UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Well, i had to make a good title to get you all in.

The title is correct just not in the way you might pick it up. I keep finding that NHS Trusts are closing sections here and lower funding there.

Well where i live there is no Hospital you have to travel about 13 miles to the nearest hospital. That hospital is in a town, however its big because it is in a central location and people from all over travel to it. It has been announced that East Cheshire NHS Trust will be closing,
Psychiatric Ward
Children’s Ward
Maternity Ward
(And more set, will eyes be next?)

Are any closing by you, and what do you think about all this. Would it make you think about medical insurance?

Even if we did want to get medical insurance I doubt we could get it to cover pre-existing conditions. Not without having to take out a mortgage to pay it anyway.

Me and my family are in bupa through work but I had to state any conditions and therefore I'm not covered for KC

Andy

Private insurance does not cover pre-existing conditions.

I have a hospital three miles away, but really the only facilities are

X-Ray
Outpatients
Physio
Heart Unit
The rest is mainly for the elderly.

The local hospital radio serving the patients did a sy=urvey, the average age of their listners is 75!

To get the full facilities, maternity, ear nose & throat, intensive care and of course the eye unit is about 12 miles away.

Even if you do have a hospital near by, does not mean to say it is of any use to most people in the local area.

GarethB wrote:Private insurance does not cover pre-existing conditions.



Even if you do have a hospital near by, does not mean to say it is of any use to most people in the local area.

I know it doesnt cover any pre conditions, however the point im making is whats to close next on the NHS? We have no Dentists, at least in my town. And the only hospital for miles that is ALWAYS BUSY and always in use is beong shut down part by part. Was this the intention of the NHS when it was set up. I think not I admire all the medical staff for their hard work, i just think the goverment and office people need to BUDGET better then i doubt we would be here.

A point here

Pre Existing conditions ARE covered if its Occupational Health Cover.....you just need to check which plan of BUPA your company has....

However, if you take out a PMI (Personal Medical Insurance) then; as suggested, pre-existing conditions are not covered, UNLESS of course the condition at application siezes to be require attention for 2-5 years into insurance period (depending on insurer) after which they do cover them

J

It is not just a UK problem, the town I live in has 15-16000 people and services a much larger area. We have a reasonable hospital, need to travel 300kms for my opthal work though. But we are really battling to get and keep GPs. At the moment the wait for a gp (non urgent) is 4 weeks and 2 more doctors are leaving. I can get into a specialist quicker than a gp.

Jay,

Not all companies large or small have health plans that cover pre exisiting conditions under Occupational Health Cover.

2 years I have been banging on at my empoloyer and the health scheme and still no change.

When entering a company scheme it is important to check such things. When you starta new job and have not had a problem with what is classed a pre-existing condition for 16 years such things are easily overlooked as at that time you think you are pretty much safe.

I am wondering whether the problem is more the way the NHS is organized in england and Wales?

In Scotland (I can hear the bagpipes skirling and my blood rising) the whole nation is a single area for funding purposes. This means that, although I live several miles from glasgow, and although there is a local hospital with other special expertise, I go to gartnavel in Glasgow for Ophthalmology.

This does not cost my area health board anything, because Scotland is all the one AHB. There are, of course, local NHS trusts, and of course we see hospitals being opened and closed, but this is often down to local demographics rather than any clinical decisions.

The population of the little town in which I live and work has halved in the last 15 years (24,000 tp 12,000). Of course with this loss of population there has been a reduction in local services, but of course this has been mirrored, and to an extend matched, by the increased availability of referrals to centres of excellence like Gartnavel.

Andrew

You learn something new everyday, I never knew that bagpipes 'skirl'.

Whereabouts in Cheshire, thought you'd go the Royal Manchester Eye Hospital, they seem to have everybody from Oldham/Rochdale to Stoke!

Tam

i either go to Crewe or Macclesfield