National Health Service

[Basil-Don]

The NHS of course remains the biggest employer in Europe which is probably just as well with sick rates within this institution running at a shameful 17%,no organisation in the world is guilty of such waste and contempt of taxpayers as our wonderful NHS,why oh why do we put up with it? How many times do we get told its FREE ?,err hold up its free to non tax payers but to anyone whos worked all their life and paid their national insurance payments it represents terrible 'value for money'. How much of taxpayers money is going to fund very generous sick pay and lavish pensions for NHS staff,a nurse or porter can claim FULL sick pay for 6 months,now if i had paid into a private healthcare scheme the provider would have made a healthy profit but im certain that more of my money would have went on actual treatments then is the case with the NHS,shouldnt the Tories do the decent thing and finally kill off this discredited institution?

[Eastside Urchin]

I have two friends who both work in the NHS,in fact they both work in the same ward at the same hospital (not a local one)

At a dinner party a few weeks ago (they are engaged to each other) they both admitted to the practice of "throwing sickies" when they wanted time off,my male friend had 6 periods of sickness in the 18 or so months upto now and each time has gone to his superiors and claimed stress related issues,each time he has been signed off for a minimum if 1 month on full pay with nothing actually wrong with him.Appsrantly this us common practice

[Basil-Don]

I have two friends who both work in the NHS,in fact they both work in the same ward at the same hospital (not a local one)

At a dinner party a few weeks ago (they are engaged to each other) they both admitted to the practice of "throwing sickies" when they wanted time off,my male friend had 6 periods of sickness in the 18 or so months upto now and each time has gone to his superiors and claimed stress related issues,each time he has been signed off for a minimum if 1 month on full pay with nothing actually wrong with him.Appsrantly this us common practice

 

the fact is if they were employed by a private health care provider they would have been dismissed,everytime they go sick an agency worker needs to be hired meaning that taxpayers money which should have been spent on treating the sick is spent on sick cover.

[Eastside Urchin]

Indeed,we laughed about it at the party but on the way home we both agreed it was a pretty shocking confession but hardly surprising

[Basil-Don]

An American pays in a dollar to a private health care provider,a Briton pays in a pound to the NHS,who do we think gets better value for money? The private business isnt going to employ 'sicknote' workers who will cut into their profit margin,in a comepetitive market they are also going to be determined to provide the best possible care to their customers,they can take out their profit margin and still spend more of their money on actually treating the sick then the NHS does.