Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
UK here. Last year I spent four months in hospital with a moderately obscure neurological condition called Guilian Barre syndrome, half of it in critical care (some sedated) and much of the rest in a specialist neuro-rehab unit. My partner had a foot amputated two years ago after spending several weeks in hospital with blood poisoning caused by an infected foot ulcer, they now had a prosthetic leg and have had physiotherapy and psychological counselling (they recognise it's a big life change). We're both disabled, and my partner has dialysis three times a week. I take 11 prescription pills a day (plus three non prescription magnesium recommended by a physiotherapist). Nurses are generally friendly and caring (if understaffed and overworked), and the doctors don't have the adversarial money-driven approach I hear about from the US, plus they're often some of the best in the world - my partner got one of the world's leading podiatrists because they happened to get his rotation!
Total cost for medical care: £0.00 plus some petrol and taxi rides - being registered disabled I don't even pay for prescriptions but if I did it's, I think, £12.50 a time no matter how many pills you're collecting.
The NHS is not flawless: recently my partner had a day surgery that turned into a week as an in-patient as the second part of the surgery kept being pushed back (some for good reasons like the Accident and Emergency department having a sudden glut and needing all the surgeons, some for less good reasons); wait times in A&E can be as much as 12 hours on uncomfortable (but easily cleaned) seats if you're not an emergency and you show up at a busy time like Friday night; and waiting lists for adult ADHD diagnosis was seven years (so I went private cos I could afford it). It also don't fully cover dental work (and finding an NHS dentist is notoriously difficult), and if you have a complex prescription it doesn't fully cover glasses either, but it does contribute to both of those bringing them down to merely expensive rather than ludicrous.
But when you really need it, it's there, you will get good care, and you don't have to worry about being bankrupted.
Would recommend, 9 out of 10