National Health Service... Means free healthcare for everyone...
... But only if you live in the right part of the country...
Another day, another reason to hate the health service... As if I didn't have enough reason already since they effectively screwed me out of a good job by being so slow with appointments.
This time I'm sat here wondering why I bother. I bother because I can't afford to go private. I am not eligible to jump through their rediculous hoops, don't have a microscope to read the small print, and the Primary Care Trusts need a dictionary for the middle part of their title.
I'm 34. I think I'm old enough to be seriously listening to my biological clock and NOT be having to wait another 18 months to join their rediculously long waiting lists till I'm too old to fit their criteria. If they don't want to spend money on fertility treatment, why don't they say so? Oh yes, that's right, because the press would have a field day about it and they would be bad little pen-pushing beurocrats who don't give a damn. So they have to be seen to "Care" and offer IVF to people over 36 and under 40. That's a 3-year window. Not long enough for more than two cycles of IVF once you've sat on the waiting list for two years. By the time you're actually getting treatment, the chance of having a child has dropped from 15% to 10%. Prior to the age of 36, the chance is slightly better at 20%, but that would mean the little beurocrats would have to stump up money to fund pre- and ante-natal care. They'd have to pay midwives. They'd have to spend more on babycare units. You know, the resources being used up by the 14 year olds who can't keep their bloody legs shut till they're at least legally able to do so. Or the resources being used up by the older, chavvy types who have 16 kids crammed into a 2-bed semi with another on the way because they got drunk and had a shag outside some shitty nightclub somewhere while their kids were being looked after by anyone but them. You know the type.
To get IVF you have to have no other children, be a non-smoker, be over 36, have had fertility issues for over 5 years and have the patience of a saint. The PCT guidelines apparently use the NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) guide to formulate what treatment they will give. I read the NICE document about fertility. It says at LEAST one and UP TO three IVF cycles should be made available to anyone between the ages of 23 AND 39 who have no previous children and have had fertility issues for at least TWO years. Anyone else here see the glaringly obvious differences here? I can see a 13 year age difference for a start...
I'm angry. I'm upset. It took a lot of thinking, talking with himself and searching within myself to go from wanting a hysterectomy to making the decision to ask about IVF. I was told by my gynae that I was the perfect age and that it would be available on the NHS. I was told today by my doctor that basically, by the time I reach the age to fit their criteria, they'll probably have changed them again. It's a postcode lottery and it sucks. I plan to write to the doctor and ask for a letter confirming what she said. I then plan to go to my MP with the NICE guidelines and the letter from the doctor and tell him what's happened. I then plan to sue the health service. Maybe I'll win enough money to go private, but by then I'll be too old to be wanting kids anyway. They still win in the end.
I feel sorry for himself. He's now got to be the one here looking after me in my angry/upset stage, and it's really not fair. I'll try and be a nicer person... I just feel the need to get some of the stress out my system first. I'll bake something tomorrow that requires things being pulverised.
Another day, another reason to hate the health service... As if I didn't have enough reason already since they effectively screwed me out of a good job by being so slow with appointments.
This time I'm sat here wondering why I bother. I bother because I can't afford to go private. I am not eligible to jump through their rediculous hoops, don't have a microscope to read the small print, and the Primary Care Trusts need a dictionary for the middle part of their title.
I'm 34. I think I'm old enough to be seriously listening to my biological clock and NOT be having to wait another 18 months to join their rediculously long waiting lists till I'm too old to fit their criteria. If they don't want to spend money on fertility treatment, why don't they say so? Oh yes, that's right, because the press would have a field day about it and they would be bad little pen-pushing beurocrats who don't give a damn. So they have to be seen to "Care" and offer IVF to people over 36 and under 40. That's a 3-year window. Not long enough for more than two cycles of IVF once you've sat on the waiting list for two years. By the time you're actually getting treatment, the chance of having a child has dropped from 15% to 10%. Prior to the age of 36, the chance is slightly better at 20%, but that would mean the little beurocrats would have to stump up money to fund pre- and ante-natal care. They'd have to pay midwives. They'd have to spend more on babycare units. You know, the resources being used up by the 14 year olds who can't keep their bloody legs shut till they're at least legally able to do so. Or the resources being used up by the older, chavvy types who have 16 kids crammed into a 2-bed semi with another on the way because they got drunk and had a shag outside some shitty nightclub somewhere while their kids were being looked after by anyone but them. You know the type.
To get IVF you have to have no other children, be a non-smoker, be over 36, have had fertility issues for over 5 years and have the patience of a saint. The PCT guidelines apparently use the NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) guide to formulate what treatment they will give. I read the NICE document about fertility. It says at LEAST one and UP TO three IVF cycles should be made available to anyone between the ages of 23 AND 39 who have no previous children and have had fertility issues for at least TWO years. Anyone else here see the glaringly obvious differences here? I can see a 13 year age difference for a start...
I'm angry. I'm upset. It took a lot of thinking, talking with himself and searching within myself to go from wanting a hysterectomy to making the decision to ask about IVF. I was told by my gynae that I was the perfect age and that it would be available on the NHS. I was told today by my doctor that basically, by the time I reach the age to fit their criteria, they'll probably have changed them again. It's a postcode lottery and it sucks. I plan to write to the doctor and ask for a letter confirming what she said. I then plan to go to my MP with the NICE guidelines and the letter from the doctor and tell him what's happened. I then plan to sue the health service. Maybe I'll win enough money to go private, but by then I'll be too old to be wanting kids anyway. They still win in the end.
I feel sorry for himself. He's now got to be the one here looking after me in my angry/upset stage, and it's really not fair. I'll try and be a nicer person... I just feel the need to get some of the stress out my system first. I'll bake something tomorrow that requires things being pulverised.
posted by Me at 1:52 am
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