Gender change surgery costs Scottish NHS £2m every year
Link (http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/05/25/gender-change-surgery-costs-scottish-nhs-2m-every-year-78057-20428373/)
5/25/2008
"SEX change Scots have cost the NHS almost £2million - with dozens of ops paid for every year. Health chiefs claim the surgery improves patients' lives but many doctors believe public cash should not be used for the procedures. "
Okay, that article just makes me furious. I really hate the way that treatment for some conditions is totted up down to the last penny and the cost brandished around as if it's this scandalous indulgence, while other treatments and procedures attract no such scrutiny.
Two million quid is beans when taken against the number of people helped and the immesurable, life-or-death importance of the surgery to those recieving it. It's necessary surgery--as necessary as a hip replacement or a cataract op.
I wonder how much money is spent every year on the unnecessary, damaging, medieval surgeries that are still inflicted on intersex children--often scores of them throughout a single individuals life? Hey, maybe if we stopped repeatedly cutting up little boys' and girls' bodies when they're too tiny to speak, we could pay for more SRS for consenting adults!
What i really really don't get is how tabloids can get away with using these distorted headlines that don't even match up with their story. I mean, surely anyone can tell the difference between 2million a year and 2million a decade ???
If only it was 2million a year, they'd be no more waiting lists! ;D
Dozens of ops per year???? 2m pounds? Oh hell no..... thats roughly 3.5million dollars US... Per year? I don't think so...
Going with a world class NA based surgeon, not including the travel and all that ofcourse, thats like 145k per operation... figuring on 2 dozen....
Realistically that kind of money would pay for close to 200 surgery's per year... not dozens...
I love how sensationalism can skew most anything.... especially cold hard math...
Yeah, I don't know where they got their figures from. Surgery for a woman costs the NHS more like 3000 quid, not 10,000. Guys' surgeries are a bit more expensive but nothing like the figures quoted here.