In other news: water is wet. I think we all knew that Charles wouldn’t have to go through the same pains us common British folk do in regards to accessing healthcare. But nonetheless I think it’s important to continue to highlight these ever growing class divisions in the UK, such as those between people who can afford private healthcare and people who have to rely on our public services. People in positions of authority and power in our country do not understand the struggles of everyday British people.
My TL;DR:
Charles is already receiving expert care for his cancer within days of diagnosis. His speedy treatment should draw fresh attention to the long cancer treatment waiting times that most British people experience with the NHS.
The proportion of patients in England waiting less than 62 days from an urgent suspected cancer referral or consultant upgrade to their first definitive treatment for cancer is 65.2%.
Amid growing frustration at NHS waiting lists, record numbers of people are paying for private healthcare. Nearly 300,000 people in the UK have paid for chemotherapy in the last five years.
Survival rates for cancer in the UK lag behind those of other European countries for nine out of 10 of the most common types of the disease.
Researchers said cancer waiting times across the country were among the worst on record, too many cancers were diagnosed at a late stage, and access to treatment was unequal.
Buckingham Palace has not specified whether the king is receiving private healthcare or being treated on the National Health Service.
He’s the monarch…. I’m … not surprised in the least.
Banish the monarchy if you want to complain.
It would be nice if you could abstain from paying a proportion of tax to the monarchy and making it opt-in to support it
Banishing the monarchy won’t help the problem of long waiting lists though. At least is has brought the issue to the front page and people are aware of the seriousness of the problem. Let’s hope they vote for a party that will do something about it in the next elections
But he’s such a stand-up guy. We should totally stop everything and treat this manchild. After all, what would we do without him??
This is all intentional. They can’t outright privatise the NHS without major outcry so they’ve made it unusable for as many as possible.
Does anyone care about major outcries in UK anymore? What do they ever achieve?
People forget and move on after a couple weeks of anger
The Tories haven’t recovered in the polls since partygate and Truss, something has finally stuck.
They still need to get elected to carry out their plans.
Even the most zealous Tories I know are planning to vote against them this time.
Most of their voters aren’t rich people and they need to keep them on side.
It doesn’t matter how much money you have, if you’re a Tory voter you never think you have enough money. The fact you don’t have enough money is always the government’s fault mostly due to immigration either there’s too much of it, or not enough of it depending on your bank balance. Conservative voters only like the Tories come election time, the rest of the time they can’t stand them like the rest of us.
Indeed. As a Yank who always has to pay for healthcare anyway, it’s easy to see the parallels in labor/employment, civil rights, and financial security: We’re facing a global regressive movement from the political right, and those people have no scruples. They absolutely want to claw back every single gain the general public has made in rights and benefits over the last 75 years, and making benefits unpopular is the first step to privatizing them.
Never forget the NHS, warts and all, is a thing that we Americans would die to have, and for want of it many of us too often literally do.
An anecdote for anyone in the UK that is leaning towards abolishing or privatizing your NHS.
I had an appendectomy last year, you know, a surgery that something like 40% of the population will need at some point in their lifetime.
It cost me $7000, with “decent” insurance (UHC to be clear).
The final bill pre-insurance was a smidge under $170.000.
You guys need to burn the Tories down before you end up with the same system. The USA’s healthcare system should be considered an example of what not to do, not a goal to strive for.
An anecdote for anyone in the UK that is leaning towards abolishing or privatizing your NHS.
Fortunately that’s a vanishingly small number of people in the UK, the NHS has almost universal support.
That’s good to hear. Now kick the Tories out & fund it properly.
I work for UHC.
I think they’re a decent company, considering the industry.
I’ve made a nice and fairly comfortable career here.
Burn it all down. Give everyone healthcare.
I’ll find another job.
My girlfriend works for a private company instead of the NHS and she hates it on a moral level, too, but it’s impossible to work for the NHS and keep your sanity. Be it the working conditions, hours, or pay. It’s a shambles and it’s all because we - the stupid public - continue to be suckered into believing it’s good for us.
Not to mention that the left is fractured. We all want progress, but can’t decide on exactly what progress should look like. Meanwhile conservatives only have 1 real option: Tories.
I’m convinced at BEST we’re going to have another hung parliament with the bastards ultimately staying in power.
This country is fucked.
It’s so fucked up because not only are these assholes ruining another countries healthcare, they also are giving ammunition to our shithole country to never implement a universal healthcare system…
Which assholes are you talking about?
“Conservative” thieves, worldwide.
The ones in the UK government trying to ruin the healthcare system so they can make a privatized system more “appealing.”
The Conservatives did that. I don’t think Charles actually likes them much.
“That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.” — Noam Chomsky.
Just to add to this, there’s been quite a lot of public services which have been privatised in the UK by the Conservative party, for example water (1989), railways (1994 - 1997) and more recently the Royal Mail (2014). All of these services are in absolutely terrible states today, privatisation didn’t make them better. And yet it seems we are not learning from history and continue to vote in the Conservatives anyway. I do really worry about the future of the NHS.
Prioritization of public infrastructure never works anywhere ever.
Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to try and make money out of the post office in the 21st century was clearly an idiot. Mostly all they deliver is letters from my bank telling me that I’ve already paid the credit card bill via direct debit. It doesn’t really need to happen, but it does anyway.
Perhaps the waiting times for homeopathic treatment are a lot shorter?
Do we know if Charles is undergoing homeopathic treatment?
It’s entirely possible. He is fond of it, and has a dedicated 'path
I’ll say my usual thing about homeopathy: It doesn’t directly help conditions. But belief in the treatment can have beneficial outcomes.
In the same way your mum bringing you your favourite chocolate bar might help.
Removed by mod
Very similar to the vibes of that coronation photo where he is riding in a golden carriage over a ruined street where every pothole is hastily filled with sand.
It’s good to be the king
My best wishes to the cancer. It must not be easy to contract a king.
A nasty malignant form of ancient evil ruthlessly attacking the poor cancer.
LMAO my comment saying that cancer got a king was deleted by mods because I guess you can’t say anything bad about the king here. Classic.
Through federation magic I can still see the comment.
Of course he didn’t have to wait he’s probably going private, which other people could do too. This isn’t an issue of him being a king, and everything to do with him being rich.
Head of State: Receives treatment for cancer
Everyone else: Angry
It’s all very well going on about the widening wealth divide, the head of state is going to get priority treatment no matter how long or short the waiting lists are
Are we going to pretend he isn’t head of state because of the womb he came out of?
“The monarch, because of his blood lineage, will get priority treatment no matter how long or short the peasant waiting lists are” doesn’t have the same ring.
Are we going to pretend that any other form of head of state wouldn’t also get priority treatment?
If the country had an actually decent head of state I doubt many would be mad at this.
Of course, then there wouldn’t be a waiting time for people to get mad at in the first place.
The head of state is going to get priority treatment no matter how long or short the waiting lists are.
Ok? I think everyone knew this was going to happen. The point is it shouldn’t happen, everyone should be given the same opportunities to have their cancer treated swiftly.
I’m not angry that he’s receiving treatment. I’m angry because of how many people with treatable cancer are dying because they’re not being treated.
I agree that it would be better if the NHS was able to treat everyone with the same response that the King has received. I just don’t see what this has to do with anything: If he had decided to use the NHS and get the normal waiting time the system would be just as broken.
My intention was to highlight how the wealthy elite do not personally experience just how broken the NHS is (which includes the PM, the monarchy, and many UK politicians).
If our monarchy and politicians had to go through the NHS for their medical issues then I imagine a lot more work would be done to improve the NHS.
Instead, the Conservatives are trying to destroy the NHS. And this is shown by how cancer treatment is becoming increasingly inaccessible (depending on class divides, where those with power in our country are able to more readily access treatment).
The point is ultimately that we shouldn’t continue to let the wealthy elite represent us, because they do not understand the issues that we face.
None of this is new information of course, the situation that the article features is just a good example and reminder of this.
I agree with you, I just think that the king isn’t a good example of this because he’d be getting priority treatment no matter what; he’s the head of state
As I said earlier, the head of state shouldn’t be getting priority treatment in the first place.
If the head of state didn’t get priority treatment his entire life then more work would be done to improve the treatment of everyone.
I’m not sure how else I can phrase this point for you.
I sure hope that boot tastes good
the head of state is going to get priority treatment no matter how long or short the waiting lists are
Yes, that’s the problem…
It’s not even about him, they bury this in a story about class struggle so they can repeat the narrative that the NHS is “in crisis,” as if it just magically happens and not because politicians are purposefully crippling it.
Who is “they”? The Guardian (where the linked article is from) has often published articles about how the Conservatives are destroying the NHS.
This country and the people who run it is a fucking joke. This is no different to Victorian era shit, except we’re supposed to be more civilised nowadays and accept these freeloaders to get preferential treatment? Fuck off, paid thieves is what they are.
I’d be more annoyed if a rich guy didn’t use private healthcare tbh.
If we banned private healthcare the rich would have an incentive to make socialised healthcare better.
Critical support to his cancer in its heroic war against this filthy monarch
Ah ca ira! ca ira! Ah ca ira!
Oh, maybe he’s is not being treated on the island meaning Britain, … but that other one where doctors regularly fly in.
A proper leader would ensure all of his subjects are treated before him. If he wishes to speed his own process he should fix the system, not circumvent or commandeer it.
