Originally Posted by brettarider

But we should be doing something we are getting ripped off left rigth and centre with health care tourism

Says the man whose fellow Porridge Wogs benefit from free prescriptions courtesy of English Tax Payers!

Originally Posted by MittMayo

Originally Posted by brettarider

But we should be doing something we are getting ripped off left rigth and centre with health care tourism

Says the man whose fellow Porridge Wogs benefit from free prescriptions courtesy of English Tax Payers!

We've just fee prescriptions over in N.I.,ta very much :D

Originally Posted by countymounty

Originally Posted by MittMayo

Originally Posted by brettarider

But we should be doing something we are getting ripped off left rigth and centre with health care tourism

Says the man whose fellow Porridge Wogs benefit from free prescriptions courtesy of English Tax Payers!

We've just fee prescriptions over in N.I.,ta very much :D

You need a prescription for a spell checker then! :P

Originally Posted by MittMayo

Originally Posted by countymounty

Originally Posted by MittMayo

Originally Posted by brettarider

But we should be doing something we are getting ripped off left rigth and centre with health care tourism

Says the man whose fellow Porridge Wogs benefit from free prescriptions courtesy of English Tax Payers!

We've just fee prescriptions over in N.I.,ta very much :D

You need a prescription for a spell checker then! :P

Yes and it's FREE! :D On prescription :D :D

Originally Posted by countymounty

Originally Posted by Sundog

Originally Posted by DeltaDog

Originally Posted by Engineer01

Originally Posted by countymounty

Good idea! Lets go along with it for junkies,drunks,tossers who get lost up mountains etc.,save the tax payer a few quid.

You show great ignorance by comparing junkies and drunks with people who get lost up mountains.

I think he was referring to the airhead pricks who wander off up Snowdon in traners and tshirts, with no supplies - and expect mountain rescue to come and get them when the weather changes/it gets dark/they sprain an ankle.

MRT are funded entirely by voluntary contributions and donations.
They are nothing to do with the NHS or Ambulance Service trusts, are are not run at taxpayers expense.

I am well aware that M.R.T. ARE VOLUNTARY, however,Crab Air,and the Coastguards are not! Neither for that matter are the police,all of these people have better things to be doing than spending OUR money on idiots, I believe these people should pay for their own self indulgence.Accidents can and do happen,but for those who cause their own misfortune ---- pay! up

Sounds like another Quango is required to decide who should, or should not pay, it will be based on a means test I suppose.
I still stand by my original comment as one mountain adventurer (however poorly equiped) is worth a hundred drunks or druggies.

If only more were like Seb Green, the teenager who in May 2008 went off on a sponsored trek to raise £20k to pay back the costs of the rescue, as he had got into difficulties solely through his own stupidity.

Originally Posted by DavidBOC

Your NHS seems fairly good about collecting. I spent a couple of days in a NHS hospital after an ambulance trip from Heathrow due to a gallbladder attack. They clearly wanted to see my AMEX card before discharge although the price was extremely reasonable by US standards. Without AMEX I might still be in that hospital.

Well I guess thats where the special relationship ends, had you been part of the EU all of that would have been 'gratis' UK tax payers, to be recouped at a later 'non existent' date. Welcome to your future ala Obama.

Mountain Rescue?I sh+t you not, around here in Garmisch tourists who get knackered or twist their foot regularly phone for a TAXI!Yep, 2000 metres up a fcuking mountain and they want Midnight to come and get them off the Zugspitze!!......................and everybody says the Germans don´t have sense of humour. :D

Oh well at least I´ve got a credit card maschine!

Originally Posted by brettarider

Originally Posted by DavidBOC

Your NHS seems fairly good about collecting. I spent a couple of days in a NHS hospital after an ambulance trip from Heathrow due to a gallbladder attack. They clearly wanted to see my AMEX card before discharge although the price was extremely reasonable by US standards. Without AMEX I might still be in that hospital. Excellent care, nice staff but the shepherds pie was clearly made from an old and gamy shepherd.

In the US we have similar problems with the welfare moms and assorted kin equivalents who regard the fire department as an excellent no cost substitute for a taxi, thereby saving money for drink, junk food, drugs etc. They quickly learn that fever does not work and learn to mention "breathing funny" "shaking like a seisure", "lips a funny color" to ensure service by the big red-light taxi.

Why a fire engine? Read the book the corner by David Simon were he spent a year with the very sortsof people you mention and trying to get medical care/treatment grim reading.

But we should be doing something we are getting ripped off left rigth and centre with health care tourism

Sorry if I got people confused. In the US generally ambulances and fire trucks use red lights and police use blue lights. My reference to "red-light taxi" meant ambulance but I was unclear. If this was the NAAFI Bar I suppose a red-light taxi could refer to a small rolling brothel :D

Actually in the US the rate of serious fires has been dropping for years and many fire departments across the US have taken over the ambulance services so ambulances are often run by fire departments. In my state and in many states no hospital can turn away emergency patients or women in labor but the hospitals get reimbursed by the state for services provided to the uninsured.

The dispatchers at a 911 center (or a 999 centre) have to be trained to send the appropriate assistance for the nature of a call (e.g. heart attack sympptoms get paramedics but a broken wrist gets EMT's) but citizens have learned to game the system to attempts to ensure a fast response. In the city I work for all fire trucks are staffed with EMT's and some have paramedics. When the next class graduates from training every fire truck will have at least one Paramedic. Why?? If an ambulance will be delayed in any way the nearest fire truck is dispatched also to help the patient until ambulance arrives.

I have not read "The Corner" or seen the TV show but I do know it is based on events 18 years ago and probably does not accurately reflect the US healthcare system today.

You might want to look at a book called "Blood Sweat and Tea" by Tom Reynolds of the London Ambulance. He also has a great blog Random Acts of Reality Good reading by anyone concerned with EMS in any country.

Originally Posted by Engineer01

I still stand by my original comment as one mountain adventurer (however poorly equiped) is worth a hundred drunks or druggies.

Daft comment really, I mean why would you say a 'mountain adventurer' - whatever one of those is, I think the Victorians had them, who puts peoples lives at risk by endangering themselves is worth 100 drunks? I've been drunk 1000's of times and nobody died apart from a few liver and brain cells. You're in the wrong place to demonise drunks, you really are.