Today brought me a lot of new perspective in the healthcare field. Our first lecture talked about primary nursing. They explained what it is like working as an adult nurse in the UK and there were also 2 nurses that came in to explain their jobs, their experience with covid, and told us different stories. This was my favorite part of the day, because I learned more about the UK healthcare system and was able to better understand the US healthcare system as well. At first, I thought that having free healthcare would be awesome compared to paying so much money in the US. Today, I learned that having free healthcare is not always the best option, and a lot more people in the UK are starting to pay for private care instead. One of the presenters told us a story that really put things into perspective. Their sister was rushed to the hospital with an injury. Since there is no insurance and healthcare is free in the UK, the hospitals take longer, and she was waiting behind 12 ambulances when she got there. Imagine being in pain but having to wait because the hospital has no room for you inside. This makes paying for insurance seem a bit nicer. Furthermore, Healthcare can take longer to arrive (ex. 2 hours for an ambulance), which is not ideal if you’re severely injured. Also, there is no emergency private care, so everyone has to use the public system in an emergency. In the US, we can count on the ambulance to be there in minutes depending on where you are, which I now see as a privilege. Although we pay a lot of money for our services, we can rely on them and know that they will arrive as quickly as they can.

One nice thing about the UK health system is that while most working age adults have to pay for prescription, its only £9.90 per prescription. In the US, without in insurance it can be as high as $100. Also, people with long-term conditions (such as diabetes and cancer) are exempt from paying prescriptions. This is super nice because that would get pricey over time for those people. They did talk about one drawback with this, and it’s that since people are receiving it for free, some try and just sell it to make money instead of using it. Another thing I learned that is unfortunate about the UK healthcare system is that appointments are on priority basis, meaning it’s not first come first serve. You could be waiting for days just to see the doctor.

After we had finished up for the day, we headed back to the hotel where we had time to relax before going to dinner. I decided to head to the store instead, because my sunglasses broke this morning and I had to buy new ones. I got to go into TK Maxx for the first time, and the one in Birmingham is huge! We did not have time to look around because we were going to be late for dinner, so I did not get to explore much, but I will definitely go back later this week to check it out. Tomorrow, we go to Stratford Upon Avon, and I am so excited to see what it is like!