Hi there.
I suffer with PCOS and have facial hair that makes me so miserable and self conscious. I hate that i started shaving the hair on my neck and now it looks awful and i have the dreaded ‘shadow’.
I was wondering if any anyone knows whether laser hair removal is available on the NHS in the UK? I cant afford it myself and until i get it done im never gonna be happy.
answer:no it isnt because its considered “cosmetic”
the nhs wont pay for cosmetic things. then i told the doctor, “howcomes the NHS do cosmetic inplants?”… and he told me that the NHS doesnt do laser hair removal. i told them that the same way that people without breasts have psychological issues, so do people with excess body hair… his reply: the only thing he can do for me is give me tablets and i didnt accept them. i dont have PCOS nor am i a hirsute, but i didnt take them because i dont want to upset the normal functioning of my hormones. my hormone levels are normal and there are bad side effects.
so basically, NO they dont do it, which is a shame, 
but now im thinking about getting private medical health care done and get lsaer done by that… but by the time i do that it would take a long time so ive decided to go for laser when ive scraped enough cash
good luck sister! and if you do get it done by the NHS let us know because id like to get it done too
Hey,
I have medical insurance in the UK and they have told me that they wont cover Laser unless you have an underlying hormonal problem. And also they will not cover existing conditions. So talk to the insurance company before you pay for your cover as they dont all pay for hair removal.
hi [size:11pt] [/size] [font:Comic Sans MS] [/font] [color:#FF6666] [/color] [color:#FF99FF] [/color] hi there, i also suffer from pcos and feel like it controls my life i find it hard to be conifdent because i have also got facial hair i also have hair on my stomache n lower back. i dont think laser is on the NHS but think it should. its not our fault we have pcos so y is no one helping us to feel normal and helping us to fit in with our community x
Hi
I am also in the UK and had always hoped that electrolysis would be made available on the NHS. I was told by my GP that this was not the case. Despite having to shave on a daily basis due to PCOS, the clinical need for treatment is not addressed.
It is my understanding now that it is dependant on which PCT you fall under & it also seems possible to attain ‘exceptional funding’ under some circumstances, via a case presented to the local INNF panel (for Interventions Not Normally Funded).
I should think this would be made available to those with hormonal disturbances on diagnosis but hey who am I?
It would always be dependent on just how willing your health care professional is to go to bat for you on getting you the treatment you require.
It is the same in the US, in that it is technically covered, but one will only get it if the doctor will fight for you, and you won’t let them put you off with delays and false denials.
I am having it done on the nhs right now. They will only pay for 6 sessions on the face. Tell your gp to write to pct for funding. there is nothing wrong with my hormones but it genetic. Right know i am trying to get funding for more.
hi party chic, i can tell you that the UK do provide laser on the nhs…I am from Northern Ireland and I got it!!! however wat i would tell you first is to be careful in what you choose…
I hope the following info helps you…i first developed a moustache around the age of 12, 13, however at the time I thought it was hereditory as my mum would have been quick dark, at the age of 15 i started waxing it and obvioulsy it grew back, then at 18 I started IPL on it and again to find that it doesnt work…then when i was 19 I started developing hair on my neck…at this point i didnt realise i had PCOS…so again i started IPL on my neck and after my sessions I noticed that the area had got progressively worse…in my opinion it DOES NOT WORK…it for me made the hole thing worse, so at 19 having realsed that my peroids were irregular and that i was gaining so much facial hair i decided to go private to a gynaecologist only to be told that i had PCOS i had never heard of it b4…so after stopping my IPL treatment I realised the extent of my hair problem, however as I started the dianette I noticed that the hairs started to thing out, but between this time I had went to a private dermatologist and i explained to him that trauma that I was going through and how badly it was affecting my life, and im sure you can relate to that, so from the visit with the dermo he write a letter to the dermo clinic in the hospital who does laser on the NHS, I was grateful at the time gettin it but I new that it wasnt going to work so I went for a few sessions and stopped…since November 2008 until today I have been gettin electrolysis and I am noticing a great improvement, thats not to say Im finished i can still picture myself goin for another year and a half as I will be starting to electro my tache in jan, but what I can say at times when I felt so so low and cried for 7 months constantly night and day and even could still shed a year but not as much as the hairs are gettin less noticable, I would advise you to find a qualified electro and start sessions…i started at 30min slots every week and am now down to 15mins evey 2 weeks so im content with that for now…so please think carefully before you start it as I would advise anyone that IPL etc made my situation worse, I couldnt believe how bad it was when i stopped, I never realised how bad it was because I was shaving it so often and I promise you I had dark hairs along my chin rite down to my mid neck and they were jet black but after the pill and electro things are looking noticeably brighter…and I will continue until I am finished…
I hope this helps, but becareful in your decision, i no its so hard to take it in and so long away to see the results but im evening noticing the improvements so so can you…what put me of also with the NHS laser was that you only get a session once every 2months and to be honest that tied me down for 2 years and once you recieve your 12 sessions you dont recieve anymore. As I want to travel to australia in the summer of next year I decided to do it the hard way and hopefully come next summer things will be looking even brighter, fingerscrossed…but you have to be faithful to it and it is costly but I done everything in my power to pay for it as its the only thing in my life I wanted and that was to have a face free from black hairs, I do have blondes but i aint foussed about them 80% of woman have them so all i can say is goodluck and all the best with your decisions but stick in there and hopefully you’ll be like me, everyday i gain a bit more confidence and I love getting my 2 weekly session as I keep saying to myself, yes theres a few more killed!!!
If government wasn’t so involved in peoples personal lives, confiscating with impunity hard earned cash of others to then distribute money as they think best, you ladies would be able to choose a laser or electrolysis practitioner and just go do this with your own purchasing power. Citizens should not have to be put in the demeaning position where they have to beg others (health boards) to pay for a service they desire or NEED, with all the stupid restrictions and rules involved. Intrusive, bloated and broke government affecting hair removal? Amazing. Good luck.
Laser or electrolysis is not covered in either the states or the UK so what does this have to do government being involved in your personal life? You would have to do it with your own purchasing power anyway.
Dee - first I’d like to say that I hope you know that I really respect you.
I don’t want to get involved in a debate but I just wanted to say one thing.
I have seen time again where you have criticised the NHS. I don’t know if you have ever lived in the UK you know how it really works. If not, please do not make assumptions.
Lastly, I’d like to tell you a little story. Last year I had a surgery, obviously on the NHS. I didn’t pay a penny. Beforehand I joined a support forum which was largely American users with a small UK base. The UK forums posts were mostly concerned with, ‘Do I have this?’, ‘Should I see the GP’, ‘I’m having surgery, what next’, ‘Am I healing okay’.
Whereas every other day in the US forum there were posts from students and unemployed people saying they didn’t have insurance or the money to pay for it and what should they do? Was it okay for them to wait for the surgery etc etc?
In addition to this, there were many posts from American members requesting names of surgeons that did a particular technique of surgery. This technique is seen as complicated but the chances of recurrence are very low so obviously everyone would want it. So many users said their local surgeons hadn’t heard of it or weren’t prepared to do it and they would have to travel out of state to find one who would and pay a LOT more for this advanced technique.
In comparison, my surgeon did this technique on the NHS. Instead of potentially being almost bed ridden for 2-3months, I was back to work part time in 3 weeks and full time 5 weeks after.
I’m not saying the NHS is perfect. It has its flaws, especially since government started privatisation. Our New Labour government is even more to the right than most our Conservative governments have been.
BUT I know that whatever may befall me, whether I have money or not, I will be able to get good treatment. Whether I have an accident or life threatening disease.
The only criticism I would make is the double standards. If people can have breast implants and other cosmetic treatments on the NHS, some women should qualify for hair removal.
Thanks for reading.
I appreciate your thoughts very much and I will private message you when the spirit moves me with some insight about why the majority of Americans are dammed p-----! about the way our representatives are handling this issue here so as not to divert the purpose of this thread. I will say that America is not the United Kingdom and vice versa. Big government control eventually collapses under its own weight and goes bankrupt in the end so what good does that do for everyone. Actually, we are already bankrupt here and they want to spend trillions of dollars more? A financial sunami is coming worldwide and many just don’t get it yet. Well, maybe Greece does. We’ll have more to worry about other than hair removal in the near future.
Dee
Thanks for your response Dee. Like you say, USA and UK are vastly different. What works for us may not work for you and vice versa.
It is not just our hospitals but our whole way of living that is like this, from social security, NHS, almost free education (I did my undergraduate at a university that is now ranked 4th in the world and paid nominal fees, which would have been waived had my parents not been able to pay it).
It has been like this for many decades and I’m not many British citizens would change it. The things that aren’t working 100% effectively are the effects of privatisation and bureaucracy and not because the system implemented in inherently flawed.
I just wanted to put across that it works for us. I could go further to say that since I don’t have the worries of healthcare expenditure or education fees, I am in a better position to afford my hair removal.
Anecdotal stories are fine, but what interests me more is watching patterns that emerge over time. I spend too much time trying to understand socialized medicine, since this is the big debate happening here these days. I hang out on a couple websites. I will share with you the United Kingdom section of one website to give you an idea of why I am very distrustful and cynical about socialized medicine. In no way have I made a huge dent to read all I want to read, but I’m getting the basic idea by perusing a few articles from British media. I’ll copy this here to share and I sure hope your happy experience is enjoyed by most British citizens. Thanks Stoppit. It’s fun to talk about other things other than hair! 
[b]
Great Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) was created on July 5, 1948. As with all government programs, bureaucrats underestimated initial cost projections. First-year operating costs of NHS were 52 million pounds higher than original estimates1 as Britons saturated the so-called free system.
Many decades of shortages, misery and suffering followed until 1989, when some market-based health care competition was reintroduced to the British citizens2.
Unfortunately for those requiring care, a mostly socialist health care system has problems. The articles and commentaries in this section identify some disasters caused by government intervention in the British health care system.
I also recommend reading David G. Green and Laura Casper’s economic report, Delay, Denial and Dilution: The Impact of NHS Rationing on Heart Disease and Cancer to see the inevitable outcome of the necessary rationing of government health care.
Straight from the newspapers
* Labour's secret plan to send overweight children to NHS fat camps
- Laura Donnelly, September 6, 2009 [Telegraph UK]
* Burnham Forgets 230,000 on List
- Macer Hall, August 14, 2009 [Daily Express (UK)]
* £1.2bn bill for the bureaucrat army within the NHS
- Jenny Hope, August 13, 2009 [Daily Mail (UK)]
* Kidney cancer patients denied life-saving drugs by NHS rationing body NICE
- April 29, 2009 [Daily Mail (UK)]
* Girl, 3, has heart operation cancelled three times because of bed shortage
- David Rose, April 23, 2009 [Times Online]
* Number of children going to hospital to have teeth pulled soars by 66% since 1997
- Daniel Martin and Cher Thornhill, April 12, 2009 [Daily Mail (UK)]
* NHS 'failings' over elderly falls
- March 25, 2009 [BBC]
* Learning disabled 'failed by NHS'
- Nick Triggle, March 24, 2009 [BBC]
* Cancer survivor confronts the health secretary on 62-day wait
- Lyndsay Moss, March 21, 2009 [The Scotsman]
* Culture of targets prevents nurses from tending to patients
- Claire Rayner, President of the Patients Association, March 21, 2009 [Telegraph UK]
* Children being failed by health system, says head of watchdog
- Sarah Boseley, March 21, 2009 [Guardian Unlimited]
* Our cancer shame: Survival rates still lag behind EU despite spending billions
- Jenny Hope, March 20, 2009 [Daily Mail(UK)]
* Failing hospital 'caused deaths'
- March 17, 2009 [BBC]
* Health gap drive 'wasted money'
- Nick Triggle, March 14, 2009 [BBC]
* Longer GP opening hours branded wasteful 'PR exercise' by doctors
- Lyndsay Moss, March 13, 2009 [The Scotsman]
* "Political meddling" threatens general practice, warns GP leader
- March 13, 2009 [Management in Practice (UK)]
* Children at risk through lack of training for doctors and nurses, report warns
- Rebecca Smith, March 13, 2009 [Telegraph UK]
* Chocolate should be taxed to control obesity epidemic, doctors are told
- Simon Johnson, March 13, 2009 [Telegraph UK]
* 1,000 villagers wait for a dentist after just one NHS practice opens
- March 10, 2009 [Daily Mail(UK)]
* Study that proves the folly of NHS Alzheimer's drug ban
- Jenny Hope, March 7, 2009 [Daily Mail(UK)]
* NHS charges to rise in England
- March 5, 2009 [BBC]
* Disabled children wait up to two years for wheelchairs
- March 4, 2009 [Guardian Unlimited]
* NHS under fire over waiting times
- February 25, 2009 [The Scotsman]
* Government procrastination blamed for HIV-contaminated blood tragedy
- February 23, 2009 [Guardian Unlimited]
* Specialist nurses 'vastly overworked'
- February 20, 2009 [Harwich & Manningtree Standard]
* Hundreds of operations cancelled at Lothian hospitals
- Adam Morris, February 19, 2009 [The Scotsman]
* Stop asking for antibiotics to cure coughs and colds, Government tells patients
- Daniel Martin, February 17, 2009 [Daily Mail(UK)]
* Stroke services are 'UK's worst'
- February 17, 2009 [BBC]
* Hospitals curb caesarean births
- Sarah-Kate Templeton, February 15, 2009 [The Times]
* Only five out of 51 hospital trusts pass hygiene test, say inspectors
- Sarah Boseley, November 24, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited]
* Top doctors slam NHS drug rationing
- Sarah-Kate Templeton, August 24, 2008 [The Times]
* Heart patients dying due to poor hospital care, says report
- Sarah Boseley, June 8, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited]
* NHS dentistry loses almost a million patients after new dentists' contract
- David Rose, June 6, 2008 [The Times]
* Private healthcare managers could be sent to turn round failing NHS hospitals
- Philip Webster, Political Editor, and David Rose, June 4, 2008 [The Times]
* Cancer patients ‘betrayed’ by NHS
- Sarah-Kate Templeton, June 1, 2008 [The Times]
* NHS scandal: dying cancer victim was forced to pay
- Sarah-Kate Templeton, June 1, 2008 [The Times]
* Pensioner, 76, forced to pull out own teeth after 12 NHS dentists refuse to treat her
- Olinka Koster, March 26, 2008 [Daily Mail(UK)]
* Dental patients face care lottery
- March 26, 2008 [Metro(UK)]
* Lung patients 'condemned to death as NHS withdraws their too expensive drugs'
- Jenny Hope, March 24, 2008 [Daily Mail(UK)]
* Women in labour turned away by maternity units
- John Carvel, March 21, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited]
* Health inequality has got worse under Labour, says government report
- Andrew Sparrow, March 13, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited]
* Angry GPs reluctantly accept plan for weekend and evening surgeries
- John Carvel, March 7, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited]
* NHS chiefs tell grandmother, 61, she's 'too old' for £5,000 life-saving heart surgery
- Chris Brooke, February 28, 2008 [Daily Mail(UK)]
* Patient 'removed' from waiting list to meet target
- January 31, 2008 [The Scotsman]
* NHS patients told to treat themselves
- James Kirkup, January 4, 2008 [Telegraph UK]
* NHS is 'failing patients' despite record funding
- Rebecca Smith, October 4, 2007 [Telegraph UK]
* NHS rationing rife, say doctors
- September 24, 2007 [BBC]
* One in eight patients waiting over a year for treatment, admits minister
- John Carvel, June 8, 2007 [Guardian Unlimited]
* Audit Office asked to investigate record £500m NHS underspend
- John Carvel, May 30, 2007 [Guardian Unlimited]
* The drugs the NHS won't give you
- May 11, 2007 [Telegraph UK]
* UK lagging behind on cancer drug access, study finds
- May 10, 2007 [Guardian Unlimited]
* One in six trusts is still putting patients on mixed-sex wards
- Daniel Martin, May 10, 2007 [Daily Mail(UK)]
* Specialist stroke care 'lottery'
- May 9, 2007 [BBC News]
* Smokers and the obese banned from UK hospitals
- May 2, 2007 [Healthcare News]
* Cancer patients told life-prolonging treatment is too expensive for NHS
- Lyndsay Moss, February 13, 2007 [The Scotsman]
* UK health service "harms 10 percent of patients"
- Kate Kelland, July 7, 2006 [Reuters]
* 5,000 elderly 'killed each year' by lack of care beds
- June 26, 2006 [Telegraph UK]
* Dental Socialism in Britain
- Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., May 9, 2006 [LewRockwell.com]
* Pay for nurses and surgeons doubles NHS overspend
- Beezy Marsh, Patrick Hennessy and Nina Goswami, April 23, 2006 [Telegraph UK]
* The money addicts: it's your cash they are gambling with
- Patience Wheatcroft, April 23, 2006 [Telegraph UK]
* NHS chiefs get luxury car deals
- Daniel Foggo and Steven Swinford, April 9, 2006 [The Times]
* Secret NHS plan to ration patient care
- Nigel Hawkes, April 7, 2006 [The Times]
* British Healthcare To Be Rationed
- April 7, 2006 [United Press International]
* British body rejects EPO drugs for cancer patients
- March 17, 2006 [Reuters]
* National Health Service - Grappling with Deficits
- March 9, 2006 [Economist.com]
* Hundreds wait to register as another dentist quits the NHS
- Martin Williams, September 23, 2005 [The Herald (Scotland)]
* Life-saving cancer drugs 'kept from NHS patients by red tape'
- Sam Lister, September 20, 2005 [The Times]
* NHS slides into the red despite record increases in health care spending
- September 20, 2005 [Telegraph UK]
* Alzheimer's sufferers hit by further delay in NHS approval for vital drugs
- Michael Day, September 18, 2005 [Telegraph UK]
* We all pay a price for our 'free' NHS
- John Smith, August 19, 2005 [The Scotsman]
* 2,000 British doctors out of work
- August 14, 2005 [The Washington Times]
* UK health 'unsustainable'
- August 14, 2005 [Finance24]
* NHS faces rising bill for negligence claims
- Ben Hall, August 8, 2005 [Financial Times]
* British boy to go to India for operation
- August 5, 2005 [United Press International]
* NHS failed to stop doctor raping scores of women
- Lois Rogers and Jonathon Carr-Brown, July 31, 2005 [The Times]
* Top crimewriter funds drugs for cancer victim refused by NHS
- Martyn Halle, July 8, 2005 [Telegraph UK]
* Report says NHS is mired in huge debts
- David Simms, June 25, 2005 [ABC Money (UK)]
* U.K. set to restrict smoking
- June 21, 2005 [The Associated Press]
* NHS ‘fund bias’ against men may cost 2,500 lives a year
- Sarah-Kate Templeton, June 19, 2005 [The Times]
* Doubts on funding NHS 'monuments'
- Nicholas Timmins, June 10, 2005 [Financial Times]
* 17 million reasons why we must improve hospital meals
- June 7, 2005 [Cambridge Evening News]
* Figures show more patients waiting for operations
- June 3, 2005 [Guardian UK]
* Scarcity of NHS dental treatment is revealed
- Celia Hall, May 19, 2005 [telegraph.co.uk]
* Why NHS Opposes 'Treatment by Demand' for the Dying
- Stephen Howard and Jan Colley, PA, May 18, 2005 [Scotsman]
* 800 queue for NHS dentists
- May 5, 2005 [telegraph.co.uk]
* Hundreds more heroin addicts to be given a fix on the NHS
- Nic Fleming, April 25, 2005 [telegraph.co.uk]
* British health service facing nurse exodus
- April 25, 2005 [United Press International]
* About 400 patients a year in Scotland succumb to MRSA
- April 25, 2005 [Scotsman]
* NHS debts soar to over £1bn
- Karyn Miller, April 24, 2005 [telegraph.co.uk]
* British taxpayers foot $26.5 million bill for abortion tourists
- April 18, 2005 [Catholic World News]
* U.K. Liberal Democrats Would Raise Taxes to Pay for Health Care
- Reed Landberg, April 14, 2005 [Bloomberg]
* Number of NHS Bureaucrats 'Rising Faster Than Health Staff'
- Joe Churcher, March 22, 2005 [Scotsman]
* '£500m hole' in hospital budgets
- Celia Hall, March 21, 2005 [telegraph.co.uk]
* 1,000 Scots desert NHS every week
- Murdo Macleod, March 5, 2005 [Scotsman]
* British NHS facing financial crisis
- March 3, 2005 [Washington Times]
* NHS drugs regulator to withdraw approval of Alzheimer's treatment
- Nicholas Timmins, March 2, 2005 [FT.com - Financial Times]
* NHS waiting list rises
- February 11, 2005 [Guardian UK]
* Tumour patients hit by NHS shortages
- Jo Revill, February 6, 2005 [Guardian UK]
* NHS financial crises set to outlast winter
- Mike Waites, February 4, 2005 [Yorkshire Post]
* NHS 24 'priority' callers wait four hours for advice
- Caroline Wilson, January 14, 2005 [Evening Times (UK)]
* 'No strategy' on NHS waiting time
- January 14, 2005 [BBC]
* Output figures show NHS decline
- John Carvel, October 19, 2004 [Guardian UK]
* Heart patients die on waiting lists
- Peter Sharples, October 18, 2004 [Manchester Online]
* £25bn overspend feared for NHS computer network
- Karen Attwood, October 12, 2004 [telegraph.co.uk]
* Gaps in care cost £7bn, says charity
- John Carvel, October 4, 2004 [Guardian UK]
* NHS excluding poor people, UK
- September 15, 2004 [Medical News Today]
* Smokers 'should not get NHS care'
- September 6, 2004 [BBC News]
* Waiting list row blights Brighton
- John Carvel, September 4, 2004 [Guardian UK]
* Patients are denied the last rites under data protection law
- Elizabeth Day, July 25, 2004 [telegraph.co.uk]
* Shortage of dentists to double by 2011
- John Carvel, July 24, 2004 [Guardian UK]
* Britain's stiff upper lip gives way to a snarl
- Sarah Lyall, July 18, 2004 [The New York Times]
* Hospital Overcrowding A Cause of Superbug Infections
- John von Radowitz, July 1, 2004 [Scotsman.com]
* Hospital Crisis: Fallen Angels
- Lindsay Mcgarvie, May 23, 2004 [Glasgow Sunday Mail]
* Study finds British hospitals are still austere, cold, smelly and poorly maintained
- May 6, 2004 [News-Medical.net]
* Hospital bathrooms and showers: a continuing saga of inadequacy
- Andy Monro, MRCP & Graham P Mulley, DM, FRCP, May 2004 [Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine]
* Majority back public smoking ban
- March 24, 2004 [BBC]
* Discrimination Rampant In British Health Care
- Peter Moore, November 17, 2003 [365gay.com]
* PERIPATETICS—To the Medical Socialists of All Parties
- Sheldon Richman, September 2003 [FEE.org]
* Creeping Privatization?
Shortages of skilled workers, low morale, long queues for services, crumbling facilities and corrupt practises. - Roland Watson, August 6, 2001 [LewRockwell.com]
* The World's Worst HMO
- Stephen D. Moore, November 24, 1999 [Random Thoughts]
* Socialized Medicine in Great Britain: Lessons for the Oregon Health Plan
- Professor John Spiers, March 18, 1999 [Cascade Policy Institute]
* The Sickbed Which is Socialized British Medicine
- December 23, 1997 [NCPA]
* The British Way of Withholding Care
- Harry Schwarz, March 1989 [FEE.org]
Other European Countries
[Top]
* Only six potency pills per month to be covered by Social Insurance Institution
- August 13, 2004 [Helsingin Sanomat]
* Hospitals on the verge of a breakdown
Switzerland’s hospitals may be the envy of the world, but rising health costs and patient numbers are increasingly putting the system under strain. - July 24, 2003 [swissinfo.org]
* Sweden Edges Toward Free-Market Medicine
- A. Wess Mitchell, August 31, 2001 [NCPA]
* Netherlands aims to tackle health divide
Socioeconomic inequalities remain similar to those in the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries, despite a sustained effort over 20 years. - Tony Sheldon, October 13, 2001 [British Medical Journal]
* A Hard Lesson About Socialized Medicine
Europeans are now learning some hard facts of life about socialized medicine: there's no such thing as a free lunch.- September 23, 1996 [CATO]
* Paying The Price For Drugs In Europe
Whether they admit it or not, those who advocate 'making drugs more affordable for American seniors' are actually headed down a slippery slope to price controls, free-market analysts charge.- Stephen D. Moore, July 21, 2000 [NCPA] [/b]Thanks for all your searching Dee but if I could be bothered I could find as much information on the failings of the USA system. As I said, ours is not perfect but it works for the large majority.
In addition, I don’t rate sensationalist news.
Yes, my experience is enjoyed by most British Citizens, especially the unemployed an elderly. There is good reason why the country overwhelmingly is in favour of the NHS, unless we are all deluded. I hope you can say the same for the majority of residents in your country independent of their financial situation.
I would also like to point this article out:
As I said, I do not want to get into a debate. I don’t know your system very well and I’m afraid to say that these kinds of newspaper articles are not helpful in really understanding the situation in ours.
poster serah above says the NHS will pay for her 6 laser sessions. Whose correct?
Maybe a special “panel” had to review her case? When panels have to decide what they think you should be allowed to have or not be allowed to have, that pretty much interferes with your personal life. Thus, nothing is really free.
^No Dee, it doesn’t work like that. I’m not sure where you got this information from. Maybe you are getting confused with potential implementations for your country?
In the UK, ones family doctor, a GP, will be the first call and if he/she feels it is a serious problem (thick hair caused by PCOS, depression etc) you will be referred for treatment.
In the States, will any kind of insurance pay for Laser treatments?
Stoppit, what does the ‘pct’ do?
Without wishing to get into a debate, I agree with stoppit&tidyup. While I am respectful of your conduct and contribution here, there’s no way I can take seriously someone who lists the Daily Mail, the Daily Express et al as sources of information.
I realise that you are quoting someone else. However, it is of serious detriment to others’ understanding of the NHS for that person to merely quote article headlines as if one has verbal diarrhea. Without providing any background, history or analysis is lazy at best and at worst are disingenuous and lacking any form of objective in order to push an agenda. For instance, can or have you and your source compare English healthcare to Scottish healthcare? There are significant differences. Can or have either of you explain the decisions process over which meds the NHS should supply? I would say 90% of the articles are sensationalist and fail to back your points over the issue of social healthcare itself.
Politics features heavily into this - both party politics and policy. Another example: to understand waiting times, you need to understand the policy around waiting times. So does our education, in the example of shortage of dentists and doctors. Thus, you need to look at the funding for education and our education system. One also needs to understand our social policies, in addition to the structure of the NHS as an organisation itself. Can you see that the problems outlined in the bitesized headlines are tied to many other issues in the UK and thus are not truly reflective of the NHS? This is why the healthcare system is never going to be truly perfect - it relies on many other factors other than money, hospital buildings and doctors.
Many of the stories are regurgitated. Furthermore, the political bias of the newspaper and hence the party of the day, is a significant factor in the type of stories written. As Stopit has said, there are problems and discrepancies, but it is a much better system than what the US currently has.
To quote you:
na·ive
–adjective
1.
having or showing a lack of experience, judgment, or information; credulous: He is so naive to believes everything he reads.
Please don’t bother to read any of those sources given. Even the respectable publications will not make a difference if you first do not understand how the NHS works. Doing that might help one to have an objective understanding of the many different systems out there, and it will be more beneficial to do that than to tar “social healthcare” with the same brush simply because it aligns with one’s own bias. It’s wrong to slate something with very little understanding of it and I’ve said all this without once giving away my own political bias. Anyway, I’m leaving it at that for this thread.