This is a post about the #NHS - I’ll get there
So like my dad before me, I developed a double hernia last year - I’m 54. Common, inherited, annoying but not catastrophic. Referral to a consultant confirmed so 1 year waiting list. I do have private health care thru work - but I refuse to use it. Same docs in same theatre could do it next week. But it would be straight up queue jumping. Everyone else would get done later as a direct result. So no.
1/n
It’s got quite a lot worse recently and was having a big impact on the day to day. So… I am a fully paid up participant in the Swiss health care system. It’s a legal requirement for residents and I have had work-related residence for 7.5 years. Have never used it.
As this is truly universal though - the Stadt pays your premiums if you can’t - I tried it.
A week ago I saw a doc (I had to find one - then they do the admin with the insurance co). Today he operated at a clinic in Basel.
2/n
I had to fly and - thanks BA - spent an unplanned night at Heathrow with a missed connection. Instead of surgery at 9am they said get here as fast as I can and they’d slot me in. Arriving at midday they did just that.
It is completely shocking: the staff aren’t stressed. There are lots of them. Super friendly. Room shared with one other (I have the cheapest insurance plan you can get which just means…I share a room. Well it would be a ward with 20 others at home so…fine).
3/n
Surgery itself was robotic keyhole - I literally cannot see any of 3 wounds (glue nut stitches) which means pretty much no pain (a couple of brufen 5 hours ago- that’s it).
I could go home no problem but as it was a general anaesthetic they want me here till Sunday. No concept of bed blocking.
So why am I telling this story? Because this is a political choice.
And so is the nightmare of the #NHS. The stressed staff. The poor facilities. The rush to unblock beds. The appalling pay.
4/n
The worse out comes. Etc etc.
I’m an accountant (somewhere in the opaque mists of history) and I can say definitively that when our politicians say we cannot afford better care or that the #NHS is full of waste, that’s just not true. It’s a question of priorities.
We’ve got used to waiting lists (and their attendant additional pain and suffering). To quite poor care. To no ambulances even for risk of immediate death.
The likes of Alan Milburn and Tony B did this deliberately.
5/n
And we need to reset our expectations. The treatment I’m getting right now is absolutely possible as a universal benefit. But the stupidity of hard right wing economics means that most do not know this and believe the lies.
In the UK voting anything but Green means accepting the lies.
We can and must do better
@JimmyB I am so happy to hear a good story. Speedy recovery!
People often complain about the details of the Swiss system. I complain as well and I feel the reasons are good but they are all related to money, not the medical care itself.
@JimmyB
very glad you're ok and that you've been so well looked-after. i hope the recovery is swift (and your flight home safe).
and yes. to all of that. in so many countries. i hope the future can be better, somehow. (and in the UK, i hope the powers that be don't succeed in their mission to destroy the greens over the next 3yrs)
take care and rest well. may the food be edible!
@moonrabbit thank you! We have to hold onto the reality that radically better is possible and just stop compromising by voting for shit / least worst politicians.
The food is amazing! Having been nil-by-mouth was starving when I came round d so they brought me a lovely salad and a spinach crepe. Happy days…
@JimmyB the lesser evil is still evil ...
we can but hope things get bad enough that people realise that. which is not what i mean. but also, you know what i mean.
and hooray! but tasty *and* healthy?? don't die of shock from the surprise of it! 😂
@moonrabbit yes - it really is still evil! Andy Burnham might not be as evil as Starmer, Boris or Badenoch. But - Mia told me (I didn’t know) - he’s full Friends of Israel. And has committed to Reeves sick austerity economics. So still quite evil.
And yes: it’s the amazing contrast between the two systems which gives me perspective. Great, nutritious, tasty food - in hospital????
@JimmyB
yeah what's going on with labour rn is ... to be expected, i suppose. burnham's no better than any of them, imo: if he were, they'd never let him run! sigh. such a mess.
it's almost like the swiss hospital wants you to be well! 🤯
@moonrabbit I know right! Actual care aimed at making patients get better!
The tragedy is that NHS staff are desperate to do a good job but are actively prevented from doing so.
@JimmyB such a mess, all of it. well maybe not there! but in the UK. and here, certainly.
things *have to* change.
@JimmyB and not just blame it all on the people who are struggling just as much as they are.
and somehow getting people to look at where the problems actually are instead of over there! seems very difficult ...
my fear is that the far right (farther than labour/whatever passes for a gov't here) have to get in and be shit for people to realise. but then that's literally happened in the US and people are still supporting them, so idk.
i really don't know.
@markhburton agree. My son had a bone marrow transplant aged 2 years - now 24. Didn’t die. Excellent care and all free to us.
On the other hand my Dad died of starvation on a ward at Banbury’s Horton General 2.5 years ago because ward manager refused to meet us and ward staff didn’t think that his failure to eat or drink the stuff they dumped at the end if his bed might be because he was largely blind and deaf so needed help. Just took it away again. He died of ‘malnutrition’.
@markhburton yes - the care can, despite the catastrophic funding issues, still be good.
I’d say the staff stress levels are ALWAYS higher though. And indeed: that variation in care is unconscionable.
A big turning point I think was when Jeremy Hunt changed the rules in 2012 from a) health care should be excellent in the NHS to adequate (obvs he wouldn’t take that for himself - guaranteed) and b) the Sec of State is no longer personally accountable.
Fucker…
@markhburton thought it was Hunt but they’re all the same capitalist ghoul eventually!
I’ve got several Dr mates in the NHS and they really do not love it, and all note the decline in standards (directly related to funding) over their careers
@JimmyB hello, I am stressed staff. 
Sent you a DM. Really happy you got yours done! 
If you haven't already let the NHS booking team know you have had it done!
I wish you the best for your recovery! Thank you for thinking about yourself, others and even the staff. That's really kind of you. Things are hard with the NHS. We are really trying and thanks for taking that into account.
More money to fund more schedulers, more surgeons, more theatres, more theatre staff, more nurses and more flexibility with scheduling. It can be hard to find people who want to come in at certain times of the year and I wish there was a better way of finding when people are available. Like a calendar that patients can submit their availability or something but with thousands of patients it would be crazy. We have a great app for patients but I think it needs some work on the scheduling part. If we could see people's availability it would help a lot but it seems to not be a possibility so for now we have to try and ring, text and try to get though to people that way.
P.S I love the robots we have they're so impressive and the surgeons do a great job with them. :D 
@LevelUp the scheduling thing just sounds again like a resourcing problem: absolutely fixable if we chose to do so!
And my Speech Therapist missus will not let me sit on a waiting list for a second once I’m home on Monday. They are her waking and sleeping companions 😃
JimmyB (he/him)
Mark Pospesel 
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Alex Schroeder
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Mark Burton
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