Reply #12: I had exceptional care in London [View All]

[kaygore]

I had a wonderful experience in the U.K. this past November. I was visiting London soon after the 2006 mid-term election. I had been diagnosed with a tear in the macula of my left eye before I left for my vacation and was to have the surgery scheduled once I returned to the U.S.

While in London late one evening, I experienced flashing lights in my left eye. When I called my surgeon in the U.S., he told me to go to the emergency room immediately. The nearest hospital to my friend’s flat was the Moorfields Eye Hospital. I arrived there about 10:00 p.m. UK time.

The place was like no emergency room I had ever experienced in the U.S. To cite one example, when my dad was dying of cancer, I waited with my dad at Norfolk Sentara Leigh’s emergency room after he had been sent there by his oncologist to be admitted immediately. Instead we waited six hours as my dad’s kidneys were failing and only got him admitted because I kept calling every doctor he had and screaming at them until they had an emergency room doctor who was not on call that afternoon come in and admit him. I could give you U.S. emergency room horror story after horror story! Not so at calm, peaceful Moorfields.

As soon as I arrived at Moorfields, I asked for the emergency room’s FAX machine so that my eye surgeon could FAX my records. The person with whom I spoke said that they would get that information to my surgeon and let me know when my file was FAXed (which they did).

I was first interviewed by a triage person who said that I would be in the two-hour line (which I later learned was the longest that I would have had to wait as my problem was not life threatening). Then I was sent over a woman who took my personal information but did not ask for my insurance although I had my Virginia Anthem Blue Cross information with me. I had then only been seated for less than five minutes when I was taken back and given tests which I had twice been given in the U.S. and which cost me over $500 each time in the U.S. (my insurance deductible is $5000, so each time in the U.S., I had to pay.)

I was then sent out to wait to see the ophthalmologist. Again, I waited only a few minutes before I was taken back to the ophthalmologist who examined me further before explaining that what I had experienced was a detached vitreous humor which is not serious.

As I was leaving, I asked the receptionist where I should pay. She explained that there was no charge!

I was very impressed with the level of care that I received, how rapidly I was taken in for care, and the extensive testing. I realize that Moorfields is a specialty hospital, focusing on the eyes; however, my friend who is an American but working in the UK as a UK hire and thus on their National Health Plan said that her experience in a regular hospital’s emergency room (not what they call it by the way in the UK) was similar to mine at Moorfields.

I realize that there are problems with any health plan, but I have seen the horrors in the U.S. having been the primary care giver for first my mom when she was dying of cancer (and had an excellent health plan) and my dad when he was dying of cancer and had a very good supplemental plan for Medicare. I think that there are enough national health care plans in the world that we in the U.S. could analyze the pros and cons and each and come up with a plan that would serve patients and doctors well—both of whom are NOT well served now. We need to stop the medical industry from dictating our health plans in the U.S. so that they make obscene profits and get a plan that serves the people.