This is the NHS

January 28, 2016 5:24 AM

The Guardian has been running news stories that highlight the UK healthcare system.

Some of the stories:

A night in A&E highlights the drinking culture of the country

Mental health crisis takes up increasing police time

"The chicken shop mile " shouldering the blame for a large portion of the nation's growing obesity

posted by Kitteh (19 comments total)

The UK should be proud of it despite its faults, and I hope the Tories never manage to sell it out to big business like they want to.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 5:26 AM on January 28, 2016 [13 favorites]

I hope the Tories never manage to sell it out to big business like they want to.

How to Dismantle the NHS in Ten Easy Steps
posted by Mister Bijou at 6:13 AM on January 28, 2016 [6 favorites]

How to Dismantle the NHS in Ten Easy Steps

Thanks! As if I needed more reasons to dislike Oliver Letwin and John Redwood.
posted by faceplantingcheetah at 6:27 AM on January 28, 2016

No kidding, the UK should be proud of the NHS. A grumpy elderly British relative of mine who made it into his nineties had to practically beat off all of the doctors and nurses and physical therapists with a stick, so much free medical care was thrown at him. Including free at-home care in many cases. (Though some of this may have been due to the efforts of his second wife, who was a very vocal advocate for him, and a strong social network of friends they had who were nearing the same age.)
posted by XMLicious at 6:37 AM on January 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

The amount regular people in Britain drink is shocking, this article from the great Mosaic talks about how this came about.

You can see how ingrained it is in the culture when even in the article about 'Britain on the Booze' Mark Rice-Oxley signs off by saying 'Right, I’m off for a stiff drink. Cheers.'

The whole situation is tragic.
posted by zeoslap at 6:52 AM on January 28, 2016

You can see how ingrained it is in the culture when even in the article about 'Britain on the Booze' Mark Rice-Oxley signs off by saying 'Right, I’m off for a stiff drink. Cheers.'

Match.com is trialing a condom dispenser that uses a breathalyzer in a London pub, in response to surveys in Britain on alcohol and dates.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:28 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Match.com is trialing a condom dispenser that uses a breathalyzer in a London pub, in response to surveys in Britain on alcohol and dates.

I'm telling myself this is a marketing gimmick, and no one could look at that idea and not think this will just result in more drunken unprotected sex. So that's as much of a rant as I'm going to have on the matter and I'll be over in the corner muttering marketing gimmick.
posted by SometimeNextMonth at 7:41 AM on January 28, 2016 [8 favorites]

British alcohol consumption is lower than Russia, Germany, France, Poland, Ireland, South Korea and Australia and several others. The Guardian has been on some sort of anti-booze crusade lately which I presume is for click bait reasons.
posted by colie at 7:46 AM on January 28, 2016 [7 favorites]

"The National Health Service is arguably the most complex organisation in western Europe. It employs 1.6m people, which puts it in the top five largest workforces in the world along with the US Department of Defense, McDonald's, Walmart and the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

The grauniad's.... This is the NHS
posted by Mister Bijou at 8:17 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

British alcohol consumption is lower than Russia, Germany, France, Poland, Ireland, South Korea and Australia and several others. The Guardian has been on some sort of anti-booze crusade lately which I presume is for click bait reasons.

Averages don't describe the granularity of a pouplation, especially when it comes to things like binge drinking which have disproportionate health and logistical impacts on Accident and Emergency rooms.....


"In his study of six EU member states, Leifman (2002) reported that when both drinkers and nondrinkers were included in the analysis, people in the United Kingdom had the highest annual frequency of heavy drinking (defined as drinking a bottle of wine or the equivalent on one occasion), and people in France had the lowest".

Source
posted by lalochezia at 8:33 AM on January 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

The Grauniad is certainly setting new standards for indepth reporting both at home and further afield. Good on them. I always get slightly taken aback by the depth of their coverage in USA which is better than most of the local big media. No bad for a loss making enterprise..
posted by adamvasco at 8:46 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh god stop talking the thought of having to go back to the fucking Hunger Games Healthcare of the US after having the NHS for five years is just fucking killing me.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 8:55 AM on January 28, 2016 [9 favorites]

I know! I'm like, "I just escape that hellish dystopia, why would you want to bring it here as well?"

It's like making it to Tomorrow-morrow Land and hearing people say, "You know what Tomorrow-morrow Land could really use? A Thunderdome!"
posted by kyrademon at 10:38 AM on January 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

A few years back there was a BBC (?) documentary called "Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day," which went all over the UK to capture the system's operations on a single day. Obviously it had a point of view to advocate, but just seeing what British patients get to take for granted was enough to make an American cry.
posted by praemunire at 11:18 AM on January 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Every time I read a MeFi or AskMe post having anything to do about the American health care system it makes me want to get down and kiss the floor of my Canadian doctor's office.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:40 AM on January 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

You Americans don't know how well off you are for being allowed to die in peace!!
posted by Burn_IT at 2:18 PM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

"In his study of six EU member states, Leifman (2002) reported that when both drinkers and nondrinkers were included in the analysis, people in the United Kingdom had the highest annual frequency of heavy drinking (defined as drinking a bottle of wine or the equivalent on one occasion), and people in France had the lowest".

Why would you do that? Given that we don't regard alcohol consumption in general as a problem, why is the number of non-drinkers in the population a relevant factor?

The myth that the French don't get shitfaced is belied by spending time with normal French people, in France, for a significant period of time. There are loads of things wrong with British drinking culture, but levels of intoxication have little to do with it. It's not that we get drunk too much, it's just that we're so bad at it.
posted by howfar at 2:48 PM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

The pieces about weekend drinking and takeaways are very Grauniad-scoldy, but they point to the gradual turnover of town centres, especially those of 'crap towns', to circuit pubs that are engineered for quick heavy drinking (nowhere to sit, emphasis on spirits) and cheap late-night food. During the day, the pubs are closed or empty, the takeaway shops are shuttered, and the remaining retail is pound shops and similar discounters selling the same range of items to pensioners and poor people who don't or can't drive to the out-of-town retail parks. All of this is the product of lots of small decisions made by central government and councils and private companies, and the NHS has to deal with the consequences.
posted by holgate at 5:12 AM on January 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

One of my favorite things about Call the Midwife is that occasionally characters will get to give little speeches about how this patient would have died horribly before the NHS, but now everything is wonderful and they will live a long healthy life. There was an episode where a woman whose childhood rickets had caused her to lose multiple pregnancies; her doctor just went 'nothing to worry about! the NHS will take care of everything!' and the episode ended with her lovingly cradling her adorable pink infant.

There is a downside, admittedly: in the most recent season finale, a patient with hyperemesis is sent on her way with a prescription for that new wonder drug, Thalidomide, as everyone congratulates each other and the NHS for the miracles of modern medical science. Also they keep turning up elderly people who were destroyed by the workhouses.
posted by nonasuch at 8:06 PM on January 29, 2016