Palma09/02/2018 00:00
One thing which most people agree on is that the Spanish health service is second to none. In fact, and speaking from personal experience, I would say that it is one of the finest in Europe. It appears to be well funded with modern hospitals and facilities. The British National Health Service could learn a lot from its younger Spanish counterpart. It also must be remembered that the Spanish health service only has a fraction of the budget available to its British counterpart.
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I had always believed that the Health Costs to the Spanish/Baleares , caused by British visitors ,was reciprocated at the end of each financial year ( Fiscal Year-April ). The Spanish/Baleares etc. visitors to the UK ,incur costs when using the National Health Service. and the two costings are balanced at their respective period assessments. Then, which Service has incurred the most cost, will be corrected by the Service with the lower cost, by balancing the difference.
RBMM is not considering the size of the UK which is geographically small compared with France Germany or Spain, there is just no room left for economic migrants. Sorry but it’s just a fact. But the point was UK can’t afford non contributors to the NHS.
The problem with that is that Spain’s different regions have different tax bands and finance their health system using different methods. In other words, Spain does not have one health service, it has 17, the Balearics one being one of the ones with the least client satisfaction.
I agree completely with Jason Moore that all countries must learn from other countries which have found better solutions to any problem. The "not invented here" syndrome that some of the people here advocate is absurd. TG argues that there are problems due to refugees/migrants. The UK hasn't even taken its share of these people considering the population in the UK. In that respect Germany and Sweden stand out for having accepted more refugees than other countries - but that is a different question. About health care it is a question both of access and about results (how many survive various illnesses). The Netherlands stands out in terms of the quality of medical services so why not learn from what is done in the Netherlands. If Spain has succeeded in other areas - of course - we should learn from them. Everything else would be just crazy.
Ask any GP receptionist who have seen the traumatic increase in migrant registrations to the NHS. Individuals, partners, families, close family members, distanced family members and extended family members. None if which have payed anything into the NHS. The EU laws have massively contributed to the NHS problems.
The Spanish one sends a bill to the British government for every cost that it spends on the British. The NHS does not do this in reverse as they do not treat the NHS as a business. I blame the Unions for keeping the NHS in a backward operation.
To further Mr James’s comment, you are very wrong in quoting that the Spanish NHS only has a fraction of the money available to the UK one. A quick glance at the statistics available on the internet will show that both countries dedicate roughly 9% of their GNP to this cause. You also say that the UK NHS is older than the Spanish one. Not true. It was more or less available in a very basic form in the 1920’s. Franco inaugurated a universal system after the civil war had finished, at the end of the 1930’s. The UK one was started in 1948Another thing to take into account is that the bloated Spanish civil service has a subsidised private health insurance scheme, paid for by the taxpayer, which is why there are so many private hospitals.
First and foremost,there is no comparison of the two systems,which you know full well but chose to ignore in your latest anti-British government attack. The NHS is used by close on 65 million people whereas the Spanish health service is largely a private health service funded by very heavy personal contributions,as Richard Pearson has pointed out,do you seriously think that if 65 million people used the Spanish health service,it would not totally collapse.? Secondly,Trump in yet another of his cretinous tweets assumed that protests by NHS workers were anti-government protests,they were not,they were in support of the NHS but asking for more funding,a fact that you must know but have twisted and ignored in your latest anti-British government attack,perhaps you should change your name to Haw-Haw or Goebbels?.
Jason, the figures quoted are not correct. The social costs in Spain per employee are very high, around 35% of the basic salary, which in part go to pay the NHS. This is one of the reasons businesses think twice about hiring new staff. Son Espases, like many other public hospitals, was built and paid for by private enterprise, and is being leased to the local health service.
In general, I agree that the Health Service in Mallorca is better than that in the UK. However, I have been waiting since the end of October for an MRI scan on my spine, despite my doctor putting "priority" on the request form. PS - Mike, your comment would have been easier to read and understand if there had been some punctuation marks and capital letter !