How NOT To Pay For Your Heart Operation
Roy Thayers of west London needed an angioplasty but the UK National Health Service (NHS) put him on a nine-month wait list. What to do? A retired painter and decorator, he had only £10 in the bank; less than 1% of what he needed for the £9,000 operation at private Hammersmith Hospital.
Feeling that he had no way to escape the pain and impending heart attack, Mr. Thayers wrote a check on the day of the operation in December 2003. Once the hospital found out, it looked like bad news until they arranged for a £25/month payment plan that will be completely repaid when Mr. Thayers is 99.
“I did nothing wrong,” he insisted. “I took back what was rightfully mine. I’ve been paying into the national health all my life, it’s about time I got some payback. I did the right thing - I did what any man who do.”
Did Mr. Thayers do the right thing? Would you do the same?
BBC, August 1, 2006
Technorati Tags: hammersmith hospital, roy thayers, nhs, heart operation, surgery, heart disease, disease, illness, health, cardiovascular disease, cvd, roy thayers
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POSTED IN: Hearty Healthcare, Hearty News
1 opinion for How NOT To Pay For Your Heart Operation
Amélie
Aug 1, 2006 at 4:31 pm
I saw that in the news as well!
I just don’t understand how his operation cost £9000, he had £10 in the bank, and now he has £6,481 left to pay? There are £2,509 missing somewhere! His operation took place in 2003 so he could have paid back part of it since then, but that’s still much more than his £25 a month.
I’m also wondering if his children (or whoever will inherit from him when he dies) will have to continue paying after he dies, if he dies before he finishes paying the operation off (and that’s quite likely since he has 22 years to go and his health is obviously not the best).
To answer your question, I don’t think you can really say he did “what any man would do”. With regards to his health he probably did the right thing (taking out a loan would be better than writing a fake cheque though, but it sounds like no bank would be likely to give him a loan in his circumstances), but if everyone did the same, it would create quite a mess.
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