...come on. Muscle damage repairs may be iffy, but still free for us Brits and visitors. Be reckless, enjoy.
I am about to go to the States shortly and buy just about every insurance product I can. Not that I want to, I believe in the way of life there.
Well ok the broken bones happened when i was at school, so yes they can be classed as free.
How ever the muscle damage was caused by a car acident caused by a stolen car, and as the it was caught on Police CCTV proved there was nothing i could do to avoid the impact. At the time i had been paying NI for 9years, (so hardly free) as i hadnt been out of work since leaving school. I saw a NHS physio pretty quickily within a week which was impressive, but was only a 10minute appointment, she knew striaght away that i needed a MRI scan. She recommended rest and new appointment that was 1month later, no knews on seeing a consultant or MRI, so she took a best guess and recomended some excerises, and another appointment happened 4 times.
Eventually saw a consultant after about 9months, who recomended a MRI after being of work for 10months work paid for a MRI, was done witihin a week. (the NHS waiting list was anothe 9months!) The results where pretty bad, worse then what was expected, problem now being after 10months of healing and following the excersises wrongly, as the shoulder would never be able to do them right due to the damage, and physio sessions that where too short for her to notice i was 'teating'. To open the shoulder up and perform the op that would have had,had a 95+% chance of a complete recovery, now garentees to leave a 10+% lose of strength to what i now have in it, which is actually already 15% weaker then the good side. Work did give me some intense physio after the MRI that got me fit enough to go back to work 11months after the acident. But now i take medication everyday, have regurlar physio, at expense out of my own pocket just so i can continue to do the sports i want, as although i can be classed as disabled the NHS dont rank it high enough to treat it to the level i want to lead my life style. But at some point i will need a complete shoulder rebuild as a result.
In this case if i had private medical the MRI would have been carried out within 2 weeks, and operated on within 3months, total time of work 6months, for an expected 95+% recovery. If i had of gone though with the NHS MRI, it would have been 2 years (if i had been off work another month i would have been bantrupt, still paying for that period of time off work, and that was 7years ago!)
From personal experience...
It depends on the area you live in and the Trust that you are under...NHS is no longer "National", as in, you get the same treatment and service in every hospital in every city because you do not!!!
I have been waiting for a Kidney Op now for almost 4.5 years and again it has been cancelled!!
The NHS and their wonderful consultants, etc, etc should realise that they cannot muck up peoples lives as they wish for stupid excuses such as this Dr is not available or their is no Anaesthetist available! Year in and year out my condition gets worse and as such I have lost my job through ill health and just recently my house! So from my point of view the NHS sucks!
And yes whilst I was working I had Private Medical Insurance BUT it was the same team of Doctors going to do my Op and yet again it was cancelled twice due to similar reasons!
So I am still on their wondeful waiting lists....
Simular story with my Dad, 7 years for verciuos (SP) vains, 4 years for Kidney stones treatment they eventaual found the cause for them and he passed them naturually before the op. My Mum has had simualar wating times and delays for a condition that has now become much more worse, and if left untreated could kill her, is now being sorted.
Both my Mun and Dad have worked all there life, but could not afford private heath care that would have had sorted most of those conditions within months.
Like i say in my personal experiances the NHS emergancy treatment is second to none, if your die-ing then its pretty ace, but for anything else well, quality of life doesnt come into too it.
Well said. Too often people don't think asbout or choose to forget about the non A&E or non surgical services that the NHS provides. My Father in law had Alzheimers, and was in and out a lot in the later stahes. The nurses were absolutely fantastic, not only in their care of him, but in the support they provided for my wife and her mother. The home care, the equipment provided to make his home life (and that of his carers) easier was all provided by the NHS, and again, can't fault it. 
