The NHS

The National Health Service. It’s like an exotic animal to most Americans who just don’t get the concept of nationalized healthcare. Is it socialist? Do you have to wait for months to get a doctors appointment? Well today I will answer all of your questions.

Most of you know that I’m a type I diabetic on an insulin pump. This of course has been one of my bigger concerns with moving to a new country. Will they have the same medications and treatment options? What if they don’t?

Why is there a picture of a white tiger in the middle of this post? I don't know, it seemed exotic.

The Adventure Begins…How it typically works is that you have a medical practice that is “yours” based on where you live. You go in, register with your practice by showing your passport and proof of address and then 24 hours later you can start receiving services.  

Last Tuesday David and I went and registered. That day I was able to make an appointment to meet with a nurse the following week to get my prescriptions sorted out.  Yesterday I went for that appointment.

I arrived to find out that apparently there were some clerical errors. I wasn’t properly registered, then they couldn’t find my appointment. Despite this, I was still able to meet with a nurse at the same time. Then the nurse informed me that I shouldn’t have met with her first, but should have had a New Patient exam first. Whoops.

So we get down to the reason I was there, to get my prescriptions. Did you bring the UK equivalent of your medications? Um…no.  So the search begins. She takes a look at the drug names and searches the computer database, no answer. Now we turn to books. Meanwhile I take out my hand iPhone and begin googling. Want to take a guess on who figured out what the UK equivalents were? That would be me.

Snafoos aside, within about 30 minutes I had prescriptions for two medications that we think are the equivalent of the US versions. Let the experimentation begin! Oh and did I mention that there was no co-pay or any cost for meeting with the nurse?

I then walked to my local pharmacy and dropped off my prescriptions. One of them I was given a three month supply of absolutely free. The other will cost me £7.40 per month. £7.40 per month, that’s like $12.

In the US our monthly medical expenditures between monthly insurance coverage, co-pays for prescriptions and doctors visits, deductibles, uncovered costs, etc. were probably costing us on average about $350 per month because I am lucky enough to have a pre-existing chronic illness. Here it will cost us about $52 (I also have private insurance coverage which costs about $40/month).

We don’t have it all figured out yet, but so far it seems pretty amazing. I have no idea how the private insurance works, or if we will need it (I’ve been told that it’s a fast-track ticket to specialists, and gives access to private doctors and hospitals). Nor can I really speak to the socialist nature of it, but it’s an amazing feeling to have your basic health needs taken care of as a right, not as a luxury.