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In reply to the discussion: Biden and Pope Francis team up against cancer [View all]MADem
(135,425 posts)It's not all "happy families" these days--that "truly affordable" healthcare does you no good if you can't ACCESS it due to long waits. Now, you can ignore me--or you can take the time to actually read these articles:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3558754/It-s-not-fault-patients-die-strike-union-leaders-tell-junior-doctors-BMA-says-safety-responsibility-NHS-trusts-not-individuals-says-ignore-calls-return-work.html
Yeah, Doctor Strikes are a sign of a "great" Healthcare system....
This plotline was worked into the BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL story, where Maggie Smith went to India to get a hip replacement because she was WHEELCHAIR BOUND and turned down/the wait was too long:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/04/27/hip-replacement-surgery-denied-to-thousands-each-year-despite-nh/
Even the Helpline is under fire for incompetence:
http://www.itv.com/news/2016-04-23/five-deaths-in-five-months-after-problems-with-nhs-111-helpline/
NHS has a 30 BILLION pound deficit. That's not chump change--something's got to give, and what is giving to this point is quality of patient care. People erroneously think there's no private or employer insurance in UK--that's just not true. If you don't have that, you wait, and wait, and wait...for months if not years, for many procedures.
It's not just UK, either--but don't believe ME....listen to the GREENS in this 7 April 2016 report:
https://europeangreens.eu/news/impact-austerity-our-health
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released a report that contained staggering numbers on European Member States health expenditure. They stated that many countries continue to see health spending below levels of spending in 2009. Notably, since 2009, there has been a difference in healthcare expenditure between the EU OECD states and non-EU OECD states. Both of these groups showed similar growth before the financial crisis hit, which is where the numbers diverge. European countries in particular saw a hefty decline in health spending after 2010.
Some Member States even had their growth numbers completely reversed. Greece for example went from 5.4% annual growth straight to a -7.2% decline. Ireland went from 5.3% growth to a decline of -4%.
According to a different report by the European Parliament citizens access to healthcare has been in decline most notably in; Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal and Italy. The problems vary by country. In Spain, access to healthcare underwent a radical transformation. Where people used to have unlimited and free access to health provisions, the system now grants access depending on the employment status. In Ireland, medical cards used to provide free entitlement to healthcare for seniors above the age of 70. These cards have been scrapped since 2009. Participation fees were introduced in Cyprus, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece. These participation fees, including an automatic indexation, already existed in Belgium and in Ireland. In Ireland however, these fees rose due to additional austerity measures.
These cuts in health expenditure also bring a wide variety of side-effects. In Spain the number of suicides, HIV and tuberculosis cases have increased. Locally transmitted malaria has again been seen for the first time in 40 years in Greece. Interventions in the pharmaceutical market led to a shortage in supply of certain medicines. In Portugal and Greece, 22% of pharmacies reported a shortage of insulin, which is a life-saving drug for diabetes patients. People are postponing or even suspending doctor visits more due to a lack of coverage or insufficient coverage. Most notably in Belgium young people below age 30 and single-parent families find themselves postponing specialised healthcare like dental care.
Austerity measures in healthcare have also led to a decline in available medical staff as jobs got cut during the process. In Spain medical staff saw their salaries reduced and eventually their salaries were frozen. Similar measures were undertaken in Ireland and Greece. More physicians are moving from the public sector to the private sector which in turn leads to a lack of staff in public health institutions. All of the above in turn leads to an exponential increase in waiting times. The numbers are staggering. In Cyprus the average waiting time even for life-threatening conditions is a whopping seven months! In 2012, Spain had more than 570,000 people awaiting surgery.
It is not "utopia" in Europe, and it hasn't been for a LONG time.
smh.