Countess of Chester
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Posts
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No more referrals from Wales over the border to Chester, Health Authority not paying its bills again. Time for a true National Health Service and a level playing field for everyone. Health should not be devolved.
The term National Health Service should be referred to Trading Standards as there is no such thing- there are the whole England/Wales variations in standards, care and accessibility- some are better in wales than England and visa versa. Free prescriptions in Wales pay in England- it is a real Postcode Lottery. We are still in the EU (!!!) turn up to an English hospital with your E11 Medical card and see what they say when they try to tell you to go back to Wales.
Don’t forget that a dentist falls into NHS nd look at the farce it is to get a Dentist-
We are a country with a variable Health service depending on where you live.
[quote quote=166357]turn up to an English hospital with your E11 Medical card and see what they say when they try to tell you to go back to Wales.
[/quote]
Derek, it’s not people who turn up st the A&E department being turned away so this doesn’t apply. It’s the hospital Blocking referrals from Welsh GPs in the Betsi NHS administrative region. Which means that instead they will be diverted to the Maelor and Glan Clwyd. This is still unacceptable as it will increase strain on those hospitals and some people in the likes of Deeside etc… will be blocked from their nearest Hospital. Countess is designed to take on patients referred from certain nearby areas in Wales.
Matt, can I just check that immigrants (legal and illegal) will still be treated at the Countess ….. its not just an Anti-Welsh thing.
At least Brex-it will help kerb this shi …… hang on.
[quote quote=166362]Matt, can I just check that immigrants (legal and illegal) will still be treated at the Countess ….. its not just an Anti-Welsh thing.
At least Brex-it will help kerb this shi …… hang on.[/quote]
Immigrants (legal and illegal) turning up at Countess A&E will be treated. Immigrants (legal and illegal?) who have a Welsh address and attend a Welsh GP will Be referred to the Maelor etc… and not the Countess.
Immigrants (legal and illegal) who have an English address and attend an English GP will continue to be referred to the Countess.
Get your head round that one.
So in theory it is now more attractive as a migrant worker to live in England than it is in North Wales if you want the broadest options of healthcare and hospital access.
I asked the Chester MP what he thought about the situation yesterday. He hasn’t responded yet.
Thanks Matt. Would be interested in their response.
I do think Wales is more attractive for migrants NHS treatment because the prescription charge in England is £9.00 per item. When you see migrants with big bags of free drugs leaving the chemist near my house i think how lucky they are to live in Wales.
There has to be something wrong when a Deeside pensioner who has paid NI & Taxes for 40 years is refused referred treatment in Chester when a 3 month European immigrant can get referred there for treatment in preference to the fully paid up pensioner. That’s why the majority voted for Brexit, a fact lost on MP Lucas who knows better – The only time he will be going to London after the next election is on his holidays !
What is worrying is that if this trend continues where North Wales would not be able to access the excellent services of Broad Green, Christies, Alder Hey etc.
Our friends in the region of the wonderful Welsh Assembly building wouldn’t have a problem of course.I don’t know the details of the dispute between Wales & the Countess of Chester hospital over funding, but my first reaction is that Wales/ Betsi Cadwaladr should pay their fair share.
I do think an awful lot of money is ‘wasted’ on free prescriptions in Wales (and on free bus travel for pensioners, but that’s a different issue). It’s a lovely idea/ gesture to give everyone free prescriptions, but in a time of austerity it seems profligate to me. I don’t approve of free prescriptions for everyone. I think certain groups should get them for free (e.g. unemployed, children, pregnant women, students, those with chronic ailments that necessitate many different medications and /or wound dressings, etc.). I work and I could afford to pay the same charge as in England. When I lived in England there was a card you could buy for a year that cost the equivalent of one prescription per month. I got mine following an operation when I discovered in my local pharmacy to my complete surprise and horror that dressings, bandages, saline etc were charged for as prescriptions. My district nurse told me about the card and I was able to buy it and even backdate it so that I could claim back the then £60+ I’d just spent on dressings – I took the form and the receipts for dressings into the post office and was reimbursed then and there. I thought it was a fantastic deal and I think a system something like that still exists in England.
I’m not flush with cash but I could afford to pay for, say, a monthly prescription and the odd extra one – and there must be plenty of people who are wealthy and for whom paying would be next to nothing. If a person finds themselves in need of lots of prescriptions (like I did when I was living in England after my operation) then the card scheme (as it was then) seems to me to be a very fair way to reduce the financial burden considerably.
Incidentally, I know someone who was treated in the Walton Centre in Liverpool. I was incredibly touched to see that it had bilingual (Welsh & English) signs in the unit, which I thought was a lovely consideration for patients whose first language is Welsh. After some time in the Walton Centre my friend was moved to the orthopaedic hospital in Gobowen for several months – i.e. despite being from Denbighshire he didn’t spend any time in a hospital in Wales. He received excellent care. It would be an incredible disappointment to me if I discovered that Wales/ Betsi Cadwaladr was being irresponsible by taking advantage of the particular areas of expertise these hospitals in England provide and failing to adequately reimburse those hospitals.
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