The big difference between the German and UK systems, apart from one starting more than 60 years before the other, is how they are funded. UK does it through taxation. Germany has a system where everybody has to to pay a percentage of their income into health insurance so the better off are automatically funding the less well off and the healthy are funding those less fortunate. Medical care is available to all in equal measure and it covers payment of wages while sick.
Once you get to a certain level of income these payments max out but you can also opt to go for private insurance. Germany introduced a national healh insurance in 1883. A year later they introduced compulsory accident insurance, pension funds in 1889 and unemployment insurance in 1927. Long term care and assistance insurance was introduced somewhat later in 1995.
Seems to me the UK and many other countries - USA?? - have much to learn and emulate.
France does it thru obligatory social security payments taken out of salary and with an employer's contribution plus patients pay a small fee towards care at the time they receive it. It's supposed to be one of the best but I do hear a lot of muttering about increased waiting times for appointments and treatment and also about the shortage of medical staff, especially GPs and specialists, in rural areas and smaller towns.
Maybe any country that invests in training medical personnel and, indeed, any other essential services should have a contract to make these people repay their investment by working a fixed period in the UK before they disappear. I do also think we should not be poaching such staff from other countries where they are desperately needed at home - India, Philippinies, wherever.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
When I worked in the USA, I was paid 4 times as much as in the UK. It would have to have been a lot more than that to persuade me to stay [ in reality, I don't think anything would have persuaded me to stay ] Unless you do private practice, which does not exist in some specialities, or which some doctors object to doing, then the pay in the UK is lower than in much of the world.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
Not just doctors - engineers, architects.... alls orts of jobs for which it takes years to train and get to a level where you earn a decent living in the UK which seems to undervalue expertise.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I have been on both sides NHS & private (working in laboratories) and as an NHS patient. Some private hospitals have THE national experts working in them but many do not, and rely on the NHS to bail them out if anything goes wrong. Some of the issues are due to the burdens of rules & regs over procurement etc. In the NHS if your printer packs up you have to go through a ridiculous procurement process that should only apply to major capital purchases etc. The private labs relies on medics that work in both sectors (which they are allowed to do). In my view the single biggest issue is the constant reorganising, successive governments have wasted millions in paying management accountants a fortune and constantly changing and cutting, their mantra is always "no change is not an option". It's no wonder the workforce is demoralised and leaving in droves. They get rid of whole units and staff then find they have to set up new ones & re-employ people but are dismayed when they find the expertise and experience has gone. It was said on Question time again last night that it is high time the NHS was taken out of politics and stop being used as a political football.
What has happened to peanuts for birds? Haven't seen any on sale here for over a year. Got excited when I saw a tub of roasted, unsalted peanuts in the grocery section until I saw they come from China. Why? Not a regime I want to support.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Change of subject our Council have suspended the green bin collection service from Nov 10 we were not warned in advance, only found out when bin was not collected yesterday. I now have to deal with a bin full of garden waste as it will not be collected until the new year now.
Change of subject our Council have suspended the green bin collection service from Nov 10 we were not warned in advance, only found out when bin was not collected yesterday. I now have to deal with a bin full of garden waste as it will not be collected until the new year now.
Complain to the council if there is a charge and the original terms were for collection every 2 weeks. Our system is the same as Philippa's with only one collection missed over the Christmas / New Year period.
All our green waste goes into compost heaps except for woddy stuff which goes into OH's "barn" for drying and shredding. He's a bit behind with that and the pile is now huge. It'll keep him quiet this winter, I hope. No idea what this "barn" was used for before, probably machinery except that it has no wall on the north side. We have pigeons roosting in the rafters so I need to see if I can attract barn owls instead.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Posts
Once you get to a certain level of income these payments max out but you can also opt to go for private insurance. Germany introduced a national healh insurance in 1883. A year later they introduced compulsory accident insurance, pension funds in 1889 and unemployment insurance in 1927. Long term care and assistance insurance was introduced somewhat later in 1995.
Seems to me the UK and many other countries - USA?? - have much to learn and emulate.
France does it thru obligatory social security payments taken out of salary and with an employer's contribution plus patients pay a small fee towards care at the time they receive it. It's supposed to be one of the best but I do hear a lot of muttering about increased waiting times for appointments and treatment and also about the shortage of medical staff, especially GPs and specialists, in rural areas and smaller towns.
Maybe any country that invests in training medical personnel and, indeed, any other essential services should have a contract to make these people repay their investment by working a fixed period in the UK before they disappear. I do also think we should not be poaching such staff from other countries where they are desperately needed at home - India, Philippinies, wherever.
Unless you do private practice, which does not exist in some specialities, or which some doctors object to doing, then the pay in the UK is lower than in much of the world.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
In my view the single biggest issue is the constant reorganising, successive governments have wasted millions in paying management accountants a fortune and constantly changing and cutting, their mantra is always "no change is not an option". It's no wonder the workforce is demoralised and leaving in droves. They get rid of whole units and staff then find they have to set up new ones & re-employ people but are dismayed when they find the expertise and experience has gone. It was said on Question time again last night that it is high time the NHS was taken out of politics and stop being used as a political football.