New hip anybody?

[Jacob]

My daughter works in the local hospital... 2 things:

1. Covid is causing less delays for some ops now because a) a lot of people are afraid of being admitted and b) morbidly, a lot of the people who would have had hip ops have died from covid.
2. £7k for the hip op is very cheap. Bupa does a £10k all in package - surgery, physio, stays in hospital, everything...

NHS for me. Cost zero (for attn. of our American friends!).

 

[Phil Pascoe]

NHS spending in England was around £129 billion in 2018/19 and is expected to rise to nearly £134 billion by 2019/20, taking inflation into account.

Cost to the Country. Rather a lot. Zero cost it is not.

 

[doctor Bob]

Seeing as how I haven't really hit the NHS for a lot, I'd like to think I'm paying for your hip over the last few years Jacob ..................

 

[Ozi]

Good luck Jacob, I'm sure it's a daunting prospect but the results will be worth it.

 

[nickds1]

After a lifetime of sport - rugby, judo, skiing, cycling, running, long distance swimming etc. my left knee just collapsed a couple of months ago whilst I was jogging on the treadmill...

After an MRI, turns out that the knee is completely shot - bone on bone now, bits everywhere - it just seems to have gone *bang*. Really frustrating as I had a load of half-marathons, couple of marathons and potentially my first triathlon this year, plus all the club cycling and distance swimming...

I was 63 this week. Now waiting on triage...

 

[Jacob]

NHS spending in England was around £129 billion in 2018/19 and is expected to rise to nearly £134 billion by 2019/20, taking inflation into account.

Cost to the Country. Rather a lot. Zero cost it is not.

Explainer for Phil; zero cost it is, to me that is.
I do not need to cheque my bank balance, insurances, raise a mortgage, sell my house, face bankruptcy, like some unfortunates in other countries.
Support the NHS. I'm happy to pay my taxes. And I'm happy for my taxes to pay for the expensive care of people much more needy than me.
The net cost per individual is very much lower than private health care and is much more efficient.
Oddly it'll probably be done by a privatised operation payed by the NHS as they have farmed out the profitable routine ops, leaving the NHS with everything else. It's being sold off bit by bit. Not good news.

 

[TominDales]

My daughter works in the local hospital... 2 things:

1. Covid is causing less delays for some ops now because a) a lot of people are afraid of being admitted and b) morbidly, a lot of the people who would have had hip ops have died from covid.
2. £7k for the hip op is very cheap. Bupa does a £10k all in package - surgery, physio, stays in hospital, everything...

That makes sense, probably uneven picture around the country. Either way, I recommend Jacob get on the waiting list as soon as possible, hips only deteriorate. There comes a point where the synovial fluid starts to soften the bone and it chips and it become difficult to walk. An x-ray should show how bad it is.

I have to say my visit to the local hip ward was like visiting gods waiting room. I was the youngest by far so not that surprised by your daughters comment, its an operation dominated by the elderly - and a successful one at that. In no time we were walking up and down the corridors.

Maybe we have some more bills flowing in for mum. it was all done in a terrible rush over so I could be in for a another bill from the family, my brother just handed them his CC, it was bit like talking to the undertaker, you just hand over the money in an emotional state.

 

[Jacob]

That makes sense, probably uneven picture around the country. Either way, I recommend Jacob get on the waiting list as soon as possible, hips only deteriorate. There comes a point where the synovial fluid starts to soften the bone and it chips and it become difficult to walk. An x-ray should show how bad it is.

I have to say my visit to the local hip ward was like visiting gods waiting room. I was the youngest by far so not that surprised by your daughters comment, its an operation dominated by the elderly - and a successful one at that. In no time we were walking up and down the corridors.

Maybe we have some more bills flowing in for mum. it was all done in a terrible rush over so I could be in for a another bill from the family, my brother just handed them his CC, it was bit like talking to the undertaker, you just hand over the money in an emotional state.

I'm on it, thanks for the tip. Had the X rays now waiting for triage phone call. I note the deterioration comment. Seems like it happens slowly over years (7 or 8 for me) but you pass various points of no return e.g. from difficulty getting leg over bike, to impossibility. Hard to get a sock on foot etc.

 

[Peterm1000]

That makes sense, probably uneven picture around the country. Either way, I recommend Jacob get on the waiting list as soon as possible, hips only deteriorate. There comes a point where the synovial fluid starts to soften the bone and it chips and it become difficult to walk. An x-ray should show how bad it is.

I have to say my visit to the local hip ward was like visiting gods waiting room. I was the youngest by far so not that surprised by your daughters comment, its an operation dominated by the elderly - and a successful one at that. In no time we were walking up and down the corridors.

Maybe we have some more bills flowing in for mum. it was all done in a terrible rush over so I could be in for a another bill from the family, my brother just handed them his CC, it was bit like talking to the undertaker, you just hand over the money in an emotional state.

Are you in Ripon? If so, I hope that is it from a cost standpoint... I am just outside London so maybe it costs more here. After the op, all that was left was a follow up with the consultant 6-8 weeks later and weekly physio sessions for about 8-10 weeks.

I do think it might be worth paying for the physio privately, even if you get the op done on the NHS (which is probably better than private anyway - bigger hospital = bigger toolkit and more facilities if there is a problem). It's only about £40 a session and you can go at your convenience.

 

[Lons]

That's incredibly cheap by today's standards. £7k is almost exactly half the price my son's MiL paid for her bog standard hip replacement early last December at the Nuffield Newcastle., We're having to pay over £9k for my wife's heel operation and that's after managing a discount of more than £1k. Most are hospital and physio costs but consultations are minimum £200 a go and an MRI is £550, I've just paid the invoices!

My wife had both hips replaced in 2016 with just a 7 week gap between operations and the results were excellent.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Explainer for Phil; zero cost it is, to me that is.

I'm not about to get into a political argument about the NHS, I just get get peed off with people saying it's free. It's not.

 

[Jacob]

Bills, bills!
I guess two thirds of the population could not afford anything like these quoted.
I certainly couldn't - I would be bankrupt by now, on top of earlier treatments of self and family.
This is why we need the NHS, which, interestingly, is highly efficient but costs far less per capita than the inefficient USA public sector. We do it a lot cheaper with a much smaller call on taxation.

 

[TominDales]

That's incredibly cheap by today's standards. £7k is almost exactly half the price my son's MiL paid for her bog standard hip replacement early last December at the Nuffield Newcastle., We're having to pay over £9k for my wife's heel operation and that's after managing a discount of more than £1k. Most are hospital and physio costs but consultations are minimum £200 a go and an MRI is £550, I've just paid the invoices!

My wife had both hips replaced in 2016 with just a 7 week gap between operations and the results were excellent.

I wonder if my mum paid the rest. She shouldn't have but probably has. They live in Rutland/Leicestershire, but she had to go to Nottingham as Peterborough and Leicester hospitals were full to the brim with Covid patients - that second wave was in full swing. My brother organised it as he lives nearby and I went to stay to looked after my dad who has early onset dementia. What should have been a four day trip, I stayed 3 weeks. She was only in hospital for a couple of days and got discharged because of the Covid fears even though she could not walk, it took her nearly 3 months to re-learn to walk due to two painful clots and she had a bleed - that made the surgeon swear at me at 11pm at night - he apologised - but I didn't mind as it showed he cared. It was all touch and go as she was on treble strength heparin for the blood thinning and had a bleed. We did one physio session with the hospital by zoom. Fortunately a neighbour is a retired physio and he popped round every day and got her going and eventually driving again.

My hip was no problem, I wast out of hospital in a couple of days and walking with a stick within a couple of weeks and back at work driving at 6 weeks. So for Jacob's sanity, most hips go smoothly. In my mums case, it was left too long and complications started to set in even before the operation.

 

[Jacob]

I'm not about to get into a political argument about the NHS, I just get get peed off with people saying it's free. It's not.

Oh yes it is free, and you are kicking off a political argument!
I get peed off with people saying it isn't, as though we are deluded and don't realise that it's paid for by taxation.
Free means free. If someone gives you a pint of beer it's a free pint of beer, unless you have a different technical meaning for "free".
If you pay for something it is not free. If someone else does, then it is free.

 

[Lons]

Bills, bills!
I guess two thirds of the population could not afford anything like these quoted.
I certainly couldn't - I would be bankrupt by now, on top of earlier treatments of self and family.
This is why we need the NHS, which, interestingly, is highly efficient but costs far less per capita than the inefficient USA public sector. We do it a lot cheaper with a much smaller call on taxation.

Absolutely agree but it's the best part of a 2 year waiting list and she'll be in a wheelchair in under 6 months if we don't do it, sometimes you just have to find the money even if it meant borrowing for those who can it's hobsons choice. Just think, if working for yourself and the choice was totally unable to work withing a few months then maybe 18 months no income it's not much of a choice.

In my wife's case we know for certain the outcome as her other heel had to be done in 2018 and because of delays in the system it became a much more difficult and complicated operation that it should have been.

 

[TominDales]

I note the deterioration comment. Seems like it happens slowly over years (7 or 8 for me) but you pass various points of no return e.g. from difficulty getting leg over bike, to impossibility. Hard to get a sock on foot etc.

Yes that was my experience, gradually catches up with you, but then tips over into chronic all consuming pain. The membrane protecting the bone gets rubbed away (no technical speak) and so the bone gets exposed to the synovial fluid and starts to soften -think of damp wood swelling and splintering. These splinters become agonising. I caught it in time, hence why I suggest there is some urgency to it. The NHS consultant kept playing for time - they give you an Oxford pain scale test and I was a bit too brave about it. I was not sleeping well and my boss who had just had his hip done gave me less than 12 months before the pain/immobility set in. (Its this that drives people to the private sector - the pain is unbearable - I'm sure from the description of my grandparents, its what their parents died of). You read of war heroes like Noel Mason McFarlane dyeing of arthritis before the hip replacement came in.
In my case I limped along for nearly 10 years with an increasingly bad back and got stiff to the point I could not touch my feet let alone toes.

 

[JobandKnock]

Oh yes it is free, and you are kicking off a political argument!
I get peed off with people saying it isn't, as though we are deluded and don't realise that it's paid for by taxation.
Free means free.

How about "free at the point of delivery", then? Or is that too pedantic?

 

[Jacob]

How about "free at the point of delivery", then? Or is that too pedantic?

It'd suit the Jeremiahs but yes, is fairly pedantic! What things are free, but not at the point of delivery?

 

[RobinBHM]

NHS spending in England was around £129 billion in 2018/19 and is expected to rise to nearly £134 billion by 2019/20, taking inflation into account.

Cost to the Country. Rather a lot. Zero cost it is not.

The NHS is free at the point of use, which I imagine is what Jacob meant.

That means every person in this country can get treated without having to worry whether they can afford it.

I would not like that principal to be changed.

 

[Jacob]

The NHS is free at the point of use, which I imagine is what Jacob meant.

That means every person in this country can get treated without having to worry whether they can afford it.

I would not like that principal to be changed.

No, I meant it is simply free.
Any thing "free" is "free at point of use", however it came to be provided.
It's a redundant right wing "trope" which pleases our gloomy Jeremiahs, or Eeyores.

Maybe Phil mutters to himself "oh no it isn't" every time he sees a sign saying, for instance, "free parking"? Or what about things offered "FTAGH" - some confusion there?

On the other hand if anybody needed a reminder you could say "provided free by the community", but that's horribly close to the dreaded "communism" and could make some sad people uneasy.