Accident Treatment in UK

Hi All,
Just a note for Bikers coming to UK for any rallies.
Had a fall off my bike last week & ended up in Accident & Emergency department of local hospital.
I had x rays taken of my Knee & hand, Stitches in my knee & plaster of Paris put on my Hand to help my broken finger.
I was in & out of hospital in 4 Hours. All done free of charge on The National health Service. If I had needed to stay in they would have found me a bed.
Just make sure you have Travel Insurance to cover you. Dont belive the propaganda from private medical insurance companies.
Our system is brilliant & it does work.
Happy & Safe riding to you all.
Don

:lol: :lol: Hope the bike is OK!

Scratehed but repairable thanks. Hope my hand is better for The norton rally in devon at end of july. Looks like its gonna be a cracker. Cheers aa

Glad you and your bike aren't too badly damaged Don.
Hope you have a quick recovery
sam

Dang it Don that could spoil a weekend or more. Old farts and old bikes tend to get nerve and wire conduction issues some time after acute phase recovery. Glad some socialist care systems work out for some. What did ya learn about riding that caused the crash, you're fault plus someone else's or just yours alone because ya ain't quit riding yet?

Moral is Be carful while riding bikes that do 0 - 60 in 3 .5 seconds. The commando is safe and sound in the garage. I Now also have a new jacket and kevlar jeans to replace the scratched items. Stitches now out of knee and a nice Big scab left.
Back on bike as soon as wrist out of plaster.
Roll on devon rally. Cheers don

Duh its stupid ignorant logic to say ride safe as one gives up full control of life and limb if cycle riding though of course more power less time lowers odds of good ending but great memories as long as surviving. I hope Peel hits 60 under 3 sec and 100 under 9 sec. My first best friend age 14 fell off a small cycle safely but got head run over the next instant. Rationalize how ever you can to face next ride and safe return. I may be only really sane thinker here not to be in denial of my risky expensive wasteful addiction so I can see an end too it as I'm less often able to reason/feel I can get away next ride so tend to take cage to appointments and errands which is not good for my brazen attitude lasting. Only the likes of dream machine Peel tempts me to ignore over powered freedom to ride even if feeling vulnerable.

Duh its stupid ignorant logic to say ride safe as one gives up full control of life and limb if cycle riding though of course more power less time lowers odds of good ending but great memories as long as surviving. I hope Peel hits 60 under 3 sec and 100 under 9 sec. My first best friend age 14 fell off a small cycle safely but got head run over the next instant. Rationalize how ever you can to face next ride and safe return. I may be only really sane thinker here not to be in denial of my risky expensive wasteful addiction so I can see an end too it as I'm less often able to reason/feel I can get away next ride so tend to take cage to appointments and errands which is not good for my brazen attitude lasting. Only the likes of dream machine Peel tempts me to ignore over powered freedom to ride even if feeling vulnerable.

W/o knowing how you went down we learn nothing new to avoid but hope you have

Glad some socialist care systems work out for some.

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Actually, socialized medicine works very well for many industrialized nations. I've yet to hear of anyone who has national medical care coverage wishing for a return to pay for services system that the U.S. has. Everyone, who I know, that is eligible for Medicare chooses to use it.

Yeah constant scandals in the news on US health care coverage troubles. I'll never go to a hospital unless object stuck in eye or through a big part of me or unconscious and then only because I can't see or move well enough to fight off anyone attempting too. I help afford this side line hobby with what I've saved on health insurance coverage though I don't recommend others go w/o it. i talk with a lot of riders of all ages and all types of cycles and get fairly freq story of recent take downs d/t to all kinds of events though few of them involved doing stupid things by pilot but deciding to ride that day. Safe Journeys and Recoveries.

A little tale from 1965 about the NHS.
It was just after 7pm on a Saturday evening, I was on my way to pick up my girlfriend and go to a party. I bounced my 350 AJS off the back of a car. Between that and everything coming to a stop I sustained 3 compound fractures to my right leg, lost most of the skin from the outside of my left leg, and stuck a tooth through my upper lip.
Taken to the hospital in an ambulance with the bells ringing, yes it was that long ago.
The immediate response was that I was going to lose my right leg, I remember the conversation that I wasn't supposed to hear. Then someone mentioned that a highly regarded orthopedic surgeon was giving a lecture that evening in Southampton. I was stabilised and taken to a ward. I learn't later that they had to wait until 2.30am for the renowned surgeon to sober up and until it was considered safe to give me an anaesthetic. Apparently the surgery took 6 hours. I came to, more or less, back in a ward with my right leg in a plaster, bandages all over my left leg, and feeling very sad and sorry for myself. The first three or four days I was seriously ill, had a very high temperature and for a time was packed in ice. I vaguely remember a Staff Nurse sitting by my bed at night holding my hand. As an 18 year old male I thought it was because she fancied me, I later worked out that this was 24 hour monitoring. Thank you Betty from British Honduras. At about ten days or so the stitches came out, all 55 of them. None of your girly little cosmetic surgery stitches, these were more like fencing wire. Whilst in hospital we (orthopedic patients) used to get a bottle of stout (Mackeson or Guinness) per day, it's where I developed a lifelong appreciation for Guinness. After 4 months it was decided that my leg was healing very slowly due to the amount of bone splinters that had been removed. So I had a bone graft, bone taken from my left hip and packed around the wound. After seven months my leg came out of plaster. After ten months I went back to work, after being told that I would suffer from osteo arthritis.
Since then I have had two further operations, one to get full knee and ankle movement, and one to have a knee replacement.
Since then I have had a really high regard for Nurses, wonderful people.
If this was socialist medicine there should be more of it!
Yes I know that it was a long time ago and that things will have changed, but the National Health at the very least saved my right leg. Thank you NHS!!
cheers
wakeup

Oh crapola wortorn what a trauma to endure. Bells, huh, just like horse buggy days, cool. Glad to know the truama care side of the public coverage has worked a long time. A dust devil caught up with me going too slow and low in an utralight which noised straight to ground but used my feet to flair a dozen feet before impact and saved my brain and spine but turned feet into cartoon characters bend over with foot pegs shattering bones/joints. Paid out of pocket $4000 for screw surgery to hold big pieces and series of casts but could only afford right foot.

Here in Canada , know that all can be stitched up well and costless to self. Best country in the world to our south yet people fight to pay personally . Makes me worry about short trip to New - York rally soon. In God we trust. :|

Hi
Lot of tough men here ,take all physical injuries and brush off easy .jimmy Johnstone lost his leg from the knee down and was treated at nine wells in Dundee he said the care was spot on but they couldn't save his leg. I visited him ,he was a Galus wee bugger just passed his test , said he was passing a caravan and met an oncoming car panicked and that was that.
While he was recovering he got a guy in to help his wife with the business , within six months his wife pissed of with the new guy.
Free tablets doesn't sort that out, and N.H.S treatment is the least of your worries.

I think the NHS is great for emergencies but for routine things the waiting lists can be a ball breaker. My company pays for BUPA (private medical scheme) so I can skip any waiting lists or have things scheduled for when I want rather than when a spot is available so that's nice to have but overall I think the NHS is still something for the UK to be proud of.

Like most bikers who've been riding for a number of decades I've had reason to thank the NHS for saving my skin after a major bike crash and I've had bones set after a few minor ones when I was racing and though the hospital staff pass comments about being busy enough without having to look after people who've hurt themselves through their own stupid fault they still patch you up ready for the next race

I help afford this side line hobby with what I've saved on health insurance coverage though I don't recommend others go w/o it.

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Riding a motorcycle poses some potential serious physical risks sometimes resulting in very expensive medical care. Anyone who is hospitalized here in the U.S. and does not have medical insurance is placing the financial burden on those who do pay for medical insurance. In other words, those with medical insurance pay higher premiums to cover the cost of the uninsured who are treated. To go without medical insurance to be able to afford owning motorcycles is totally irresponsible. Anyone doing so definitely have their priorities screwed up.

I have heard that when Americans have a bike accident in Canada and go to the hospital, that they will be charged an extremely high fee for all medical services. So much that they have to check out ASAP & get back to the states!

From two good friends from Rhode Island who just totaled a beemer in Nova Scotia! ( hit from behind )

Bruce MacGregor said:

I have heard that when Americans have a bike accident in Canada and go to the hospital, that they will be charged an extremely high fee for all medical services. So much that they have to check out ASAP & get back to the states!

From two good friends from Rhode Island who just totaled a beemer in Nova Scotia! ( hit from behind )

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I do know when Canadians visit the U.S. they are not covered by their National heath care insurance, so the responsible ones purchase coverage for the length of their visit. A U.S. citizen visiting Canada would not be covered by Canadian National health care. Most U.S. health care insurance policies will cover emergency services in other countries. My insurance covers urgent care treatment and emergency treatment in foreign countries. The most I would pay is $60 copay for a ER visit. Did your American (U.S.) friends have any health care insurance?

They Did, I'll get the details tonight.
Bruce

Its BS argument that anyone's insurance rates and medical costs are higher d/t those w/o insurance sucking the system down. I'm primary care physician [means I'm licensed to treat anything that comes in or know where to send em next] for 35+ yrs involved with workers comp, personal injury, medicare, veterans and health maintenance organizations - to know Insurance is a for profit industry regulated under gambling laws. At the introduction of the Medicare and HMO models elite global level lobbists and lawyers invited all the 1' care Dr. to lecture on what was to come and how we could help grease the transition. They detailed the history of contract and insurance law and principles - like how during The Great Depression factories did not pay enough for people to take care of normal expenses let alone disabling ones, so instead of paying proper wages in order to settle down the Union up risings fooled people into extra tax on wages to be held in vast accounts that could make beaucoup interest on it while only dribbling out minimums to patient care but rarely ever equaling what a worker actually paid in over time. We were then explained that the big payments would go main to fancy diagnostics and all the money Dr's/hospitals would make on that side rather than spending on most effective care. Wasn't too long after that I dropped out of insurance system though give invoices patients can get applied ot deductibles or reimbursed. The other thing is the insurance tends to drive prices and stuff ordered up and up and up with less and less payback to patients. I used to deal with BS/BC alot and discovered during this change over they refused to cover their own workers because their deal was so bad so they when over seas for their own workers and executive staff. If ya ride ya face all types of distres$. But like gambling ya pays ya money and takes ya chances, though casinos know the house dealer always comes out ahead in the long run.