Whose decision? (The NHS and the disabled)

Member Name: Collywobs

Product:	The NHS and the disabled
Date:	20/09/00 (118 review reads)
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This is indeed a subject which is extremely important and we should put a stop to the NHS deciding who can have treatment and who can't and stop it right NOW.
Seeing that girl Jo sobbing her heart out after Craig from big brother announced he would donate his winnings to help her fund, it really touched me. And if dooyoo decides to do a special campaign, I would gladly join in.

INSPIRATIONAL
I would like to say that I have met people with down syndrome and they have amazed me. I have lost my hearing over the past 6 years and the first person to show me how to finger spell in British sign language was a 15 year old girl, who also has downs syndrome, she isn't deaf, but chose to learn it to communicate with people who are deaf. What an inspiration and what a lovely pleasant girl she was.

MY PERSONAL VIEW
The way the NHS is run is a disgrace, in my area the hospital is by no means a friendly place, it's grubby looking and not a very nice environment to stay the night in.
It's not just disabilities that are affected it's treatment as well.
My health is not good and I need regular treatment by way of lumbar punctures. In the states most lumbar punctures are carried out using fluoroscopy, this is like a scanner, similar to the ultra sound scanner used to detect pregnancy abnormalities. The purpose of the scan is to cause the patient, no pain, no discomfort and no hitting the spinal nerves, which is extremely painful.
At my last lumbar puncture I asked about fluoroscopy and was told that I didn't come into the right category for it.
Why not? because I am already being treated for another illness and because of the cost.

HOW MUCH?
This is the thing about the cost. The hospital would be only to glad to keep me in for a few days just so I can have a morphine drip or pethedine shots for the pain.
I can't bring myself to do this because I am depriving someone of a hospital bed and my i
llness will not go away but other people have a chance if treated. My doctor has now accepted that I will never be admitted to hospital unless it is absolutely necessary.

WHY DO WE DO IT?
It doesn't matter what age, race or disability a person has, we should all have equal rights, a disability does NOT mean that a person has no rights, but you find being disabled makes people think of you differently.
The cost of treating a person should not come into it, if the treatment is available it should be applied to all that need it and not in classes based on age and disability. Please don't get me wrong on this, I have very different views on transplants which I beleive should go to the person who most desperately needs it.

CAN WE SOLVE THE PROBLEM
The one thing that really does make me angry in all this is the way the government spend the money. The national lottery as well, while it helps charities I would much rather it go to help the unfortunate people who need medical treatment to live, regardless of their age or disability.
How anyone could award the millennium dome £90 million is beyond belief, how many operations and how much treatment could have been applied by gaining this amount of money.

THE SOLUTION
This is the hardest of all, who decides? who makes up these ridiculous rules? who has the right to tell a person they can't have treatment because they in not in the category?
How do you define a disabled person? What are your thoughts?
So the solution lays in the hands of the people who make all the rules above.
It needs to end right now.

A THOUGHT
Anyone can get struck by illness and disability.
With this I shall end with a personal verse.

We start our lives the very same way
One life, one chance, everyone's the same
We're not just disabled we do have a name.
We don't want to be ill or to have you to pay
But We have no choice in this pre
sent day.

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