On Sat, 26 Aug 2006 16:51:19 GMT, "Ophelia" wrote:

AFAIAC the BUPA waiting time for the BUPA op started at the time her
GP referred her for it. Monday to Wednesday with antibiotic cover was
perfectly acceptable, 8 weeks as per the LGI would not have been.

Has Mary told you that her husband was treated in a private hospital on the
NHS?


I deduced it from what she has posted in the past. it has been
increasingly common in Yorkshire over recent years.

I can understand the patients are happy with it, no criticism of the
patients intended whatsoever, they have already been let down. But it
only happens when the NHS has not been able to provide the treatment
they are supposed to provide within the allowed timescale (AFAIAA
currently 8 months) . IE the NHS has failed.

Oddly, given the quality of it's facilities, the NHS pubishes quite
spectacular prices for hospital nights and operations which leave run
of the mill private hospitals high and dry (It ls inconceivable that
anyone has accurately costed an operation and a private room in an NHS
hospital). Unfortunately for them the accountants come along see these
figures picked out of the air and say it's cheaper to send patients to
BUPA or Nuffield. "Horsed at their own Gambit", as we used to say in
the chess club.

However the cost of that private operation comes out of NHS funds and
means that the Trust has that much money less to spend on buildings,
staff and medicines in future. The result is the ward closures,
redundances and postcode lottery precribing we are seeing now. Of
course this means that next year the NHS will be in an even worse
position to fulfil it's obligations to it's patients, and even more
money will leave the NHS and end up in the pockets of private
providers, many of whom perform spectacularly badly and are on 25
-year "Asbestos" contracts.

BTW if you are in Scotland they get 25% more funding than English
Hospitals. Compare Ninewells (Dundee), or Aberdeen R.I. (Foresterhill)
with a crumbling WW2 dump like Pinderfields.

Anyway we are celebrating here tonight. We just got paid* for a
machine weighing half a ton we delivered to an NHS hospital on
10/11/2005 costing £21,000 which has been in very heavy daily service
ever since. It's good because we've already paid the VAT (about
£3,000) and the contractors that installed it (About £2,000).

* When I say "paid" I exagerrate a little. In fact today is the day we
got the finance dept to confirm that they had entered our invoice on
their computer. They couldn't tell us / didn't know which payment run
it would go out on. They say they do a payment run ever week. 2 weeks
ago a different individual said they do 2 per week. So we will just
have to phone the bank every day 'till it turns up. Our payroll is run
on the 15th of September therefore it is a matter of some urgency for
us.

They called us to request our bank details, which they also had done
3 weeks ago - so we gave them again. We have dealt regularly with the
hospital in question for 34 years. :-(

So, having supplied the goods, after waiting 10 months for a payment
that has not turned up we find ourselves to be in much the same
position as a patient who has paid his NI contibutions for 38 years
but finds the health authority can't come up with the treatment when
he needs it.

If Mary continues to post along the lines it's all "lovely", and the
treatment "couldn't possibly have been better", USW, USW. USW.


A son was in the Burns Unit at Pinderfields and had the very
best treatment possible. We regard it with great affection,
it saved his life.

She can expect me to challenge it.

DG