What kind of health care do you have in the UK and Ireland? Do doctors make any money?

Question

I asked a question about whether my husband should have a heart cath and some of the answers amazed me. I didn't realize I was on the UK and Ireland site. I live in the United States and Yes doctors do do unnecessary surgery. Here they make lots and lots of money. I have realized, tho that he needs to get a second opinion and I have a doctor that I trust very much that I am going to drag him to to to get a second opinion. But here in the US they will operate on anything that is breathing. To add our insurance does not cover 100% and we are left with big bills.

Thank you for responding to my question! It seems their are problems with both our systems. We also have MRSA. If you have no money and are sick you have no doctor. If you're sick enough to be admitted to the hospital and have no money you may qualify for medicaid and they will write off your bills. The problem is there are millions of working poor, and they get no medicaid, no write off. They get the added heart attack when they open their hospital and doctor bill. And believe me, it's not ONE DOCTOR bill!
Have any of you ever seen a hospital bill? You would be shocked! They charge for every single aspirin. They are pages long. You will have several doctors walk into your room and ask you how you are doing, stay a few minutes and hit you for a couple hundred each day they come. I don't know what the answer is, I'm leaning towards your system. The last thing a sick person needs is the money worries and especially a dying person.

I also would like to add the elderly get medicare which pays for a percent of their hospital and doctor bills and now a small amount for prescriptions. Since the elderly are usually in and out of hospitals it causes them to hoard their money worried they will need it for a large hospital bill. My elderly mother chokes and needs her esophagus stretched at least once a year. It's a simple golfball outpatient surgery. She will wait much longer than she should and will be down to a liquid diet before she will go have it done. One day she will choke and die or have a heart attack and die from choking.

Answer 1

Make money?
No, their job is to cure or heal people...

Answer 2

Ireland is a socialized medicine country with free or low cost care. There are long waits for surgery that isn't critical. Personal insurance is coming into the picture and people who have it can get faster service. If you are really rich there you may go overseas to India, the US, etc to pay cash for an operation rather than wait three years.
Doctors make far less money than in America but they don't pay $200K for med school either so it's a trade off. Many of the doctors are from Asia since the Irish doctors get their education and follow the money. Filipinos do the same, leave their country and go to Ireland where they can earn more than at home.

Answer 3

I'm not entirely sure what you're question is, but the health care system in the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) isn't exactly efficient. The most recent issue in British media about our hospitals was the MRSA bug, the debt the whole system is in (billions of £s) and the long waiting lists.
That's our Health System.

Just do a search on the BBC News website and look for any of the above.

news.bbc.co.uk

Answer 4

Me! (previous answerer) is overly pessimistic! I am a senior nurse whose husband has worked in the US. Healthcare is free in the UK, which is wonderful. In 15 years in the NHS, I have never known cost to be a deciding factor in treatment plans, certainly not at ward level, anyway. Clinical judgement is used far more than in the USA, where tests and investigations are performed much more - probably just to make sure they don't get sued by missing something! The problem is that no test or investigation is totally without risk and some cause more problems than they solve. Hospitals in the US are better managed, though, and the staff are better treated, I think. Communication between staff and patients is better too, and hospitals are better equipped than they are here.

Answer 5

Wasn't there outcry a while back because some GP's were earning close to £250,000 a year and Blair's answer was "I think it's great that our GP's are the best paid in the world"?

I don't fully understand your question but the NHS (Health Service) is publicly funded and doctors/nurses are paid a salary by the state, (Probably with bonuses for treating more patients than expected) this way health care is free for any UK citizen whether at home or abroad.

Answer 6

we have 2 options the National Health Service which is free but has long waiting lists and won't do surgery unless it is totally necessary, having said it is free it is actually tied to National insurance payments, then there is Private normally by a company called BUPA most people who are in BUPA pay into it monthly they have next to no waiting lists and will do surgery on request and you take out the cover that you require so are not normally left with big bills, hope that helps

Answer 7

Very good treatment here and you will be able to get MRSA free aswell