Unutterable shits.
A WOMAN has been denied an operation on the NHS after paying for a private consultation to deal with her severe back pain.
Jenny Whitehead, a breast cancer survivor, paid £250 for an appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon after being told she would have to wait five months to see him on the NHS. He told her he would add her to his NHS waiting list for surgery.
She was barred from the list, however, and sent back to her GP. She must now find at least £10,000 for private surgery, or wait until the autumn for the NHS operation to remove a cyst on her spine.
…
The case will reopen the debate over NHS policy towards patients who pay for some of their care privately. Following a Sunday Times campaign in 2008, the government ordered the NHS to stop withdrawing care from patients who received additional private treatment or drugs. Cancer sufferers were being barred from further NHS treatment after buying potentially life-saving medicines not offered by the health service.
Whitehead’s case, which has shocked her local Labour MP, reveals that patients who go private in despair at long waiting lists still risk jeopardising their NHS treatment. Department of Health officials admit it remains official policy.
Not many things about this election campaign are more depressing than all of the main political parties pledging to prop up this malevolent behemoth.
Well, there’s the main three parties’ common pledge to extend paternity leave, but I’ve pretty much covered that.
Blinkered communist brain-donors.
AJ
Al Jahom's Final Word 
I can see little clinical reason for this. I can only conclude it’s down to sheer, socialist, dog-in-the-manger spite…
JuliaM how can you be so cynical, especially when it concerns wimmens health ishoos.
Gordon Brown decreed (in the Daily Mail no less!) 18 months ago that a woman suffering from breast cancer would be able to avail herself of private medical care and NHS treatment simultaneously and at the same time. This largesse was to be extended to every patient in Britain and quite a few in the rest of the world who fancied a quick visit to the UK. Sadly, NHS trust chiefs failed to read this particular memo (I think it was a headline article on page 1 and a bit on page 3) and so our great leader’s pronouncement has not yet been implemented. Is it Lord Sir Brown’s fault that his wishes are not made into law? Of course not.
Mind you, rich capitalist pigs who think they can swop in and out of the NHS and proper medical treatment are lucky that they are not shot on sight. That memo did actually go out, but the Lee-Enfield (1932) rifle issued to NHS staff has had no ammunition made for it since 1946.