations (literally "you need to get this guy to theatre right NOW") to correct the mistakes. Privately done, it was the exact opposite.
I think my view on the NHS are well-known. Having known some close friends - and my mother when I was eight years old - almost die as a result of their incompetence (left on trolleys for eight hours with no care during which time their appendix burst - on two different occasions), and most recently having seen my father's health destroyed by a succession of failures (consultant's instructions that he needed certain treatment within weeks and then, due to a system lacking any proper co-ordination and ownership of responsibility, nothing done for over six months as he steadily deteriorated), I'm convinced we'd be better off if the NHS were closed down tomorrow.
Yep I live here now so i'll be having the op in Palo Alto. I've too suffered at the butcherous hands of the NHS but on the other hand they took very good care of my father when he was seriously ill recently.
Being the idealistic Brit living here in California I don't think that the UK would be better off without the NHS. At least if you don't have money or a good healthcare plan you will receive treatment appropriate to your condition.
I think the NHS experience is a postcode lottery and it sounds like you got the booby prize.
I'm sorry to hear about the crappy treatment your family and friends received at their hands. I had a recurrent stomach problem that took 2 years to get diagnosis (I was told I had everything from pneumonia to a anxiety disorder) on and I used my employer's private healthcare insurance in the UK and got to see an amazing Doctor who fixed everything in a matter of weeks.
However since moving to the US I've found the standard of medical care to be just as varying. My GP here will throw pills at me as if they were candy. Stiff neck? No problem here's some Vicodin! When I went to see the GI doctor here to get my 5 year post-op check up the colonoscopy was done in such a ham fisted fashion I had to have some minor surgery in a *very* uncomfortable place.
Doctors the world over vary, find a good one and hang on to them!