[jumpy]

My dear old Ma, a retired Senior nursing sister SRN, who used to be in charge of several wards and operating theatres for 20 years in various different hospitals, finds the who business of the NHS sickening.
In her own words:

"Let the Doctors, Nurses and Consultants run the hospitals, not the damn bean counters!"

The nhs is a great idea, we pay for it out of our National Insurance contributions (for you yanks, that's part of the tax deducted by the inland revenue from your salary/wage), however due to what would appear to be excessive use of management and middle management for several decades the funding for new hospitals, equipment and trained staff who can actually afford to join and remain in the profession are now so far behind what we need them to be that the nhs needs a miracle, if nothing else.

Though I understand there to be serious and deeply ingrained problems with the nhs I would rather have an antiquated and inefficient service than none at all.
Do you guys over the pond have to pay for all of your medical treatment out of your own pocket as and when you need it, or is there some kind of 'welfare' in this respect to help out those who are too poor to afford decent medical care for themselves? - I have heard lost of stories about how hospitals won't treat a person because their medical insurance is not paid up... is that just bs?

Sadly I can see the nhs going the same way as the state pension in the UK; by the time I am old and decrepit and in need of more regular medical care there will be no provision for those past retirement age to afford anything but the most cursory care. It's all very well for people to say 'start saving whilst you're young and get a private pension/healthcare insurance whilst you can' but I don't actually know anyone in my group of friends who can afford to put any money aside for such a thing. Besides, if you invest money in a company or state pension scheme, what's to stop some unscrupulous directors or chancellor of the exchequer coming along and stealing all of it for a new Jaguar car or villa in Spain?

The mismanagement of the NHS is one of the reasons my mum left work in the first place- after starting work with the St. Johns Ambulance service at 16, then going on to study to be a nurse and to finally reach the highest position of her nursing career as a senior nursing sister, she reached a point when she just couldn't be bothered trying to make things better in the face of constant adversity.
As far as she's concerned nothing has changed and standards of care have fallen even lower.
She went for a hysterectomy about 8 years ago and was appalled at the state of hygiene in the room she was in and I can't say I blame her- there was dust on the window ledges and on top of the bedside lockers, plastic sterile instrument wrappers discarded under the bed... if it had been her ward then whomever was responsible for the cleaning would have been chewed out in front of the entire shift and made to do the most basic remedial duties under the close supervision of the ward sister or other senior member of staff.
Another thing she didn't like was being addressed by her christian name. Being old-skool in her attitude to hospital standards and discipline she found this to be symptomatic of the lack of care and drive to perfection and high standards in the nhs today. "If the damn wards were cleaned properly and patient isolation where infectious bacteria and communicable diseases are concerned was maintained, then 'super-bugs' wouldn't be such a serious issue. And I wish to be addressed as Mrs. Jump, thank you."
Hehe, she's such an old trooper, back in her day the hospital was run with military efficiency and hierarchical discipline at the core of patient care and woe betide you if you stepped out of line or made a foolish mistake more than once. I have to say I am entirely in agreement with her. For the most part.