this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
399 points (96.9% liked)

United Kingdom

4108 readers
224 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in !casualuk@feddit.uk or !andfinally@feddit.uk
More serious politics should go in !uk_politics@feddit.uk.

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

In other news: water is wet. I think we all knew that Charles wouldn't have to go through the same pains us common British folk do in regards to accessing healthcare. But nonetheless I think it's important to continue to highlight these ever growing class divisions in the UK, such as those between people who can afford private healthcare and people who have to rely on our public services. People in positions of authority and power in our country do not understand the struggles of everyday British people.


My TL;DR:

Charles is already receiving expert care for his cancer within days of diagnosis. His speedy treatment should draw fresh attention to the long cancer treatment waiting times that most British people experience with the NHS.

The proportion of patients in England waiting less than 62 days from an urgent suspected cancer referral or consultant upgrade to their first definitive treatment for cancer is 65.2%.

Amid growing frustration at NHS waiting lists, record numbers of people are paying for private healthcare. Nearly 300,000 people in the UK have paid for chemotherapy in the last five years.

Survival rates for cancer in the UK lag behind those of other European countries for nine out of 10 of the most common types of the disease.

Researchers said cancer waiting times across the country were among the worst on record, too many cancers were diagnosed at a late stage, and access to treatment was unequal.

Buckingham Palace has not specified whether the king is receiving private healthcare or being treated on the National Health Service.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev 107 points 9 months ago (4 children)

This is all intentional. They can't outright privatise the NHS without major outcry so they've made it unusable for as many as possible.

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 86 points 9 months ago (1 children)

“That's the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don't work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.” — Noam Chomsky.

[–] xhieron@lemmy.world 32 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Indeed. As a Yank who always has to pay for healthcare anyway, it's easy to see the parallels in labor/employment, civil rights, and financial security: We're facing a global regressive movement from the political right, and those people have no scruples. They absolutely want to claw back every single gain the general public has made in rights and benefits over the last 75 years, and making benefits unpopular is the first step to privatizing them.

Never forget the NHS, warts and all, is a thing that we Americans would die to have, and for want of it many of us too often literally do.

[–] Jaysyn@kbin.social 34 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

An anecdote for anyone in the UK that is leaning towards abolishing or privatizing your NHS.

I had an appendectomy last year, you know, a surgery that something like 40% of the population will need at some point in their lifetime.

It cost me $7000, with "decent" insurance (UHC to be clear).

The final bill pre-insurance was a smidge under $170.000.

You guys need to burn the Tories down before you end up with the same system. The USA's healthcare system should be considered an example of what not to do, not a goal to strive for.

[–] Pronell@lemmy.world 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I work for UHC.

I think they're a decent company, considering the industry.

I've made a nice and fairly comfortable career here.

Burn it all down. Give everyone healthcare.

I'll find another job.

[–] IndiBrony@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

My girlfriend works for a private company instead of the NHS and she hates it on a moral level, too, but it's impossible to work for the NHS and keep your sanity. Be it the working conditions, hours, or pay. It's a shambles and it's all because we - the stupid public - continue to be suckered into believing it's good for us.

Not to mention that the left is fractured. We all want progress, but can't decide on exactly what progress should look like. Meanwhile conservatives only have 1 real option: Tories.

I'm convinced at BEST we're going to have another hung parliament with the bastards ultimately staying in power.

This country is fucked.

[–] EinfachUnersetzlich@lemm.ee 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

An anecdote for anyone in the UK that is leaning towards abolishing or privatizing your NHS.

Fortunately that's a vanishingly small number of people in the UK, the NHS has almost universal support.

[–] Jaysyn@kbin.social 5 points 9 months ago

That's good to hear. Now kick the Tories out & fund it properly.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's so fucked up because not only are these assholes ruining another countries healthcare, they also are giving ammunition to our shithole country to never implement a universal healthcare system...

[–] EinfachUnersetzlich@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Which assholes are you talking about?

[–] Captainvaqina@sh.itjust.works 7 points 9 months ago

"Conservative" thieves, worldwide.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 4 points 9 months ago

The ones in the UK government trying to ruin the healthcare system so they can make a privatized system more "appealing."

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

The Conservatives did that. I don't think Charles actually likes them much.

[–] soggy_kitty@sopuli.xyz 2 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Does anyone care about major outcries in UK anymore? What do they ever achieve?

People forget and move on after a couple weeks of anger

The Tories haven't recovered in the polls since partygate and Truss, something has finally stuck.

[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

They still need to get elected to carry out their plans.

Even the most zealous Tories I know are planning to vote against them this time.

Most of their voters aren't rich people and they need to keep them on side.

[–] echodot 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't matter how much money you have, if you're a Tory voter you never think you have enough money. The fact you don't have enough money is always the government's fault mostly due to immigration either there's too much of it, or not enough of it depending on your bank balance. Conservative voters only like the Tories come election time, the rest of the time they can't stand them like the rest of us.

[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev 1 points 9 months ago

In my experience that isn't true.

They think the Tories are doing good and if they mess something up labour would definitely have messed it up worse.

The ones I speak to genuinely support their policies even if they can't name any when asked haha

[–] not_woody_shaw@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

I'm still waiting for the follow-up on the Panama Papers.

[–] echodot 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I don't know what you mean people are still very angry about all this, but we're not going to have riots in the street over it. I kind of wish we would in a sort of way, but realistically simply voting the idiots out is probably the best way to deal with the problem.

Of course Labour have their own issues but I feel like their issues that might actually be fixable, whereas the Tories just don't care.