Pet hates ?

No. You are completely off base. I think ObamaCare is a disaster. It goes too far in requirments and too short in providing things. Because it now limits the amount a company can raise premiums to 30% several people I know have had their payments raised 29.9%.

Agreed. But it's how it is spent. I disagree with the whole NHS system. And no, I am not in the US. I am in Israel which has a much better system.

As for your relatives, I hope they don't have cancer. If they live in a big city such as London, there is a 95% chance they will see a specialist ONCE. In the country the chance goes down to 50% or less.

Second or recurring visits are also not as frequent, even in London.

I did not make this up, here is some historical data:

You can get current data from:

Geoff.

A pal of mine has had bowel cancer and also has prostrate cancer. Lives in London. This is quite the reverse of his experience.

Historical being the pertinent point - it's quoting data gathered over 20 years ago.

I'm not saying things can't be improved. Especially with unlimited money. But nothing is ever perfect. All one can reasonably expect is the best compromise.

Health Care

I could spend several posts discussing this. However...

The logical way to do it would be to throw out the insurance companies and tax everyone -- individuals and employers -- specifically for health care. People could then select whatever doctor or hospital they wanted (thus encouraging competition), and the government would pay the bill. There would be a deductible for both treatment and medications proportional to an individual's income.

Of course, such a system would become an open feeding trough for hospitals and physicians. (Note the amount of Medicare abuse and fraud.) The truly tough part of such a system is... How do you regulate costs? Regulation /necessarily/ includes denial of treatment (ie, rationing) when a patient is "too old", or the condition so severe that it wouldn't be worth the cost.

If the US were truly a "Christian" country, this problem wouldn't exist.

Considering that you neither reside in the UK, nor have cause to make use of the facilities of our health service, I find it a little presumptuous of you to feel that you are qualified to pass comment on its continuing viability, or otherwise. One thing that you need to understand, is that NHS-bashing is a national sport here, and articles such as that which you are quoting as being read by your wife, appear every week in the daily and Sunday press. The Readers' Digest is no more separated from this practice than any other press offerings, despite the way it tries to present itself.

As far as the content of the story goes, with the ongoing restructuring of the health service, I very much doubt that medicines are being wasted in the way described, as an 'across the board' event. For sure, somebody has probably seen this being done in some health establishment somewhere, and extrapolated this into common practice. The truth is probably much removed from that. The people 'on the ground' in the health service are ordinary folk like you and I, and I don't suppose they like to see waste in their working lives, any more than they do in their personal ones. I'm sure that if there is a way to get the remaining medicine out of the tube, the vast majority of employees are doing so. Apart from that, we don't actually know that there are not valid operational reasons why sometimes, medicines left in containers may be thrown away. There could be contamination issues, or maybe the medicine starts to deteriorate as soon as it is opened, and then has a very short ongoing shelf life. Whilst there may be some truth in this story, I think it needs to be considered with a degree of scepticism. These stories are told in a way as to be deliberately provocative and to cause outrage at supposed 'waste in the NHS'.

For the most part, the NHS delivers a first class service to patients and, whilst there are errors made - and you will always be able to find someone that has got some outrageous claim about how they or their uncle Willy or their friend down the street was badly treated - the vast majority of people are perfectly satisfied with the treatment and service that they receive, and are glad that it is there for them 24 / 7 / 365, without having to worry about who's going to pay. You must also remember that it is a huge employer - I think I recently read somewhere that it is the largest employer in the whole of Europe - and for that reason, if no other, there is going to be issues with overstaffing and waste from time to time. This is true of any large organisation, so is sure to be of a mega one like the NHS.

As to your comments about percentages of cancer patients being seen by an oncologist, I'm not sure that I follow exactly what you were trying to say there. With UK NHS patients, 100% of people will be referred to an appropriate consultant (highest level of hospital-based specialist doctor / surgeon in any particular field) if their general practitioner deems it necessary. Patients suspected of having cancer are referred immediately, and often seen within a few days. It is not unusual for treatment - either medical, nuclear, surgical or all three, to be started within a week of confirmed diagnosis.

So no. I think, as a resident of the UK, and a user of the NHS for the whole of my life, you are quite wrong, and the health service is no more 'doomed' than it has been at any time in its now quite lengthy existence. The current round of financial austerity measures that have had to be implemented by this incoming government to try to clear up the mess we are in, are sure to have some impact on a very heavy tax-spender such as the NHS, but it will certainly not be "austerity'd into nothing" as you so quaintly put it. The hospital managers will have to learn better control of their finances, as they have had to in the past. The only reason that they have forgotten how to do this now, is that the previous government was of a socialist flavour, and they thought that the way to improve everything, including the NHS, was to throw money at it. This has resulted in a top-heavy management structure, and a lot of internal waste. Once this has been addressed, the NHS will again be able to deliver cost-effective high quality care, as it has in the past.

Arfa

I'm sorry, but this is absolute nonsense, being quoted out of context, by someone who has no direct knowledge or experience of the NHS.

Arfa

I only glanced at them. The first makes reference to statistics gathered over 20 years ago. The second is a charity specialising in cancer care - so obviously has a slanted view.

There's also a lot more to a health service than treating cancer - important though that may be.

In the USA, there's a rule that bans the re-use or recycling of any hospital dispensers, containers, plates, cups, trays, and such. I think this started in about 2002. The official justification was to help control hospital infections. The reality was a rather large increase in costs, and an excuse for an increase in hospital care charges. I asked what happens to all that stuff... high temp incineration.

We also have a problem with Medicare fraud. However, it's not the patients that are doing it. It's often medical organizations, that build "paper" clinics, and fabricate fraudulent charges.

In the past, this was somewhat tolerated by the government for hospitals because they were using creative Medicare charges to fund marginal services, such as trauma care centers, non-paying indigent care, and some counseling, that would otherwise have collapsed.

Even with all the fraud, the total costs of Medicare and the impending Obamacare, is many orders of magnitude greater. With an annual cost approching trillions of dollars, a few dollars saves on squeezing all the medicine out of a tube isn't going to have much of an impact.

heat sink goop

cars with both metric and english fasteners

bristol spline srews

Could you describe a "bristol spline screw" Google-images no help other than they are used on 30KV rated relays

Bristol was used in electronic equipment build by the US during W.W.-II.

They are availible from a lot of industrial tool dealers.

A lot of people called them 'Spline Wrenches' instead of Bristol Wrenches.

In the United States, the health insurers and their media shills concoct horror stories about the various European goverment managed health care systems. The average American, most of which who haven't lived in other countries, believe the lies. Chuck

A pal's sister lives in the US - was married to a US guy. She was born in the UK and moved there when adult. Her husband walked out leaving her with vast debts which she knew nothing about - their house will have to be sold, or more likely repossessed. But their health insurance came with his job. She is very worried. At 60, she's lived most of her life in the US and doesn't want to come back to the UK as she has no friends left here.

At least in the UK you'll get pretty decent medical treatment regardless of how poor you are.

On 1/24/2011 6:38 PM Jeff Liebermann spake thus:

You were a member of that then? I'm impressed, even if you were, of course, ultimately unsuccessful. I miss the old exchange names from my childhood (Evanston, Ill.): University 4 & 9, Davis 8, Greenleaf 5.

The most quaint aspect of phone numerology I remember is from when I lived in Flagstaff. There were two old exchanges, 774 and 779. The phone system, up until the time I left (1989), was set up so you could omit the "77" and dial a 5-digit phone number; people there would tell you "call me; my number is 4-8409". That's ancient history now, of course.

Well, I was only 14 or 15 years old at the time, but already involved in phone phreaking, pay phone hacking, toll evasion, theft of service, theft of equipment, etc. If you dig deep, you'll find my name mentioned in a few of the old 1960's stories.

In West Smog Angeles, ours was Crestview 7.

More:

than

There is a UK tool supplier called Britool confusingly

Never realised there was so many spline types, Pentalobe etc

Protruding obstacle variants ? pipped is a much more succinct term

Stan Freberg wrote a song excoriating all-digit dialing, for which he was criticized as reactionary.

However, a telephone "number" is still a number -- that has nothing to do with you as a human being -- whether it has a word or number exchange.

The term "turnpike" is usually reserved for toll roads.

Don't forget the LA to Canada freeway which is what you take to get to Flintridge. At least that's what the sign says: LA CANADA-FLINTRIDGE.

Bristol has mostly been replaced by Torx.

I will add

UK term : US term spline key (specifically dovetail plan-form) : Bristol wrench to my "translator"