There is no GOD! that is stupid bullshit

[kristina]

Cariad, I felt personally attacked and very hurt when you wrote to me that :
 
“The simple fact is you have access to medical care but choose not to avail yourself of any of your options.”

Cariad, do you really believe I would pay money every month (which I can hardly afford)

to receive private medical care for my 10 – 12 % kidney function

if I had a chance to have access to medical care on the NHS?

[billybags]

Kristina, why have you not been receiving care on the NHS, it is every Britons right. I live in the UK and you have a choice. Go private, that's if you have lots of money or go NHS which is a wonderful health service, which I would not call for a moment.

[cariad]

Kristina, I was not attacking you. I was expressing my opinion that you do not live in a country that sends dialysis patients home to die. If you post your thoughts on a public forum you need to be prepared for people to disagree with you. I have the same right as you to offer my thoughts without being met with hyperbolic claims that I am attacking you.

Also, I find it just a bit impolite to 'hijack' a serious thread about someone's desperate situation in the Philippines with your own problems. In my opinion, if you want to discuss how the Olympics has prevented you from receiving adequate healthcare, courtesy would suggest that you start your own discussion on the topic.

[kristina]

Hello, alchemist, I do hope you don’t think I “hijacked” your thread.

I only mentioned that I don’t see much difference between your situation and my situation
because when we are down on our luck it does not really matter where we live.

If I need more health care in my ESRF, I won’t be able to pay for it either
and facing this situation is devastating and totally traumatizing.

Hello, billybags, I have explained on several threads
(i.e. “A theory of recovery from Dialysis” and many others etc.),
that -  like many other NHS patients in the UK - 
I do not receive NHS medical care in my ESRF.

The reason why I am fighting, shouting and screaming about it
is because I don’t have the money to pay for private health care.

[RichardMEL]

Oh for heaven's sake.

I would put on my moderator hat and make a comment, but quite honestly I wouldn't know how to appropriately phrase one if I did.

I am simply going to say this (I have put the hat on my cat - she's currently sleeping under it) - thisis an off-topic thread with a subject line that invites some opinions, probably some that many won't agree with. Please be considerate of others as usual but by the same token expect opinionated responses if you post in a thread like this. You have to be prepared for this.  If you can't take the heat, get out of the oven.

personal opinion: Kristina, I'm sorry but I actually agree witrh Cariad and Amada. Your situation is very different in my view. You have made a CHOICE to not seek NHS care for a number of reasons that you have gone through many times. The UK's NHS offers a taxpayer funded medical service which supports dialysis, transplant, etc etc... Australia, NZ and Canada amongst other countries operate under the same general principles. Trying to compare socialised health systems like the UK with 3rd world countries like the Phillipines is comparing apples and oranges (let alone the US which is a whole other thing in my view). Yes, in the UK you can get a better/faster service with private insurance. In Australia though, having private insurance actually would mean little in terms of kidney disease, dialysis and tx as all of that is handled by the federal medicare system (equivalent of NHS) anyway - though we do have private dialysis clinics of course where having private insurance would pay for access, possibly, to a unit closer to home.

Anyway in some counries - heck MANY countries there is NO state sponsored/fundled medical assistance or provided dialysis. In that case you DO need money to pay or else, basically, yes you are sent home to die. As far as I know, in the UK if you wound up in hospital with acute kidney failure and needed dialysis you would be looked after. Maybe not efficiently and maybe not in the way you'd prefer, but you WILL be assisted by the state.

In my view you simply can't equate the two situations. Throwing in an example of a neighbour's struggles to access what - meals on wheels or similar council funded services I think doesn't really relate to the general situation.

Honestly, in the UK or Australia, Canada etc being "Down on your luck" does NOT preclude access to medical care of a sufficent level to keep you going. It's more likely that if you're "down on your luck" you shouldn't bet on the CHeltenham festival this week.....

in the Phillipines, India and other places being "down on your luck" can literally mean death.

Honestly I feel some perspective is needed. I also do feel that this thrread has gone off topic... since God - if He exists or not - is hardly related to the NHS.

[kristina]

Richard, I am sorry to say this, but the NHS does not provide NHS health care for everyone in the UK :

I received a medical letter by post (dated 11th April 2005) from the medical adviser to my local NHS health authority (PCT)
stating no doctor can be found in the UK to treat me.

As a result I have gone unsuccessfully through all NHS complaints procedures including the medical NHS Ombudsman in the UK
and no lawyer takes my case despite documented evidence. Checkmate.

[RichardMEL]

I do not think this is the right forum for this discussion, since it is off-topic, however I still find it difficult to believe. I understand you have an unusual condition however you WILL still have access to dialysis care when the time comes. Of that I am certain.

I will also say that down here we seem to do things a little differently in special/unusual cases. I can personally bear witness to a situation where my own mother had a pulminary ambolism caused by a DVT (iroincally we believe which occcured on a flight to London). ANyway the situation she wound up woth was so unique that no doctor/surgeon in Australia was able to treat it. However surgeons at UCSD in California were doing work in this area and considered the experts. Our government paid via medicare, for my mother to travel to San DIego, along with my sister as caregiver, to receive treatment there for her condition. They were also willing to foot the potential bill for her treatment (be it upwards of $500,000 for surgery). Unfortunately when in the US and they got to look at my mum for themselves they declared her situation was too severe and complicated for their teniques so alas we left empty handed. However the mere fact that MY govt went to those lengths, not to mention supporting ME through dialysis (I did not pay a cent out of pocket for) and of course my wonderful transplant (again, no payment for hospital, tx surgery etc).... I am always very happy to pay my taxes. We have a lot of waste in this c country, inefficient systems and abuse etc but we also do very very good things... and I think our system is based on the UK's - you'd like to think they would do something similar if they could for you. However different countries I guess.....

Anyway this is OT.