Former Craven resident, Graham Jagger, moved to Atlanta in the United States almost four years ago, here is his 'letter from America' .

FOR everyone, health is important and when you need help who and how that is provided is something that bothers us all no matter where we are. Over the last few weeks, I’ve read with great interest the comments made about issues with the services provided by Modality Partnership and the various health centres that they operate within the Craven area. Clearly there are problems of great concern for many people and hopefully for all of those using these facilities then resolutions to those problems can be found soon.

I was a patient at Fisher Medical Centre in Skipton while living in the UK and when I needed them, they were there for me and started me on my journey of treatment for cancer in 2012.

What started out as just an annual routine medical examination at which everything was fine turned into the beginning of a series of scans and biopsies that eventually led to being diagnosed with cancer in the base of my tongue. Over the next nine months I learned what it was like to have a life-threatening illness.

It’s not just the physical side of the radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and a neck dissection operation in my case, it’s the mental, and emotional effects it has on you too. It’s not like having a broken bone in your leg which will more than likely recover fully with some treatment, and you’ll be back to normal in no time, it’s an illness the memory of which will stay with you forever.

Then there’s the issue of the support or otherwise around you and how effective or ineffective that turns out to be. At such times you find out who’s on your side and who isn’t unfortunately. All these factors have a significant effect on the person you are during and after treatment.

Thankfully for me, after over five years of follow up appointments, I was declared clear and cured of cancer and live to tell the tale today. So, my personal experience of the doctors and staff at Fisher Medical was a positive one but is seems that it might not be quite the same just now. I hope that whatever the current issues are get resolved quickly so the service that at some point everyone needs is working at its very best for all those who rely on in difficult times.

From personal experience of the NHS, I can only speak about the service in glowing terms, and I’m often asked about the health services in the UK compared with health services here in the US. When I explain what my treatment for cancer involved and the length of time it covered and tell people that it didn’t cost me a penny, they just can’t believe it. Of course, health care here isn’t free. There isn’t a “National Health Service” here funded publicly as it is in the UK and free at the point of delivery. Here, your health is someone else’s business and by that, I mean a money-making business.

There is no doubt that you need to have medical insurance here in the US in order to afford to get any health-related advice, support, and treatment. Many people get insurance through their employment but there are plenty who don’t and have to either pay themselves for the insurance or go without it all together and hope that nothing serious happens.

Several years ago, President Obama brought in two insurance schemes that go some way to helping certain people. Medicare is federal funded health insurance for anyone 65 years and older but doesn’t necessarily cover everything and all costs. Then there’s Medicaid which is jointly funded between the federal government and the States and that provides health coverage for some people with limited income and resources.

So, there is a sort of “national health service” for a small proportion of the population and then it still has limitations. I’m fortunate to have been able to find subsidised insurance coverage at a low premium but I still have to contribute something towards costs. Then there’s also dental and vision insurance to consider too. So, as I said earlier, “your health is someone else’s business” and both the insurance companies and the service providers make good money out of people’s health or should I say, ill health.

As far as the health providers themselves are concerned I would say based upon my experience in both countries they are pretty good here. However, I must say that I had wonderful NHS treatment when I had my treatment for cancer. I could not fault that in any way.

The facilities here are very modern, well organised, and very efficient, things you can’t always say about NHS services. Dental services are incredibly advanced here even when compared to private dental services in the UK. The same applies to vision services. I’ve had the need to use both in the nearly four years since I’ve been here and their equipment, techniques, facilities, organisation, and the practitioners themselves are better than I ever experienced in the UK. My apologies to those in the UK who I used. But of course, there’s a cost to all of that.

The sort of problems that I’ve read about when it comes to the Modality Partnership neither happen here nor would they be tolerated to any degree here. Reception staff be it in person or over the phone are very helpful and customer orientated. They go out of their way to give first class service.

You get emails, texts, and calls about your appointments and there’s always a follow up to find out how things went for you. You are never kept waiting for your appointment. It’s important to them that you are seen at the time you are booked for. Messages and other information come to you through their patient portals and that helps.

So, to conclude, health services in the UK are “free” for the most part through the NHS but maybe with some challenges. Here in the US, you really do get what you pay for and it’s first class but costly. Both have their upsides and downsides. Keep healthy!