Healthcare in England

Today I had my first visit to a NHS hospital for a routine exam. I’ve already been to my local GP on a few occasions, and to the dentist several times as well. I’ll have to say this. Having come from America where healthcare will bankrupt you, the NHS (National Health Service) in England is utopia!!! Yes, it is a socialized system and yes it does have its problems. But at least you are guaranteed healthcare should you need it, unlike in America where only those who can afford it stand a chance. What a difference.

For starters, you pay for the NHS via income taxes, same as you would pay for Social Security and Unemployment Tax in America. But then, when you require medical treatment, you simply go to the doctor, hospital or dentist, and pay NOTHING (or very little) for the visit. That in itself makes it worthwhile to me. I’m used to paying on average $100 for most doctor and dentist visits in the US, and that’s just the consultation fee … before any lab work, etc. is done. In the UK, most regular GP exams and lab tests cost NOTHING. Prescriptions cost £6.65 each AT MOST, regardless of the type of drug, and all regular dental visits (with hygiene treatment) cost a mere £15.50 each. In fact, the maximum charge for a complex course of dental treatment (such as one or more crowns) is an astounding £189.00!!! In America, the average crown cost around $800-$1000 each!

The downside to the NHS is that you sometimes have to endure waiting lists. But this normally only occurs with specialized treatment, and generally with non-life-threatening type services, like physical therapy. It only took me a couple of weeks to get in to see the local breast specialist about my breast treatment. And here it took me 2 months to get my last mammogram scheduled in America and that was after I had found a lump!

You do have the option for private healthcare in the UK. Some of the better employers do offer supplementary health insurance programs (or you can buy insurance yourself) to cover private treatment. This generally means you can get in faster to see a specialist, but doesn’t always guarantee treatment. You still have to go through your local GP to get a referral.

One thing that has struck me as light years ahead of America in terms of healthcare is the use of electronic records here in the UK. With the exception of x-rays, most medical records are kept electronically. Even when you’re sitting in the doctor’s office getting examined, he/she makes notes on the computer, not on paper records. Any paper documents received by your doctor are actually scanned into the computer and kept as an attachment to your personal record. Talk about efficiency! I don’t EVER remember a doctor or dentist in America using this method of recordkeeping.

Oh yea. Another thing. Over here the nurses do pap smears (called "smear tests"), not the doctors! And they cost NOTHING.