Anyone ever had need to sue a hospital?

Hi Nige.

Sorry for the late response.

I only wanted to give my condolances, for what they're worth. However,
our GP is very good. It was she who saw it and raised the issue in the
first place. She's coming again this afternoon and I shall be asking
many questions. Such as why, why and why again.

 

In essence, negligence will only be proved if you can prove that the
duty of care owed by the doctor (or whomever) was breached and that
the breach caused actual damage. Damage, of course, can be mental as
well as physical.

It is possible to make a mistake, however careful you are. If a
Radiologist looks at an X-Ray carefully but doesn't see something, and
the court is persuaded that he/she took the amount of care and brought
to the X-Ray the amount of expertese that you'd reasonably expect,
then he/she won't normally be judged as negligent just because they
were wrong. If however, they missed something they could reasonably be
expected to have spotted, or not done something that they could
reasonably have been expected to do, then they could quite possibly be
judged as negligent.

Sometimes experts disagree as to what is the best thing to do in a
given circumstance. Again you won't prove negilgence simply because
one expert says the other was wrong - you have to go back to what
you'd reasonably expect.

You can see why the role of an independant medical advisor is crucial!

 

Not entirely true. A lot of early-stage research is done in academia.

Also not quite right: profits are profits. Research costs are costs.
Revenue - costs = profits.

 

There's two different kinds of "two-tier", though.

Sure, the NHS should be able to provide all treatment medically required
FOC to all. But then there's the rest - which I have no problem with
being made available privately. Cosmetic or elective treatment. Upgrades
from a bed in a ward to an individual room (with whatever levels of
luxury you want/can afford).

 

Yes, of course. All the sort of stuff that's not generally covered by
health insurance anyway would still be wanted by some people, and if
they can pay for it then fine. It could be argued, of course, that
these things aren't really within the remit of a _health_ system
anyway.

 

Ah - but how do you define 'medically required'? Does it cover (for
example) fertility treatment? Being unable to conceive isn't per-se a
life-threatening problem (unless it drives a suicide) so should that be
covered? Likewise gender reassignment. And some sorts of plastic
surgery which are not altering existing healthy tissue but covering up
(say) burns.

Different people have different views on how the phrase 'medically
required' should be defined. And that is where most of the arguments
will be.

Phil

 

It's a good question. In the insurance-based system I'm using as an
example, it is not covered.

Well the latter would clearly be trying to resolve a medical issue,
even if purely cosmetic, so they should/would(under the Swiss system)
be covered.

Sex changes wouldn't be regarded as medically required in most places,
I'd guess.

So any such system needs recourse to an arbitration process, such that
individual practitioners or helthcare providers all work to the same
set of guidelines.

 

Which is where you start getting into problems - in this country (as
far as I can see) the right to breed seems to be something that people
think the state should provide.

The former can be too - the root syndrome is seen as a medical issue by
many people.

Depends on whether the shrinks are involved!

What - like the Daily Mail? "State refuses to help poor childless
couple"..

Guarenteed to have Health Ministers reaching for the popularity
chequebook.

Phil.

 

Under a stat-provided healthcare system there's no other provider
available, so this line of thinking is inevitable. TBF, under the
Swiss system, investigation into infertility is covered, and some
treatments also, but IVF is not, nor is surgical intervention for
sperm extraction if appropriate.

Indeed. But then it comes down to this - insurance is based on shared
risk, so if the risk covered is to include elective stuff like this,
then the premiums per person will be higher. Will the population as a
whole accept that they should be funding sex-change surgery? No, they
will not, hence it wouldn't be covered.

Democracy, innit?

Ahh, you can't help but think of it as a government issue, so
engrained is that way of thinking. If it's an insurer making that
decision you can bet that fellow-contributors to the fund will see it
differently.

 

How about, to use emotive words 'queue jumping' WTBF is precisely what
I use(d) private health care for. Better rooms, food, etc are nice to
haves but IMO it's getting for instance a MRI the following day or
treatment if needed within a couple of days.[1]

[1] The current FOC system failed to arrange a follow up appointment
for a friend with back problems in a reasonable time < 3 months and
after paying to expedite matters he then had to do the same for the
treatment.

 

And staying away from MRSA and C.Diff infections. Remember how many
people die in NHS hospitals after contracting infection.

 

Actually having visited the aged father currently in the old codgers
ward following a fall nice single rooms are better than a nice to
have, they're an essential.

 

Completely agree with that one

 

A lot of patients wouldn't.

 

Probably people I wouldn't want to talk to..... or smell

 

We still doing hospitals or is it public transport now?

 

Taking the Bendy Bus to the hospital even

 

Interesting thread, my best wishes for the Barnards.

Concerning Andy's opinion, sir, what would you think of EU citizens of
country U travelling to another EU country S and then going to a GP
for a local medicine prescription, which is more subsidized in S than
in U, so that they get it cheaper at the expense of the host country
S?

 

Not a lot of social interaction though, which, for a lot of people is pretty
important.

Lying in a hospital bed with no-one to natter to would drive many folks off
their heads.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

I'll tell Britt that, you.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19