CV and mad panic behaviour

[ElwoodBlues1]

It's a bad situation, because they have no obligation to accept patients.

I know a friend who had COVID recently, went to one of those clinics for express treatment and was turned away to the government run clinic. They then went to a local GP and was also turned away to the government run clinic. In the end they had to do a telehealth appointment to get to the next step. It was just a waste of the fee, because the next step is going to the government run clinic for a PCR test.

The clinics are using telehealth like a triage, and the private ER's are cherry-picking who's money they want to take!

It's all very Americanised, and I can see it causing some major problems in the public hospitals.

Interestingly, when I had my stent fitted I was warned things were heading this way by the public cardiology nurse. Initially I went to a private hospital with it's own cardiology unit and catheter lab as per my insurance policy, etc., but then got transferred to a public hospital as a private patient. The staff at the public hospital says it happens all the time, the less profitable cases and the cases that are likely to be problematic, get handballed to the public system. The cardiology nurse said you are better off going private in public from the get go, because if there are any unexpected problems that is where you end up anyway.

The UK model is much better than the American model, but the American model is what makes private investors wealthy, and politicians take the path of least resistance or cost. The politicians go where their bread will be buttered in the future!

If you need Cardiology care public is the way to go, private in a public hospital setting doesn't mean you are guaranteed anything extra , it's all about availability and being a cardiac patient you will get your own room initially anyway after a stent insertion.
The public hospital I was in for my stent begged me to allow them to charge me as a Private patient as they needed the money.
They agreed to pay my excess so keen were they to get the private claim across the line. Fully agree it's going the way of the USA and even the meds were on the claim invoice.
The care was first class in the public hospital I was in and the staff excellent but you just worry for the future as they were all over worked and often doing double shifts due to the lack of qualified replacements given Cardiology is a specialist area..