I went to visit my 93year old grandmother today. One of her carers told her the doctor would be visiting later. She gets confused and immediately started worrying that she didn't have enough money to pay the Doctor. We reassured her but it got me thinking about the UK's system of health care.
On July the 5th 1948 the UK government introduced a system of health care that was free to all dependent only on citizenship. Care was unlimited and treatment was on diagnosis rather than financial means. The UK at that point desperately needed change as disease was rife and the poor were dependent on the charity of some doctors or worse still the workhouse. Hospital care was refunded but had to be paid upfront.
The NHS has not been without it's problem's primarily because it is chronically short of cash but 60years later it does mean that any patient regardless of age, financial status, employment etc will receive equal care on the basis of diagnosis.
I realise that worldwide there are many differences. I recently had a fantastic American patient in the UK on holiday - he had chest pains so needed, baseline assessment, chest xray, bloods, ECG and a doctor's consultation all of which as an emergency are free which he couldn't believe. On the flip side I went to India recently and although hospital care is free patients need to pay for medication and the cost of this often is prohibititive meaning that the mortality rate amongst the poor remains unacceptably high.
I would be so interested to hear of how other countries provide health care and what works about these systems and also what doesn't. Maybe we can come up with a worldwide effective system that promotes equality and inclusion :)
