Moving to the UK permanently and gaining citizenship.

[deathschoice]

Hi, there. I heard about your community in immigration and thought I'd post here as well. I read your FAQ and first I'd like to say I am not a student yet (I do plan on going to school sometime in the next few years), don't have any UK relatives, I am not looking to marry a UK citizen and I work from home as a web/graphic designer and have a small internet

Comments

[belle_marmotte]

Just speaking from my own experience in the NHS as a disabled person for the past 24 years and those I know who had similar experiences. Now I'm in the US 43 yrs old and pregnant with a high risk pregnancy, the care I'm getting is INCOMPARABLE with anything I had in the UK. I get monitored every couple of weeks by the fetal medicine team of doctors only (no midwives) I will get my own room and my own designated nurse when I give birth. Contrast that with my best friends experience of giving birth last year with ONE obstetrician on duty for 60 women in labour. It took him 2 days to get around to her to discharge her.

Are you seriously telling me that you prefer to be on a ward with at least 8 people and one obs machine between the lot of you? Or begging for fluids because the message that you've been switched to 'free clear fluids' from nil by mouth is never passed on to subsequent shifts? That almost resulted in me needing a blood transfusion. And don't even get me started on the 'care' my mother received in a locked psych ward on a section with NO access to medical intervention, when in fact she was having strokes that have now resulted in her having intractable dementia. I had to tend to her head injury myself and other inpatients had to feed her.

I don't believe Britian is broken and never once said that in my post did I say that it was. I do however believe our NHS has gone into a dreadful decline in the last decade.

Nowhere is an earthly paradise, I hate the food here in the USA and the awful crime rate in my city. But at least I can afford to live in a nice house and put gas in the car more than once a month.

[loganberrybunny]

I'm sorry you've had such a bad time, and I wouldn't presume to comment on obstetric care, as I have no experience of that even indirectly. All I can say is that I have both epilepsy and diabetes (with some complications) and have had excellent care from the NHS for many years, including a small amount of in-patient time. Overall, I'd rather be using the service now than when I was doing so in the mid-1990s. (The future is potentially another matter, but that's getting political.)

[happycycling]

you mentioned that your husband has "a very good job", and it sounds like he also has a good health insurance plan. i don't have any firsthand experience with pregnancy care in the US, but i'm willing to bet that it's not as positive an experience for the millions of Americans without health care coverage. i'm glad you've had such a good experience with the US system, but please bear in mind that this high-quality health care is inaccessible to a large number of people.

[tisiphone]

As someone who gave birth in the US in a rural area with no health insurance, I can guarantee you it was no rosy picture of perfect care. I came within literally a few minutes of dying, and if my mother hadn't been there to forcibly insist I get airlifted to the next island, I would have. And that's as a strapping and healthy 20-year old who worked in a cannery up to a few weeks before giving birth! belle_marmotte's experience is certainly touching, but I wouldn't claim it as representative of the American healthcare system at all, especially for the unemployed.

[belle_marmotte]

Right I do have excellent health coverage due to husband being an essential fed employee, (whatever that means) And certainly for those without any health insurance something is better than nothing at all. If you're strapping and healthy then the UK health system will certainly provide for you at a level you'll find acceptable.

But I still can't get past the fact that we have the worst outcomes for cancer in Europe and that our screening is so cost driven, no mammograms til 50 folks, no cervical cancer screening til age 27. Try getting a second opinion for anything at all without having to go private anyway.

In the UK I lived in the Lake District, very beautiful but our PCT is beyond over stretched. Rural areas always seem to come off worse for good medical provision, regardless of the country. I'm lucky to have emigrated to a larger metropolitan area with a very good reputation for medical research.

Back in the UK I had family members and dear friends who worked in the NHS. It was so frustrating seeing how hard they work when every day resembles banging your head against a brick wall of intransigence. So many good people have left because they could not cope any more and the ones left behind have to detach even more just to survive day to day.

When I showed up at my GP before I emigrated, to get a summary of my notes I enquired about a spinal X-ray I'd had done 6 months earlier. I'd heard nothing so presumed all was ok. Turned out they found a serious problem with my spine that could result in my eventual paralysis. No one bothered to let me know. On top of everything else that happened last year it was the final straw.

[tisiphone]

I don't blame you for being upset with that! I think medical care in both the US and UK is pretty messed up in a lot of places. I and my family members have had similar things to that notification debacle happen, and I just don't understand it.