So, a scouser in 'Lying about knowing someone who died at Hillsborough' shocker.

[Burney]

How come you didn't go private if you suspected the NHS doctors weren't taking your symptoms seriously enough?

Oh, this was simply over a period of a day or so. I didn't go through what Farage did only because I had a damned good idea of what I had and wasn't leaving until I'd been referred to the right person.

[Monty92]

Oh, this was simply over a period of a day or so. I didn't go through what Farage did only because I had a damned good idea of what I had and wasn't leaving until I'd been referred to the right person.

I managed to diagnose my dad's strangulated hernia (which is a medical emergency and can be fatal) a couple of months ago on the same day he was sent home from the hospital because they didn't know what was wrong with him and assumed he had a vomiting bug. I was quite staggered how this could possibly happen.

[Sir C]

You did remarkably well to get an appointment, which I believe these days is a process somewhat akin to winning the Krypton Factor.

Getting the appointment was OK. The problem was getting registered at the surgery, not having been registered with an NHS doctor since I was a child. Talk about Kafkaesque. Apparently everyone has an 'NHS number'. Who knew?

[Burney]

Getting the appointment was OK. The problem was getting registered at the surgery, not having been registered with an NHS doctor since I was a child. Talk about Kafkaesque. Apparently everyone has an 'NHS number'. Who knew?

I was reading 'The English And Their History' by Robert Tombs recently (very good, btw, and he has little time for lefty nonsense) and he was making the point that at the same time, England sustains one of the world's biggest capitalist enterprises in the City of London and one of the world's biggest unreconstructed pure socialist enterprises in the NHS. He made the point that the capacity to accept the presence of these two things whilst perceiving no apparent contradiction between them went some way to explaining the English psyche.

[SWv2]

I have been watching a series of programs recently about a Central London NHS Trust, Paddington/Charing Cross etc. Quite staggering really.

Very sick people, very sick, no bed in ITC, no operation.

Teams of consultants/surgeons/anaesthetists stood around all day waiting for an operation that may not happen.

Incredible.

I am not sure it is much better here tbh.

[Sir C]

I have been watching a series of programs recently about a Central London NHS Trust, Paddington/Charing Cross etc. Quite staggering really.

Very sick people, very sick, no bed in ITC, no operation.

Teams of consultants/surgeons/anaesthetists stood around all day waiting for an operation that may not happen.

Incredible.

I am not sure it is much better here tbh.

Interestingly, the NHS can still manage to do you a nose job if the size of your hooter upsets you, or chop your cock off if you';re mental enough to think you're a woman.

It's all a bit silly.

[SWv2]

Interestingly, the NHS can still manage to do you a nose job if the size of your hooter upsets you, or chop your cock off if you';re mental enough to think you're a woman.

It's all a bit silly.

These transgender freaks are now allowed in the Rose of Tralee.

I genuinely can't wait for the first one to roll into town. The RTE complaints line will combust.

[Sir C]

These transgender freaks are now allowed in the Rose of Tralee.

I genuinely can't wait for the first one to roll into town. The RTE complaints line will combust.

Many's the rose that will give you a prick, sw.

[Burney]

I have been watching a series of programs recently about a Central London NHS Trust, Paddington/Charing Cross etc. Quite staggering really.

Very sick people, very sick, no bed in ITC, no operation.

Teams of consultants/surgeons/anaesthetists stood around all day waiting for an operation that may not happen.

Incredible.

I am not sure it is much better here tbh.

Yes, well the NHS is abominably organised because it is a monolithic, centrally-planned nightmare. It is hugely overpriced relative to what it delivers comparing unfavourably with cheaper systems in places like Finland. It is the largest non-military employer on earth and Gordon Brown pretty much doubled spending on it with no significant improvement in outcomes between 97 and 08.

The British are childishly encouraged by the media (in propagandist programmes such as the one you describe) and politicians to treat it as a sacred cow - almost a religion in itself, in fact (see the absurd Olympic games böllocks for evidence) and anyone who wants to get elected has to promise to at least 'ring fence' spending rather than to apply much-needed cuts. And, of course, we cling absurdly to the shibboleth of 'free at the point of use' - all of which means we'll never see any improvement.

[Burney]

Many's the rose that will give you a prick, sw.

Oh, I say, well played! And appropriate for Valentines Day.