I had 2 appointments cancelled, just called to rebook and was told I could not be seen without a mask.
Asked the usual question about why: if the other people are wearing masks and have been vaxxed - are they not protected? Got an idiot health safety protocol spiel. This has to end.
"Primary Care" is when you have some health problem and want to see a doctor. This means registering with a local health centre which they call a "surgery" and they are bound by law to accept literally anyone who shows up. Their only get-out is if you live geographically closer to another different surgery. They try to make you show ID to register but if you say no they can't do anything.
"Secondary care" (hospital treatment) is when it gets weird, yes they are supposed to do various checks on citizenship and residence permits. Because EU people used to be allowed treatment it has got confusing since Brexit whether for example someone from Germany still qualifies for free treatment via the NHS. Theoretically if you are a foreign tourist with appendicitis yes they will try to bill your travel insurance. I have no idea how well that works for them. They would definitely NEVER say hard luck buddy you don't look as if you qualify so please leave the building and die in the street.
I have avoided the NHS as much as possible for all my life but when I had a hospital visit recently they clearly did try extremely hard to track me down on their computer, on which I did not exist because I never use them.
Many people have private contracts for medical either because they pay for them or because provided as part of their reward package by their employer. I have such a thing but when I had an acute emergency I was straight into the NHS machine. Private medical is for less-urgent elective surgery. Yes there can be a long wait for NHS treatment and you can short-circuit that by paying - often paying to see the same guy who would eventually have treated you via the NHS.
NHS pretty rocky these days, but in comparison to back in the day when poor people just suffered and died it is a godsend. You will find precisely zero people in the UK who regard it as evil socialism etc.
Thanks for taking the time to explain that. I appreciate it. Just to clarify, if you don't mind. In your second to last paragraph, did you mean that a doctor who sees patients privately, might also work for the NHS?
What about specialty doctors, like eye or allergy or cardiology? Does the NHS have plenty of them to go around as well? And is dentistry part of the NHS? I've heard chiropodists referred to in some of my programmes, lol. :D Is that akin to a podiatrist? (Foot doctor but necessarily an MD)
Yes, medical professionals work for themselves mostly as independent contractors - I think. Not one myself so don't know. They contract to the NHS but also sell their individual services. Anecdotal stories are full of people who were on a 6-month waiting list to see Doctor Smith, but then decided to pay to see a doctor and the following week got seen non-NHS by... Doctor Smith.
About 30 years ago the UK government managed to force dentistry into a sort of limbo where patients could still get NHS treatment but had to pay part of the cost. Still like that.
Physio therapists and chiropodists increasingly live in a similar limbo where they are sort-of available via NHS but many people pay for the service outside of NHS. It's because physio and chiropody are relatively cheap.
Hmm. I see. Thanks!