(Untitled)

[stacia_kane]

So Jade Goody has died.

Of cervical cancer.

At the age of 27Cervical cancer is one of the slowest forms of cancer there is. If caught early, cervical cancer is nearly 100% treatable

Comments

[jongibbs]

In the UK, critisizing the NHS is regarded as something akin to heresy. Never mind that people who've paid into the system all their lives spend years (and I do mean years) in constant pain while they wait for hip replacements, or other important operations, many of them are denied life-saving operations on the grounds that it's not 'cost-effective'. In the meantime, the last figures I saw showed that NHS administrators outnumbered nurses.

Regardless of your political persuasion, don't be fooled by promises of 'Universal healthcare for all'. I'm not saying the American system don't need overhauling, but systems like the NHS just don't work. Sooner or later it becomes 'Universal healthcare for all... except those deemed too poor or unimportant.'

[stacia_kane]

I'm not saying the American system don't need overhauling, but systems like the NHS just don't work. Sooner or later it becomes 'Universal healthcare for all... except those deemed too poor or unimportant.'I totally, totally agree. It frankly terrifies me to see such enthusiastic talk of socialized medicine in the US; what people don't understand is that all those HMOs they complain about are exactly the sort of treatment they're signing up for if they hand healthcare over fully to the government. A system with no incentive to be any good, a system that puts the bottom line first no matter what

[david_bridger]

NHS care and management is a postcode lottery, and the NHS itself is the way it is due to being a political football played with for years by arrogant fools in Westminster.

We're in our thirtieth year of Thatcherism here, compounded by it also being our twelth year of New Labourism, so no one should be surprised that, in the NHS, money is considered more important than people's health, and that the target culture encourages dangerous inefficiencies at the same time as it deflects attention from these same inefficiencies quite effectively.

Having said all that, however, I've read that Jade Goody did have tests early enough to have caught this cancer, but that she ignored the resulting warnings and refused to attend follow-up appointments. If that's true, then I suggest it was her own stupidity that killed her.

[stacia_kane]

It is totally a postcode lottery, yes, and it's shameful. And I couldn't agree more about the encouragement of inefficiency. It shocks me beyond belief that hospitals aren't even *clean*.

I hadn't heard that about Jade Goody; if it's true I would agree with you in part, but I also think that growing up in a culture which behaves as thought the pap smear is a silly, unimportant little formality might contribute to that attitude. And she was just an example. But yeah, as I said above, if you're not responsible enough to get the test you shouldn't be having sex. There is such a thing as personal responsibility and it's not to be discounted.

[stacia_kane]

That's great, good for you! (And I mean that in a genuine, cheering way--good for you for being responsible and insisting, not in a "Oh, goody for you" sort of snotty way.) I just wish everyone could have the same experience.

[ex_naomi_ja]

*applauds* This is a subject that makes me so angry. I'll be 26 next month. When I turned 25 I went to book a smear test and was told that I couldn't until I received a letter from the NHS asking me for one.

So I waited and waited and one didn't come, so next time I was at the doctor, I tried again and got the same answer. When I got angry I was dismissed.

This week, almost a year after turning 25, I've finally been send the fucking letter. Thanks, NHS.

[stacia_kane]

That is just unfreakingbelievable. I mean, I believe you, I'm just shocked and disgusted. And it's upsetting too that because of the NHS there aren't alternatives for you like there were for me and still are; Planned Parenthood may be controversial for some reasons in some circles, but they do provide low-cost healthcare for women all over the US, so every woman has a chance to get the care she needs.

I hope your test goes well. :-) Keep me posted if you like.

[ex_naomi_ja]

Thanks :) I'm actually booked in for my birthday, just to add to the cosmic irony of the whole thing...

[stacey_jay]

Me too. Same story as yours, but at 19. No HPV, was baaarrreeely even sexually active (late bloomer), but we have a history of cervical cancer in my family. All ended well in my case, but I guess if I'd lived in England....it could have been a different story.

Thanks so much for writing this,

Stacey

[stacia_kane]

Thanks for sharing your story. :-)