Have a heart?

I had a chat today with Reiner who was going for his pacemaker check up.

Reiner lives in Germany where the healthcare system is a little different to the UK. I'm guessing pacemaker checks in Germany happen every 6 months or so. In the UK it might well be every couple of years. Am I being unfair the National Health Service? I don't think so.

I have a friend who's just moving to Germany. She's Swedish but her family have been over here in the UK for at least the last 5 years. She has lived in Germany before (her husband is German) and she was used to the German healthcare system before moving to the UK. She used to have smear tests every 6 months because that was what the German healthcare system advised to catch cervical cancer as early as possible. Before she moved to the UK she was told by her doctor that in the UK smear tests happen every 3 years. Why the difference? Well the doctor's view was that it was cheaper to do smear tests every 3 years and pay for the treatment of cervical cancer, than it would be just to pay for the higher cost of smear tests every 6 months and the reduced cost of less advanced cervical cancer. I hate the fact that this sounds plausible.

Anyway, I knew very little about pacemakers before chatting to Reiner but I know a bit more now.

Did you know?

- Pacemakers are fitted using a local anaesthetic.
- They aren't fitted in the heart, but just under the skin, with wires linked to the heart.
- Batteries don't last very long (just a few years), and when they need replacing it's the whole unit that's replaced, not just the batteries.
- The pacemaker collects data on the heart's performance which can be uploaded wirelessly to a PC.