Hospital Health

Working as I do at a Medical University means that, logically, the campus is going to be close to a hospital and it is - from the look of things, it was a case of the university was built around the hospital. Anyway, the ways things are means that on occasion i have to visit the hopsital - either for the canteen, or to take DNA to be sequenced (not mine, i should add!). This has given me the chance to generally get an impression of how things are compared to back home. For one thing, the places look at lot cleaner, smarter and generally better maintained. I haven't been in too many hospitals back home (thank God!) but from memory they seem to pale in comparison to what i've seen here (of course, this is but one hospital and an statisticiain would tell you not to take that as an indicator of all!).

For those of you that don't know, the medical system here is based on insurance. Thus, the government doesn't fund it completely as with the NHS in the UK (if at all - i'm not sure how much the government give here). Basically, all citizens have to have their own medical insurance that they use should anything happen. Thus, this means that any tests or such that are done are paid for by this. One advantage of this system means that there are very few waiting lists as with back home. So, when one of the lab managers was taken ill last week (Monday), she was in the ER (casualty to the Brits) that evening, admitted there and then and put in a bed, and had keyhole surgery on the Wednesday. The only reason they couldn't have done this on the Tuesday is that there was no room in the operating theatre. However, whilst this system may seem slick and polished, it's no secret that the US and Americans envy the NHS in the UK. Guess the grass is always greener.