You say that, I actually knew some cool girls from Newark!
Interesting list. It puts Reading at #12 and Oxford at #40.
I once, not all that long ago, had a next door neighbour, Kirsty, who was a district nurse. She had worked in the Oxford Hospitals and she shared her house with a woman who was still a triage nurse in the John Radcliffe A&E Dept. They had trained together in a city somewhere west of here, either Bath or Bristol I think. She said that they occasionally had patients ambulanced into there with ruptured aorta. The response procedure consisted mostly of “putting the sad face on for the relatives”. Ruptured aorta was unsurvivable. She was staggered to discover that at the John Radcliffe a significant number of ruptured aorta patients survived and recovered. As a district nurse her job was to drive from patient to patient. She deliberately picked a route which meant she was always on a road where, in the event of an accident, the ambulance would take her to Oxford rather than Reading.
Whether you can actually get the exceptional treatment that exists here is as much of a lottery as it seems to be everywhere. But at least it does exist here …
Were they fit?
By best you mean cheap and easy?
Indeed they were, not that that was any concern of mine of course.
In your experience maybe but not according to the stats.
We get very tribal about our own hospitals. My mother loves the QA in Havant as the nurses there are nice and friendly, she’s completely forgotten the fact they very nearly killed her through incompetence though.
Yes. Good looking optional.
Luton - an International Airport and a Top 20 Hospital. End.
Get yourself a wide beam boat, you will have 4000 + miles of river and canal to explore. Plenty of pub’s restaurants close to moorings. If you don’t like where you are go up river a few miles, Release you inner Captain Pungwash.
Have you ever been in to the centre of Luton?
More to the point the actual lottery is not driven by location I’m afraid, it’s likely to have more to do with which specialty you need the attention of and what day of the week it is.
Also your health outcomes are likely to be more influenced by things within your own control like lifestyle and diet rather than relying on being close to a hospital - if that’s your fall back you’ve left it very close to the end if you’re worrying about being blue lighted into ED.
Not for a long long while.
For us it’s about ease of getting there to visit or for scheduled appointments, rather than ambulance travelling times
As per other threads, not being dependent on a car.
Or one, if you consider Northumberland. My point is that the quality of the NHS trust in the areas you consider moving to is too important to ignore. It’s fucking dire in North Wales and the trust is deep in the shit, the WG is clueless and I can’t see how it will ever recover,
This is a nationwide theme, if the Tories get in next year the NHS may well sink entirely. The individualistic answer is private health insurance. Ideologically this makes me sick, personal morals and opinions are however unlikely to fix a cancer, berry berry, green monkey disease etc.
I’m not sure that the trust is necessarily that important, as they are all generally really good at some things and less so at others.
When I had a potentially serious eye issue, I went to Luton and Dunstable, as they are really good at that. Watford general are crap at that, but their dermatology is good. Most of the time I go to London as my main professor dude is there.
On the basis that you probably don’t know what will go wrong with you, I’m not convinced that you can plan ahead that much. Unless you have a lovely chronic illness already.
This.
Unless you need a one-location specialism, I wouldn’t factor it in to considerations.
Our local H is basically an involuntary-euthanasia centre. From what I see of the sufferings of friends and rellies, it is unexceptional in that respect.
Just don’t get ill and you’ll be fine…
It’s certainly a roaring endorsement of the health and vitality of forum members that what began as an open ended question on where in the UK might offer the best life/work/cost balance has evolved into arguing over where you might stave off death the longest.
This is normally said by people who haven’t had to use it for anything serious