this isn't looking good for doner car owners.

SteveH ( snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Umm, would that be like the "been growing for 10-15 years" brain tumour F- i-L was diagnosed with by the NHS - several months after a BUPA MOT said he was fine...?

Recently I have lost one elderly relative and another had a stroke, both were looked after very well by the NHS. Meanwhile my fathers BUPA healthcare isn't at all quick.

Not in my experience.

When my Gran went to hospital with heart trouble, the other patients were lying in their own piss when they wet the bed at night, and crying and shouting etc., because nurses could or would not come to change their sheets despite people ringing the buzzer. My gran would now rather do pretty much anything than go back to hospital every again. You'll no doubt be under a different PCT and SHA than I am, meaning you'll get different care.

Doki ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

And what was the outcome of the formal complaint that you/your family made about that?

Doki ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

A friend banged his head on a pole while pissed (and on painkillers...), and went to WG - they let him out with a 6 inch skull fracture and concussion. Next day, he went to his GP in London, who threw a pink fit, and shoved him straight to his local A&E, who also threw a pink fit. But, of course, he was then sober. It's probably not that easy to diagnose concussion when somebody's wankered, because the symptoms can be similar.

Like I said - some areas of the NHS are utterly shit. Most aren't. Claiming they all are is more likely to have the whole lot complete shit than the whole lot not.

You'll notice I didn't disagree with you? What was the outcome of your formal complaint?

You'll notice I said "BUPA hospital"...?

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Adrian saying something like:

I'm in the position of probably needing a new knee joint or two within a few years. From what I've heard and read about it, it's best to leave it as long as possible until replacement as the new joint has an uncertain lifespan and a second replacement is unlikely to take successfully. This info comes from Yankistan, where they're all fat bastards and pound their knees unmercifully - many knee patients continue to be fat bastards and shorten the life of replacement joints, but if a new joint is given to a normally-built person, the life of that joint could be up to 20 years. If your dad isn't a FB, the outlook for his knees is good.

Ditto for Luton and Dunstable Hospital - the Lanquish and Die as it's known.

Mine's about 10 now. When it was done, there was a women in there getting hers done after 23 years (possibly 26, I can't quite remember). I'm not exactly gentle on it ;-) 82kgs of me (95-105kg up until a year ago) - it's survived jumping off a bridge when drunk (i thought the 5m drop at the other side was gonna be about 1m...), numerous falls and general accidental abuse - they're pretty tough, not as breakable and wearable as people would have you beleive :-) The only issue with it is it grates when i go upstairs as it's gradually wearing my kneecap down (they leave your own kneecap in) but they can replace it with a plastic one when it starts to hurt apparently - but it's been grating for years and doesn't give me any gip.

Grimly Curmudgeon ( snipped-for-privacy@REMOVEgmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

The way my old man was told it, it's an absolute one-shot process. Still - as he was damn near immobile before the op (arthritis), it really wasn't a difficult choice...

He's in his late 60s, and about 6'/12st. They'll almost certainly see him out.

I dunno about the hospitals - I'd probably stick the whole of Luton and Dunstable in that category, really...

WD40 mate. ;)

Aye, but this was the next day, and I was sober.

They all are for the cash we spend on them. The fact is that we manage to cure less fatal stuff than the yanks do despite having people apparently constantly dying in the streets for lack of medical attention.

The standard of car does differ wildly. Which is why one of the local hospitals is well known for leaving instruments in people :). No idea re the formal complaint as I didn't do the complaining, my Aunt did.

Aye. BUPA aren't exactly in a big enough way to have MRIs vaguely local to most of their customers (ie, within an hour's drive or so). Whereas the NHS are.

I've no clue (see the other reply to you). The fact is that people being left in their own piss and call buzzers not being responded to is something that should never happen.

Doki ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Exactly.

And that's why it should be complained about!

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "DanTXD" saying something like:

I was told in no uncertain terms by my orthopod (a rude bugger, but knows his stuff) to shed some pounds. 105kgs is just a dream at the moment. :) I had an arthroscopy a fortnight ago and I'm only just feeling the improvement from his cleaning out the debris. I'll definitely need some further treatment in a couple of years though, so I'm going to get as much use out of my originals as I can.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Adrian saying something like:

That's what I mean; the first one takes ok and makes a huge difference, but the success rate of second ones is very poor. Probably why people are told a second one isn't an option, so take care of the first one.

I met an old guy up the Scottish hills one time; a keen hillwalker, he was leaping around like a two year old on his second hip, having worn out the first replacement. He was told he wouldn't get a third one because the bone wouldn't take it. He wore out the first replacement by making up for lost time going up all the hills he'd been missing out on through arthritis for years.

Less is wasted?

Perhaps productivity is higher per person in the Excited States, thus raising the GDP above that of the UK on a per capita basis, resulting in a similar cost of government (raised through taxation) per capita, but lower as a percentage of GDP. Health care *is* a huge cost to most governments, thus the US model of non-universal government medical care saves vast amounts of money also, which they can spend on their military. Of course the enormous deficits that they have been running the last number of years helps keep taxation down too. Stuart H.

It is...

Ding.

Ding.

And some other funkiness too.